Travelogue: A Two Week Visit in Seattle (with Nonna and Pops)
It feels like we have been on vacation for weeks! This is not to say that I would not be eager to hop in my car or board a plane tomorrow- I'm always ready to travel and explore!- but with my parents two week visit here and then our recent week away at Lake Chelan (more on this trip later this week), we've been spoiled with travels and explorations and that lovely break in routine that only vacations and holidays bring.
Having such a long amount of time out here (which never seems to be quite long enough...), we were able to do lots of fun day trips and activities around the city with my parents. One of our first adventures was a day trip to Edmonds, which is only 11 miles north of Seattle yet it has such a small town feel with brick sidewalks, small cafes, and quaint bookstores and toy stores. It is situated on the Puget Sound and on clear days has views from the shore of the Olympic Mountains. Most people know it for the ferry service which takes travelers to Kingston, but it offers so much more with sandy beaches, easily stroll-able sidewalks, and good food. The sea life left on the rocks and sand at low tide was fascinating to explore- rockweed, bull kelp, sea anemones, sea slugs, snails, clams, mussels, sponges … this is reason alone to go back! If it wasn't so windy and cold on the day we were there, Jack would have been happy playing at the beach for hours!
On the day after Edmonds, we played in Volunteer Park. After enjoying the new play area, we climbed the water tower and had a clear view of all of Seattle and its surrounding area.
One of our weekend day trips found us admiring the many fields of tulips at the Skagit Valley Tulip Festival about an hour north of Seattle. It was such a unique thing to see- hundreds of acres of rainbow colored tulips and daffodils amidst beautiful farms. Unfortunately it was raining when we were driving through so we didn't get out to walk through the fields, but it was just as stunning from the car.
After all the tulip viewing, we meandered up Chuckanut Drive all the way to Bellingham. We stopped for lunch at the Rhododendron in Bow and explored the beach at Taylor Shellfish Farms, which is the largest producer of Manilla clams and Geoduck in the United States.
We ended our "tulip festival day" with a stop at Kerry Park, a spot where we love to go to admire the houses, to look out over the city, and to take photos.
As shown in the photos, we had tons of fun! There were lots of other memorable moments that I don't have pictures of and that you should definitely add to your Seattle bucket list- a Mariners baseball game, a Huskies sporting event- we saw a baseball game, runs along the Burke Gilman trail, a driving tour and dinner in Madison Park, and a Pacific Northwest seafood dinner on the water- among others!