This Labour Day long weekend Tash and I decided to do a spontaneous trip to Seattle to unwind after a stressful few weeks. We left early in the morning after dropping the dogs off at the kennel just to make sure we didn’t get stuck at the border for 4 hours! Our timing was great and we didn’t have to wait long (due to some sneaky maneuvers that I’ve learnt)…

We arrived and checked into our hotel and made our way to the University Village Mall and spent most of the day checking out the shops there. At night time we strolled over to the Space Needle which is an icon of the city and checked out the surrounding areas. There was a festival called Bumbershoot so most of the area was fenced off and they had rides and free concerts all weekend.

Sunday morning came and we headed out to the Pike Place markets… also known  the Public Market Center which overlooks the Elliott Bay waterfront in Seattle. The Market, which opened August 17 1907, is the oldest continually-operated public farmer’s market in the country. It is a place of business for many small farmers, craftspeople and merchants. Local farmers sell year-round in the arcades from tables they rent from the Market on a daily basis, in accordance with the Market’s mission and founding goal: allowing consumers to “Meet the Producer.”

The highlight of the market has definitely got to be the “flying fish”. It has become a tradition for the fishermen to display their catch on a bed of ice and when a customer orders a fish, the group chants out the order and then one of the fishermen throw the fish and the guy at the register catches it and wraps it up for the customer. This has become a popular show for tourists as they gather around the front of the shop waiting in anticipation for the next order of “flying fish”…

Later on that day we went to a shop called Fry’s… its an electronics superstore and all I have to say is MY GOSH IS THAT PLACE HUGE! its about the size of 5 Best Buy’s put together AND SOME! The range of stuff is amazing and you’re definitely bound to find what you’re looking for I must say they have plenty of very cool gear in that shop… I was like a kid in a candy store…! In addition to that we dropped into the Seattle Premium Outlets and checked out the summer sales…

All in all it was a nice weekend away… The movie title “Sleepless In Seattle” should really be “Sleeping in Seattle”… I found the city is very different to the likes of Vancouver, LA, NY etc… don’t get me wrong I’m not comparing the actual cities… Seattle is very quaint… I just found that there wasn’t many people around and you don’t get that “vibe” of it being lived in like those other cities other than the popular tourist spots. I guess it’s partly due to the fact that downtown living isn’t as dense in comparison…

Until next time…!