Seattle, WA

Sorry for the delay - work travel has definitely been crazy! Last weekend we both headed to Seattle; Jason flying from Dallas and me from Chicago. Jason had the wonderful experience of "Flying 4th", which essentially means Jason got to be a flight attendant for a night! He had to sit in the extra jump seat (there are usually 3 out of 4 filled by flight attendants - thus, flying 4th) and hand out peanuts and snacks to everyone. We arrived to the hotel pretty late - about 11pm Seattle time, but 1am central time.

The next morning, we ventured to Pike's Place Market. It was so cool to see all of the fresh flowers, food and fish. There were vendors of all kinds, so it was fun to just walk around and take it all in. While we were there, we HAD to stop at a Starbucks so I could be a typical tourist.

The rest of the day we spent exploring the waterfront area. Our hotel was right in the middle of everything, so it made getting everywhere really easy. We stopped for lunch at the local fish 'n chips place on the pier - Ivar's. Everything was delicious and fresh! After this, we made our way through the Olympic Sculpture Park and on to the Space Needle.

We ended the night at The Alibi Room. It is right across from a wall that everyone puts their used gum on. How is this an attraction?...GROSS. Anyways, we had some yummy pizza, and of course some fish. Everything from this restaurant comes right from the Market, so it's incredibly fresh. It was a great little place that we would absolutely recommend.

We woke up pretty early on Saturday morning for our adventure along the Olympic Peninsula. We drove south to Olympia and made our way around Route 101. We made a stop in the Olympic National Park to hike around a bit. 

After this, we stopped at a little Indian lodge for lunch on Kalaloch Beach. We walked along the beach for a while, but it was really cold and windy! Moving on, we made another stop to hike around in the rainforest. I had no idea there was a rainforest in Washington, but it was really beautiful. Completely different from the rainforest in Puerto Rico, but still interesting. We only had time to hike one trail - the Hall of Mosses. There were a few more trails that I wish we could have explored, but we'll leave that for next time.

Let me preface this by saying -  this wasn't my idea! Along the way, we saw signs for Forks, so we HAD to stop and take a picture here. It was a funny little town though. I guess they get a fair amount of tourists, but Team Edward and Team Jacob shirts were everywhere! I'm absolutely sure the normal residents hate Twilight with a passion.

As we were driving, we stumbled upon on the most beautiful things Jason and I had ever seen. We were literally driving in wall-to-wall trees for hours and then this ridiculous lake came out of nowhere! To finish our drive, we took a ferry from Bainbridge Island to Seattle. It was a good, relaxing way to end the day.

Our last day in Seattle wasn't much of one - for Jason. We ate breakfast in the Market, worked out and headed to the airport. Jason's flight was at 1pm. I (for some unknown terrible reason) scheduled an 11:59pm flight out of Seattle to arrive in Chicago at 5:30am. I watched a movie and walked around Pacific Place to kill time. Of COURSE my flight was delayed, but I made it back to Chicago for another week of work travel!

I will be going to Las Vegas for one more week of work travel next week. After that, work travel is over! Also, I will be making my way to Minneapolis in 3 weeks for a girl's weekend.

Thanks for reading :)