24 Hours in Seattle

A relatively short drive, 150 miles straight north and we’re in Seattle in time for lunch. It’s cold, clear and dry, exactly as we left Portland just three hours earlier. We wander down to the Public Market to check things out.

It feels bitterly cold so we try to warm up by ducking into a café for a quick sandwich and latte before wrapping our scarves around our necks a bit tighter and heading back out to see what’s happening in the market stalls.

The tulips are so hardy and love the crisp cold air.

We walk back outside and head up First street. The view of the Ferris wheel and ferry is just plain fun. We stop in at my favorite shop, Watson and Kennedy and spend time soaking in everything lovely, unusual and wonderful.

We buy cupcakes at Cupcake Royale and decided to drive over to see the Space Needle. At $17 per person for the ride up we decide not this time. We’ve been to the top many other times so instead we sit and eat our dessert. Later I realize the amazing view we missed of the Olympic and Cascade Mountains on such a clear day. That would have been a $34 very well spent. Sometimes I kick myself for being a cheapskate. Note to self: Remember that even though we’d be looking out the same windows every time, the view is quite dependent on the weather.

That afternoon we check to see if there are tickets available for the evening performance of The Book of Morman. The guy in the box office tells us no, but that if we’d like to come back two hours before the show they have a lottery and offer the winners tickets for $25 each. We decide that it might be worth a try so at 5pm we head back over to the theater. We figure there are bound to be a few others but we consider our chances pretty good. To our surprise there were at least 400 of us, crowded, huddled and in each others way as we all filled out our little forms, folded them cleverly and dropped them in the bag. We waited as everyone else did the same before listening for our names to be called. Being among theater folk and the possibility of winning, there was definitely a party atmosphere. The woman with the megaphone was great fun and got the crowd fully charged with anticipation. She had us taking oaths to not scalp our tickets if we won and cheering and chanting for the winners as each name was drawn. Even though we didn’t win, we agreed that it was great fun and definitely worth the try.

Off we went to dinner before heading back to our hotel. The next morning was the cold, grey fog I expect from a winter day in Seattle. We walk down the street for a quick breakfast then back towards the marketplace. We stop at a bakery for cookies for the road and before heading home we get our cheesy fill at Beechers. We walk back up the steep hill, attempting to walk off the best macaroni and cheese ever. There are people everywhere. Northwesterners are rarely bothered by grey and cold; it wasn’t raining after all. We get our car and are back home by dinnertime. A quick trip to the north is a fun winter diversion.

Truly everybody was bundled up for the winter cold.

It’s funny. We didn’t go to the top of the Space Needle on a perfectly beautiful day and we didn’t get to see the theater presentation we hoped for but we left home with no particular expectations so ended up enjoying our short visit north. Sometimes a day trip is just a simple way to break up the monotony of everyday life….and that’s fun in itself.