Because things have been so busy these past few months, there has been an abundance of outfit posts and nothing else.  I think most of you frequent the blog to see fashion posts, so it isn't too big of a deal.  But I like posting all the other fun stuff I do or am into as well.

I finally found a decent slideshow-making site that I could use for all my Seattle Anniversary Trip updates.  I have way too many fun pictures to share to only include a few in each post.  While I plan on showing you my favorites from each day, there will also be a slideshow at the bottom with tons of extra photos for you to browse.

Our first day of vacation was mostly getting ready and driving to Seattle.  We only live about three or four hours away (depending on the driving conditions), but neither one of us is used to extended road trips.  As a kid, my family moved around a LOT, so we had to drive across the country on various occasions.  Plus, we would drive from Texas to Mississippi or South Carolina to Mississippi to visit grandmas and family at Thanksgiving.  I was used to super long road trips for pretty much all of my childhood.  But not anymore...lol

Anyway, about two hours in, our legs were all stiff and we needed to stop and stretch.  Lucky for us, there is an outlet mall about halfway to Seattle, so we stopped there to grab a bite to eat and walk around.  On our way to this outlet mall, I had this premonition that Sean would want to stop there and then suggest we go look around at the Coach outlet, knowing I wouldn't pass that up.  Then, while I was gleefully touching all the purses, he would say that he would buy me the one I wanted as an anniversary gift.  It was a fleeting thought that was reaching a little too far into fantasy world.  I wasn't expecting any lavish gifts because the trip was the main thing we were focused on for our anniversary present.  We arrived at the outlets and he asked if I wanted to look at the Coach store.  Remembering my daydream, I shook my head excitedly.  I thought, 'Oh my gosh! Did I actually have a premonition?!' So we go and look around in the store.  I kept waiting for the Oprah moment when he would tell me I could pick one.....but that didn't happen.  I swear I walked around the store at least seven times waiting for him to say something.  Finally, I told him we needed to get going and we left.  I kind of felt ashamed for being so excited or for even wanting to get a purse on top of the trip and stuff.

To finish the story, on our way back home we stopped to stretch our legs again at the outlet mall.  I told Sean he should look in the New Balance store because he mentioned needing some new shoes recently.  As he was taking off the pair he was going to buy, he asked if I wanted to go look in the Coach store again.  I said that I didn't really want to do that if I wasn't gonna buy anything.  He waited a few minutes and then said, "I think if you find something you like, we can get it for you."  *Insert Cheshire Cat grin*

Even though I didn't think the sparkly gold number that was marked way down on clearance would still be there after four days, we headed over to scope things out.  It was there!  I snatched it up, tried it on in the mirror a few times, and declared my interest in said purse to Sean.

After we left the store, I caved and told him of my wishful thinking daydream and how it had inadvertently come true.  We had a good laugh.





We made it to Seattle, got settled at the hotel, and walked to a Mexican restaurant my friend recommended to us.  Mama's Mexican Kitchen is Seattle's oldest Mexican restaurant, providing tasty food for thirty-eight years now.  The inside is a bit cramped and covered with tons of kitschy knick-knacks and Elvis memorabilia.   I believe I had the Elvis Burrito, which was carne asada with cheese, avocado, and beans.  It was a big burrito and oh so good!

We had already walked about four or five blocks to get to Mama's, so walking another seven didn't seem to be too far in getting to the Seattle Center.  It was a lovely evening with a breeze instead of chilly rain.  With happy bellies, we proceeded to our destination - Chihuly Garden and Glass. 

The Chihuly museum was gorgeous!  We were very excited to take a stroll through it and see all the amazing glass works.  My father-in-law worked with fused glass and loved Dale Chihuly, so we also felt like we were honoring my father-in-law's memory in a way.  We had such a fun evening there staring in awe at all of the exhibits.  If you are ever in Seattle, I highly recommend this above everything else.  Although we didn't see the gardens in the daylight, we were there at night with everything lit up.  It was just incredibly beautiful.  There are a couple of photo-op areas - in the exhibition hall and outside - where employees will take your photo and you can use the provided kiosk to email the photo to yourself for free.  Take advantage of this opportunity!  We loved having these photos available to us.

Below is just a sample of the artwork we saw, along with a slideshow of everything at the end of this post.  Enjoy!

In the "Northwest Room", there were many glass bowls inspired by Native American baskets.



The "Sea Life Room.  There were many sculpted works of octopus, eels, crabs, starfish, and urchins, as well as drawings of sea creatures.  



In the middle of the room stood this fifteen-foot-tall piece of swirling blue cylinders with sea creatures throughout.  It is GLASS.  It just blows me away.



Our first photo-op of the evening.  Sean and I at the "Mille Fiori" exhibit.  It means "a thousand flowers" in Italian and was inspired by Chihuly's mother's passion for gardening.




The "Ikebana and Float Boat" exhibit.  You all know how much I love color.  This was just an explosion of bright colors that I could not take my eyes off of.  I stood there staring at it all and taking pictures for at least ten minutes.



The "Macchia Forest" bowls were hard to photograph, but so beautiful in person.  The colors were so bright.  I also adored the contrasting edges of the bowls.  All the glass bowls I have seen in person have had edges consistent with the rest of the piece.  The contrasting edges just added an extra something that made them more exciting.



The Glasshouse is the centerpiece of Chihuly Garden and Glass.  The design of the Glasshouse is inspired from Chihuly's love of conservatories.  It is a 40-foot tall, glass and steel structure that covers 4,500 square feet.  The installation of warm-hued "flowers" is 100 feet long, one of Chihuly's largest suspended sculptures.  Pictures can't really do it justice.  It is amazing to see in person and especially looks magical at night.  This is another exhibit I could have just stared at for way longer than we had time for.




As I said, we didn't get to see the Garden in the day time (and I would recommend you see it both ways if you can), but it was a beautiful sight at night.  The pieces were all in groups of color throughout the garden.  It was really hard to get good photos with such little light, but I tried my darnedest.


I hope you enjoyed this recap and remind you that there are lots more photos in the slideshow.  Have any of you been to Chihuly Garden and Glass?