We flew out on a Thursday evening, and Mal slept most of both flights (4 hours to San Francisco, 2 hours to Seattle). He was awake in the SF airport, which is probably the nicest airport I've ever visited. We had surprisingly great food, and it was clean and tech-friendly, with tons of outlets and places to sit with your computer (I wasn't packing, but I could appreciate it).
We loved Virgin Air. Each seat has a screen, and we could watch channels or movies or see where we were on Google Maps. I didn't rent headphones, so my favorite channel was GoPro. Also, it got as cold as -87 outside of the plane when we were at 36kish feet! Daphne bought a day's worth of internet so she could message her earthbound friends during the long journey.
This was my favorite video:
Our Town Car wasn't waiting for us at the Seattle airport, so the hotel (through whom we booked the car, even though it's not their drivers) reimbursed us for taking a taxi... so that saved us about $45 right off the bat!
We had a bottom floor room with a view of Elliott Bay, partially obstructed by a cruise terminal. No ships came or went while we were there, which is a bummer, but we got to hear lots of gull calls and ferry horns and loved looking outside.
Oh! Because we needed a lot of diapers and every checked bag costs, I had planned to have diapers shipped from Amazon. They're part of Prime Pantry and it costs $5.99 to ship, but the diapers took up only about 20% of the box. So I bought almond milk, chocolate granola cereal, Nut Thins, Slim Jims, assorted Goldfish, mixed nuts, pumpkin seeds, apple sauce (banana and strawberry) in pouches, sweet potato baby food, some rice puffs, fruit snacks, Diet Coke, and root beer.
Friday, we took the morning super easy. Mal woke up earliest, and I got a shower then took him down to the lobby so James and D could sleep a bit longer. We eventually made our way to Pike Place Market. Daphne was starting to get pretty hungry (James and I had been up longer and eaten some high-protein snacks), so we ducked into the first place we saw... Well, I saw. Buns in the window. It was a great Chinese restaurant, and we had the place to ourselves, even though they were doing a brisk delivery lunch while we were there.
We explored some more and found chocolate and cupcake shops. We bought chocolate and intended to go back later, but never made it. We spent some of the afternoon in our room -- which we did a lot; you know, infant and stuff -- and then went out to dinner at Marrakesh Mediterranean. It was delicious, and the server was so sweet to Mal, who was restless and then had a blow-out and eventually got fussy enough that I wrapped him in a blanket and carried him home while D and James finished dinner.
Saturday, we took the bus up to Green Lake, where James used to live. We overshot the stop for Beth's Cafe, where James used to eat breakfast (a place that is famous for their 12-egg omelet -- I saw it and it took up a whole pizza platter!), and ended up having to backtrack on foot. Well, luck would have it that we happened to stumble upon a Chocolati factory outlet. I'm not sure why those were rejects, but we got half price truffles! Most were $1.45!
We passed a store where everything was purple, and I was tempted... but the entrances on the street seemed to be locked; I guess you had to go in at the back, where there was parking. We finally made it to Beth's and had to wait outside about 15-20 minutes. The food was excellent, and it was a fun place! There was a table of two couples our waitress said must have been huffing before they came in because they were boisterous, crude, and ridiculous. However, it distracted from the fact that Mal was being noisy, so it didn't even bother me.
After lunch, we walked around about 1/3 of Green Lake and mingled with tons of locals. Mal slept the whole time, and Daphne counted dogs. So many dogs. Seattle seems like a very dog-friendly city. We got to see the dog park where James' pup used to play, too. Then we took the bus back home and chilled until dinner.
That night, we didn't want to walk too far, so we had dinner at the Bell Street Diner. Daphne used to love mac and cheese when she was a kid, and she got shrimp macaroni and cheese here. Looked fabulous! And we had a great view of the Ferris wheel from our table.
Sunday was the Super Bowl! We knew we wanted to watch it, and had been looking for a place to go that would be family-friendly. But Mal was the wild card, and I didn't want to have to leave early, so we'd decided to use our snacks and left-overs and have an in-room party. Actually, the restaurant in our hotel was listed in an online "family-friendly places to watch the Super Bowl" article, but it turned out that the restaurant itself closed at 3 and only the lounge was open for the game, and they don't allow anyone under 21.
For a morning event, we took a short walk to the Seattle Aquarium and spent a few hours there. Then we walked to Pike Place Market again for lunch. This time, we chose Lowell's and all had some fresh seafood of one type or another. D got clam chowder in a bread bowl, I had mixed seafood Louie, and James had fish tacos.
We loved watching the game, even though the last few minutes were dumb-founding! Daphne enjoyed being at the hotel and online for the whole afternoon, only looking up at the game every once in a while.
