Seattle in September

The last weekend of September we had a trip planned to visit S' brother up in Seattle.  I was assisting with the ISA Texas - Tree Conference in Waco leading up to our weekend trip.  Since I wasn't exactly sure what time I would roll back into town, I made sure to have my Waco + Seattle clothes ready and with me, just in case!

I arrived at home around 3:30p or so and had about an hour to hang out at the house before it was time to leave for the airport.  Traffic was a bit tight and we discovered after driving to the long term parking area that they were full, despite the couple of empty spaces we saw in passing.  So we tried out Park & Zoom.

We landed in Seattle around 11:45p and grabbed our rental car.  We had been hemming and hawing about do we get a car or not for a couple weeks as the prices seemed really high.  S checked  before we took off and after landing and the price had dropped to about $31/day!  So we snagged a car for the weekend.  While it was handy since we left the city center, parking in the city became more expensive than the rental itself.

On our way to the hotel we had dinner with S's high school friend at a yummy burger place.  I was so tired and tried not to fall asleep in my food!  Our hotel, the Maxwell House, was really nice and close to the Space Needle.

Saturday morning I walked around the neighborhood and found a chai.  We then met up with Brian and Tanya at the Union Lake Park where we saw old wooden boats and attended the boat festival.

After touring their new apartment and meeting their adorable pup Ada, we visited the Amazon complex area and tried out the Amazon Go store.  It's a cashier-less store.  You scan the app as you enter and then it knows when you pick up or put an item back down.  You are then charged for what you kept on your way out the door.

The Amazon Spheres

We then drove out to Snoqualmie Falls and hiked down to the lower viewpoint where we totally interrupted a wedding ceremony - oops!

On the way back to town we stopped at the Google Kirkland office then had a nice twilight view of the city from Gas Works Park.  The evening wrapped up in the Fremont area checking out the famous Troll sculpture.  It was much larger than I thought it was going to be.  It sprinkled on us as we ate dinner at El Camino.

 

Sunday arrived and we went to the incredible Chihuly Garden and Glass exhibit first.  I would come back here for sure.  There was "Base to Space" fundraiser race going on while we were at the Space Needle.  That is a bunch of steps. 

After taking in the sights from the needle, we met back up with Brian & Tanya at the Museum of Popular Culture.  The exhibits were very interesting and I wish we had more time to explore all of them.

Our time in Seattle came to a close as we had to head back to the airport and fly home.  Until next time!  There is still so much to explore in the area for future trips.