Just For Fun: Seattle Day 1 & 2 (7/17 and 7/18)

This past week, we experienced our "whole lot of firsts." We took our first vacation with Sarah to the Northwest Pacific region. Before this trip, we have never spent more than 1 night from home. So you can imagine, travelling with a baby for a week long trip was somewhat scary for us...we had no clue what to expect. We decided to bring Sarah's car seat and stroller with us, which fortunately we were able to check them in as baggage for no charge. Sarah took her first flight on Virgin America from San Francisco to Seattle. The flight was early at 8:45a. We woke her up early and left the house by 7a. She did great on the plane!! She took turns sitting on our laps. She spent some time pressing buttons, playing with her boxes (we brought those with us), and eating a small snack. She also napped for a good 40 minutes. By the time she woke up, we were about to land. Perfect timing. She did not whimper one single sound throughout the whole flight; our neighbors wouldn't have even known we had a baby with us.

We landed in Sea-Tac Airport around 11a and it was raining. Of course it was raining -- this is Seattle afterall!! Luckily, we decided to spend the extra money to rent from a car rental company inside the airport, which was the way to go, especially with a baby in toll. We left the airport and went straight to our hotel at the Sheraton Bellevue. Bellevue is a suburb 20 minutes away from Seattle. We went out for lunch first and then moped around the neighborhoods before returning to our hotel. The first day was quite uneventful and not much to rave about. We drove along some neighborhoods and I was truly amazed at the beauty of the houses in Bellevue and Medina (right along Lake Washington). Actually, shame on me for using the word "house," these were mansions!! estates!! Each building was masterfully crafted and has a private driveway with perfectly manicured landscapes...(yes, much better than St. Francis Woods or Sea Cliff houses). I heard that one of those mansions belongs to Bill Gates, but didn't know which one. All of them were so grandiose!

Sarah had her own crib and we all slept well on our first night in Seattle.

We left the hotel around 10a and drove to Seattle's Space Needle. Yes, yes, we did all the touristy stuff since it was my first time to Seattle. We took the elevator up to the observation deck to view the city. Thank goodness it was a clear and sunny day so we were able to see a lot of the surrounding areas. Did you know that the Space Needle was built for the World's Fair in 1962 and it will celebrate its 100 years birthday next year?!

After the Space Needle, we took the Monorail to Downtown Seattle and walked to Pike Place Public Market. I really like this place, but it was really crowded, even on a Monday. We stopped by Pike Place Chowder, which served one of the best clam chowder I've had. We visited the original Starbucks there too. By 2pm, we met up with our tour guide. We signed up for a 2.5 hour walking tour in the Seattle neighborhoods. This was quite an ambitious feat since the walking tour involved some walking on uneven pavement, stairs, escalators, hills, etc so they didn't recommend us to bring a stroller (they told this to us beforehand). So for the next 2.5 hours, I carried the 23 lb Sarah on the Ergo. ** I am 200% endorsing Ergo as the BEST baby carrier out there. At the end of the day, my feet were sore from walking, but my shoulders and my back were absolutely fine! I was really amazed because I was expecting to be sore, but I wasn't at all!!

The walk took us through Pike Place Public Market, the bubble gum wall, the Convention center, the Public library, Pioneer Square and various Downtown parks. We ended up at the Waterfront as our last stop, at the Olympic Sculpture Park, which is famous for the Alexander Calder sculptures. I especially love the Sculpture Park, because it's very spacious and peaceful here. It's the waterfront with tons of green grass to sit, relax, and soak in the sun.