Diving back down to my first blog post I realize I mentioned a couple friends and I would be exploring Seattle this summer for the July 4th holiday. I’m going to do my best to take you all on a tour of that week and how stunning the city of Seattle truly is. For a booming city in development, I’ve never seen so many infrastructures and skylines showing respect to the surrounding nature and conservation. Go green!
*Going into this trip, it was agreed upon we’d do all the eating, all the drinking, all the exercising, all the positivity. You get the picture.
My flight was to take off at 6:40am on Tuesday, July 3rd – aggressive for this night owl. Luckily a great friend agreed to wake up at 4am with me to take me to the airport. I think my excitement to not only visit this city but also to reunite with two of my absolute best friends (I hadn’t seen since New Year’s) killed any tiredness I had. I was ready to go, could have flown the plane myself. It was beautiful to watch the sun rise through the plane window, alternating between playlists and podcasts. I landed just before 9am in Seattle. Friend one is living there for the summer as part of his internship for his MBA program, but friend two (girlfriend of friend one/my land mermaid) was waiting for my arrival. It should be noted finding the uber/lyft area at the Seattle airport is not an easy task (possibly my deliriousness was to blame), but after that I was also surprised how far the airport is from the city. It was easily a 30-45-minute drive; however, my driver was a local and got me there in record time – he shaved off 11 minutes. I was impressed.
After arriving, we exchanged birthday/friendship gifts (we’re those kind of people), swan dove into some hot water to freshen up and off we went. Keep in mind; we’d created a Google Doc of all the places we wanted to go. We decided to head to Biscuit Bitch, which we’d heard so much about. We set off to walk there. Friend one is living in Westlake, which was prime for just about everywhere we wanted to go – we walked everywhere. Seattle is a very walk, bike, and public transit friendly city. Biscuit Bitch is easily hidden if you aren’t looking for it, but once we found it (look for the crowd standing outside), we ordered and waited. The playlist is incredible and will immediately make you feel some kind of way. As the title insinuates, the staff has no problem talking to you like you’re family and they’re mad at you. Quick adjustment but I’m a good sport and can appreciate it. Food was delicious.
After our meal, we swimmingly navigated down the streets, popping into a few shops (made a couple purchases) and headed to the infamous Pike’s Place Market. This place is incredible and huge – you could easily spend days here. I think what shocked us most is the abundance of fresh flowers. Thousands. And how cheap they were; you could get a bouquet that filled up a 10-gallon bucket for anywhere from $7-20. We watched the notorious fish throwing, which was cool. It should be noted you can only participate in the fish throwing and catching if you buy one. The disputed first Starbucks is across the street from Pike’s Place – basic, but we had to go. We agreed it would be the only chain we would visit, but nonetheless it was cool to go to and say we went. Sipping our iced coffees, we walked along the boardwalk and enjoyed the unbelievable scenery.
By afternoon time, friend one was off work and we all met for lunch at The Butcher’s Table. The reunion I’d been looking forward to for months. These two are my safe harbor and the wake to my water – home is where the heart is. Following lunch, we walked back to get ready for the evening, discuss plans, and formulate itineraries. We met new friends, grad program friends, and Seattle friends at Dexter Brewhouse for a happy hour before heading out to the Ballard district. We started at Bramling Cross for a couple more drinks while we waited on our table at Stoneburner. Each of these places were new for everyone and enjoyable cocktails and food. And hello, new crew!
The next morning was July 4th – big day! I woke up before the rest and decided to go work out in his apartment building gym. Just because it was vacation didn’t mean I shouldn’t boost my serotonin. After my workout and shower, friend two and I walked down to Umbria Caffé for coffee while friend one caught up on his rest. We walked to Whole Foods and bought the things we’d need for the plans later that night. After returning, we all walked to Serious Pie & Biscuit for an absolutely amazing brunch. I had a lavender and honey lemonade, with a fried green tomato and fried egg sandwich with all the fixings. Post brunch we walked over to the Fremont district, which could be said to be more of the “hipster” area of Seattle. Between the Fremont Vintage Mall and the Goodwill in Westlake (not a normal Goodwill – think extremely nice dept. store), our outfits were set for July 4th festivities. Subsequently, we walked along Lake Union looking at the multiple marinas with all the house boats afloat – goals!
We returned to prepare the food we were to bring and get ready for the evening. We walked a couple buildings down to where another friend was living for the summer to celebrate on the rooftop and watch the fireworks over the lake. I was able to meet a lot of cool new people, enjoy incredible views and watch the longest and most beautiful firework show I’ve ever witnessed.
