The Emerald City

two days ago, catherine, jarrod, and i went to Seattle and it was just as great as i remembered it to be. it's such a beautiful city. as soon as we got there we were all saying "oh, i could live here. i want to live here." there's just something about that city that you just love as soon as you arrive. sure, it's probably not as "weird" as portland, but it has it's own unique personality. maybe we were just going crazy over it bc the weather was so nice! it was in the mid 70s and sunny w/out a cloud in the sky. i wonder when the rain will start? that doesn't matter, i love the rain and i love seattle. 

on to our awesome day: we started out at the Theo Chocolate Factory (http://www.theochocolate.com/) and we took a tour around. we had to wear hair nets into the factory, you know, so hair didn't fall into the chocolate that we weren't really allowed to be near... but whatever. haha. picture!:

don't we look fabulous?

our tour was recorded for some tv feature for a seattle news station. i think it was called the cheap bastard's guide to seattle (of course, they left out "bastard" as it's a news channel) bc admission was only $6, but let me tell you, they make up for that cheap price with their chocolates. i wanted to get a caramel box that had 9 pieces of chocolate in it. it cost $25! so i didn't buy it. catherine got that box and another smaller one that had 4 pieces in it. i have no idea how much it ended up costing but i'm sure i would have had a heart attack. haha. jarrod bought a few pieces from their display (he got 10% off bc we went on the tour). we haven't eaten all of the chocolate yet, but what i had was pretty tasty.
after the chocolate factory we went to lunch (even though it was already 4 something.) we ended up at a mexican restaurant called Poquitos (http://www.vivapoquitos.com/Poquitos/VivaPoquitos.html) and it was happy hour! our food was really cheap. haha. i got some brisket tacos, which were really tasty, and i got a poquitos punch...not as tasty, but VERY STRONG. i finished the whole drink by myself, which is a pretty big accomplishment. haha. i definitely felt it when we left. since we were still hungry, (you get what you pay for...the meal was really small) we went to Cupcake Royale (http://www.cupcakeroyale.com/) and we ate some seriously delicious cupcakes. man, i love cupcakes. haha.

after lunch, we headed to Pike Place Market, (http://www.pikeplacemarket.org/) which is one of my favorite places on this earth (that i have visited). sadly, we only had about 30 minutes to walk around since they were closing at 6. we walked through, but didn't really stop. we passed by the original starbucks and it was packed with people, as always. we continued to walk on and then pikes was closed so we headed to the space needle.

catherine said "i just need a book and i could lie in here forever."

jarrod would probably play video games instead

testing my strength by holding up the top of this sculpture.

jarrod, the monkey

the skyline and mt. rainier from the top of the space needle.

so the space needle...what is there that needs to be said when the pictures speak better than words do? the view was amazing, as you can tell. we stayed at the top for 20 minutes just looking around, taking pictures, etc. and then we went back down to the gift shop, which encompasses the whole bottom floor. we probably spend 40 minutes to an hour looking at everything in that store. i bought some postcards and a 4 set of magnets. jarrod bought a lego space needle (which he put together last night) and catherine bought...a magnet and i'm positive there was something else...not sure what it was.
we left the space needle and we were ready for dinner. i really wanted pizza, so that's what we looked for. we ended up at Bambino's (http://www.getbambinos.com/zgrid/themes/10240/portal/index.jsp) where we shared a fire grilled (not sure if that's actually what it's called.. it was cooked over a fire) meaty pizza. it was absolutely delicious. everyone was glad we ate there, even though there were some grumbles (from jarrod) when we decided on pizza. 
after dinner, it was time to head home. nothing exciting happened. jarrod and i fell asleep while i'm sure catherine had several heart attacks when getting caught behind slow drivers... haha. eventually, jarrod and i woke up, and just in time to PUMP GAS!!!! yeah for washington letting people pump their own gas. catherine was kind enough to let us do the job for her. haha. and we enjoyed that time. haha.

pumping gas like the good ol days

catherine dropped us off around 11:20 and then it was straight to bed for me.
and that was our visit to seattle. i can't wait to go back! we'll definitely spend more time at pike place market, and probably go to the pier...and maybe something we haven't done before as well. haha. whatever it is, i look forward to it. :)
seattle!!!

-sarah-