"The Emerald City"

In The Wizard of Oz, young Dorothy diligently seeks refuge in "The Emerald City". During her search, she wears nothing but a thin blue & white checkered dress and sparkly red ruby slippers. Obviously, she wasn't going to the real "Emerald City". If she were, she would have been wearing her warmest winter coat, fuzzy fur gloves and knee-high galoshes. I have no idea why Seattle is nick-named "The Emerald City", but what I do know is that it is a super exciting, fun and interesting place to visit...despite the bone chilling wet & cold.

This was Justin's 5th trip to Seattle...and my 2nd. I'm sure I could visit the city a thousand times and still find new things to do and see! We arrived Wednesday afternoon, and met up with our old comrades, Craig & Jaime B., who we've known since our glory days at BYU & UTHSCSA Dental School. After a carbacious dinner at the Olive Garden, we picked up a third dentist friend and we all headed to west Seattle to our very accommodating (a.k.a modern, awesome, huge, spacious & spectacular) VRBO rental house...






Friday morning, we woke early and dropped the doctors off at their CE course downtown, and then Jaime & I went to the absolutely amazing Nouveau Bakery for flaky, mouth watering goodness that set us up perfectly for the next three days of culinary indulgence...


After breakfast, we drove north to Everett, Washington, where we met up with a second Jaime (my bff & old roomie from the college formerly known as Ricks), and her friend Keely, for a three hour whale watching excursion on the Puget Sound. It was really cool...in more ways than one. We got up close and personal with "Patch" the gray whale, and then warmed up with some hot chocolate & chowder at Anthony's.






The dental CE course ended at 5pm, so after a short tour through the Everett Mall, we said goodbye to Jaime S. & Keely and headed back to Seattle. We picked up the guys and cruised down to Pike Place Market for fresh produce, fresh seafood, and lots & lots of people-watching.




Friday started early again, dropping the guys off at class, and then wandering down to Pike Place and stumbling upon the most delicious Russian bakery where I began a long and lasting relationship with the Moscow Roll. Wow. So, so, yummy.

A little later, Jaime and I embarked on the Seattle Underground tour. This was the same tour I took two years ago, on my last trip to Seattle and I liked it so much, I insisted we do it again! Such fun history lingers deep in the bowels of The Emerald City...

After walking & walking up and down the hilly streets of Seattle, we came to The Yellow Leaf gourmet cupcake bakery. Wow. More incredible yumminess to be had! We only meant to try a couple, but couldn't decide on which flavors, so we settled on half a dozen delicious cupcakes. Each was so indulgently tasty! Definitely worth the walk!!!


Friday night, after the guys got done with class, we went out on their instructor, Dr. Kois', impressive private yacht for dinner and sunset views of the Seattle skyline.




Saturday began with Jaime & I deciding to sleep in and let the guys drive themselves to class for a change. Then we took a leisurely stroll down to the shore of the Puget Sound, just down the road from the rental house.

We caught a bus to downtown Seattle, and did some shopping. Jaime bought a cute new purse and I snagged a deal on a new swimsuit...just in time for our family beach trip next week! We stopped by Piroshky, Piroshky again for another Moscow roll, and then walked to the Mayflower Park Hotel for our two hour Chocolate Indulgence Tour where we walked to several local candy shops & bakeries, sampling every variety of culinary goodness that Seattle has to offer!!!














After a light lunch, Jaime & I boarded the monorail and rode across the city to see the Space Needle.

We met up with the dentists and then spent our last night in Seattle at Ruth's Chris Steak House. The sweet potato casserole was a-maz-ing!!!

We flew home early Sunday morning, with so many more things left to do and see, we definitely need to go back soon!!!