The Seattle Recap

Last month, I took a long weekend vacation to have a little reunion with my former UCSD / work friends up in Seattle. It just so happened that Seattle was one of the next cities in my list of US destinations to visit (Boston being the other prime candidate), and one friend already lived there and another (who lived in Boston) happened to be taking her spring break too. So we worked it all out and planned to reunite!

While it did not steal my heart like Chicago did, Seattle was a cool city to visit. Here's the view of downtown from atop the Space Needle... which really isn't that tall. It's not even the tallest building in the city - that honor goes to the Columbia Center, which you can see below - it's the tallest one, obvs. But it's got a great run/bike friendly vibe that I could see myself being part of... minus the bike part. 

I stayed in a hotel pretty close to the Space Needle, as you can see... that particular weekend, they had an Angry Bird in a sling attached to it, in honor of the recent release of Angry Birds Space. And the skies were really beautiful on the first day! No rain clouds in sight, and not a drop the entire weekend. I feel like  a bit of SD sunshine came with me.

Me, Marina and Katie at Pike Place Market, which has a lot of little touristy shops...

...but home to the very first Starbucks, which opened in 1971!

We walked by the Seattle Aquarium, of course, because the three of us used to work at an aquarium in college.

And we explored the Seattle Public Library, with its 10 levels inside this uniquely designed building. I could definitely enjoy getting lost in there.

We took an underground tour, through the tunnels that lay beneath the current streets above where the original streets were. From the current street, all you would see is purple stones, but looking up from below, those stones let the sunlight in.

We also went to the Experience Music Project museum, which had a Jimi Hendrix exhibit - look how cheap Woodstock passes were!

The museum also had some Michael Jackson memorabilia...

...and a full Nirvana exhibit. It was really rad to read all about their history, and while I knew that Dave Grohl formed the Foo Fighters after Cobain's suicide, I didn't think it happened that quickly (less than two years).

The three of us had a fun time, being a little goofy (taking "special" pics like we used to), reminiscing about the old times, discussing where we'll all be in 10 years, and hoping that our next reunion won't take that long.

Empire State of Mind

Cue Jay-Z and Alicia Keys... Because I will be going to New York! Concrete jungle where dreams are made of, there's nothing you can't do... you can bet I'll be playing this song to exhaustion from now until my trip.

I'd been keeping track of flights this summer/fall, to see how feasible it would be to take little vacation. Definitely have the vacation hours saved up, and not having to pay rent helps, and I'm single and in my 20s and have no attachments, so now seemed like a good time. I actually still need to fly outside the country and visit the Philippines for the first time, but I've always had plane phobia. However, a continental flight doesn't seem as bad as 16 hours across the Pacific. 

Plus this theatre loving kid really wants to see a show! 

So this week I found out that Southwest Airlines was having a three day sale, with round trip flights to the east coast for $240! From the fares I'd seen before and from talking to my JAWP, this was a good deal. I also wanted to visit Chicago too, as I have a first cousin out there with her family. It's not NYC, but at least I could visit family and there'd still be plenty to do and see. Maybe catch a game at Wrigley Field! Initially I was thinking I'd only take one trip, and I ended up leaning towards Chicago. I could stay with my cousin and not have to worry about hotel fare, which was a huge plus. So I threw out the idea to my mom, who then talked to my cousin, and then it was game on as she told me to order the tickets. So our late summer trip is a go!

This happened on Thursday evening, which left three hours in the online sale. But I still felt a pull to visit NYC... I mean, how often would I find a round-trip flight to NYC for that low? My biggest issue was going alone, as I don't know anyone in the city and knew no one to travel with. But then with a little nudge from JAWP, I decided to go for it. Picked a few days in October, and bought my tickets. Felt so great! I still have no idea where I'll be staying, or what I'll be doing exactly, but that's part of the excitement. I'll work out the details in the meantime and get some planning of all the sights I want to see. 

And of course, I will find ways to see Broadway shows on Broadway! At least one. My number one priority right now is The Book of Mormon. Tickets are pretty pricey, as it's Broadway and it just won a buttload of Tony Awards... but to say I got to see the smash musical (of which I adore the soundtrack) with the original cast (fingers crossed) at the Eugene O'Neill Theatre - which was home to Spring Awakening?!?! 

Bring it on.