Our Trip to Seattle

A few weeks ago Brad and I celebrated our 10th wedding anniversary.  Since a 10^th anniversary is kind of a big one, we decided to go on vacation just the two of us, and the grandparents generously agreed to take care of the kids while we were away. We considered many trip destinations, and settled on spending a long weekend in Seattle because neither of us had been there before, and we were excited at the opportunity to explore a new city.

We had a wonderful time on our trip; it was so nice to be on our own time and enjoy each others’ company. We stayed at the Inn at the Market, which is right at Pike Place Market in downtown Seattle. After flying in to the Sea-Tac Airport, it was an easy ride on the Light Link Rail to downtown Seattle. It was so convenient to be able to take public transportation straight from the airport to within a few blocks of our hotel. After that, we walked everywhere we needed to go. There is so much to see and so many great places to eat right at and around Pike Place Market, and we loved that we didn’t need to rent a car.

From our hotel room we had a beautiful view of the Puget Sound. The hotel staff was very friendly and welcoming, and the hotel’s location could not have been better. I highly recommend staying at Inn at the Market if you ever visit Seattle. Here is the view from our room:

When we arrived, the hotel gave us a bottle of wine since we were celebrating our anniversary. It was such a thoughtful touch!

After checking in to the hotel and dropping off our bags in our room, we headed out to find some lunch. We went to Serious Pie, which is one of Tom Douglas’ many restaurants in Seattle. Serious Pie serves pizza, and we chose the special of the day, which was topped with olive oil, chiles (I forget which kind), roasted garlic, roasted delicata squash, housemade prosciutto, and Parmesan cheese. We also shared a kale salad and each had a Silver City Octoberfest beer- yum! Most of the tables at Serious Pie are family style, so you sit with other guests, but we just happened to get one of the few tables for two. I highly recommend Serious Pie. The pizza is very light and airy with a thin crust, and the topping combinations are unique and flavorful.

After lunch we began exploring. We walked around the market, and took in the views.

Once we had walked off some of our lunch, it was time for gelato! We went to Bottega Italiana, and their gelato was the best! They make it fresh each day, and have many great flavors to choose from. I had chocolate chip and cinnamon gelato. The cinnamon was my favorite. I can’t stop thinking about how good it was. Soon I’m going to try making cinnamon ice cream at home, although I know it won’t be able to compare to Bottega’s cinnamon gelato.

After gelato we went back to our hotel to rest a while before dinner. One of the best parts about Inn at the Market was their rooftop deck overlooking the Sound. From the deck, we enjoyed a view of the beautiful sunset before heading off to dinner. We completely lucked out with the weather on our trip. It was sunny and high 70’s during the day for most of our trip, and we barely felt a sprinkle of rain.

For dinner that night we went to Cutter’s Crabhouse, which was maybe two blocks from our hotel. The restaurant sits overlooking the water, and there were so many tempting things on the menu that we had a hard time choosing what to order. I settled on the halibut cheeks with grilled asparagus and roasted potatoes, and Brad had the mahi mahi, which was served with a chipotle risotto cake, a shrimp and tomato corn salad, and green beans. Both were amazing. For dessert we shared the key lime pie and apple cobbler, which was topped with a caramel apple swirl gelato. Seriously so good.

The next day was Sunday and we started off the day with pastries and coffee from Le Panier French Bakery, which we enjoyed on top of the rooftop deck of our hotel. Brad and I shared an almond croissant, raspberry croissant, and potato bacon pastry. All of them were so irresistible that we dug in before I remembered to snap a photo! We did take a few more pictures of the view, though.

After breakfast we walked around some more and did some shopping. I bought a new top and some boots, both on sale. I had to squeeze them into my suitcase on the trip home!

We walked past the original Starbucks many times but did not go in. It always has the longest line out of all of the Starbucks in the area.

Sunday afternoon we took a food tour of the Pike Place Market. Our tour was through Seattle Food Tours, and our group was small- just us and one other couple. Our tour guide, Leslie, was awesome and so knowledgeable about the market. The tour included stops and tastes at Bottega Italiana (more gelato!), DeLaurenti Specialty Food and Wine, Pike Place Chowder, Pure Food Fish Market, La Buona Tavola Truffle Cafe,  The Rub Shack, and more. As soon as we met Leslie, she won us over with donuts from the Daily Dozen Doughnut Company. They are even better when you don’t have to wait in line for them yourself. 🙂 Besides letting us sample amazing foods at each stop along the tour, Leslie also shared with us so much about the history of Seattle and the Market.

That night, we were pretty full from all of the foods we sampled on the tour, so we headed back to Serious Pie for a light meal of salad and pizza. This time we shared the kale salad (again) and the pizza with buffalo mozzarella, fresh tomato sauce, and fresh basil.  I know I’ve said this already, but it was so nice to be able to walk wherever we needed to go!

Monday morning after breakfast we walked to Pioneer Square. We took in the views of the trees and the architecture of the buildings. Beautiful!

For a snack, we shared an apricot croissant at Le Panier later that morning. Yes, we really did eat our way through Seattle. 🙂 Isn’t that the best way to vacation?

Then we were off for more walking to the Space Needle. It’s about a 15 to 20 minute walk from Pike Place Market to the Space Needle. As we started out, a few sprinkles threatened rain but the rain never came. We took the elevator to the top of the Space Needle and enjoyed the 360 degree views.

After our walk back we were ready for some lunch. We picked up a few honeycrisp apples from one of the vendors at the market and grabbed a grilled cheese sandwich from Beecher’s Handmade Cheese. Delicious!

We couldn’t pass up one more trip to Bottega for gelato. This time, I had salted caramel and coffee. It’s too bad there isn’t a Bottega closer to home, but maybe that’s a good thing…

For our last dinner in Seattle, we went to Wild Ginger. We shared the vegetable satay, seven flavor beef, and mandarin chicken. Everything tasted great and we really enjoyed our meal. (I didn’t take any photos- sorry!)

Finally, we had to try breakfast at Lola for our last meal in Seattle. Before heading back to the airport, we had an early breakfast. (Lola opens at 6a.m. on weekdays!) Brad had the housemade granola with Greek yogurt and fresh fruit, and I had the golden brown pancakes with pork-maple sausage, vanilla mascarpone, and maple syrup. It was all so good, and I especially loved the vanilla mascarpone.  I wish I had taken a photo of our meals, especially the granola and Greek yogurt, as the presentation was beautiful.  I guess at 6:30a.m. I wasn’t quite awake.  🙂

We had a wonderful time on our vacation to Seattle. If you’ve never been, I highly recommend it. The city is full of life, great food, and history, and we found the perfect balance between exploring and relaxing on our trip.