Seattle Rocks - Day 1

Beautiful waterfront
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We awoke frozen and stiff from a very short night in our minivan at our KOA site, our stomachs rumbling for pancakes. One cool thing about the KOA is that they serve pancakes every morning in the dining hall -- all you can eat for $3! We headed on over, dreaming of warm, fluffy pancakes, our stomachs growling ever louder the closer we got. When we arrived ,however, our spirits were dashed when the dastardly manager of the KOA informed us that the Pancake Ladies had fallen ill and that, "there will be no pancakes today."

Cool scultpure outside the Museum of Modern Art
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We were bummed, but we rallied quickly! After all, pancakes or no pancakes, we were in a brand new place, and we were far, far away from work and school and all the busy bee bustle of regular life.

Without making any plans, we just hopped in the car and took off toward Seattle, thinking we would just park somewhere and then wander around the city checking out whatever there was to check out. So that’s what we did! Michael was a genius at parallel parking the van on a squirrelly, one-way street and, after we converted the van into “secret mode” (meaning we hid all our valuables in the secret compartments,) we headed out into a sunny day in the city.

Michael looking happy at the waterfront.
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And it was sunny. According to the locals we spoke to, it was almost TOO sunny. We ended up having the best luck with weather during our week in Seattle, since it usually gets overcast and dreary at some point during the coarse of a week. But no such dreariness did we endure!

Our first stop was the Bengodi Cafe which is nestled on the corner of a busy little plaza-like area that I found charming and lined with cool shops and restaurants. I had an Italian beer that rocked, and Michael and I discussed matters of state, like where we were going to go next.

Time to rise and shine!
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“Pikes Place Market,!” one of us said, and off we went. We saw crazy guys throwing fish, people selling homemade jam for more than I could afford, little bookstores tucked away here and there – oh, and in the downstairs area of the Market, we found hints of wonderfulness in the form of a Charlotte’s Web museum. Sadly, once we discovered it, it was closed. Anyway, the Market is pretty cool – I mean, if you like shopping, you’re in heaven, and if you like seafood, you’re eating seafood in heaven. Seriously. Eat some fish here. Speaking personally, I was not thrilled to the gills with the old Market; I think perhaps because it was jam-packed with bodies and ended up feeling like a crowded mall. That’s OK, though! We still had fun checking it out, and then we were off to find a cup of coffee!

Seattle is supposed to be known for its coffee, yet again and again Michael and I were disconcerted to discover that coffee shops were hard to come by (unless you’re looking for Starbucks or Seattle’s Best, which you can find in any city.) We did, however, find a cool place near the Market called Local Color Coffee Shop (see review) and we had a nice time chilling out there and drinking some pretty good coffee.

Next, we decided to take a stroll down by the waterfront and check out the ships in the harbor. The water was Blue with a capital "B" and the ships were gorgeous. We looked out over the water, took a few photos, sat and people-watched, and basically had a fun, relaxing time.

As evening neared, we decided it was time to grab a beer or two, so we tipped into a great bar called Contour. We had excellent chats with the bartender about a beautiful sculpture they had behind the bar, and we also had the best French fries ever to exist in the history of time. We hung out here for a couple of hours, taking care not to get tipsy so the drive home would be OK. And it was!

End of day 1; a fantastic start to our week!