One Year Trip- Part One (Seattle)

After I donated a kidney to Wesley last year, Laurie informed me that every year Legacy Transplant Services does an annual BBQ to honor their kidney donors. I didn't think much of it since I live in Utah, and the BBQ would be in Oregon. However, at the beginning of September, I got the invite for the BBQ and it mentioned that it was honoring last year's kidney donors.

And idea started forming in my head that I really wanted to go and that it might even be possible to go. I asked my mom if I could borrow her car if I decided to drive up since hers gets much better gas milage. She agreed to let me take it. Next, I got a hold of Elisabeth to see if she would be able to come to the BBQ with me if I went, and she informed me that I would be able to stay on the boat while I was in town.

My next step was finding someone to come with me. I originally just thought I would do it on my own, but with a 12 hour drive and being in the city by myself, and with Elisabeth needing to work half the time I planned on being there, I decided it would be more fun if someone came with me. I really wanted Jennifer to come with me. She was a little freaked about how spontaneous this trip was, and one of her excuses to not come was that her best friend lives in Seattle and she has never been to visit her. Since Seattle and Portland are so close together, she said her friend would kill her if she didn't go to see her in Seattle. That excuse was easy for me to resolve. I said, "So let's go to Seattle."

We had decided to both work doubles on Monday to get as many hours as possible in before we left. Then Jennifer had her husband, John, drive her down to Bountiful so we could leave right after I got the car packed up. I drove for the first four hours or so, then slept for four hours while Jennifer drove. Then we switched again and I made the final stretch into Seattle the next morning. It is about a 13 hour drive, so we got there at about noon Tuesday morning.

Jennifer's friend Natalie works for the Hyatt. She offered to either get us a great rate on a hotel, or to let us come stay in her apartment. I decided that Jennifer would probably want as much time with Natalie as possible while we were there, so we stayed with Natalie and her husband Robert in China Town.

Natalie was working the morning we arrived, so Robert let us into their apartment so we could shower and take a nap until Natalie got off work. After we were rested and ready to go again, we took the underground buses downtown to meet Natalie at the Space Needle. Robert actually works at the Space Needle, so we were able to go up inside it for free!

(My hair went crazy on top of the Space Needle. It felt the need to float.)

After the Space Needle, we went to Seattle's Finest Fudge. I ended up getting 4 different kinds: Chocolate, Mint, Butterfinger and European Dark. All delightful. :) Natalie had planned on taking us out to a Chinese Restaurant near her house, but we were all too tired, so we just got Chinese take-out from Jade's Garden Restaurant. The food there was really good! As soon as I had eaten, I crashed on the couch. I was so exhausted. Jennifer stayed up with Natalie talking until 2 in the morning. I work up for bits and pieces, but mostly I was just out.

The next morning, Natalie and I walked down to a local Chinese Bakery called Yummies. They bake fresh rolls. I got one that was filled with ham and corn that was so delightful and another one that was a cream cheese one. (not like filled to the brim, but just a subtle sweet roll that is so so tasty.) Not only are they fresh baked and delightful, but they were only 1.50 a roll. Complete steal! After the breakfast here, Jennifer and I decided that we always need to go on vacation somewhere we know people so they can take us to all the best places.

After breakfast, we walked around downtown Seattle. We visited the Seattle Library. The outside is a lot like the glass Salt Lake Library, but inside they have floors made of different colors and the library is designed that if you walk through all of the stacks, they are spiraled so that you actually can go all the way up to the top. Jennifer is afraid of heights, so she freaked up at the top, but I though it was cool, even though sometimes I did feel a little like a lab rat.

After that, we walked to the Pike Place Market and spent a few hours looking around there. I ended up buying quite a few things. I bought some Basil Garlic dipping sauce that was so good, and some chocolate cherries (real ones), some delicious BBQ sauce and some magic bun tying thing, to name a few.





Next we ate lunch at a place across the street from Pike's Place Market. I can't remember the name of it now, but they made their cheese right there and you could watch it being made. I had some amazing Macaroni and Cheese, and I tried a bite of Natalie's Grilled Cheese Sandwich. So so good! In case you can't tell, I LOVED the food in Seattle! After lunch, Natalie took us to see other sites around the city. We went to go see a chocolate factory called Theo. They give tours, but we didn't make it on time to go on one. We were able to sample lots of different kinds of chocolate though. She also took us to see the troll under the bride, the sign at the Center of the Universe with directions to everything, the random Russian Lennon, and the statues waiting or a fake bus.






Then we went to the viewpoint where all of the pictures are taken of the Seattle landscape. We also went through a park that reminded me of the Secret Garden. It almost seemed if you didn't know it was there, you wouldn't have been able to find the entrance.











After that, Natalie took us to her favorite restaurant in town. It was called the Tango and it is Spanish food. It was so GOOD!! We had five people with us, so we ordered a lot of things and just tried a little of everything. It was so good! The best part was the desserts though. Our favorite was called El Diablo. It is a dark chocoalte mousse, with caramel, pecans and something that tastes like marshmallow, but isn't. DELIGHTFUL!





We stayed up late that night playing a game like Cranium and Loaded Questions with Natalie, Robert, Natalie's sister and her boyfriend, Jennifer and me. We had a great time. The next morning Natalie and I walked to Yummies again to get our breakfast. Then we loaded up the car and headed for Portland! But that is for another post!