Ever since I went to Kalaloch in January, I’ve been hoping to go back. My sweet friend Kate Densmore recently announced that she is moving to the Grand Canyon, so I knew that if it was ever going to happen, it’d have to happen soon. Sam and I decided to take a few days after my sister’s wedding to visit Kate in Kalaloch and also take the chance to spend a few days in Seattle!

This is the second time Sam and I have gone on a trip together, and just like our trip to Hawaii, it was so amazingly easy to travel with him. We were flying out of Oakland airport, so we ended up staying at my sister’s house the night before and taking BART to the airport. It was a short flight and, luckily, not delayed at all, so we were able to make it into Seattle by 12 on Tuesday.

We didn’t have much breakfast, so we headed straight to lunch. One of my friends recommended Sitka and Spruce… and it was definitely the best possible choice! Out of all the meals we had in Seattle (and we had quite a few awesome ones), this was both of our favorites. The location is super cool and very hipster, haha! We actually weren’t sure we were in the right place because it is in the corner of a warehouse-like building (that gets great light!) It is right near the market so they base their menu off of whatever fresh produce they can get. We had a roasted Napa cabbage salad that had tahini, red chili oil and cilantro — a combination I would have never thought of, but was completely delicious! I highly recommend going to Sitka and Spruce if you’re in Seattle, just keep an open mind about the menu.

We then headed to Bakery Nouveau where we got a yummy apricot danish and chocolate croissant and played a couple rounds of Monopoly Deal, which is our latest obsession.

From the bakery, we headed to Safeway for some snacks for our drive to Kalaloch the next day and then spent some time in the park (in the shade, because we went to Seattle during a heatwave!) playing some more Monopoly Deal. We then drove towards the Space Needle where we had dinner reservations at 9. We were hoping we could get in earlier, but there ended up being no earlier reservations. Instead, we went to the Chihuly Glass and Garden, which is right by the Space Needle.

I was completely mesmerized by this third sculpture! It was inspired by the ocean and I loved seeing all the little details.

The next room was also really cool. All of the glass was up in the ceiling and there were lights shining down through it, making beautiful patterns on the walls and the floor.

I knew as soon as I saw that bench that I wanted some photos on it, but there were a couple ladies sitting on it when we first went into the room, so we moved onto the next exhibit before coming back to find it empty! I just love all those beautiful colored patterns on the wall.

After the exhibit, we still had some extra time, so we sat in the gardens and read until sunset. We timed our reservation perfectly, because we got ten minutes up at the platform right as the sun was setting to see the view and grab a few photos.

Dinner at the Space Needle was okay. Definitely didn’t live up to Sitka and Spruce. The appetizers we got were quite good. There was a salad that had a ball of deep fried goat cheese that I absolutely loved. Sam preferred the bbq ribs with pickled cherries. Our main course, however, was way overpriced and underseasoned. That being said, the experience was wonderful! The view was gorgeous and it was really cool having dinner that high up and seeing the entire 360 degrees. Sam got a timelapse of part of the rotation, but his phone ran out of battery before he got the full 360. It’s still a pretty cool video though!

We finished dinner at around 11 and drove to Tacoma to get a bit of a head start on our drive to Kalaloch. It was definitely a busy first day in Seattle! I’ll be back with the rest of our trip soon.

Jodie Byrne | Felicia Chang | Alice Che | Megan Cieloha | Kristin Dokoza | Stacey Haslem | Karen Jacot | Caroline Jensen | Kristin Ingalls | Kirsty Larmour | Lauren Mitchell | Meredith Novario | Kara Orwig | Kristen Ryan | Jessica Thomason | Julia Tulley |Ginger Unzueta | Elle Walker | Sarah Wilkerson | Emma Wood