Seattle- Day 1

We were super excited to head out for our fist day of playing in Seattle with our matching purple "Cancer Sucks" sweaters in honor of Granny :).

 





Our hotel was right next to this awesome Low Carb Café that sold these really yummy protein shakes.  We each grabbed one for breakfast on our way to ride the Monorail.

Nordstrom is headquartered in Seattle and my seat on the Monorail had this great backdrop.  Hi Granny!



Our first view of the Space Needle on the Monorial.

As excited as we were to play at the Space Needle, that wasn't exactly our first destination.  This is where we were going.


What is it you ask?  It's an "amphibious vehicle" which means it can drive on the road AND float in the water.  We were going to take a "Duck Tour" for an overview of the city.

Gettin' on the Duck!

Our tour guide was this totally wacky guy who made jokes and told stories the entire time.  He had about 20 different hats that he changed every few minutes to match where he was taking us next.

 Sites from our tour included:

The Seattle Wheel

Famous Stadium

"The Hammering Man" moving statue outside the Seattle Art Museum

Gas Works Park

Beautiful skyline

Boats in the marina (with the "Sleepless in Seattle" house visible on the far left)

House boats

We loved spending the morning out on the water.

The Duck Tour got two thumbs up from us.  It was totally fun way to start our trip!

One of the things that I wanted to see most in Seattle was the Chihuly Gardens.  Dale Chihuly got added to my list of favorite artists back in 2002 when he had some pieces of his blown glass on display in Salt Lake for the Olympics.  That was the first time that I got to see any of his work up close and personal.  It is amazing!  Our first stop before going into the museum was to have lunch at the Collections Café, which was completely decorated with things Chihuly collected.  He was a totally random guy!



The ceiling was decorated in accordions



This was our table.  Each table in the restaurant had glass covering a different collection.  This one was old lady, floral, ceramic pieces.

Retro Radios?  Why would you collect this stuff?

His glass exhibits were so much more amazing in person than can possibly be captured in these pictures.  It was awesome!

This was the ceiling in one of the rooms.

Cool selfie in the Chihuly glass house with the Space Needle visible through the ceiling.

I attempted to put my own artistic spin on the exhibit with this photograph that I carefully laid out.  You can see the silhouettes of me and Kristin standing in front of the Space Needle perfectly centered in this black sphere of blown glass.  Cool!

One of Kristin's co-workers insisted that Ivars Fish Bar was the best fish and chips EVER and that it was a Seattle requirement to eat there, so... here we are.

The food was yummy, but the best part was the beautiful and eating outside on the pier next to the water.

The view from our table

The seagulls were so funny and polite.  They would patiently wait in a line for someone to toss them some food, and when you did, they'd all dive for it.  It was kind of fun. 

The evening ended with a ride on the Great Wheel.  This Ferris wheel is GIANT and was a little scary, but the view can't be beat (even though we opted out of paying a bunch of extra cash to ride in a unit that had a glass bottom...yikes!).

Looking out over Puget Sound.

It was amazing watching the sunset on the water from the top of the Ferris Wheel.  It was the perfect end to our first day in Seattle.

Bucket list counter:
3- Ride the oldest Monorail still working
4- Take a Seattle boat ride
5- See the Space Needle
6- Look at awesome Chihuly art
7- Eat at Ivars
8- Ride the Great Wheel