Only a few days left until the end of the year and I’m struggling to get all of my blog posts in, so HERE I GO! The holidays, as usual, are crazy, but thankfully this year I don’t have to travel anywhere until New Year’s. Otherwise, we’re in the midst of wedding planning, which is becoming a LOT more expensive than I originally thought! I thought it would be a fun exercise to do a beautiful but budget wedding…alas, the rustic theme is VERY in-style these days and it costs quite a lot to DIY beautiful Pinterest-worthy items. Oh well. We’ll see how well it goes. Anyway, at the end of the day, it’s just one day out of a lifetime of marriage 🙂

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SEATTLE, WA

This was our last stop before headed back to the east coast. Originally we wanted to stop by Hawaii on our way back, but we’d spent a decent amount of time in Bali and wanted something more chill and less expensive. So, we decided to spend some time in Seattle to visit M’s sister (my future sister-in-law!!) and my good friend (one of my bridesmaids!). 

Everyone who’s from Seattle raves about growing up there, and I can see why. It’s not overwhelming, and the Pacific Northwest is beautiful. There’s just something about the west coast that the east coast can’t compete with – namely, the nature and open air. Hopefully after M finishes grad school we’ll be able to spend some time on the other side of the country, as we’ve both been east coast people for most of our lives! Seattle is currently booming because of Amazon, although there are many other corporate headquarters there as well (Nordstrom, Microsoft, Boeing, etc.) But, Amazon definitely dominates. And while the company is great for the city’s economy, I did feel a bit of sadness when I looked for a drug store to buy some shampoo, and was told to “Amazon Now” it instead. I talked to two camps of people who are from Seattle (via Lyft drivers); half were grateful for the economic boost, and the other half mourned the loss of Seattle culture. And as corporate-minded as I am, I must say I lean towards the latter. I think I would be more supportive of how Amazon is transforming city life if it had built a city instead of taking over an existing city that doesn’t quite need “saving” – like if it went to Detroit or another struggling city instead. We’ll see where they go for their second HQ.

 

 

Anyway, Seattle is still a great city – so clean, and full of dog-owners! It’s very small, so we saw all the major sites of downtown Seattle like the Space Needle, Pike Place Market, Chihuly Garden, etc very easily. We also went up to Freemont to see the troll, stroll around coffee shops, and have dinner by the lake. We did spend much of our time simply hanging out with our friends and getting over jetlag, and one day we went sailing on the lake!

 

Our last day, we rented an (electric) car to visit Mount Ranier. It’s completely doable for a day trip…but DON’T RENT AN ELECTRIC CAR! The national park is HUGE, and you will run out of electricity without being able to get gas.