We started day 2 of our getaway with coffee and a sweet treat.
I love going out for breakfast, but this is the perfect way to start the day, in my opinion. Dan was sweet to indulge me. He's not big on coffee.
It was quite rainy and wet out so we sought shelter at another one of my favorite places...Nordstrom!
:) The Flagship Nordstrom Store was right by our hotel and so we were able to go to the Men's Half Yearly sale which was great because Dan was in need of some jeans and shoes.
It was SO NICE to be able to have the time to find some jeans for Dan that fit well. He is really hard to fit and it's very difficult trying to do this with the kids. It was fun sitting in his dressing room and being able to say, "No, try those on again...let's see those again..." and walking away with two pairs that fit him well instead of giving up in frustration because it took too long to find something and the kids were falling apart.
We also found a couple of pairs of shoes for him which was also great. He was trying to tell me that the black pair he was wearing "just needed polishing." I thought otherwise and we laughed when the salesman said to Dan, "Would you like to wear these out?" :) We donated his old ones on the spot and he left with some new kicks.
We left, dropped off our packages and headed down toward the pier.
We stopped off at the Hard Rock Cafe' for lunch and it was really good! We mostly did it out of nostagia because we ate at one on our honeymoon, but the food was much better than we remembered and I had the best chocolate shake. :)
We walked down to Pike's Place and the rain started tapering off a bit.
This is the famous flying fish market that you see on movies and shows...I didn't happen to catch any fish flying but it's now very crowded with tourists taking photos. :)
I hadn't been to the market for quite some time, so it was fun to walk around and see the sights.
They had
gorgeous flowers there.
The beautiful view of the harbor/pier from the market. Seattle has the neatest geography, with the ferries running over to the Olympic peninsula and so many great areas to explore.
We walked down to the pier. I shared the memory with Dan of when Dad was in town on a business trip when I was attending the University of Washington. He picked me up and we came down to the pier. We had ice cream cones and rode the carousel pictured above. :) I had he photos of that on my desk for a long time. I didn't go inside...it made me too sad at that moment. But I took a picture as we walked by. It's a sweet memory.
Another memory from my childhood and from that trip to the pier with my Dad. This is just a little touristy store that also has some random things like a couple of mummies and shrunken heads (gross, I know) but I remember standing in there for a long time with my Dad looking at the old photos they had there. My Dad loved looking at old photos. I do too.
We headed back up to the room and I was just worn out. I'm just not at my usual energy level right now between being sick and being so busy lately. We returned to the hotel room around 4 and had the most heavenly
nap. Something that never could have happened at home at 4 o'clock in the afternoon. What a treat to feel tired,
and get to lay down and sleep. Honestly, it was one of my favorite parts of the trip. :)
We really felt like just doing something easy for dinner and so we headed to PF Changs which was really close by to our hotel. We sat in the bar overlooking the restaurant (again, something we couldn't have done with the kids) and it was just great. The location of the hotel was really convenient.
I have to admit though, the downtown area is hard for me...the homeless people make me really sad and I especially hate seeing the older people wandering the streets. It breaks my heart. And I feel nervous walking around in the evening. When we went to the movie Dan left me to go to the restroom and I said, "You're leaving me?" Half joking/half serious. When he returned he teased, "You're still here!" I told him that I clutched his Coke and looked fierce. :) We were joking around, but I really am so
not a city girl and often just felt so grateful for my home in Camas! So I struggled
a lot with that as we walked around. When we came to our warm room for a nap I just thought about those older people still wandering the street outside.... I wondered about their stories...and if they have people who love them and are worried for them. And I thought often of my children. But it was SO nice having time with Dan. And it was so strange how easily we could slip back into being just
us. It was so relaxing to get to sit and only think about our own needs...what we wanted to do at that moment without concern for any little people. (Though I
do love caring for those little people). It was just nice to have a little more of an extended break. Mostly, I just loved being with Dan.
Meanwhile, the children were having quite the ball with Grammie and Nana. They went to the Camas Firehouse open house and Andrew went and tested for his yellow stripe belt (we were SO sorry to miss it) and did GREAT! He passed! Matthew was cute filling us in on the details ~ he said it was the best he'd ever seen Andrew do. We were
so proud of him and called in the afternoon to see how it went. Then they all went to "Kids Club" in the afternoon and played and played. The grandmas did a great job of spoiling them. :)
Up next ~ our last day!
