Seattle with the Gardners

While it may have been a week ago already, I wanted to share a few things about our week in Seattle with my new family! We arrived late, late (or is that early, early?) into Seattle on a Greyhound bus at 1:20AM PST. True to form, Dad Gardner volunteered to pick us up--even though it was 4:20AM according to his body clock. We all stayed in a room at the Holiday Inn. Ironically, the Holiday Inn Express next door offered a pool and hot tub, which were both unavailable to us. Elitists.

Sarah and I had a blast with our family. Mom Gardner had the foresight to purchase Go Seattle passes, which include admission to over 30 of the most popular attractions and museums in the Seattle area. Each day, Elizabeth crunched the numbers in a cost analysis that eventually determined that we broke even by the end of the week.

Some of our highlights were the Seafarers parade, Pike's Market, the original Starbucks, Boeing plant (including the largest building in the world measured by volume), Microsoft, Mount Rainier, the Seattle Monorail, Underground Seattle, Deception Pass, Riding the Ducks, visiting the Experience Music Project, and eating at a TON of delicious restaurants! Here are a few pictures, but you can see all our pictures here.

Enjoying candy from the parade

Us with the Pugent Sound behind.

A picture at Deception Pass.

A view of Seattle from our Ride the Ducks boat.

After a mini snowball fight on Mount Rainier.

This was my first time vacationing with the Gardners, but Sarah was rather surprised that we did so much! Since Elizabeth, Hannah, and parents had been working hard closing up their life in New Castle, PA as they moved to Blackburg, VA, she had forecasted a slow, laid-back week. Instead, they were up and at 'em! While we did spend time catching up on sleep, we explored a great deal of Seattle!

That week put a resounding exclamation point on our July trip to the pacific northwest. What a vacation!