In twenty twelve we took a little trip. Not just any trip but our first *real* vacation sans kids since having children. I don't know what a *real* vacation is but I'm pretty sure that's what we took. We bought plane tickets and booked a place to stay and looked up places to eat. We arranged child care for the boys and left bright and early one Friday morning. Grammy arrived at our house on Thursday night so we finished packing and gave our biggest hugs and kisses. We planned on getting up around 3:45 since our plane left at 6:25. Thankfully, our sweet Emory bear woke us up earlier than that and we got to give him more hugs and kisses and daddy rocked him back to sleep. I am so glad we got to really give him hugs and kisses! Around 4:50 my friend Mandi picked us up at our house (wow, that's a good friend, especially considering NONE of our friends are morning people!) and drove us to the airport. Getting through security was rather uneventful but we had plenty of time to get something to drink and eat from Starbucks. We got on our plane and it took off and landed before we could blink. It's only a 40 minute flight from Little Rock to Dallas.
Us in the Little Rock airport.
On the plane.
From Dallas we went to Albuquerque and from there we went to Seattle. We landed, felt the chilly air picked up our rental car. We headed to where we staying and made it there rather easily. It was about a 25 minute drive from the airport with almost no traffic. We were turned on to a website called AirBNB. It's a site where people office their rooms, apartments and studios for others at a fraction of the cost of hotels. We stayed in the cutest garage apartment in a wonderful part of Seattle (The Ballard District). The garage was completely renovated and had a super comfy bed, nice TV, fridge, microwave, organic coffees and teas, delicious homemade brownies and a vase full of lovely flowers from her garden. We would definitely stay there again when the opportunity presents itself!
Once we unloaded we talked to the owner a little and decided to set out on a walk. I have some pictures but haven't saved them to my computer yet! We stopped in a little bistro called The Fat Hen and ate a little lunch. We lost two hours so it was only around 1pm there. Anyway, I had a bowl of delicious beef stew and Joe had a sandwich with sausage, garlic, greens and a smoked mozzarella. Both were wonderful. We already felt at home. We finished up lunch and went for a stroll. We walked and walked and ran into a grocery store. We learned that a bill was just passed in Seattle that forbids the distribution of plastic sacks when shopping. You either get a paper sack (which you have to pay 5¢ a bag for) or you bring your own. How cool is that? People being considerate of the Earth seems to be normal there whereas here we are looked at like we have six heads when we bring our own bags and people are genuinely shocked when you say you don't want a bag for something. Anyway...we decided to head back to our room (I have a hard time not saying "home" here...it really felt like home from the moment we arrived). The walk seemed to take a bit longer than we realized. Apparently we walked a little ways...
Once back at the room we planned on what to do for dinner. We headed out to a local pizza place called Delancey's. It has amazing pizza and a great local vibe. We did not feel like tourists here.
From one day of travel we decided we loved Seattle. It was so amazing to see what is normal there compared to where we live. On the menus of the first two places we ate, the origin of the food was listed. They tell you what local farms they get their ingredients from. It really does make a difference in the taste and quality. We don't eat at places like Chili's and what not and always seek out local restaurants at home but in Seattle you don't have to seek them out. In fact, you have to seek out chain places there. Amazing to us! Did I mention we already loved Seattle at this point?
What a fun day we had. Not even a full 24 hours and we were sold. Good thing Grammy had the boys at home or we might not have come back. We already knew we loved the Pacific Northwest (honeymoon in Montana anyone...) but this was just a small bit of a reminder.
Tomorrow I can highlight day two :)
Happy Wednesday!
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