Seven Quick Takes vol. 104

Just checking in with Jen and Seven Quick ones, because I miss everyone when I take a week off!

{one}

Strike a pose or what?

In big time breaking news -- the husband and I got away for 3 whole nights sans kiddos for the first time in 2 years last week!! Cue parade, balloons, confetti, married people high fives.

 I'll let you in on a little secret: it's really hard to get babysitting for 5 kids for more than a day. Especially when you've got a kid in diapers, a kid who is "potty trained" and three kids who are extremely active and in your business 24/7. 

BUT! The stars aligned, we divided the children amongst grandparents and skeedaddled.

{two}

Guess who only brought her cell phone as a camera?

We hemmed and hawed, three nights away doesn't seem like that long to shell out the exorbitant money to fly somewhere, but we hadn't gone anywhere out of Alberta for 4 years and thus choose Seattle due to it's easy flight time, the ocean, and copious fancy restaurants. It was also warmer than here, but weren't able to coordinate our sacred babysitting dates with an NFL game which was another thing on our list...because we are weird Canadians.

{three}

I love cocktails I don't have to make myself!

We stayed downtown and since we only spent two full days in the city, spent all of our time down there and found lots to do. We also went to amazing restaurants which is something we both like to do, but never really get the chance since we live in the middle of nowhere. I think it's safe to say that Canlis was the fanciest restaurant we've ever been to and we had the greatest time. Then practically rolled into our silent, luxuriously clean, hotel bed in a food-bliss stupor. 

We ate at other great places, and I had 9 types of seafood, completely decimating my competition (my husband), and it all tasted like oceanic heaven! I also may or may not have consumed a dozen or so cocktails...but I lost count...

{four}

I'm short, so this seemed like an appropriate angle somehow.

We found the weather warmer than even our very mild, thus far, October and enjoyed feeling rain again! Our first day ended up being beautifully warm and sunny so we headed to the top of the Space Needle and had great views which we really loved. We are dutiful tourists, but no regrets. 

I also fit in a little shopping, but didn't buy out the Anthropologie like I wanted to. We ended up having drinks at the rooftop lounge at our fancy hotel in the middle of the afternoon. Completely free of thinking about what we would feed the offspring in a few hours. And surrounded by only adults! What?!?

{five}

Friday we explored Pike Place Market, which was a mere 4 blocks from our hotel, and it was so much fun. I think I could have spent all day in there, because it's a maze and I very well could have gotten lost. My favourite part was the literal miles of gorgeous flowers, all insanely cheap. You just never see that in Alberta or Canada, (well, maybe some parts of Canada) but I loved them and it pained me not to buy 6 or 10 bouquets.

I also had the greatest eggs benedict with crab, ate my heart out at a French bakery, and didn't even sell out to have a Starbucks at the original location.



{six}

I've got hundreds of grey photos with little black fins poking out, these were the best of the bunch.

We leisurely explored the market for so long that I completely lost track of time. I didn't realize it was almost the middle of the afternoon, and I sure as heck wasn't paying attention to when boat tours were leaving from the waterfront. But...my husband was! Isn't that shocking?! Obviously not because he was the one who wanted to go on a boat tour because he hadn't been on the ocean for a few years. We ended up strolling up to the ticket office with five minutes to spare on their one tour of the day - which I thought was a great coincidence, husband planning and forethought aside.

The boat tour began in Lake Union and took us through the locks into Elliot Bay, or Puget Sound, I always get the two confused -- but the ocean. It was a fun little boat tour, it was also nice to be on the water and inside while it was raining out. The husband reeked out over the technological advances in the hundred year old locks, and I saw the Sleepless in Seattle house, it was a great time.

Then as we were curving around the bay, going back towards downtown, the captain of the boat spotted whales, and before it even had time to register in my brain I looked out the right side of a boat  and saw an orca cutting through the water! We all rushed out onto the deck and saw the orca swim north alongside the boat, popping up out of the water every 50 feet or so. I was shocked and amazed along with everyone else in the boat as the tour guide said that she'd worked for over 4 years on this boat and had never even heard of orcas being so far south in Puget Sound, let alone seeing them herself on a tour!

Soon, we saw a mother whale with a smaller baby swimming alongside her near the front of the boat. They were really quick close, and since the boat had to kill the engines we were just floating alongside of them. Then someone would spot another fin peaking out in the distance, then another, then another whale close to the boat, three, four! We probably saw at least 10 whales over the course of half an hour. It was so surreal and amazing, I've never seen whales in the ocean before, let alone so close for so long. They felt so much bigger than I expected, and I had images of them destroying boats and ripping apart small mammals in my head. But really, they're stunning in the flesh and I still can't believe we saw them. It was a definite highlight!



{seven}

Forced smiles never hurt anyone.

Although it was a quick trip, it felt so great to get away a little, to feel like real live adults. And because we live in the middle of nowhere, staying in the middle of a big city just walking around exploring is our idea of a perfect couple days break from our littles. It's also such a treat to just wander, not worrying about who needs to eat or go to the bathroom, who needs to nap, how long it'll take us to get dinner. We drank in the afternoon, ate dinner after 6, saw a movie in theatres together  for the first time in two years!

Overall a great success! And we only got to half the great things the wonderful Caitlin recommended for me when I peppered her with all the Seattle-related questions. If you're looking for great recommendations you should really harass her and tell her I sent you.

Thanks for putting up with me and trip related blather, have a great weekend!!

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