Girls Weekend In Seattle!

My sister and I are “almost-twins.” We were both born in June, 2 days apart, but 5 years apart. Being Gemini’s (the sign of the twin), despite the fact that I am 5 years older than her, we have an “almost-twin” type connection. One day in the fall of 2017, my sister called me up around 9:30 AM and asked what I would be doing on a particular day in March 2018. She cut herself off and giggled “or rather, I’m going to tell you what you are doing that day.” I laughed and replied that I had been planning on calling her about 30 minutes later (when tickets went on sale) and asking almost the exact same question, but for a date in August 2018.  Great minds think alike!

We both love Iliza Sleschinger and there was a show scheduled for Fort Collins that she wanted me to join her for. We also both love Ed Sheeran, and there was a show scheduled for Seattle that I wanted her to accompany me to. To each of us, it was a given that the other would attend, but it was kismet that the announcement of the plan was the EXACT same day, nearly down to the minute.

We decided to make the most of her trip to Seattle and pack in as much adventure as absolutely possible. This is one of the many things I love about her, she is willing to exhaust herself because we will never be closer to whatever exciting thing we can think of than we would be on that vacation.

To be cost effective and maximize our time together, she booked a one way flight into Seattle and the return flight out of Portland. We had a whole 3835 minutes together.

Friday, 1:00 AM

After work on Thursday, she drove down to Denver to catch the flight to Seattle, arriving a bit after midnight. I had left Eugene a little late and then my phone didn’t charge on the drive, so of course it died right as she was coordinating where I would pick her up. Needless to say, our reunion was a little later than intended.

3:30 AM

Then! We hurried up to Anacortes and car camped at Washington Park so that we could catch an early ferry over to Friday Harbor. I did my best to make car camping in the back of my Subaru Forester comfortable - I laid the backseat down and put in a memory foam mattress topper (that we keep on the RV for our guest bed) to soften it up a bit. Then I added layers and layers of blankets, some to be under us and some as covers to ensure we were thoroughly enveloped in warmth. The challenge - my Subi had the dog gate across the back, so we couldn’t roll over very easily and we had to position ourselves so that our hips were past the gate, even if that meant our legs were crunched up a bit. In reality, the 3 hours of sleep we got was about all we would have tolerated without removing the dog gate.

6:00 AM

Our original plan was to catch a 7:30-ish ferry to ensure we arrived in Friday Harbor in time for our sea kayaking tour, but we read the ferry schedule wrong and in the end, had to settle for a 9:00-ish ferry that would arrive just minutes before we were scheduled to meet the tour guide. Luckily, that allowed time to find a local coffee shop to help jump start our brains after only a few hours rest.

We Only look a tiny bit tired! 😴 

We met Ruby, a sweet little Basset Hound on the ferry.

10:30 AM

We arrived on time in Friday Harbor and after disembarking from the ferry, we easily found the Sea Quest Expeditions vans and our energetic tour guides. After a short drive over to a bay on the southwest side of the island, we were briefed with the basics of sea kayak operation and safety protocols. And then we were off!

This was a first for both my sister and I - we had been kayaking before, but on the very calm waters of Oxbow Bend just outside of Jackson Hole, WY in entry level kayaks many years ago. The sea kayaks were tandems, with the person in the stern controlling the rudder. My sister elected to ride up front, leaving me to master the rudder. It was harder than I expected, making sure I put equal focus on paddling as well as steering.

Friday Harbor ferry terminal & marina

But, true to our “almost-twin” nature, we found our stride rather quickly and were able to maintain our course rather well (avoiding collisions with others in the group) despite the wind and current working against us. Along the way, we were encouraged to taste kelp, saw river otters and harbor seals and harbor porpoises, and enjoyed a light lunch on driftwood logs in a small cove. The paddle home was much faster  as the current was going in our favor. What took probably an hour and a half to paddle out, was only about 15 minutes on the return trip.

My hope had been to not just see an orca in the wild, but to have one surface right next to us. I was both excited by the possible adrenaline rush and petrified by the idea of something so large bumping our tiny little kayak and dumping me straight into the frigid Puget Sound. While we didn’t see any orcas, the trip was incredible and I would gladly jump at the opportunity to go again.

5:00 PM

The tour dropped us off at Friday Harbor with time to spare before the next ferry departure. To fill the time, we stopped in at Cask & Schooner for dinner and then got a few scoops of ice cream from the Friday Harbor Ice Cream Company. We caught the 6:00 PM ferry back to Anacortes, and before the ferry even pulled away from the dock, I had fallen asleep.

7:30 PM

We were both exhausted, but we still had to drive back down to Seattle to check into our B&B near Pike Place Market. The time passed surprisingly quickly and we arrived around 10:00 PM, promptly passing out in our bed.

Saturday, 9:00 AM

The Pensione Nichols B&B host served a delicious & light breakfast of cantaloupe & pastries/toast that served well to energize our day. It was another long one. We started with meandering through Pike Place Market. If you haven’t been, Pike Place is a must see. But, maybe not on a Saturday on one of the last weekends of summer. For most of it, the crowds were so thick, we were just herded along like cows in a chute. We found more open corridors on the lower levels at the southern end of the market.

11:00 AM

After the market, we found our way over to the monorail and zipped over to the Space Needle. We were treated to songs from a Peruvian Pan-flute band while we sipped some Starbucks before circling the Space Needle and taking in the International Fountain. For lunch, we stopped in at the food court and indulged in kababs from Kabab Corner. Each food encounter over the entire weekend was fantastic!

2:00 PM

Instead of taking the monorail back, we walked over through the Olympic Sculpture Park and down the waterfront, back to the south end of Pike Place to grab a snack from Three Girls Bakery before returning to the B&B to rest and get ready for the whole purpose of the weekend - Ed Sheeran!!!

7:00 PM

We took the subway down to Century Link field and arrived right as Anne Marie took the stage, followed by Snow Patrol. The stadium was absolutely packed! I haven’t been to an extreme number of concerts, so in all fairness, my comparison pool is on the smaller end. BUT! Ed is a one man show. Just Ed, his guitar, and the looping machine. He constructs each song on stage right in front of your eyes… er… ears. It is mind-boggling to me how he keeps track of which part of the song is on which looping pedal. It was just… ahhhhmazing!

11:00 PM

At the end of the show, we waited in our seats for the crowds to clear out, and even then we still had to wade through masses of people. We walked to a subway stop farther away from the concert in an attempt to thin out the crowd. But no, we waited through 3 trains that were overflowing with concert goers before we headed back up to the street to catch an Uber back to the B&B.

Messing around between sets. 🤓

Sunday

The B&B breakfast was delicious again, happily filling us up before we hit the road for Portland. My sister’s flight wasn’t until the evening, so we had some time in Portland to stop for lunch and go shopping before I dropped her off at the airport. My sister is my go to person for run-yourself-ragged adventures! In all it was a fantastic, well spent weekend!

Ed’s stage setup was awesome! We had great seats, but i think everyone could see just fine feom anywhere in the stadium.