In July, Dylan and I had the great pleasure of traveling to Seattle, WA.  If you ever get a chance to travel there, I would suggest:

1.  Do not rent a car.  Downtown is super crowded and there is no parking.  Ok, there is paid parking, but it can run up a bill pretty fast.  Also, people will park in the road, where there is an open lane for moving traffic.  There is plenty of public transportation and if you stay downtown, you can pretty much walk everywhere.  There were a ton of bikes, too.

2.  Eat the food at Pike Place Market.  Yes, there is plenty of fantastic food, but, if you’re anything like me, you’ll love all the unusual food that the Market has to offer: like these sausage rolls or bacon-covered maple doughnuts!

3. Enjoy all the flower vendors at Pike Place Market.  Here in Texas, Wedding bouquets usually start around $100.  The bouquets pictured below STARTED at $5 (which is the cost of a single rose at the local grocery store here)!!!  The highest was $20.  It blew my mind at how gorgeous these flowers were, especially give the awesome price.

4. Visit the very first Starbucks.  It is right across the street from Pike Place Market and the line moves super fast.  I have coffee pumping through my veins, as if on life support, so this was a must-stop for me.

5.  This wheel is right on the water of The Puget Sound and probably offers some nice views of Seattle.  Unfortunately, one of the carts was not the right color, which, ultimately, means the original one that was previously there must have fallen to its death, or so my husband reasoned and, thus, refused to get on.  Seriously: check the fourth cart up from the building on the lower left hand side.

6. Take time to smooch your spouse.  It is a vacation, after all!

7.  See the Space Needle.  I didn’t go up, as I have this slight fear of heights.

8. Check out the art of Seattle – they have tons of cool local artists.  The photo below is from the Chihuly Garden and Glass Museum.  Chihuly is actually from Tacoma, WA, but he does have an exhibit in Dallas Arboretum and Botanical Gardens until November.

9. Take your husband to see the Fremont Troll.  Dylan has this thing for trolls and was really excited to see this one.  I think its cool that the troll has an actual Volkswagon Beetle in its left hand!  This is also part of the art movement in Seattle.

10. Visit the Seattle Aquarium.  Our favorite part was getting to see them feed the otters, watch the octopus, and trying to find all the characters from Finding Nemo!

11. Eat at Ivar’s.  Two Seattle locals told me THIS WAS THE PLACE to eat, so I did!  The white clam chowder was delicious (and I usually have a very limited palette for seafood).

12. Take your husband to Pike Brewing Company and try their beer sampler.  I don’t like beer, but Dylan made me try two of the flavors from his sampler…. I still don’t like beer.

13.  There is a ton of exposed brick in Seattle.  Take some time to capture a few cute photos of you and your spouse!

14. Visit the Olympic Sculpture Park.  It has some neat little trails and awesome art pieces!  The below photo was taken while at the park, but they respectfully asked visitors to not professionally photograph the art pieces.

15.  Sit by the Puget Sound (we actually took a trail leading from the above park) and watch the sailboats go by.  It’s very peaceful.  Also, if you have a talented husband, he might carve you a heart out of the petrified wood!

Bonus Tip: When you can, revisit Pike Place Market.  There are too many neat vendors, that you may have missed a few the first time through, so go again!

Happy Vacation Planning,

Mylah Renae

www.Eureka-Photography.com