It’s rather impossible to do a recap on a vacation without talking your ear off and putting together a slide show of pictures. And nobody wants that. Trust me. Because eventually my Midwestern accent will show through and you will all just get up and leave.

In the last 5 days I’ve had at least two people guess roughly where I’m from based on my accent. Which makes me sad, because I swear I don’t have an accent. And I do not sound like anyone from Fargo {sorry to anyone from Fargo}.

Also, if you missed my big reveal yesterday, you should go read. Because it’s a good one.

Whoa, totally off track. Sorry.

Anyway, I won’t bore you all to tears with a minute-by-minute account of my trip. But I will highlight my best and worst moments. Because honestly, vacations aren’t all fun and games.

Best Seattle Moments

1. Having an entire day to explore the downtown area by myself. Which means shopping. Lots and lots of shopping. Purchases include one “Cat in the Hat” hat, bags of chicken feet and egg gummy candy, and a buttery soft purse {no, not the $150 purse I was tweeting about. Too rich for my blood}.
2. Waking up to an amazing view from the hotel room every morning. Water, boats, lights, moody clouds rolling in. Breathtaking.
3. Discovering the best mac and cheese* in the world. Seriously. I’m not exaggerating at all. And that’s saying something, considering that I come from Wisconsin. We know our cheese. Thanks to @mamachaplin for pointing me in the direction of Beecher’s Handmade Cheese. For this preggo lady who craves all things cheese, this is just what I needed. I would live in the shop if they let me. They won’t, I asked.
4. Stuffing myself full of the best chocolate in the world, Theo Chocolate. I’m so not exaggerating. Again. We walked out of the store with over $60 worth of chocolate. We also learned a lot of interesting things about chocolate, such as there is very little caffeine in chocolate. There’s something else {I can not for the life of me remember what it’s called} that causes your blood vessels to open up, giving you that caffeine high feeling. Which means my pregnant self can eat as much chocolate as I want without worrying about caffeine overdose.
5. Visiting all of our favorite restaurants from last time, including indulging twice at Serious Pie. I know I say this a lot, but this is the best pizza. In. The. World. I mean, where else can you get a pizza sprinkled in Dandelion greens or covered in Yukon gold potatoes? No where, that’s where.
6. Cupcakes. Freshly made, original flavors, lovingly handcrafted. Chocolate cheese cake. Red hot. Almond. Lemon. And those are just the few that we sampled. It took every ounce of self control {OK, and hubs telling me not to go back} to not try each and every kind in the shop. Yellow Leaf Cupcake Co., I love you.
7. Being able to just get up and go. Not on toddler time. Not to get to work. Not to because we have somewhere to be. Just because we want to go, at that moment, to do what we want to do.
8. Walking, walking, walking. I love to walk. I love not having to find a place to park. I love burning those extra calories that I consumed. Eating is the main this that we do when site seeing. Actually, it’s the only thing that we do. Also, having an iPhone which can get me back on track when I get all turned around is priceless. Priceless I tell you!
9. Warm temperatures. At least warmer. Yes I would pick the days of rain, gloom and doom over months of sunless skies, feet of snow and bitterly cold winds. Even though I’ve lived in Wisconsin all of my life, I don’t think I was actually meant to live here.
10. Coffee, coffee everywhere! I did not step foot into one Starbucks, although the opportunities were endless. And yet I indulged in a raspberry kiss mocha, caramel latte, cappuccino and good old black coffee. Don’t tell my doctor, but not all of the drinks were decaf.

