First of all, we would like to thank you all for everything you have done and continue to do for us. Thank you to everyone who was able to come to our wedding and support us on the biggest day of our lives. We really had a wonderful time and enjoyed the dancing, laughter, and fellowship that came with the day.
We went to Seattle, Washington for our honeymoon. We stayed at the Alexis Hotel downtown. We spent Monday in and around the city. We saw the Fremont Troll, a Seattle mainstay, and drove around a little bit. We went to West Seattle, which offers a beautiful panoramic view of the city.
We drove up to Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada on Tuesday for the day. (It took a while to get used to seeing speed limit signs with kilometers per hour posted instead of miles per hour.) We went to Stanley Park, Lighthouse Park, and Whytecliff Park. Whytecliff Park was absolutely beautiful. We saw a wild harbor seal and were able to get about 5 feet away from it. We also saw and touched the Pacific Ocean, a first for both of us.
On Wednesday, we stayed in Seattle. We went to the downtown Harley-Davidson shop to get David a shirt to add to his ever-growing collection, then we went to the Seattle Art Museum. They had a wonderful traveling exhibit called Inspiring Impressionism. We saw paintings by Renoir, Degas, Manet, and Monet, just to name a few. There was a permanent piece called Some/One, which was an armor-like metal coat made from thousands of military dog tags. It shows the juxtaposition of the collective, a giant coat of armor, versus the individual, represented by each tiny dog tag. We then went to Pike Place Market and saw everything that you can possibly imagine, from salmon and Dungeness crab fresh from Puget Sound to fresh lavender to paintings done by local artisans. We walked through the entire market and then went to the Seattle Aquarium. We saw everything from brightly colored starfish to a giant octopus in one building, and birds, sea otters, and seals in another building. For dinner that night we went to Elliott's Oyster House on Pier 56 on the waterfront. The food was excellent and the service was great. Our meal ended up costing about $125 after tip, but that included drinks, appetizer, salad, and entree. We would definitely recommend Elliott's to anyone going to Seattle. After dinner we went to the original Starbucks at Pike Place Market, and then drove to Queen Anne, just north of Seattle to view the downtown skyline the way that it is shown on postcards (where the Space Needle looks like it is in the middle of the city, when in reality it is several blocks from the main area of downtown).
On Thursday we drove about two hours north of Seattle to Whidbey Island to see our friends Nick and Sherry. We had lunch with them and hung out with them for a little while. On the way to their house, we stopped at Deception Pass, which features a 180 foot tall bridge over water. After lunch, we headed to Anacortes, about 25 minutes away, to go whale watching. We went with Island Adventures, and spent nearly 5 hours on the water. It was Sarah's first time ever on a boat on open water, and she did quite well for a first-timer, especially when we hit the wake of another boat and started getting tossed around. We saw two Minke whales and three Orcas. We spent a little over an hour with the Orcas, and saw a Minke interacting directly with the Orcas. The captain of the boat said that he had never seen that kind of interaction until this summer. After whale watching, we went back to Nick and Sherry's and ate dinner and played board games. We ended up staying at their house until nearly 1 a.m. and then drove two hours back to Seattle.
On Friday, we went to Pike Place Market again. We bought a few paintings and just walked around a bit more. We went back to Queen Anne to take more pictures, but this time it was during the day, instead of at night like the first time, so our pictures come out much better. We then drove to the Seattle-Tacoma airport to pick up David's cousin Benjamin, who was returning home to Seattle after flying to Jacksonville to sing in our wedding. We went to dinner with him and then took him home. We drove from there to West Seattle again, then back to the hotel.
On Saturday, we returned our rental car and took a cab to the airport. We left Seattle at 12:30 p.m. PDT and didn't get into Jacksonville until 12:15 a.m. EDT. David's dad picked us up from the airport and drove us home, and we slept at David's parents' house until noon on Sunday.
All in all, we had a wonderful time on our honeymoon. A few useful tips to anyone who might want to travel to Seattle in the future:
1.) Work out before you go... Seattle is the second hilliest city in the United States behind San Francisco. The hills will wear you out if you aren't used to strenuous leg workouts.
2.) Stay at the Alexis Hotel... It is a beautiful artsy hotel located just a short walk from anywhere in the downtown Seattle area. It is a bit pricey, but so worth every penny.
3.) Island Adventures whale watching rocks... The captain and onboard naturalist mix education and whale watching with humor, and the boat is large enough that you don't feel cramped, even with a hundred other people on board.
4.) Give plenty of time for security at the airport when you leave... Security backs up a long way... we got in the shortest line and it still took us nearly half an hour to get through... the long line was taking over an hour.
5.) Have fun, and interact with the locals... People will tell you the best places to eat, the best things to see, and anything else they know about the city. One guy even made us reservations at a really nice restaurant. Unfortunately, we didn't get to go, but we will definitely make a point of going the next time we are in Seattle.
Thank you all again from the bottom of our hearts for everything! You all mean so much to us, and we can't wait to see you in the very near future. We will keep this blog updated, so keep checking for updates.
