Seattle Getaway

Jeremy got to take a free trip to Seattle for an ASLA (American Society of Landscape Architects)leadership seminar last week. We decided that since it was free, maybe I should tag along. Ahhhh...it was just what I needed. Thanks to DeEtte, Emily, Michelle and Rocio, our kids were taken care of for the whole 48 hours. I seriously wondered as I was trying to get out the door and my fridge had decided to break down, if this was going to be worth it. Luckily, the repairman showed up just in the nick of time and we made it.

I flew there with the wife of a SLC Landscape Architect, named Melissa. We became fast friends. Fellow Aggies always do :) They have 5 kids, so this was a big "breather" for them as well. Melissa and I hung out while the guys were in meetings on Friday. Shopped at Old Navy for a good 2 hours with no interruptions. LOVED IT! For lunch, we tried some oysters right out of the shells (nice experience..won't do it again) and some incredible seafood on the pier. Then we enjoyed an afternoon at the Seattle Art Museum.

In true Seattle fashion, it was cold and rainy the whole time. But the beauty made up for it. Our favorite thing was a simple ride on a ferry to Bainbridge Island. It's really not much of a tourist place. Just a big beautiful Island with homes and a few businesses. But so different from where we live here in the desert.
















Here's the Island as we were pulling up. If you look closely, you can see the city on the other side of the water. We ate fish and chips at a restraunt on the pier.

On the way back, we inhaled this beautiful view of the city, all lit up. This picture hardly does it justice. It was so...romantic. That's the best word for it.

Here's the Shupes. What a handsome couple!


On Saturday, we rode to the top of the Space Needle in the morning (so not worth $16 a ticket, but hey, we can now say we've done it!) Can you tell how cold I was? I didn't warm up the whole weekend. Why am I always cold?

After that, we went to West Seattle to check out a "completely sustainable" master-planned community, which is Jeremy's big goal in his career to create in Utah. My favorite thing here was a community garden, where they grow organic produce and people in the community can come buy it. I'm not sure how it works, but I love the idea! Notice the cute little oriental ladies who take care of it.

Just before we went to the airport to fly home, we stopped at the Museum of Flight. Fascinating place! I loved the WWII room the best. We only had an hour there, but could have spent the whole day. We went on a tour of a Concord plane and a retired Air Force One plane that was used by JFK and others.