The west coast always interested me mainly because I hadn’t really spent much time out there (my first trip out there was only a couple years ago and was for work). Seattle is somewhere I always wanted to visit, so the last weekend in July we decided it was time to see what the city was all about. I left work early to make the drive from the northern suburbs to Atlanta (normally a 45 minute trip with no traffic) and could not believe the traffic that I was stuck in. It was the worst traffic I had ever experienced and was worried we wouldn’t make the flight. After over two hours spent screaming and pounding my hands against the steering wheel, I arrived at the airport and Cole and I ran to the gate. We made just in time and boarded the plane, however, as we sat waiting for them to close the gate, the flight attendants informed us that the pilot was also stuck in traffic. After waiting almost an hour and a half for him to arrive (I told you traffic was bad!), we finally pushed back from the gate and started the 5 hour ride to Seattle. Fortunately, due to the time difference, we landed in SeaTac and still had just enough time to head into the city for dinner. We took the light rail train, the Sound Transit, from the airport into downtown Seattle and the ride took about 40 minutes. Since it was already past 11, we had some trouble finding a restaurant whose kitchen was still serving dinner. We settled on Yard House even though we were hoping to find something more local. After a good meal and a few beers, we walked around a bit and then decided to call it a night.

The next morning we headed back into town and met up with one of my good friends from work who recently relocated to Seattle. We met Ashlyn for brunch at Biscuit Bitch, this incredible hole in the wall right next to Pike Place Market. After enjoying a few too many scrumptious biscuits (including the Nutty Bitch made of a biscuit, Banana, Nutella, and Whipped Cream – AMAZING), we set off on our trek to explore the city. We started by walking through Pike’s Market, which had some of the most beautiful fresh cut flowers (very affordable). We then wandered down to the pier and the waterfront. Afterwards, Ashlyn was gracious enough to give us the tour of the different neighborhoods. We ended up at this awesome part of town, Fremont, and stopped at a microbrewery called Fremont Brewing. We spent the next few hours soaking up the unusually beautiful Seattle weather in their “urban beer garden”, which overlooked the water.

Afterwards, we decided to stop by the Gas Works park  – this was once the site of the former Seattle Gas Light Company’s plant- but has now converted to a public  park offers an incredible vantage point of downtown Seattle and the water since it sits on top of a hill. I could have spent the rest of the day watching the sail boats, paddle boarders and seaplanes and highly recommend that anyone that visits Seattle in the summer stop by here for the view.

The three of us went to dinner in a neighborhood called West Lake, a narrow part of downtown near the western shore of Lake Union;  we ate at one of the restaurants owned by the city’s most popular chef, Tom Douglass. Serious Pie did not disappoint and we enjoyed three unique and bold flavored thin crust pizzas paired with some amazing specialty cocktails.

To end the evening, we headed over to a trendy, hipster neighborhood called Cap Hill, where we picked up some local ice cream from Molly Moons and sat in a park people watching. Ashlyn was very sweet and offered to drive us to the airport to make our red-eye flight back to Atlanta, and along the way we were fortunate to see the picturesque Mount Ranier as the sun was setting.

I was surprised at how much I loved Seattle and it was easily one of the most beautiful and unique cities I have had the opportunity to visit. Perhaps my perspective is skewed because I know the weather we experienced is not common, but I can easily see why people chose to call Seattle home.

PS Sorry for the bad quality photos – I forgot my camera at home 😦