Seattle, WA

After the wedding in Oregon, we headed up to Seattle to explore the city and visit some friends. Our hosts were some of our good friends from college that ended up getting married after we graduated. Luckily they also happened to play basketball with Chris so were just as invested in the CAA tournament as we were while we were there. We planned our day around coming back to watch W&M play in the championship game. They showed us some wonderful sights while we were there and introduced us to some great restaurants, as well. One of our first stops was Pike Place Market, of course.

From there we went to see the Freemont Bridge Troll and then to Gas Works Park - both pretty cool stops.

Most of the places we went had incredible views of the city.

They introduced us to many of their favorite restaurants, all of which were amazing.

The next day we met up with Chris' family who had also driven up to Seattle for a couple days. We started off by touring Starbucks headquarters, which was very interesting. There are kitchens all over each of the floors where employees can make their own drinks (which we also did). Then we went to a food truck for lunch. The truck happened to be parked in front of a warehouse and Eleanor did some exploring while we were there. One of the employees came out and gave her "her first paycheck" for working so hard in the warehouse, which was an anjou pear!

From there we headed to Akai beach.

The next day it was time for us to fly home. The flights out had gone pretty well and we had a direct flight home. To be honest, I think Eleanor did better with the layover on the way out because the flights were slightly shorter and she was allowed to get down and run around for a minute or two in the airport between flights. However, besides that, everything else about our flight home was much better. We flew Alaska Airlines, and I will always choose Alaska from this point on if I have the choice. First, they let active duty military (Erika) check 5 bags free, which was awesome because we could check the pack and play and our luggage giving us much less to tote around in the airport. Then on the flight, they offered to switch our seats to give Eleanor her own seat, they brought crayons and coloring books around for Eleanor, there was more leg room between the seats, and the flight attendants were some of the nicest, most helpful people I've ever had. Every time Eleanor started fussing it seemed like someone came by asking if there was anything they could do or give her (juice) to help. They also had outlets on each seat to charge your electronic devices. Overall it was just all the little things that made the experience so much better.

Overall the trip out to the West Coast was a lot of fun and very memorable. We are pretty content though now to stay put for quite awhile. Though she behaved fairly well overall, travelling with a toddler does not make for the most relaxing vacation :)