One Short Day In the Emerald City

I'm baaaack! I'm sure you all missed me so much ;)  And even though I missed you all as well, I had an amazing time in Seattle! It is so pretty there, with the weather and the green everywhere.  Oh, I can't even describe how much I loved it other than to say that I may move there.  Soon.  

So, to fill you all in, here's the way my trip went:  

Me, Caitlyn and her family all piled into 2 cars and drove straight through to Washington last week.  After a long 15 hour drive we reached Caitlyn's Grandpa's house, unloaded the cars, and all went to bed.  The next day a few of us went down with her Grandpa to Olympia and the farmers market, while the other half went shopping for wedding stuff (part of the reason we were on the trip was for Caitlyn's brother's wedding).  That night we went to Mercer Island for the wedding dinner with the bride's family.  After a mix-up with the pavilions and a lot of confusion we finally were able to enjoy the delicious Cafe Rio/Costa Vida type food that Caitlyn's mom and sisters had made.  We stayed the night on the island and then the next day got up for the wedding!

The wedding was at the Seattle temple, which was very pretty.  Caitlyn, Maren (her little sister), and me spent the sealing time walking around the temple grounds and taking pictures, and then the time after the sealing taking even more pictures with the bride and groom :)  After the pictures slowed down we all left with Caitlyn's Uncle and Grandpa to go walk around Pike's Place Market until the reception that afternoon.  However, as it was a Saturday, the market was crazy crowded!  By the time we'd walked through the whole thing we were all exhausted by all the people and just ready to go eat food at the reception.  The reception was at Daniel's Broiler (which is apparently a big, fancy, equivalent of eating at say, Hamilton's in Logan, type restaurant) and had some very fancy food.  In fact, it was so fancy that me and Caitlyn were not big fans of it, so we actually walked down the street to a deli and bought ourselves sandwiches to sneak into the reception to eat.  ;)  After sending off the bride and groom we all headed back to Caitlyn's Grandpa's house for relaxing after the wedding stress.  

The next day (Sunday) we all went to church with Caitlyn's Grandpa and then spent the day, once again, recuperating from the wedding.  We went on a walk down on the beach and looked for seashells.  Funny story about Seattle beaches (or at least this one) there's a lot of mud, which, because of the water going in and out, becomes quicksand mud.  If you walk in the mud, you get stuck, and sometimes almost lose your flipflop.  Or your friend gets stuck up to her knees and almost falls on her face in the mud.  But still, pretty beaches :)

Monday Caitlyn's family left early in the morning to come back to Utah, and me, her, and her older sister Ann, stayed to play in Seattle.  We went back to Pike's Place Market for a more calm experience of it, bought some fried doughnuts, and then spent the rest of the day shopping at all the big stores in downtown Seattle.  After we got sick of shopping we went over to the Locks, which is the area where boats go from salt water to fresh water.  It kind of reminds me of the Panama Canal in how it works.  We got to watch them move a few boats and then we headed out to the Space Needle where we spent our last hour in Seattle.  Afterwards we headed back to Caitlyn's Grandpa's house and went to bed.  

Our last day there, Tuesday, we rode a ferry into Seattle.  It was really cool, you drive your car right on there and then an hour later when you come into port you just drive right off.  When we got into Seattle we went over to Pioneer Square and took the Underground Tour.  See, the original city of Seattle burned down and when they rebuilt it they built almost 2 levels of the city, an underground level and a regular street level.  (Not the whole story, there's a lot more to it relating to the sea level and stuff with sewage, but you get the picture) As time went on people stopped using the underground level and just used the regular street level, so now they use it as a tour for us tourists ;) After that we went to a few more stores for shopping and then drove back to the house for the night.  

The next day we packed up, went to the airport and flew home.  (And let me tell you flying is a pain what with all the security and the lines and the waiting, ugh)  And that's my exciting trip :)