You tired of my travel blathering yet? Well not to worry, we are nearing the end of it. I’m really enjoying re-living my trip but it’s totally making me want to take another one soon! After Portland we headed up to Seattle to visit with my husband’s sister and brother-in-law. One good thing about having large families spread around the globe (literally!) is that you have reasons to visit all these fun places and free lodging when staying there! Yep, it’s all about the free lodging 😉 j/k, peeps, j/k.

We were in Seattle for an entire week and thoroughly enjoyed our stay. The first evening we were there, my sister-in-law took me to see Jane Eyre: the musical. It was in a small theater and while neither of us were quite sure what to expect we both loved it! The English teacher in me just thrived on some good classic literature being acted out in front of me.

Sunday we enjoyed visiting my sister-in-law’s church and then heading down to south Seattle- Federal Way in the afternoon to visit some friends from back home who moved out west several years back. So fun to connect with friends along our way!

Monday and Tuesday my brother-in-law took off work so he played tour-guide and took us all around town. We got to see the troll under the Fremont Bridge, enjoyed checking out the houseboats in Fremont, and explored the Public Market. We enjoyed walking up and down the Market and checking out all the vendors. I loved all the flower stalls! We ate lunch in the market area at some walk-ups: so fun! The boys were great sightseers and I think they enjoyed all the hustle and bustle as much as we did.

Tuesday we went down to Mukilteo Beach and discovered that a Seattle beach is much different from a South Carolina beach. But it was fun to explore the shore, throw rocks in the water and take the Ferry to Whidbey Island. The boys absolutely loved the ferry ride! We wanted to explore Whidbey Island but we hadn’t brought the car with us on the ferry so we just wandered the beach a bit and then got back on the ferry to Mukilteo Beach.

My sister-in-law was so kind to offer to babysit the boys for us while we were visiting so we could enjoy a day in the city kid-free. First off we headed over to Ballard to check out Drygood Designs– the last fabric store on my list to visit. What a fun store! They are in a really small space (moving soon, I was told) but they have an excellent selection for the space! I had so much fun perusing all the fabrics and accessories. I was very good (since I’d spent all my money in Portland!) and only bought a fat quarter of some nano iro along with a few yards of leather cording. Seriously, that took some self-control! And I actually remembered to take pictures of this fabric store so here are a few for you.

Belltown also had a great selection of fun little shops that we enjoyed exploring. We spend the rest of our kid-free day walking around downtown, sampling local eateries and checking off some sightseeing: The Olympic Sculpture Park, the Space Needle and Seattle Center (though we didn’t go up the needle), and Kerry Park. I loved the amazing skyline view we got from Kerry Park and the houses all around it were so beautiful. It was fun to walk around and pick out our favorites. 🙂 You could even see a little of Mr. Rainier from the park- it’s the little white peak between the two buildings on the right.

In the middle of all our sightseeing, we got to meet up with another friend and former Greenvillian at Macrina Bakery (so good, by the way.) It was only for an hour but it was fun to catch up a bit with Betsy and chat. She blogs over at Yellow Elm and has some great info about exploring Seattle among other things. I used her blog as a stepping stone to decide what we wanted to do while in town.We happened to time our trip to Seattle to coincide with my in-laws coming in for a visit too so we spent the last several days there relaxing around the house and spending time with family. They came from TN so it was nice for all of us to meet in WA for a few days. The boys enjoyed getting thoroughly spoiled with attention from the grandparents as well as Aunt Emily. We discovered a free petting zoo a few miles down from our house  and met up with another long-time friend there for a few hours. So interesting how several of our friends have moved out to the Seattle area recently!

And from Seattle, we began the trek back down the coast and toward home! I’ve got one more post to share with you about our adventures down the Pacific coast and then we are done!