Going to Seattle feels like going to our west coast home for Julie and I. As my Dad has lived and worked in the city since 2012; we have visited at least once a year and this marks our 2nd visit with Bubbles. We really like Seattle and know it quite well at this point. In our first trip to the city with Bubbles, we spent almost a month exploring the town. While we loved it, this time period was not by choice as we were awaiting much needed parts and our visit overlapped Canadian Thanksgiving (Bubbles was manufactured outside of Toronto). This caused a huge delay for us in getting necessary repair parts. Fast forward 1 year, in this trip we would be spending 9 days in and around Seattle. As writing about each and every day would make this post about 10 pages long here are some of the highlights of our stay.
Sunsets over Lake Washington
While staying with my Dad one thing that we loved to do was catch the nightly sunset over Lake Washington. Dad doesn’t live in Seattle but in Bellevue, just to the east. Just a few minutes’ drive north of his condo is the town of Kirkland and the little Marsh Park. Every day the weather was nice we would drive over to the park taking a bottle of wine for the 3 of us, camp chairs and a blanket to sit on and a little speaker for some music. Here we would talk about how our days went, watch the people around us and watch the sun set over the lake. It really was the perfect way to end a summers day.
Seattle Area Friends
In the last 7 years a few of our New York friends and family have migrated west and relocated in and around Seattle. We were lucky enough to be able to spend time with almost each and every one of them this trip. First, we met up with Julia who I’ve known from high school back in Pittsford, NY. Her and her husband Kyle had moved out to Seattle from Washington DC a few years prior. We met up with Julia in Seward Park near her house. She had just had a baby and it was the first time that we were able to meet him. It was great to see Julia and walk around the park with her. It was here we learned that she was actually moving back east and back to the DC area. We were glad we were able to catch her before she went back east!
Next we were able to see the Hollinger family. Growing up they were neighbors of Julie’s in Avon, NY and had all migrated west. We had dinner at Adam & Christina’s house where we met their newborn baby! Rachel, Ryan and their kids were there as well as the parents Chris & Dave. The whole crew was there, and it was great. We chowed down on a delicious dinner of salmon, sausage, brussel sprouts and baked potatoes(Thanks all!). For dessert Rachel made her famous cheesecake (gluten free on account of me….Thanks Rachel it was sooooo delicious!)
The Boeing Museum
In all of our trips to the Seattle area we had always meant to go to the Boeing Museum. Something always came up though and we never got around to it. This trip however we were set to go. We had made an appointment for Bubbles to be serviced at the downtown Seattle Mercedes Dealer and the Boeing Museum was just around the corner. (Side Note if you live anywhere in the Pacific Northwest and have a Mercedes Sprinter van, take it for service at the Seattle Mercedes dealer. Normally when we take the van in for service, we see a few other vans but at this dealer they sell and service hundreds of them. It is THE dealer to go to for service for Sprinter vans). The Boeing Museum turned out to be amazing. In terms of museums for us it is in the top 3. The others being The Henry Ford Museum in Detroit, MI and The Barber Vintage Motorsports Museum in Birmingham, AL. The Boeing Museum was huge and if you wanted to see it all it would take 2-3 days. There were sections about the founding of the company and its early years and how aeronautical technology has changed over the years. What we came to see however (and I assume why most people come) are the planes themselves. On the inside they have Air Force planes, Coast Guard Helicopters as well as quirky little car/plane hybrids. At an outdoor covered area are planes that you can actually go into. We toured a British Airways Concorde, a 1960’s era presidential Air Force One plane, as well as a 747 and a Dreamliner. All in all, this museum was amazing and should be on everyone’s list of things to see when visiting Seattle.
Seattle Mariners vs Tampa Bay Rays at T-Mobile Park
We had wanted to go to a baseball game while in Seattle and as luck would have it the Mariners were playing our new “hometown” team – Tampa Bay Rays! We bought 3 tickets and headed to the stadium. I had been to the Mariners stadium back in 2007 and had remembered liking it a lot. The 2019 version had stuck to its roots but had been updated a bit. I liked it just as much. It had a great selection of beer & food, just what you want when going to a baseball game. The game turned out to be a pitcher’s duel with Tampa winning 1-0 over Seattle.
Rock & Roll
Since we had left Rochester in May 2017 we had always looked to see if there were any concerts going on in cities that we passed through that we had wanted to see. So far we had only been able to see one of our favorite performers play – Bob Schneider in Austin & Houston earlier in 2018. As always we looked up the Seattle concert schedule and this time we found one that we wanted to see. We booked tickets to see OAR at the Moore Theatre in downtown Seattle. My cousin Evan and his girlfriend Teresa live in Seattle and as they love live music, we invited them to go with us. After picking them up from work we headed towards the theatre which was just a few blocks away from the famous Seattle Public Market. We found a quick dinner at a small kabob restaurant before heading into the show. The band American Authors opened the show. I had heard a few of their songs but had never seen them perform and ended up loving them. They were a great opening band. OAR also put on a great show. I had seen OAR about 4 times but none in the last 10 years and was amazed that the guys in the band didn’t look like they had aged a day in that time. The 4 of us had a great time at the show!
Theo Chocolate Tour
One of Julie’s favorite places in Seattle is the Theo Chocolate Factory located in the quirky and fun Fremont neighborhood. Every time we come to Seattle; we always visit the neighborhood to buy as much chocolate as our wallet can handle. We had always known that you could take a tour of their factory but as there are a limited number of tours and only a small amount of people can go on each tour you have to make reservations way in advance. As we had known when we would be in Seattle a few weeks prior we had made tour reservations. We had booked 4 tickets in hopes that some of our Seattle friends could come with us and we were in luck! Chris & Dave joined us on this little adventure. The tour turned out to be great. The tour started with a video about where the chocolate is grown and who grows it. Then actual chocolate pods were passed around so that you could see what a chocolate pod actually looks like. We were then led into the factory where we saw step by step how the chocolate is brought in as a raw material then how it is processed and turned into a variety of chocolate bars and other chocolate products. This tour was a ton of fun and one that we would highly recommend to tourists and Seattle locals alike. Plus we got to taste lots of chocolate, which was awesome!
We Love Seattle
All in all, we had a great stay in the Seattle area. We were able to recharge our internal batteries as well as give Bubbles a needed oil change and safety check. More importantly we were able to reconnect with family and friends. Living over 2500 miles away from Seattle it’s sometimes hard to keep relationships strong but doing so always is extremely rewarding. Our favorite memory from this trip to Seattle will be our almost nightly sunset trips to the park with my Dad. That was extremely special for Julie and I and something that we will not forget!
Next up…..We spend a few days in Washington’s German-Bavarian town of Leavenworth!
