Bucket List #36 | The Pink Door

The last stop of my birthday tour was at a funky, fun Italian restaurant on Post Alley in Downtown Seattle. It's called "The Pink Door" and literally has no sign, just a pink door. You walk in and go down into the "underground" part of Seattle to an impeccably decorated bistro/hipster joint. It had live music and fantastic food.

The whole experience felt very Seattle-esque. It was a little funky, lots of hipsters hanging out, good music and lots of fun.

I LOVE going to fancy places where you need a reservation. I don't know why, it just makes me feel so cool. Like I'm in the "know."

We had a great time and I'm glad we were finally able to sneak away for a grownup meal downtown. We'll definitely have to do it again!

Bucket List #88 | The American Girl Store

Confession again...I have been to the American Girl Store. Dozens of times, in fact. I can't help it, the 9-year-old girl in me just squees inside whenever I see those pretty dolls. I was lucky enough to have my own Samantha doll and a "Girl of Today" growing up, and they were some of my most-prized possessions.

Anyway, when my sister came we decided it was time to splurge and take the girls to lunch at the American Girl Cafe! So I guess it's finally time to blog about it, also. :)

It was honestly so much fun. I loved taking my daughter into what I'm pretty sure Heaven looked like in my mind when I was a child. The food was actually pretty good and not that expensive, either!

This was the first time I let Zuzu walk around the store also, and she definitely showed some interest. :)

I kind of can't wait to get her a doll of her own. :)

Bucket List #91 | The Root Beer Store

This is one of those bucket listers that we've actually done before - but I haven't been on top of blogging everything. (hopefully that will change this year, it's a goal) When we went for a fun family outing in January, I insisted on pictures so that we could document it!

We didn't hear about The Root Beer Store (yes, that is actually what it's called) until after we moved here. Even then, we didn't know about it until we drove past it. Obviously, we were intrigued. What is this place? Do they legitimately only sell root beer and nothing else? How can they have a whole store devoted to root beer? So on the list it went.

They don't sell only root beer...but close. They also sell cream soda, and a few specialty drinks. They are legit. There are over 200 kinds of root beer in the store! We've been 3 times now, and have only tried a few. So far, my favorite is the on-tap root beer they have (told you it's legit) in a root beer float.

They also have some extras that have to do with root beer (root beer flavored candy, funny T-shirts, etc.) The employees are almost laughably knowledgable about their product, and the store occasionally has free tasting days where they set up samples of different kinds of root beer for you to try - like a wine tasting! I don't actually recommend going on those days though. The store is tiny - like, smaller than our very small apartment - and doesn't comfortably hold that many people. Plus, with the crowds they are sometimes out of some of their specialty stuff. We liked it a lot better on a non-event day.

Walt loves this place. (naturally, he's a root beer fanatic) It's not the most kid-friendly store ever (because no space to move around and lots of breakable glass) but the staff is nice about it.

It's safe to say that we will be going back. With friends.

Bucket List #22 & #100 | Pioneer Square & Arundel Books

Last month, Landon randomly had Veteran's Day off. I guess this must be a regular occurrence, but I wasn't expecting it. We realized it the night before, and decided to make the most of it with a day on the town!

 It was cold, but we headed to Pioneer Square for some exploring, and we were so glad. :)

 Pioneer Square is an older part of Seattle - underneath the streets here is where Seattle began. It has its own funky vibe...a little run down, lots of homeless people, tons of independent shops, and really its own brand of beauty.

It was maybe not the greatest place for kids, but we did find a few ways to keep our little guy occupied!

So coming back here!

While we were in the area, we hit up a store I've wanted to see for awhile - Arundel Books. There's really nothing special about this shop, it could have been any used/rare bookstore in Seattle, but it's the one I picked to check out. It's in this kind of cool underground section of the square.

 It's small, but they had some great finds and were actually super friendly to us with our family and all!

We enjoyed visiting a lot, and didn't leave empty-handed! We finished off our day with lunch at a local watering-hole. (we're still looking for something to fill the void that Paseo left...)

Who knew delicious BBQ existed in downtown Seattle?! It was really, really delicious (we tried the pulled pork and potato salad) and pretty reasonably priced (fed our little family for under $20, which is always a win). We'll be back, with friends. :)

Overall, we had a great day exploring a new part of Seattle. We'll rate Pioneer Square AND Arundel Books:

Not the most exciting thing we've done here, but totally worth the visit!

Bucket List #4 | Morsel

So, I created our bucket list before we moved to Seattle, and I added some restaurants to the list just based on what I found online. Over time, some of these have become places I really want to go, and others have become something I was sort of dreading. Being in grad school and all, we don't get to eat out very often, and I realized that I didn't want to waste money or a date night going somewhere that I'm not thrilled about. So, I'm making a few changes to our list, since now we're locals and can figure out the best places to eat! It's my list, I can do whatever I want. :)

Any-way...

Since having Isannah, one of things that has been killing us is that a babysitter is pretty much out of reach for us now. Babysitters are already crazy expensive in Seattle, and when you have two kids it just makes it worse. Plus, Zuzu is still so little that it's hard to leave her for very long. When Walt started preschool, I realized that I had a 2.5 hour window of time when I just had the baby, at least. So I asked Landon if he wanted to buy me breakfast. :)

We had a blast on our "sneak away" date. One of the BEST things about grad school is that Landon essentially sets his own schedule. Sure, he has one or two classes and occasional meetings, but other than that he can work when he wants to. And even though we had to bring the baby with us, it was refreshing to sit and talk to each other without constant interruptions about which Star Wars guy is the coolest. (Although we like those interruptions sometimes. :)) We've decided to make this a once-a-month kinda thing.

Morsel was a Yelp find, and I'm sold on the place. It's only open for breakfast and in the early afternoons. A short walk from campus, Morsel makes a-maz-ing breakfast sandwiches on homemade biscuits (Landon had buttermilk, I got cheddar chive) with eggs cooked to order. I highly recommend the "Spanish Fly." Also, the hot cocoa was pretty super. Did I mention that it's cheap? This place has it all. I actually can't wait to take people there when they come to visit!

We're giving Morsel:

If you're looking for breakfast in the U District, you can't beat it. Be aware that there is not much seating inside (it is pretty divey, so you have to like that kind of thing). We went in the late morning (10:30ish) on a weekday, and were able to snag a table, but I imagine earlier or on a Saturday it'd be tough. Still totally worth it!

#BurgenersGoToKingston

Over Labor Day, our good friend Laura came to the Seattle area and invited us to stay with her at a beach house in Kingston. Um, duh we said yes.

Walt is getting to be a pro at the ferry. :)

We were only there for two nights, but we saw everything: the beach (A whale! Landon says it was a sea lion but I am sticking with whale. It's more dramatic.), Point No Point Lighthouse, Port Gamble, and the famous J'Aime Les Crepes.

Oh. My. Amazing. I felt like I was back in Paris, only the crepes were better. We stayed for dessert.

Our trip was so epic we created our own Instagram hashtag - #burgenersgotokingston. :)

It was so nice to have a mini vacation, see Laura, take a break from life and hang out together! And friends, I think I am addicted to the beach. No more land-locked living for me. I was born for this sea-air stuff. I can't imagine this ever getting old...

The perfect end to such a full-filled summer! Thanks again, Laura!