Seattle

We live about 40 minutes south of Seattle. Ben is on his pre-deployment leave and we decided to spend a couple of days exploring the city. Even though it's a quick drive, we decided to stay the night so we could relax and spend two days doing one of my favorite things - loafing.

Exploring is interesting with a 9 month old. You have to move efficiently to get things in between nap times. Violet isn't one to take naps while we're out and about in the carrier. She won't really nap in strange places at all. We got a hotel in prime location to retreat to for nap time. Everything was within walking distance.

We took a ride on Seattle's "Great Wheel". I can't even remember the last time I was on a ferris wheel. Fortunately, the buckets were enclosed, so I didn't have to worry about holding onto my overly-squirmy baby trying to go sky-diving.

I still haven't adjusted to seeing snow-capped mountains along the horizon. We had a beautiful view of the Olympic mountains to the northwest and if you turned around another view of the Cascades. Living near mountains is humbling. It's a reminder that there's wonder out there.

We strolled through Pike Place Market sipping on coffee the next morning. Have you ever paid much attention to the roasts at Starbucks? The original is called Pike Place and that's because the very first Starbucks is nestled into the story-telling streets of Pike Place Market. It's basically a huge (huge) farmer's market mingled in with local artisans. We saw hand-crafted leather products, quilts, hats, jewelry, carved wooden trinkets, afghans - basically everything. Everything was there. There was an entire stand devoted to lavender, all products made of lavender.

There were fresh fruit and vegetables as far as you could see and every single bit of it was local. There's also fish stands where men are hurling silver giants across the walkway onto ice. One man actually backed a truck up to his stand and began dumping out buckets of sea urchins.

The best part - flowers, flowers, flowers. So many flowers. They're all beautiful, all local, and all cheap. You can buy a huge bouquet for just $10 or a smaller "to go" bouquet for $5.

Ben's souvenir was a pack of homemade beef jerky. Mine was a jar of blackberry honey from a lady who harvested it herself from her very own bees. She reminded me of an old friend. I could have talked to her for hours. Violet made it home with an antique wooden highchair we found at an antique store. I've been on the prowl for one of those for a while. I came home feeling accomplished, with new treasures and memories.


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