If you've been following along on Instagram, you know we just got back from a trip to Seattle and Vancouver. One of our closest friends moved out to the Pacific Northwest last May, so we were excited to visit him and have him show us around!
Of course, one of the first things we did in Seattle was visit the Pike Place Market. And eat ice cream for lunch! We were on vacation after all!
One of Jon's recommendations was taking the Underground Tour. The original city of Seattle was built on tidelands which often flooded. After the entire city burned to the ground in 1889, they rebuilt in the same spot. To solve their flooding problem, they filled in the roads so they would be several feet higher, effectively turning the first floor of all the new buildings into the basement. In 1965 the Underground Tour was started as an effort to protect these historic buildings and underground tunnels, which many locals didn't even know existed.
I loved these purple glass tiles, which served as skylights for the underground sidewalks.
One of the highlights of the trip for me (and really the only thing on my must-do list) was visiting the Chihuly Garden and Glass Museum in Seattle. I'll be sharing photos of the artwork on Monday, but here are our fun "tourist" photos at the Museum and the neighboring Space Needle.
The only thing I didn't like about the museum was how difficult it was to take photos with the art. The inside portion of the museum was really dark and the light was pretty harsh outside. (Although our photo inside the atrium turned out really well. I also thought it was really great that the museum had a couple of photographers wandering around who would take a free picture for you that you could email to yourself at the end of the tour. I was pretty impressed by that!
And Jon thought up this shot all by himself! Although we were cracking up the entire time!
Ryan's must-do thing was visiting the Vancouver Aquarium, which is one of the top 5 aquariums in North America! They had a lot of real corals and saltwater fish, two things that our local aquarium doesn't have. Oh and a dolphin, whales, and penguins. We don't have those either.
And because the three of us love Psych (Except the musical. We're just pretending that never happened.), we had to visit a few of the Psych filming spots while we were in Canada: the bridge at the Stanley Park overlook, the Pysch office and "Santa Barbara" pier, and Henry's house.
And because it's Monday, this post wouldn't be complete without a few Monday Musings notes about our trip:
Dear Water Shoes, I wish we hadn't left you at home! I could have cut my feet up really badly on those rocky beaches!
Dear Southwest, We're not super thrilled with the 2 hours and 40 minutes of delays we experienced waiting for other passengers. Most of which we spent sitting on the Tarmac in a crowded plane. Just an FYI, we might not be so eager to book with you next time.
Dear Owl City, Thank you for writing a song called Hello, Seattle. We really enjoyed listening to it on our trip. But for real, what's up with the Dental Care song? How on earth did you come up with that?
Dear Jon, We had such a great time visiting you, but next time let's cut down on the grocery store trips. Ten trips is about 7 too many.
Dear White Rock Museum, You should still look exactly like the Pysch office. It was a good look for you. And all your obnoxious American tourists will appreciate it.
Dear Border Patrol Guy, I think one of your most important jobs is asking what we're bringing back into the country. We certainly weren't smuggling anything, but you probably still should have asked.
Dear Pacific Northwest, Thanks for being so fun and hipster. We enjoyed browsing your used bookstores and records stores and eating your tacos!