It had been 10 years since I stepped onto a plane. My youngest hadn’t even been on one! At her age, I had flown across oceans a few times already. 

I had prepared myself and our kids as much as could, not knowing what all had changed. Now, there’s wifi and streaming movies, power outlets at every seat and you can preorder food. I just forgot about needing gum to chew on takeoff and landing. Luckily, one child had gum on her to share.

Two of our children were born in Washington State so we knew we wanted to try and stop in Seattle on our way to Alaska. Stopping there for a day actually made our trip a little bit cheaper. We got to our hotel in Seattle before the sun set there, but it was almost midnight back home. Everyone got settled in and got some sleep and then we headed out for a day in Seattle.

We got a Lyft (something we just don’t think about doing at home) and headed to the Space Needle. It had been renovated since we had been there last – maybe 2006? Now there’s a glass deck below the main deck where you can see straight down and it rotates! We enjoyed the views and found the Amazon headquarters building. 

Then, we went to the Chihuly Garden and Glass. I’ve been a fan of Chihuly’s glass work since seeing it at a college night at an art museum in Omaha in college. He’s from Seattle and opened this exhibition center in 2012. There were pieces I had never seen before and I loved two the most – the snow scene and the flowers on the glass ceiling where you could look up and see the space needle. 

We took the monorail to Pike Place to get lunch and for a visit to the original Starbucks. We told the kids to prepare to be underwhelmed. There was a line when we got there to keep the traffic flowing. They did have Oleato coffee, which is only available in Seattle, Milan and California right now. 

We then walked a few blocks to Pioneer Square (which is a triangle) and took the Undergound Tour. Seattle caught on fire in 1889, which was actually a good thing since the city had been built on sea level, causing toilets to erupt at high tide (and no one died in the fire). They rebuilt the city at a higher level, but not fast enough for some stores, which started building at the former level, creating an undergound aspect to the city. It’s not accessible anymore, except through tours.

We went back to Pike Place and looked around at all the vendors. One child found a shirt that said, “Buy art, not crack.” She didn’t buy it, but she’s still talking about it. Stickers were a favorite souvenir. I bought a heart necklace charm made out of Helenite – a fused glass made when Mt. St. Helens erupted.

We ate dinner at an Irish pub called Kells, where my husband and I ate back when we visited Seattle while living in Tacoma when the children were little. The shepherd’s pie was as delicious as I remembered it. 

We got in bed at a decent hour because we needed to catch the 5 a.m. shuttle to the airport the next morning. (At least that was 8 a.m. back home.)

Next post …. Alaska!