My brother's (Kyle) aunt works for Alaskan Airlines. Guess where they fly? To Seattle! Cindy was kind enough to fly with us to Seattle so that we could fly for free and then hook us up with buddy passes for the flight home. Sweet! Straight off the flight, our first latte was from Seattle's Best, our favorite coffee place! What a way to begin =) You can see us 
holding them in the picture with Cindy. We met Becky in baggage claim and she proceeded to show us how to get around Seattle without a car. I was impressed! We took the Light Rail and then switched on to a bus. Our first stop was to see her campus, Washington University. 
Gorgeous campus! I think the library was my favorite part. Plus, my pal George was there! As in, a statue of George Washington. After our awesome tour around campus, we had dinner followed by another latte! Two lattes down! Quite a bit more to go! We called it an early night and prepared for our trip to Forks/Port Angeles in the morning. See below post for day two OR if you're a Twilight fan! I'm glad we ended up going on a road trip this day because it was the lousiest weather of the weekend.
Day three, my birthday! We had special buttons to wear for our coffee tour and prepared to be caffeinated by drinking coffee at home before we left. Haha!
Coffee Shop #1- Fremont Coffee Company, the only non-chain coffee shop we went to. Here they do latte foam art! So awesome! This place had the best non-flavored latte I've ever had. 
Coffee Shop #2- Peet's Coffee... a block down from Fremont! Nicest baristas in the coffee tour! They were so excited to be part of the tour, they gave me a free latte for my birthday! Our latte here was gingerbread. Yum!
Coffee Shop #3- Nordstrom Cafe, where Nordstrom was born in 1901! Our latte here was almond.
Coffee Shop #4- THE FIRST STARBUCKS! Yes, the very first Starbucks is still in operation. The nice barista here gave me a free birthday latte as well! I was surprised they were so nice considering how crowded it was. Our latte was cherry. 
Coffee Shop #5- Seattle's Best. Not the original, but the one used in all their marketing. We made it in five whole minutes before they closed! Janelle and I were super excited! Our latte was their new White Orange Bliss (white chocolate and orange). This last one was a toughie to drink. We went because we love Seattle's Best, but we really didn't want any more coffee. I never thought that day would come!
Of course, we did other Seattle touristy things while drinking our many lattes! We took a bus to the Space Needle. We didn't pay to go up because of the weather, but we have pictures! Also nearby is the new Experience Music Project|Science Fiction Museum. Next time I'm in Seattle, I'll have to do it. We went inside, but we didn't pay for the museums. The building itself is a work of art and enormous! From there we took a Monorail, yes a Monorail to downtown Seattle. I 
just laughed at how many Starbucks' there were and started to take pictures. If only I had started taking pictures of them all when we first entered Seattle, I'd have double what I ended up with. Still, it was fun. We ate at Nordstrom Cafe since we were already there getting a latte. The 
bus boy.. er guy ended up acting as our waiter! For those of you who have eaten there, you know that you have to order in line and then are given a number so someone can bring your food to your table. Instead, this guy gave us menus and took our order so that we wouldn't have to get up! Then he let me pick out a dessert, on the house, for my birthday! This is why I love Nordstrom! From there we walked to Pike's Public Market. It's tulip season and they 
were everywhere. Of course, we took pictures at the famous fish market and I have video of the fish being tossed. Who loves Sleepless in Seattle? One of the scenes was filmed here at Athenian restaurant. Yes, they have a plaque that says "Tom Hanks 
sat here"! Of course, just across the market is where the very first Starbucks was born. Having worked at Starbucks, I knew that they wrote their customer service training after the fish market. So, at this Starbucks, they throw the latte cups! Also near the Public Market is a Fran's Chocolates shop (attached to Four Seasons). We learned from Becky that not only are these chocolates super yummy, but a White House favorite. That's right! Obama's favorite chocolates 
are from Fran's. It's the chocolate they were handing out- smoked sea salt caramel in milk chocolate. They really were delicious! Heading back to the market, we visited the Wall of Gum. Yes, 
there is a gum wall in Seattle. Gross! We were there, so why not? Luckily, we had hand sanitizers in our purses. It was definitely a colorful wall and the alley smelled very fruity. We had dinner at a place called The Pink Door. There is 
seriously no sign, just a pink door! It was a fantastic Italian restaurant! And although Janelle tried to bribe the hostess/waitress, there was no birthday singing. In fact, pretty much all the restaurants in Seattle were 
anti-singing. Shocking for two girls who live in the entertainment capitol!
Day four was Easter Sunday (see below post about Easter)! We were going to hit more coffee shops until we realized they were all closed. Oh yes, it's a holiday, not just our vacation! So, after breakfast, we packed up and hauled our suitcases on to a bus once again. At the airport, we found the best latte places of all- not for their coffee taste, but for their name, Diva Espresso! So funny! We were in the airport when the earthquake hit, so no, we did not feel it. I thought it was weird that CNN would be talking about it when we had just had one a couple weeks ago that nobody seemed know about... until I realized it was a huge one in Mexico and these other little ones were the after shocks. Hey Arizonans, how'd you like that earthquake?! haha! For once, pretty glad we weren't home for another shaker. At least this one wasn't at 4am! We flew stand-by and expected to catch the 5pm to LAX. That didn't happen, but I saw that there was a flight to Burbank in an hour. Thinking I was saving us all this time (Burbank is much closer than LAX), we jumped on that flight instead of waiting 3 hours for the next one to L.A. Well, our luggage ended up being on the 5pm LAX flight, so guess who got to drive to L.A. after all! Doh! Luckily, I have a fantastic husband who had a Crumbs cupcake (my FAVORITE cupcake place) waiting in the car for me =) A little sugar to help! 
Thank you Becky, for letting us crash at your place and being the perfect hostess/tour guide!Happy 27th to me =)
2 comments:
You are so much fun Krysta! That is awesome! What a sweet husband to get you a cupcake when he picked you up.
Happy Birthday! What a cool way to celebrate. I've always wanted to visit Seattle, I hear it's gorgeous. All the coffee stops were making my mouth water!
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