And now for part two of the West Coast foodie adventure recap: Seattle. Prior to this trip, I had  only visited Seattle for a hot second when I took a cruise to Alaska out of Seattle back in 2009. But aside from grabbing coffee and a quick walk through Pike’s Place Market in the early morning hours, I really didn’t have any time to explore or savor all that Seattle had to offer. So basically all of my knowledge of Seattle up until this trip was really based on the past 12 seasons of Grey’s Anatomy. #SeattleGrace4lyfe

So after we finished Indulging in Portland we rented a car and drove the straight shot up the highway from Portland to Seattle – literally, the GPS told us to take our next turn in like 120 miles or something crazy like that.

One great insider tip we got from a friend was the best parking in downtown Seattle is actually the Valet at the Nordstrom. It was the most reasonably priced at something like $18 max to park until 7pm, and definitely a safe bet as opposed to an outdoor lot. The first day we did some exploring of Pike’s Place market on our own to scope the area out and plan our next two days.

I had to take this picture of the fresh Brussel sprouts to send to my dad because he HATES Brussel sprouts.

We headed over to see the famous gum wall in the alley behind Pike’s Place. It’s really gross. But we had to take a selfie since everyone else was doing it. And clearly we needed to practice our selfie skills for the rest of the trip.

Then we headed up to our AirBnB in Mukilteo that one of my super nice coworkers let us borrow for a few days. And it was AMAZING. About a 30 minute drive from the city, we arrived in the most gorgeous lakeside neighborhood just in time to catch the most beautiful sunset from the back patio. It was nice to stay outside of the city and have more space to stretch out and relax than just a regular hotel room in the city. Not to mention this view that we could not get enough of.

We enjoyed lakeside charcuterie for dinner and then binge watched a little OJ vs. the People.

If you’ve ever vacationed with me (or worked with me, lived with me, met me, etc.) you know that I am the ultimate planner. I will schedule relaxation right into a cell on an excel-color coded itinerary. So we had gotten lots of great recommendations for the must-see foodie and tourist spots around the city and wanted to see as much as we could in our three days there. We booked a Savor Seattle Tour early on Tuesday morning, which kicked off right in Pike’s Place Market, and was a great way to experience tons of different food that Pike’s Place Market had to offer.

On our way downtown we stopped at Kerry Park which is supposed to have the best views of the city. Seattle is pretty much always cloudy, but still this was a very cool view of downtown Seattle from high up on the hill. I felt like Meredith Grey with this view.

We met our tour guide for the food tour right next to the famous gum wall. Our tour guide was fantastic and gave us some great history about the Farmer’s Market, how it’s changed over the years, and the back stories of all of the different food stands that we visited. Here’s the food highlights of where we got to sample fresh food on the tour:

Hot fresh donuts from Daily Dozen Donuts. 

Elleno’s Greek Yogurt. This was life changing. The first one we tried has passion fruit on top and this one was a Marionberry that changed my life for the better. You have not lived until you’ve tried this Greek Yogurt. It was better than Ice Cream. I mean it.

The curds and this mac and cheese from Beecher’s Handmade Cheese was amazing!

We then got a little history lesson about the original Starbucks (which actually burned down, so the one that people are waiting in line for isn’t REALLY the original).

In one of the food stalls was Chukar’s Cherries, and we got to sample a few different delicious flavors. I’m a big fan of all things chocolate covered cherry.

Then we headed over to Pike Place Chowder, where we had their award winning chowdah which has beat out many New England companies in summer chowder contests on the east coast!

We were definitely getting very full by this point, but stayed strong and continued to eat our way through the tour.

Next up was Piroshky Piroshky where we got to sample a sweet and a savory Russian pastry.

And we finally ended our delicious food tour at Etta’s Seafood with a delicious mini crabcake.

If you haven’t done a food tour before, I highly recommend it as a great way to sample all the great food options of Pike’s Place Market while also getting to learn some interesting history of the market over the years!

After the food tour, we stopped at Rachel’s Ginger Beer to sample some of the delicious drink and make our game plan for the rest of the day.

In an effort to get some steps in and burn off our full foodie morning, we walked along the water until we got to the Space Needle, which we went up in to check out the views.

Even on a cloudy day the views were beautiful. I felt like the King of the World! #neverletgojack

Space Needle selfie game strong.

On the way back to downtown, we made a little detour to Dahlia Bakery, per the recommendation of one of my new foodie friends. We picked out a few desserts to share for an afternoon snack, and I fell in love with this Peanut Butter and Jelly Sandwich Cookie. So much so that it was one of the first recipes I had to recreate when I got home.

It started to rain in the afternoon so we headed up to Ballard, per a recommendation from my friend Lindsay to browse the shops and check out some restaurants.

We stopped at Hot Cakes, which was this cute little cafe with all kinds of delicious chocolate treats. I tasted the s’mores hot chocolate with a smoked chocolate s’mores bar. Super indulgent and a strong smokey flavor, but definitely an interesting flavor treat. I didn’t realize it until afterward but my sister-in-law had gifted me some of Hot Cakes’ smoked chocolate chips last year which I used for these Smoked Chocolate Chip Cookies.

We then got in line for the 4pm opening of The Walrus and the Carpenter restaurant, which is infamous for their oysters. It’s a really small quaint restaurant that people line up outside to get in right when it opens. As you can imagine, we weren’t super hungry by the time we got here, but wanted to at least try some oysters, which were delicious.

Wednesday was our last day in Seattle, so after packing everything up in the morning we headed downtown to grab an early lunch before Katie headed out to meet her cousin, and Caitlin and I decided to catch a Seattle Mariner’s game. Skip hooked us up with great seats off Stubhub in the morning, so we were able to relax for a bit while enjoying the game. And of course, we made sure to get Caitlin her daily ice cream fix while at the park.

After meandering around the shops downtown the rest of the afternoon and grabbing a quick dinner, we headed to the airport to catch our red eye flight back to Boston. And we got a flight of reds before our red eye flight at Vino e Volo, my go-to spot at airports.

And six hours later, we woke up red-eyed to this beautiful view of South Boston when landing .

And that’s it! We managed to squeeze in a LOT of Seattle in just three short days, but really enjoyed everything. Even if we did come back with food babies from our travels. We definitely were not sleepless in Seattle. We savored every minute of it.