Seattle!

Early Saturday morning we hopped on our Southwest flight to Seattle. We were a little sleepy but happy to be leaving for our weekend get-a-way.

Andy and Susannah picked us up at the airport and after a quick stop to check into the hotel and drop off our stuff, we headed down to the Pike Place market. I absolutely love markets and Pike Place didn't disappoint. I made a point to go to the market each morning for breakfast - I liked it so much! I wish Denver had an everyday open-air market.

This was as close to a flying fish photo as I could get. They fling the fish so fast I could never seem to catch one in a photo.

at the other end of the market :)

Then we stopped by the pier for fish'n'chips lunch at Ivar's (a Seattle institution, I would come to find out).

Our food and company were both great!

After lunch, we wandered around the city and found the Space Needle!

Then we took a trip to the Pacific Science Center to play.

They had a very cool butterfly garden there, these butterflies are a gorgeous bright blue on the back of their wings but they close up every time they land, making it tough to get a photo.

That night we found Wasabi Bistro in Belltown and their unbelievable happy hour!

After walking off our sushi, we decided on gelato from Bottega Italiana for dessert. We shared pear and raspberry - SO good!

Sunday, after breakfast at the market, we drove up to Keystone to take the ferry over to Port Townsend to walk around a bit.

Monday, we went kayaking on Lake Union.

The views of downtown and the Space Needle were awesome.

We got to see the famous house boats up close.

After kayaking and working up an appetite, we ventured over to Alki Beach for some more fish and chips. One of Mike's clients is from Seattle and said we just had to try Spud's so we did. Their portions were huge and the homemade tarter sauce was really good.

We sat on the edge of the beach and ate our lunch.

While taking in views of downtown from across the bay.

After lunch, we said good bye to Seattle and it's magnificint Mt. Rainer - we definitely want to return and see and do more!

:: side note :: we had the most amazing weather the entire weekend. Not a drop of rain, I'm not sure how that happened (it is Seattle right?) but we're so happy it did!