Discovering a little of Seattle

Jason found a deal on Groupon for us to stay one night at a Holiday Inn Express in Seattle. We did not want to rush through the zoo the day before, only to drive all the way back home in one day. We decided to spread out our visit. We have stayed at a Holiday Inn Express once before when we went on a cruise. The best part, the breakfast buffet! We did not pack food to bring with us, so that fact that this was included in the price of our stay was great. When we arrived we asked if it was possible to upgrade to a bigger room at all, and the staff there were kind enough to do so. We had a big bigger room with more space for Everly to crawl, and for us to put her packnplay and stroller.

It took a bit for Everly to settle down in the evening after the zoo, we had also kept her up past her usual bed time because we had to find somewhere to get dinner. Highly recommend going to a Shari’s if you are ever in the states and have never been to one, we had driven past it and went back to check it out and we are so glad we did. Thankfully she eventually fell asleep on her own in the packnplay and we all got some much needed rest.

In the morning we packed everything up. Have any of you ever traveled with a baby who is still using bottles and formula? That was an interesting part of the trip for me, I packed soap from home, and a jug of boiled water to use for making her bottles. Normally on just regular outings around home I either pre-make bottles or I bring a thermos filled with previously boiled water, and a container of formula. I felt a little overwhelmed with lack of space to clean and dry all of them in the hotel, but it worked. We headed down for breakfast and were pleasantly surprised by the selection, and even some of the breakfast options we were able to give to Everly as finger food for her to try. We also took a muffin and bagel with us for the road.

Jason has been to Seattle before years ago on a band trip, and a few years back with his brother to see a baseball game. Some how though there were a few things that I knew of thanks to friends that he did not. For example the gum wall. There is no way I could have visited this little area when I was pregnant the smell coming from the brewery nearby was nauseating. We actually had no idea where this place was located exactly, we accidentally stumbled upon it when we were walking up to Pike Place Market after parking.

I want to know which person thought it be a cute idea to propose via gum? I wonder if the person they were asking said yes? Would have made for some fun photos with gum as the backdrop.

The market was extremely busy, for a bit we could not understand why, and then we saw it. A cruise ship! There was a cruise ship docket nearby so everyone from it was visiting the market too. We got to see fish fly at the fish market portion, and thankfully did not get tricked by the monkfish.

Jason had also never been to the first Starbucks. This was one place I also wanted to see, though I am not a big coffee fan, I do love the odd pumpkin spice late this time of year, and I also have two mugs I love. I was hoping to get a new mug to add to my little collection but did not see one I liked. The line up for this place was crazy. The Starbucks around the corner however was empty.

Oh the flowers! How I wish a market area like this was in our area back home I would be buying flowers often. Everly was taken by all of the colours. She did not look away from them as we walked past. Everly was extremely popular with everyone we walked by. Guess everyone is taken by her smiles, she does love to people watch.

We did not stay for too long or visit too far from the market, we were all kind of just done and tired still from all our walking the day before. We did head down to the pier and saw the Ferris wheel. We looked in the window of the aquarium where they have a sidewalk display. We did wander through an antique store to try and find a little table, we have been on the hunt for one for awhile. Everly was getting grumpy and so we decided to pack up and start to drive home.

Our little trooper let us make two more stops on the way home to do some shopping. Seems she has gone through another growth spurt so we are filling in some blanks of things she needs in bigger sizes. We had a wonderful trip, and it seemed right on cue the rain started as we loaded into the car one last time and drove to the border to go home.