Pacific Northwest Vacation: Day 1

Matthew and I were were scheduled to leave St. Kitts on Monday, August 22, at 3:20 p.m. to arrive in Seattle/Tacoma, WA, at 11:30 a.m. on Tuesday, August 23. Did this go as planned? Of course not! I don't seem to have much luck when it comes to arriving or leaving this crazy island. However, we did end up arriving in WA on Tuesday, but it was at 8:30 p.m. instead. So we really only lost part of a day. No big deal. A lot of our friends and other students were delayed for days, so I consider us pretty lucky. :(

Our friends/hosts, Heather and Corey, happily greeted us at the airport, and took us to their home. Wanting to celebrate our arrival, they started a bonfire---and that's where we began our vacation. Although it was past midnight our time, it was relaxing to gaze into the fire and feel the warmth on my face. After all, I wasn't on my little tropical island anymore; I was in the Pacific Northwest and it was much cooler! Plus it was nice to catch up with Heather and Corey and chat about the week ahead.

On Wednesday, Corey and Heather brought us to Tacoma, Washington. We stopped by a hip little coffee shop called, "Cutter's Point," for some coffee and breakfast. I chose a green tea smoothie and a veggie breakfast sandwich. Yummy! A few shops down from, "Cutter's Point," was, "Hello, Cupcake." It was a bit too early for sweets and considering that I had just eaten breakfast, I really didn't need a cupcake. BUT---I was on vacation. AND---I wasn't sure if we'd be able to stop by another cupcakery in the near future because of our busy vacay plans. So I took my chance and tried their Raspberry Lemonade cupcake. Matthew ordered the traditional Carrot Cake cupcake, and they. were. soooooo. yummy. In retrospect, perhaps I could have gotten them packaged up, "to go," but I guess I was just too excited. :)

After our indulgences in downtown Tacoma, we drove to Owen Beach at Point Defiance Park. On the way, we saw a great view of Narrow's Bridge. Owen Beach is really very pretty. It's definitely not a beach that I'm used to, but the water looked very serene and there was a beautiful view of Mt. Rainer in the background. It was also really clean, pet-friendly, and had several areas for families and friends to host cook-outs or parties. We spent the rest of our time walking up and down the beach, stopping to take pictures, admiring the views, and picking up sea shells.

When we left Owen Beach, we took a nice drive through the park, and it was almost shocking to see such huge beautiful trees again. Having spent almost nine months on the island, I was used to seeing lush tropical rain forests and palm trees. It was very enjoyable to experience a change of scenery. And driving around in Corey's convertible with the top down provided us with a very refreshing and sunshine-y morning/early afternoon.

We made a few pit stops at Target and TJ Maxx after Owen Beach, and then we headed back to Heather and Corey's house for lunch. Sometime later, we started getting ready for the second part of the day, and headed to Bellevue, WA. There, we stopped at Bellevue Square---a large shopping mall---where Matthew and I accidentally spent $75 on tea at Teavana. Oops! That retail sales person was gooooooooood. LOL.

After our jaunt at the mall, we walked around the city of Bellevue, which I absolutely loved. It's a smaller city than Seattle, but with big beautiful buildings, modern apartments, restaurants, parks, and shops. We stopped at the Tap House for dinner and treated ourselves to seafood.

It was a wonderful first full day in Washington! I'll be blogging about our other vacation days in the near future. Enjoy the pictures. :)

About to dig in!

Top down in the convertible to enjoy the sunshine. :)

Convertibles complicate things when it comes to hairstyles, but it was still fun. :)

Narrow's Bridge

Owen Beach @ Point Defiance in Tacoma, WA.

View of Mt. Rainier

Bellevue Towers