Monday morning, Daphne slept in and the rest of us took a rainy walk to Hook and Plow for breakfast. Then we all took advantage of the hotel's free shuttle and got a ride as far as the Space Needle (it was too cloudy all week to justify paying $20 to ascend it), from where we walked in the drizzle to EMP Museum next door. That was a blast! Everyone in our family actually participated and enjoyed it, which is saying something when you have a baby!
Daphne loved their Fantasy exhibits; Mal loved Sky Church with its two-story screen, and James liked the Star Wars costume special exhibit (as well as other stuff; he just spent the most time there). I loved it all, and, of course, hanging out with my family.
When we'd finished there, it was sunny for the only time we were in town. It was also windy and extremely chilly! Mal slept a long time in the museum and for most of the walk home. We passed Zulily headquarters, which made me fangirl a little bit, and weren't hungry enough to stop anywhere to eat.
Later that afternoon, we went to Paddy Coyne's, just two piers up from us, and I ordered two happy hour specials: sausage wrapped in puff pastry and their version of poutine, whatever it was called. Unfortunately, Mal didn't feel like sitting still. I walked outside with him and he was pleasant as all get out. go back to sit at the table, and he's squirm and scream. I told the others I was going back to the hotel and asked them to get my food to go. We had a beautiful walk home, getting to catch a sunset for the first and only time all week!
A few minutes later, my family followed. Rather than enjoying their meal at the restaurant, they got all of the food to go and we had a picnic. Love those people!
Tuesday, we took to public transportation again, heading up to James' favorite Mexican restaurant (after I spent the whole week telling him that a family from Austin was not going to do Mexican on our Northwest vacation; he'd put this on the "must see" list long before Mal was even born). Gordito's opened at 10:30 (12:30 to our bellies) and we'd planned it on the dot, but our bus was super fast!
When we arrived, it was raining, and we needed some zinc oxide for Mal (actually, we only thought we needed it; I had some in my purse that I didn't find until we were home), so we walked toward a drug store. On the way, we went into Top Ten Toys where, if getting home without checking luggage hadn't been an issue, we all could have spent way too much money.
By the time we browsed there and then got our diaper creme, Gordito's was open. I got a carrot, broccoli, and cauliflower burrito that was delicious! Daphne got a potato burrito, and James a spinach one. They have the word "healthy" in their name, but I think that portion size probably negates that. We all had left-overs.
Before we went all the way back to the hotel, we stopped to visit the Fremont Bridge Troll. Then it was back to our home base to pack, eat all of the left-overs, and rest up for an early morning.
This time, the Town Car was on site half an hour before we needed it, so we were able to take off in plenty of time to get to the airport. Mal is always pleasant in the mornings, and he did great. Our flight had been pushed back half an hour from when we initially purchased the tickets, and when I'd called to ask if our stopover meant we couldn't deplane, I was told that we'd have to stay on due to the short turnaround. I was dreading it! However, the flight crew stopped by to say hi to Mal after he woke up toward the end of the flight, and they told us we could get out and walk around. Daphne elected to stay on, so we went and got us all some lunch and discussed playing a trick on her where we wouldn't board until very late, just to make her a little nervous. We didn't; I'm not *that* mean.
Unfortunately, by this time, Mal had had enough of air travel. He didn't sleep on the flight at all, and he was mad about being restrained. Our saving grace was that the flight was not full. I was able to take up one whole row, letting him sit by himself, chew on the seat belts and arm rests (building immunity!), and crawl a bit. Also, the flight attendants let me stand in the back in their area (they were able to sit in the back row and watch TV since the flight was so empty), and Mal was great back there. He also liked the bathroom; he had fun putting his hands under the faucet. For some of the time, I sat him on the back of the seat in front of James, and I just stood in the aisle. Fortunately, most of the passengers around us had earphones or earbuds. I got a little stressed and cried a moment while James held Mal, and then about half an hour before landing, he finally decided to take a wee nap.
After that, the trek through the airport with my wearing him, the ride on the shuttle, and even the car ride home (we missed rush hour by about 20 minutes!) were fine. My sister and her son had been here to clean up after the cats; she even burned a vanilla candle, so it smelled nice.
We had a great trip. Very relaxing, as we were kind of forced to pause for Mal (actually, this would be D's preference, too... my inclination is to go go go go and keep going until collapse at bedtime!). Somewhat stressful, as traveling with an infant is bound to be. But great times together, and great teamwork, and I'm very glad that we went!
Now I'm looking forward to our next family vacation in a few months! No air travel, fortunately! Can't wait to hang out with these cool people again!
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