seattle, part 1

^^admiring the airplane he would take his first trip on^^

We woke up bright and early to catch an 8 am flight to Seattle. We could tell Blake was tuckered out because he slept on the first flight (in our arms, which never happens!) We opted to use public transportation instead of renting a car, so we took the Link Light Rail into the city. It was only about 30 minutes into downtown, and the stop was conveniently 1 block from Hotel Seattle, where we stayed that first night.

Pikes Place Market 

We dropped our bags off and then headed straight to Pikes Place Market to grab some lunch.  It was a fun market atmosphere with fresh seafood, beautiful (and cheap!) flowers, fresh produce that made me want to buy it all, pastries, and other fun shops. 

The Freemont Troll

My good friends, the Gibbs family, now live in Seattle, so Jen was kind enough to pick us up and take us around for the afternoon. Her children were so cute with Blake and it was fun to get out and see a few things we wouldn't normally have been able to do without a car. 

The Freemont Troll was one of them. Kind of random, but supposedly it is one of those touristy things to see and since the Gibbs had never seen it either, we took a detour. It is a giant troll sculpture under a bridge in Freemont, in case you couldn't tell from the photos. :)

Green Lake Park

Our final stop with the Gibbs was Green Lake. It was refreshing. I wish we could have had more time there! We played in the water and sand for a while and then let all the children play around on the playground. They dropped us off at the Space Needle, but I'll save that and the rest of Seattle for the next post.