Seattle, Day Two

There are very few ways I'd rather wake up than in the Pacific Northwest with a cat on my lap--and that's exactly the way I woke up after my first night in Seattle. Layne's cat, Max, had decided that he needed to head up the welcoming committee, so he kept me company all night. 

After we got up and ready, Layne and I headed out to Pioneer Square, which is the oldest part of Seattle. We wandered into some shops, including a bookstore with collectible Steinbeck books(!), and heard a little bit of Seattle history from a local vintage shop owner. It's such a fantastic area, and you know I'm a sucker for buildings with vines growing on them. 

We had lunch at a little place called the London Plane, which doubles as a flower shop, and our table was perfectly positioned to look down over the kitchen. It was amazing to watch the dishes unfold into a sort of art right below us--and the food was tasty, too. 

 After lunch, we decided to take the ferry to Bainbridge Island, which was really one of the highlights of the whole trip for me (except the part where the sole of one of my shoes came halfway off and we had to try to find a store that sold superglue just to keep it together until I could change shoes......I mean, what's a vacation without a story about your shoe falling apart, amirite?). 

 Once we were on the island, we stumbled across the Pastiche, most amazing antique store. It was owned by a man named Denis, who immediately offered us tea in fancy teacups & saucers, gave us quartz crystals that his mother had collected, and insisted that we try on some vintage Yves Saint Laurent hats that he had recently acquired. We both left with some treasures, promising to visit again the next time we were on Bainbridge--a promise a totally intend on keeping. 

  After that, we headed to Tacos Chukis (OMG amazing--I am still having dreams about that food) for some tacos and took them to the park for dinner. The weather was perfect the whole time I was there, and I just wanted to be outside as much as possible. (I totally understand why PNW folks have a reputation for being "outdoorsy" because you just can't help it!) We stopped by an incredible used bookstore in Capitol Hill, Twice Sold Tales, which not only has resident cats, but also has their British History section arranged by time period.  These are my people, you guys. After that, we took our finds back to the apartment and hung out until it got really dark. Why? Because we had a couple stops to make: 

See? Seattle is basically heaven, day or night. Living there is definitely on the "someday" list.