18 years!

 

I really want to talk about this weight loss challenge that I am doing, that is awesome, but first things first.  Sunday July 13th, 2014, Shad and I celebrated our 18th anniversary!  We took a long weekend and headed up north to Seattle.  It was 90 degrees and clear blue sky the entire weekend with a lovely cool breeze off of the water that made the heat quite bearable.

Friday night we had our fancy dinner in Bellevue, where our hotel was.  Did you know it is really expensive to stay in Seattle (if you don’t want to do a motel)?  So my sister got us a family discount at a hotel in Bellevue.

 

When I was making the reservation for our dinner, I noticed a spot for comments, so I just added a note that we would be celebration our anniversary.  When we sat down at the restaurant, we noticed the top of our menu…do you see it??  That was so special!  They even gave us a complimentary chocolate lava cake alamode for dessert!  We had wonderful food and great conversation as we reminisced about how much our lives have changed and grown since out wedding day.  We both agreed that kids were, by far, the hugest thing that has altered our lives.  In a very good way.  Challenging, but so, so good!

Saturday, we started the morning with a 3 mile run.  It was a tough one for me because at 9 in the morning it was already really hot!  Next we headed over to Seattle to do some exploring.  After walking and walking and searching, we finally found Pike Place Chowder.  Next we waited in what seemed like a mile long line, but it only ended up taking about 25 minutes before we were seated at a table to enjoy our lunch!

Ya, pure deliciousness, right there.  Buttery, creamy chowder filled with potatoes and fresh clams served in a fresh, soft, chewy sour dough bread bowl.  I may or may not have had to get a knife and fork to enjoy a few several bites of the bowl itself.  Shad will probably tell you that I said, “ok this is my last bite” about 6 times.  Shad had a combo that came with a small clam chowder and half of a crab roll.  He was as enamored with the crab roll as I was with my bread bowl.  If you go there, DO NOT let the line scare you!  Wait!  It is TOTALLY worth the wait!

After lunch and weaving our way through the sea of people at Pike’s Place Market, we walked over the the pier to explore.  Our intention was to check out the Ferris wheel that goes out over the water.  Once there, Shad broke it to me that he was not really interested and thought it was kind of lame.  That was the part where I sighed and thanked him because I was not really interested because I was deathly afraid of going that high in the air in a tiny, climate controlled, box.

But it sure was pretty to look at.

Next we headed up the street to find the underground city tour.  We got distracted and took a one hour ferry ride around Elliott Bay.  It was very relaxing and a great time to take pictures.  It was really fun to see the cityscape from the water.

After the ferry ride, we finally made the rest of the walk to the underground tour place.  The tour took an hour and was quite interesting.  They were, however, quite enamored with the story of the lady that ran the brothel and felt that they really needed to highlight the story.  They were pretty good at keeping it PG-13ish by using sly innuendos, but we weren’t super impressed with that part.  I feel like the tour is one of those “been there, done that” kind of things.

To end the Seattle day, we had to have dinner.  We settled at Ivar’s where their slogan is “acres of clams”.  When a restaurant has a claim to fame, I find it is necessary to try that claim to fame because, odds are, it’s going to be good.  I had the fried clams and chips.  Candy, pure candy.  I am not talking about those clam strips you get at other sea food restaurants.  I am talking about clams, fresh from the sea, breaded and fried.  So, so, so tasty.  Shad got the snow crab legs.  Again. so delicious.  It was another wonderful dinner with excellent food and super conversation.  We got to sit by the windows and enjoy the view of the bay while we ate.  Great place!

Just a side note: as you know, a hot day in Seattle is not the norm, so we found that most places down by the bay did not have A/C.  That included Ivar’s.  It was still totally worth it and once we were seated by the windows they opened a door so we could enjoy the cool ocean breeze.

Shad and I had a wonderful weekend celebrating our marriage and all of the ways God has grown us as individuals and as a couple.  Happy 18 years to my husband!

Love,

Rebekah