Sleepless in Seattle (well, we slept a little bit..)

Last week, for the first time, I went to Seattle. My best friend Marissa lives there and I finally landed on the perfect opportunity to visit (I was already out on the west coast with work). Luckily, I brought the Orange County weather with me (according to Marissa, the first good weather of the summer). Unluckily, I also brought with me a very sensitive stomach, making it impossible to try the lobster chowder at Duke's Chowder House or the amazing donuts from the stand at the Pike Place market. Regardless, there was much fun to be had- and it was just nice to see Marissa and see where she lives (I'm kind of obsessed with and insanely jealous of her apartment). The first real highlight of the trip was surprising Marissa with the arrival of our best friend Katiri, who also lives in DC. I worked in cohorts with Marissa's boyfriend to get the three of us to Serious Pie for lunch the next day (DELICIOUS pizza, though considering said stomach issues I probably shouldn't have eaten it). I was strategically positioned to see when Katiri entered the restaurant and quickly raised my phone to take a picture of Marissa and Chris. Katiri proceeded to jump in the picture between the two of them and I captured Marissa's shock and surprise:

SUCCESS!

And thus, with our surprise plus one, our journey began. Here are some of the other highlights:

Pike Place Market. It's true that I didn't get to try the donuts, but that didn't take any of the fun and excitement out of this humongous farmers market located on the waterfront. This place was perfect for any chef seeking fresh ingredients, and lucky for me we had a chef in our midst- Marissa's boyfriend Chris. Needless to say I took advantage of his skills and the opportunity to eat fresh swordfish, one of my top five favorite foods. But the best part of the market was watching the merchants throw fish across the room to each other:

The Locks. Watching boats transfer between Lakes Washington and Union (fresh water) and the Pugent sound (salt water) via the Ballard Locks is strangely fascinating. You can look down as boats of all shapes and sizes squeeze into a chamber with high walls on either side. Then they secure the vessels to the sides of the chamber, some highly complex mechanics that I won't begin to pretend to understand are maneuvered, and the chamber fills with water until the boats are level with the body of water on the other side. You can also see tons of salmon swimming around, and we even spotted two seals!

The Seattle Art Museum. Thursday is free day at the Seattle Art Museum, and I'm not complaining! This museum had a little bit of everything, from modern structures to gorgeous landscape paintings and unique exhibits like a makeshift artistic workspace. One of the more eye-catching pieces was a giant suit of armor comprised of thousands of fake dog tags.

The Seattle Public Library.  I could seriously live at the Seattle Public Library, and not just because it's so huge that I could probably get away with it. It is by far the most impressive facility I have ever seen with bountiful resources both in books and electronic, a fabulously sleek and modern design, and plenty of open, comfortable space to snuggle up with a book. I would spend a ridiculous amount of time there.

Outdoor Cinema in the Park. On our last evening, we went to Cal Anderson park to sit under the stars and enjoy a movie from their "Rock & Roll Fantasy" series. That evening's choice was The Labyrinth, which obviously made for a fun crowd. We had a great time signing along and, as Katiri so accurately described, staring at David Bowie's package for two hours.

These are only a few of the activities we partook in during our all too short visit (we also drank, bargain shopped, and climbed trolls, but I'll save that for another day), and we had a great time doing all of it! I give Seattle two big thumbs up.