Seattle Day Trip

I don't usually like to blog about what we did.  For some strange reason, I find it more therapeutic to complain or boast about life's happenings via blog.  Alternatively, I also find comfort in sharing my thoughts more than showing what we've been up to.  However, with a child in my life and family far and away from us, I can slowly feel the metamorphosis of the blog - potentially transforming into a more mature focus on family updates.

And if not, this will be an outlier.

So we went to Seattle for a day trip this past weekend, just enough time to visit Pike's Place, have lunch with my brother and cousin, drop off my dad (who then went to Vancouver with my brother and cousin), see the Seattle Temple, buy some Chinese groceries, and hang out with Andy's cousin's family for dinner (and cake!).  It's so nice to have easy access to a big city that I know I took for granted living in LA where everything was surrounding you.  I can't believe there is absolutely nothing but farmland and green for long stretches of driving between here and Seattle... but so it is!

The four hours went by quickly despite Jordan growing weary of being tied down in his seat.  It also began with a high note as we jumpstarted it with McDonald's breakfast (our favorite!) which Jordan was all about.

These hash browns are amazing!

Pike's Place never seems to get old.  It's not like there's anything new that I haven't seen before - flowers, big belt buckles, jewelry, nuts, fruit, vegetables, and fish.... but somehow, the tourist trap is just oodles of fun, as is the cliche "Public Market" photo opp.

 Ray, Thomas, Andy, me and Jordo

We made all the necessary stops to the first ever Starbucks, aka ugly mermaid logo...

 Beecher's cheese shop (I cannot believe this place barely opened when we came for Spring Break 2004!)

 Porshky's russian bread ... we're watching this homeboy make the bread, it was pretty spectacular and riveting as indicated by our awestruck faces of focus.

Then there was a lot of eating...

 and playing...

 and chowder gulping...

And eating...

 And then it was time to say good-bye

We never asked someone to help us take a photo, we just never got an entire group photo

 Jordan has impeccable timing, he pooped right before we were on our way out...

 Hilarious...

We left for the zoo but after considering how much time we'd have before driving back to Bellevue to catch dinner with the cousins, we turned around.

We stopped by the Seattle Temple (which I had never seen before) and roamed the Temple grounds.  

And then we headed to Will and Max's who we haven't seen since a year ago and three years ago, respectively ... so it was great to catch up!  Jordan was mesmerized with their chickens and kept talking to them and following Ming-Wa in feeding the chicks grass.  When he wasn't doing that, he was playing with all the toys around him and in absolute heaven.  We took a break and headed to a Chinese grocery store where we stocked up on snacks and dumpling wraps and then ventured back to their mansion to have dinner and cake!

We just got our niece Violet a scooter for her third birthday, but it looks like Jordan will want one soon.  He loved the scooter he got to play with! 

We had a great time and my only complaint was that Seattle is too far from us!  We'll be back soon I hope.