Vacation Flashback: Seattle - August 2012

It’s fun to take a quick trip down memory lane and revisit some of our adventures from early in our relationship.  I am the first to admit that I was not easy to date; averaging 1200 miles between us most weeks, I’d fly home Friday night after 9pm and fly out Sunday morning.  But we maximized our time, and planned some adventures whenever possible.  You may remember James’ visit to El Paso and Augusta, but we also met up in Seattle and Las Vegas for quick sightseeing trips – but more on Vegas later!

So a good friend was getting married in Seattle while I was on a 3-week assignment to Augusta, Georgia.  Instead of flying home, I booked a flight to Emerald City from Atlanta, and cashed in some points for my then-boyfriend’s flight from Des Moines through Minneapolis, arriving fifteen minutes after mine.  Work had sent me to Seattle a few times before and I was excited for more sightseeing.  Although on a previous trip to the Space Needle, the elevator got stuck about 400 feet up for a couple hours.  You know, the glass front elevators looking over the city.  The guide stayed calm, but I wasn’t eager to repeat that experience. 

We arrived late Friday, just a few minutes apart.  I turned on my phone as we taxied and realized the plane pulling up to the gate next to mine was his!  We made our way to the rental car center and headed through Seattle after sunset (gorgeous by the way!) to the northern suburbs.  After breakfast we visited the ground level of the Space Needle and the famous Pike’s Place public market.  I had previously explored the main level, but we explored some of the other floors and found a comic book shop and other gift stores and stocked up on a few souvenirs. 

Our friends who were getting married suggested the Boeing Museum of Flight so we headed towards the airport, guided by my Garmin GPS.  This was still in my BlackBerry days so we had to rely on Garmin maps and after exploring a retired Air Force One and Concord planes, we were kind of underwhelmed.  That was, until we discovered we had started our visit in the annex of the main museum!  We quickly crossed the skywalk to the main part of the museum and loved looking at as many displays as we could squeeze in.  It felt like we barely skimmed the surface and honestly, I think we could spend a full day or two to see everything.

After seeing as much as we could, we headed back to the suburbs to get ready for the wedding reception, and spent the evening celebrating and making new friends.  Their backyard wedding reception served as some inspiration for our own wedding two years later.  We caught a bit of sleep before catching 6am flights Sunday morning – mine returning to Georgia and his back to Des Moines.  It was such a quick trip but so wonderful to celebrate with friends and explore the city with my love!