Hello Seattle

Alex and I took a break before school started and headed to Washington State with Jacob and Elaina. We got off to a little bit of a rocky start, which just gives us something to blog about :)
We got to the airport and found our our flight was delayed 2 hours.... so we hurried and called my dad to come back and get us. And what else was there to do in a short amount of time but get ice cream!
Dad downed his cone before Alex and I even got our shake. Just so you know, Arctic Circle no longer has nutter butter shakes :( Butterfinger is second best.

Yes, that's Elaina reading Catching Fire. (Already onto Mockingjay now - SO GOOD) It was a late night flight - thus the no make-up tired looks.

We literally sat in the last row of the plane. Which means you deboard about 1/2 an hour after the first row. I've never seen a plane empty.

We were staying with Elaina's parents in Marysville and her sister in Puyallup.

Our first day was filled with MUSIC! Literally. We went to a place called Experience Music Project and it's all about music. I was pretty much in heaven. This Tornado of guitars actually plays music!

Then there was a place where we could actually play instruments. Elaina's dad Norman was in his own heaven. He used to play a lot of instruments until he lost the tips of two fingers.

I already had a groupie!! Didn't know I was that good ;)

Good thing Alex isn't serious about a drum set....

I really loved this place

Then we visited famous Pike marketplace. Why would I be so excited to be sitting in this seat.....

I LOVE Sleepless in Seattle and I love Tom Hanks even more.

They had delicious treats and snacks and it was so crazy, packed with people. I miss the chocolate/peanut butter brownie.

Who could miss Hard Rock, especially when it's right up the street.

Hard Rock Seattle just opened up this spring. It was meant to be.
Elaina's sister Michelle and her husband Nick, along with their two kids joined us for dinner.

On our way back to the parking lot we happened to take a ride up the Space Needle and waited around for sunset. It was gorgeous.

Space Needle

The next morning we headed west and stopped at this awesome town, Poulsbo that was an old Viking town. Where they got the idea to put a British phone booth, I don't know...

The patient who told us about this town, gave us the reason for it because of this bakery

Boy was he right. This "cookie" was DELISH! Shouldn't have eaten a powdered sugar cookie while wearing a black shirt.

Then we headed up to Olympic National Forest.

We hiked Heather Park trail and found huckleberries. Elaina said they were ok to eat. And I'm willing to try anything.....

Me, Jacob and Elaina. Isn't this place RIDICULOUSLY gorgeous

In case you didn't know, you pretty much have to drive through Port Angeles to get to the forest, so of COURSE we'd stop by a Twilight store.... those of you who know, will understand. ;)

Perfect timing on the way home.... Fat Smitty's. Jacob found this place while on his mission (yes his mission was in the same state his wife is from, no they did not meet until years later)

They have signed dollars on every inch of this place. Tradition started as an exchange for a customer who asked to leave a business card. The owner said, "You can leave anything for a dollar." and .... here they are.

The famous Smitty burger is HUGE

One of my most FAVORITE things the whole time was picking wild blackberries from the side of the road.

DELICIOUS

The next day we decided to hike Mt. Rainier but got half way up and needed gas.... they pump it for you!

We decided to hike Sky Park Trail - which was apparently pretty popular but we braved it anyway.

And although we didn't hike up to the top, we got close enough for a cool picture at the Look out point.

We had enough time that night to hurry to Munchies and get Teriyaki - which we were told is the "real" kind. Then dash through downtown to the Pacific Science center.

At the science center we watched this very cool laser show to Michael Jackson songs. We laid on the floor and sang to our hearts content.The next evening, Elaina's sister Karina and her awesome family provided a BBQ for us. Delicious BBQ corn, when peeled back kind of looks like a skinny pineapple. But don't peel the husk off it keeps the corn moist.

We tried jalapeno poppers. Which we've since learned, don't put eye drops in your eyes if you get jalapeno juice in them, it does more harm than good.

And for breakfast. I ate this FANTASTIC granola cereal every morning and once we picked the berries it became delicious heaven in a bowl. I miss Washington....

Monday morning we headed back into Seattle for this amazing Underground tour. Google it to find out more. But we literally toured what used to be the streets of Seattle that are now underground because of a fire.

It was an amazing part of history preserved.

So we've already visited the site of one movie while here.... couldn't hurt to throw one more into the trip!
This is in fact the troll from 10 Things I Hate About You. Our family's really into movies. This was pretty cool. That night we all watched the movie.But not before stopping, for the first time at a Starbucks. I figured since this was the place they originated, if I was going to ever go, let's make it now. And I couldn't have been more pleased. My favorite ice cream to eat by itself is Vanilla Bean and wouldn't you know it. They had just that!! Coffee free of course, it was once again HEAVEN. I'm sure finding a lot of heaven in Washington....Which I wasn't at all sad that I had dessert before dinner. We went to a place called Claim Jumper and their dishes are HUGE!!! This 8 inch pizza was split between Alex and I mm, mm, GOOD.Alex and I were sad it was our last night :(Tuesday morning was our last day in Washington but before we headed to the airport, we stopped at the Boeing factory. Elaina's dad happens to work here but not in the part you tour. These planes behind us were HUGE. (again google Dreamlifter) We got to see several in the construction stage. They have over 100,000 miles of wiring in each plane.... no wonder it takes for ever to figure out what the "mechanical" problem is.

Part of the head of a plane they run tests on (what Elaina's dad does)

Remember those "mechanical problems" I mentioned...Well just as we were eating lunch before heading to the airport, we got a phone call that the plane coming in that was supposed to be taking us home had a mechanical problem and they'd canceled our flight. After a few raised voices to Delta, we were stuck on a flight the NEXT MORNING. I wasn't happy about missing work.... for a minute. Then we decided to make the most of it. At least we were lucky enough to have Elaina's dad still with us.
After checking in with Delta and getting our hotel and food vouchers figured out, Norman took us to the Ballard locks. This is another one of those cool things not many outsiders would know about.

We went underground to see the salmon swimming the Ladder, upstream. These fish were HUGE

Then we all went to the restaurant across from our hotel. It was an ale house... not much to choose from that wasn't made of or had something to do with beer, so we all ordered off the appetizer menu.

In the meantime we drew on the table. Alex started with a Transformer head and it morphed into his own robot? Good thing he's sticking with computers ;)

This was my favorite part of the whole meal - a GIANT glass of strawberry lemonade, drank to the bottom. I am a lemonade freak - I know a good lemonade.

We like to look on the positive side of things and so, even though we had to wait an extra day to come home we did benefit from it.
1. More time for Elaina to spend with her dad
2. More time for us to spend in heaven.... I mean Washington
3. An extra day off work
4. MOVED TO FIRST CLASS!
We boarded first, where they already had bottles of water waiting for us when we sat down, and then she asked if there was anything we'd like to drink as soon as we sat down, before the plane took off. We had our own basket of goodies during the whole flight at any time! NICE

Good bye Seattle

Mt. Rainier as we fly by. We will miss this great place and will keep it in our hearts. As we listen to one of our favorite songs "Hello Seattle" by Owl City - YouTube it ;)
Thanks to Jb and Elaina for taking us on an awesome adventure, you guys ROCK THE CASBAH