Between the time change and the sun rising so early, I woke up early everyday (unlike me). For the first time in my adult life, post July 4th celebrations, I decided to work out. So, I ran the 1.6 miles back to the vintage mall in Fremont and back, for a sum of a 5k. Legs = dead; anchored down. Ready to tackle the day after a shower and some quick Advil. We meandered down to the area around the Space Needle, stopped for a break on some grass, then went to Skillet Counter for breakfast. Following this we decided we would snag a ferry ride over to Bainbridge Island. Round trip ferry ride is $8 – so worth it. We headed to the front of the ferry and relived Titanic, while venturing away from the city to beautiful harmony.
Once there, we decided we wanted to live on this island. It was so quaint and sweet and perfect. We walked through town, stopped in some shops (made some more purchases), listened to multiple locals play music on the streets, grabbed some lemonade and just simply ventured around the island. We had plans that night, so we had to be attentive to the ferry ride times to return. I’ll mention my legs being dead again, because I laid on the ferry on the return trip soaking in the waves and Vitamin D. After our return, we went back to Pike’s Place to buy some flowers and stop by Rachel’s Ginger Beer for both alcoholic and non-alcoholic cocktails. The revival we needed.
Perfect timing that our arrival home was the same time friend one got off work. We had just enough time to get ourselves ready to head to the Mariners baseball game (tickets we’d purchased previously) at Safeco Park. It was a great experience and a without a doubt breathtaking sunset over the park. The home team won, which was another plus to the evening.
The next morning, friend two and I went to Portage Bay Café for brunch (they serve brunch every day of the week) for a delightful and very filling meal – definitely recommend. Following our food comas, we decided to go paddle board out on Lake Washington. The water was pretty chilly, but after working up a sweat paddle boarding and thinking who knows when I’ll swim in this lake again, I dove in. It was very refreshing but what I didn’t expect was the vegetative growth under me. Swimming through trees is what I would compare it to. Eventually we sat/laid on our boards and floated adrift back to shore. We decided we should use the rent a bikes and bike to the arboretum just outside the city (11 miles). The first half of this voyage was extraordinary as the trail follows along the shore of the lake. After about 5 miles I was over it – my bike seat wouldn’t stay secure at the height I needed. We biked the 11 miles to the gas station right before the entrance to the arboretum, where I chugged a Gatorade before I could even purchase it. I’m completely ok with not getting on a bike again for the rest of 2018. I’ll drift through the city by foot.
We ventured into the arboretum where we walked and talked until stumbling upon an inviting patch of grass along the water. We docked ourselves in the grass, possibly catnapped, and rested our bodies. Eventually we got up and made our way back to the apartment to prepare for the evening. Once friend one came home, we met some friends we had previously met earlier in the week at The Backdoor for some drinks and “dinner.” We then traveled over to The Garage for a couple more drinks, where I think I can confidently say a good time was had by all. Here we decided why not do a bar crawl of Capitol Hill (college area). Not knowing any of these places we went off limited descriptions from the internet. The first one we 100% misinterpreted the description and found ourselves at Dark Bar, a heavy metal/goth bar. We did not fit in and got a few stares but decided we’ll make the best of it – we’re not rude. Well we were never waited on, so we then headed over to R Place, however it had a cover fee so on to the next! We finally settled on Honey Hole for our last drinks of the evening before returning home.
The next morning (which would also be my last day), I arose before the others so decided to head down to The Six to purchase us some fresh squeezed juices. Following a shower and juice detox, we went to Citizen for some brunch, trailed by what was our hopeful trip of going up the Space Needle – however tickets for the day had all been bought. Buy in advance! I’ll be back! Instead we hopped on the monorail and decided to go for an afternoon cocktail at The Nest, a rooftop bar in the Thompson Seattle Hotel with incredible views that a friend I’d met on my Portland trip had recommended. Time wasn’t standing still for me, so we went to The Tasting Room for flights of Rosé before heading back to the apartment.
The time I was dreading the most – saying goodbye. Not only am I bad at bye’s because I don’t like them, it’s always difficult because I never know when exactly I’ll see them again. Fortunately, the three of us all want to move to the PNW in the next year.
Overall, I fell in love with [Sea]ttle. All I heard was, “it rains all the time, you won’t like it.” Maybe it does most of the year but that’s why everything is so green and beautiful – hence the nickname, Emerald City. Perhaps it was luck, but it was sunny and in the 70s everyday we were there. All in all, I can’t wait to return and explore this city further.
“Wherever you go, go with all your heart.” – Confucius
The Narrative of a Merman 
I couldn’t live this more if I wanted to ❤️
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