What I Learned: Seattle

“Travel is more than the seeing of sights; it is a change that goes on, deep and permanent, in the ideas of living.” – Miriam Beard

So, today I present you with things that I "learned" on my trip to Seattle. You would think from the quote that my lessons would be completely inspirational and life-changing. 


They're not.

Lesson: Rain boots are completely necessary in Seattle.
And, interestingly enough, Nordstrom's started in Seattle as a shoe store.

Of course, this meant the perfect Seattle souvenir was a pair of rain boots. I picked out my lovely yellow boots (instead of a glossy red pair) in the shoe department at Nordstrom's on Monday morning and wore them out of the store. I wore them for at least a portion of every day on the trip.

There was a minor boot-related mishap on Monday. I wore dark jeans on Monday; they had been washed many times. Nevertheless, they bled dark blue dye all over my yellow boots under the duress of being soaking wet for many hours. Luckily, I was able to scrub the dye off the boots with a Magic Eraser once I got home.

Lesson: Brad needs a photography lesson.
So - this picture isn't the best example of Brad's photographic prowess (said with extreme sarcasm).

I actually deleted most of the all-together blurry or just oddly focused pictures that Brad took while he had custody of the camera. I need to take a few minutes to show him how to use the camera before our next trip.

Lesson: Dim Sum is not served at night.
We left dinner on Sunday night with a list of recommendations from our server. He had just finished culinary school and moved to Seattle; he was very excited about food. One thing he said we had to try was dim sum. We tried to go to the place he highly recommended the very next night. We sat down, took menus, had some tea, and realized that dim sum is really just for lunch and wasn't served at this place after 3PM. We said thanks for the tea and went back a couple days later for lunch. Totally embarrassing.






Lesson: Vacation would not be possible without a smart phone, GPS, and the Internet.
I was constantly looking up addresses, hours, forecasts, and recommendations on my phone. We even used the navigation function to get walking maps on the phone. I often looked up an address on my phone and read it to Brad to enter into the GPS.

Although, I do need to say that it frustrated me to no end to have to pay for wireless service at hotels ($9.95 a day at ours!), but that is a whole other post.

Carmen (our trusty Garmin) only let us down one time. We were searching for cupcakes after dinner on Wednesday night. The cupcake place was on NE Village Lane. Brad entered the address. He neglected the "NE" part of the address. Carmen flawlessly navigated us to "Village Lane," an apartment complex where there was not a cupcake to be found.


Lesson: Four wineries in one day (and a brewery) is more than this girl can handle.


Lesson: Make opportunities for self-portraits.
We didn't hand over our camera to a stranger even one single time. Yet, we have lots of pictures of us together (and a few of just me) from plenty of different places on our trip.

 Mirrors in the hotel elevator. (Sunday night)

 Cheers at Pike Brewery Co.. (Monday afternoon)

 Reflection in the window of the Space Needle observation deck. (Monday afternoon)

 From below the Space Needle. (Monday afternoon)

 Window of the rental car (a gray Hundai Accent with CA plates) in Olympic National Park. (Tuesday morning)

 Hurricane Ridge. (Tuesday morning)

 Walking to Marymere Falls. (Tuesday afternoon)

 Another from walking to Marymere Falls. (Tuesday afternoon)

 LaPush (Beach 1). (Tuesday afternoon)

 A vat where Riesling is made at Chateau Ste. Michelle. (Thursday morning)

 The balcony of our tree house. (Thursday afternoon)

From one of the tree-top nets at Tree House Point. (Thursday afternoon)

Lesson: Vacation doesn't need to be completely packed full.

Wednesday afternoon was when I really felt this lesson. 

We packed Monday FULL. We packed Tuesday FULL. I really wanted a quiet day (and maybe even a nap) on Wednesday. 

Instead, I let Brad persuade me to drive with him to Mt. Rainier. It was pouring and windy and pouring (I really did need to mention that twice). I was cranky the entire time, didn't take even a single picture, and was really crabby about the entire thing. Instead of getting frustrated with myself and with Brad, I should have just known that I needed to take a break that afernoon and opted for the nap instead of the "scenic" drive.

It would have been completely okay - probably even enjoyable - to have spent the afternoon in the hotel room reading a book or playing on the computer or watching television. I need to remember to leave some time for myself to just relax next time I go away. I need that time.

Tomorrow? More about Seattle. I'm thinking maybe my Scrapbook on the Road.