Oh, sweet Seattle...

i had an amazing weekend.

One of my very best friends is going to school in Seattle, so I got to go visit her and see all of the sights. I fell in love with the city.

::friday::
Friday morning was spent full of good conversations and good coffee. We were in Seattle, we had to. We walked around a big lake and talked about life, our men, memories, faith, future stuff...

Seattle has a bunch of cute "towns" around the big city. Em lives in Wallingford. Her boyfriend lives in Ballard. The really expensive boutiques are in Fremont. We window shopped because quite frankly, a $300 shirt is ridiculous.

Fremont also has a great little chocolate factory called Theo Chocolate. Yum. It's organic, pure, creative chocolate (Chai Chocolate... Bread & Chocolate... Coconut Curry Chocolate...). I was a kid in a candy shop... literally... walking around, sampling the different flavors. I brought some home for my mom.

After browsing shops, we met up with Emily's boyfriend for lunch. Best sandwich ever... We ate on the beach and enjoyed the Seattle sunshine (I know, crazy!). Matt dropped his sandwich in the sand. A little dog came and ate the lettuce - its owner wasn't amused. Emily knows all of the fun parks, so we walked around an old park called Gas Works. She also showed me a huge troll. Yes, a troll under a bridge.

On Friday night, we headed downtown and met up with a guy I worked with at camp, Barrett Caldwell. Barrett is a southern boy working for the Coast Guard and living smack dab on 1st Avenue. It was fun to meet his roommates and to reminisce about a summer up in the mountains.

::saturday::
After a lazy morning, Emily and I headed to the University Village -- near the University of Washington -- to go to Anthropologie and H&M. I got a fun gray coat!

After the U Village, we went downtown to go to Pike Place Market. I would love living in a city with a fun open-aired market like this one. I couldn't help but soak in all of the different things there were to see... I was such a tourist, taking pictures, not watching where I was walking. It was great. I wish I lived in a place with a market. It's such a neat thing to be able to go there and grab everything. In fact, it's kind of a lifestyle -- one that's appealing to me.

On Saturday night, we headed to a little restaurant in Ballard called The Root Table. Wow, that was a neat place to eat dinner! All of the tables were roots (hence the name) and you sat on stumps. The atmosphere was artsy, laid back, and exotic. After dinner, I got to catch up with my 2nd cousin, Rebekah. I hadn't seen her since 2005 so we had much needed time together.

::sunday::
After church and eating lunch at the Ballard Farmer's Market, I headed home. A great weekend!

I took a ton of pictures...

walking around green lake with coffee in hand and best friend at side...

modern day willy wonka... organic and fair trade... and delicious

on the menu for lunch on friday... amazingness in sandwich form

our picnic spot. really? could it get any better?

great friend

yep, a giant troll

looking down troll street (avenue? lane? i don't know)

the needle

i love the fact that there's water all over the place out there!

downtown. and boats. awesome.

barrett & his football trophy from earlier that day.
you know what they say about the camp t family...

barrett's roommate, adam. a good ol' southern boy with his clemson hat and banjo...

seattle-style serenade.

::the market::

i brought some pasta home with $5 i found on the ground...

i'm working on that coffee drinking goal.

one of these things is not like the other...

great little restaurant with wooden menus.

this is my "i see you every five years" cousin... we should fix that problem.

ballard farmers market quesadillas

washington apples!

I'll be booking another ticket again soon.