Worst Seattle Moments

1. Being trapped on the light rail {Seattle’s awesome mass transportation from one end of the city to the other} halfway between the airport and Pikes Place because someone stepped in front of it. Yes he got hit. Yes he died. That was sad. I was trapped on the train with a crazy person ranting and raving the entire time. And smoking. I was actually a little nervous because this guy was so unpredictable. Thankfully he left without incident.
2. Trying where to decide where to eat each night. Because there were just too many places to pick from.
3. Having shin splints after one day of walking.
4. Remembering the little French pastry and coffee shop as much more awesome than it actually was.
5. Skipping a show at our favorite live music venue from last time. Because we were too tired to get cash and too tired to walk. And just too tired period. Or maybe that was just me. I seem to remember being in bed at 10 pm every night, while hubs stayed up well into the night. Well, I’ll just go ahead and blame it on pregnancy.
6. Due to clerical error {ahem…my husband} I had to get up at the crack of dawn to make my flight home. Which left me blurry-eyed and out of focus the rest of the day.
7. Not taking nearly enough photos. Like all of the yummy food I mentioned above, I have zero photos of it. Yet I have a bunch of blurry photos of Pike’s place. Hey, don’t judge, you try taking award winning photos on a gray and cloudy day.
8. The trip didn’t last long enough.
9. I missed the kiddo immensely {and yet enjoyed every second away}.
10. Coming back and having to go from zero responsibilities to single mom all in just a few hours. Tough transition for both me and the kiddo.

So that’s my recap. The story of the crazy person on the light rail does deserve it’s own post. On it’s own day. At a different time. For now, this will have to hold you over. Tomorrow, more pics. I promise. Or at least I’ll do my best, since I can’t seem to stay awake past 10PM anymore.

How was your week?

* Yes I tracked down the recipe for the best Mac and Cheese in the world. Yes I will be making it with homemade, local Wisconsin cheese. Yes I will share. You won’t be sorry.

This post is proudly linked up to Mondays: Mouthwatering Mondays, Made By You Monday, Mingle Monday, The Girl Creative Tuesdays: Tuesdays and the Table, Tempt My Tummy Tuesday, Tasty Tuesday, It's a Blog Party, Tip Junkie, Get Your Craft On Wednesdays: Show and Tell, Works for Me Wednesday, This Chick Cooks Thursdays: It's a Keeper Thursdays, Strut Your Stuff, Full Plate Thursdays, Chic & Crafty Party, Transformation Thursday Fridays: I'm Loving It, Foodie Friday, Simply Designing, Show and Tell Friday Saturdays: Sweets for a Saturday, Positively Splendid, Saturday Nite Special Sundays: Nifty Thrifty Sunday, Sundae Scoop Party

The Good, The Bad and the Cheesy is a post from: Alli 'n Son

While Dad-oo and I were gallivanting around Seattle, having the time of our lives, Eli had a little vaca of his own. He had the pleasure of spending 5 whole days with Grandma and Grandpa. I was a little worried about how he would do, he’s been pretty momma-dependent the last couple of weeks. But Eli tends to just go with the flow, and he adapted right into his new surroundings, snuggled in with Grandma for the long haul and made himself right at home. The pugs joined him too and I think that helped. It just wouldn’t be home without two crazy pugger dogs running around.

So what did they do during those 5 days? It would probably be shorter to list the things that they didn’t do! I think there are still one or two things on the list for next time, but they managed to do just about everything. (By the way, the first thing Grandma said to me as I walked in the door was to ask us to stay away longer next time!) Among the things they were able to check off there list included: visiting with friends, s’mores with friends, the local park, Cabela’s to see the fish, bunnies, and deer, the library, dinner with Great-grandma., lunch in the “forest” complete with little chairs and of course, don’t forget the yummy snacks: homemade cookies, chocolate pudding, ice cream popsicles, chocolate chip teddy grahams It wouldn’t be a grandma’s house without treats would it? Although I did hear Grandpa grumble from time to time that he never gets these special treats. We did have to remind he that chocolate pudding at 9:00 at night is not a great idea for a toddler. But I have to admit that a few days later, after we returned from Seattle, we took Eli out for custard at Kopps. Shhh, don’t tell Grandma!

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Eli’s Vaca with the G-Parents is a post from: Alli 'n Son