we love birthdays and seattle

before i talk about our trip, i want to thank mn so much for a spectacular birthday. she got the stuff for us to make grandmama's famous chocolate cake and bought me the most beautiful roses ever.




this past weekend was filled with lots of excitement and joy because we went to seattle to celebrate my birthday! we always have such a great time when we visit the emerald city. as we've said before: if you haven’t been there, you need to go. tell them we sent you.

here’s the tale we’ll be telling about our trip...
we headed out of pdx after work on friday and rolled into the parking lot of yea’s wok, a fabulous chinese food restaurant, to begin our 3-day weekend of extravagances. while there, we shared an order of shrimp chow mein and revelled in great chinese food; something we’ve been unable to find in portland. after cleaning our plates, we made our way downtown to our supercool room at the moore hotel. our room was on the 4th floor, and the window opened to the bustling street teeming with activity at all hours. here's our view...


the sounds of the city are so invigorating and enticing. they can, however, be a bit of a nuisance when you’re trying to sleep.

saturday morning brought rainy weather which was perfect for the adventures we had planned outside of the city. after breakfast, consisting of yummy donuts from top pot donuts, we headed north to the boeing factory in everett, wa, where we toured the airplane factory. this factory tour was like none other just in the size and scope of it all. the building housing the assemblage operation is the largest building, by volume, in the world. we’re talking 472,000,000 cubic feet! now that’s a big building!! it's so big the workers use bicycles to get around on the factory floor! if memory serves me correctly, there were six 777s at various stages of completion in the building when we toured. it was crazy to see and nearly impossible to describe so i’ll move on.

after the tour, we walked around the museum and were chosen to participate in a focus group where we sat in a mock cabin of the new 787 “dreamliner” and gave our opinions on the size, comfort, color and overall feel of the cabin. for our efforts, we were given trinkets from the gift shop. prepare to be amazed by the pics of our boeing experience.

mn and her tail


lucky compared to an engine


think we should be pilots?




our next stop was chateau ste. michelle winery. on the winery tour, we were told the bottling occurs at that location, but the vineyard is in the columbia valley - a region separated from seattle’s rainy, marine climate by the cascade mountains. this allows the winemakers to control the “vine vigor” thru irrigation rather than depending on rainfall alone. we sampled a few wines, perused the store and were back in the car on our way to try a chicago style pizza place close to the university of washington campus back in seattle. it certainly wasn’t the easiest place to find, but it certainly was the best pizza we’ve had since chicago. mmm giordano’s.

here's mn sampling the wine


us posing on the grounds of the chateau


with our minds and bellies filled, we ventured back into downtown for some rest and relaxation. our only other excursion for the day would be to a local market for a bottle of wine. the rest of the evening was spent people watching out our window and turning in fairly early so we could get plenty of rest before our next day of adventures.

sunday brought beautiful, sunny weather and warmer temps. who could ask for anything more? walking down to pike place market, we happened upon quite a few outside booths set up for what we thought was to be a bbq and chili celebration - turns out it was more of a cookoff than a selling of the eats so we were (well, i was) very disappointed. we decided on the breakfast of champions: mn enjoyed some cheese curds, i munched on a gyro and we shared some fresh donuts from daily dozen doughnuts, which is a place where you can watch the donut robot shoot the dough into the oil and see them being fried just before the guy with crazy hair puts them in a bag for you. after our “breakfast,” we wandered down to the pier for our harbor cruise of elliot bay and puget sound. the cruise was very informative, and our guide did a great job relaying tales about the seattle waterfront. we also got some great shots of the city.





and an artsy shot of some equipment in puget sound


our tummies were rumblin after an hour on the water so we dove into some crab and shrimp delicassies - but no oysters - at elliot’s oyster house. again, some good eatin! to walk off some of our indulgences, we pounded the pavement in the shopping district by exploring kenneth cole, macy’s, levi’s and my first visit inside a sephora. if you’ve never been or even heard of it, it’s a huge make-up, skin care, etc. store where you can sample everything. here’s what i sampled...


after window shopping, we did some people watching and some aimless wandering as the bright sun began its descent and then made our way back to our hotel for more rest and relaxation. we were on vacation, after all.

monday brought more sunshine with colder temps, but not too cold to keep us inside. we had an amazing breakfast at a cute little cafe and then found ourselves splurging on dessert: one last round of fresh donuts! after packing the car and exploring the capitol hill area, we made our way back onto i-5 and forged our way to our final pit stop of the trip: ikea. neither of us had ever been and wow, is it an experience! initially, we were dumbfounded by the sheer size of the place, including the acres of parking. then we were surprised to see the hundreds of shoppers on a monday afternoon. don’t people work anymore?

our trip to seattle was spectacular, as our trips always are. we had a great time discovering new places, revisiting familiar sites and immersing ourselves in everything the emerald city has to offer. it’s a great place, that’s for certain. we love you, seattle.


thank you so much, sweetheart, for a wonderful birthday gift filled with fun, excitement and loads of laughter. you’re the greatest ever.

we hope y’all are doing well and still enjoying reading the blog. we’re making every effort to keep it updated, despite the rigors of every day life getting in the way sometimes. please remember we love and miss y’all very much.