Summer Vacation 2012 – Seattle!

so. poor abandoned blog…to pick up where i left off many months ago, i got a HUGE stack of library books for our trip across the country to seattle. this was one of my best vacations of all time (i had to include a ton of pictures in this post) and all the books lasted me the whole trip and then some. not all of them worked for me, i didn’t like the Anne Aguirre space books ( i didn’t think i would, but wanted to try them anyways!) and i got SO VERY VERY annoyed at The Maze Runner and the second book, just so contrived cliffhanger-y, i felt way too manipulated as a reader. i reached a plateau of jacked up adrenaline levels that left me exhausted and then bored.

i also polled twitter for some books set in seattle to get ready for my trip (google yielded F*fty Shades and Tw*light as top results…this displeased me greatly) and was SO happy i took the suggestion of Cherie Priest’s Boneshaker (review to come), i loved it. i also brought one of my favorite books of all time along for a re-read.

and i went on the undergrad tour of seattle not knowing that it would be the absolutely perfection of all perfect activities to accompany the book.

we were pretty touristy, here is a list of things we did on our trip (with some pictures, it is GORGEOUS THERE) and i highly recommend all these activities if you can visit:

• biked around lake washington
• visited Redhook beer brewery
• walked around Green Lake
• visited the Ballard Locks to see the salmon swimming upstream
• went on the underground tour
• went to a Mariner’s game

• went shopping in pike’s place to cook a big dinner
• got a coffee at the first starbucks
• took a ferry up to Victoria, BC, Canada for a quick 2 day trip

• toured the Parliament Building and walked all over Victoria
• took a sea plane back to seattle (below taken from out of the plane window)

• went to the top of the space needle
• went to the Chihuly glass exhibit (had not heard of him before, i was blown away, have a million i could post, but these Niijima floats are my favorite)

• watched the 4th of july fireworks from a friend of the family’s house boat (while wearing a puffy vest and jeans…it was chilly at night! the whole trip had the most perfect weather possible, 70-75ish and sunny every day, nary a drop of rain)
• i definitely have way too many pictures of this part of the trip to ever post…but we ate our faces off the whole trip at a million awesome restaurants.

in conclusion, the Pacific Northwest is unbelievably beautiful with some of the most delicious food i’ve ever eaten. i loved that there was just a huge variety of experiences (from different cuisines to different landscapes) to all in one corner of the country. one of my favorite trips of all time.