Seconds With Steff

After a very very long day, a thunderstorm ripped through Seattle like I’ve never heard in my entire life. There were long stretches in between thunderclaps but they were incredibly loud. I truly didn’t understand how Hunter slept through all of it. But he did. I woke after eight hours and Hunter after 11 hours. We definitely needed it.

Being well rested and ready to take on the day, we started by making our way back to Piroshky Piroshky and if there is a heaven, the food of the Gods will be the beef and onion Piroshky! It’s sincerely one of the best things I’ve ever eaten. Hunter got the apple ring again and was very very happy happy.

We ate with a super nice family from Florida on their way to an Alaskan cruise.

Then we quickly took a pic at the original Starbucks.

Afterwards we made our way back through the marketplace to see it first thing in the morning is completely different than during the height of the day. I watched the vendors set up their wares and thought how exhausting it must be to break everything down and pack every single night only to reset the next morning. But they were happily doing it, and I was happily wandering. And yes, the flowers were stunning!

Around 9:20 we made our way to the aquarium for our 9:30 reservation. Hunter has been talking about the aquarium since I started planning this trip, so I had dedicated two hours to fully explore. Anddddddddd after 30 minutes, we were done…

It was a nice aquarium, but small. They are budding an additional building, and their staff were throughout the space so you could constantly ask questions.

Now that we had all this extra time and Hunter was grumbling about how hungry he was and when we were going to eat lunch. I swear, I do not starve him! The only answer was Beechers. I was very excited because I really did want to go there and have their macaroni and cheese because it’s supposed to be the most amazing thing ever and let me tell you … it was good. Hunter got mac & cheese and I got cauliflower bisque which was infinitely better than the mac & cheese. As we ate at their small side bar, we watched the cheese being made. I kinda wanna go make cheese now as I watched all the curd rice to the top. Maybe that’ll be a winter weekend project.

Final impressions of Seattle are that it’s a really nice city… Fairly walkable. From what I can tell super LGBTQ+ friendly… there are pride flags everywhere. I dare say more than San Francisco. I was super impressed.

And speaking of San Fran, Seattle’s best kept secrets are all the hills…they give San Francisco a run for its money!

And then we were on our way to Mount Rainier.

You can plan as much as you want but then sometimes things just go a different way. I had planned to go in through Nisqually Entrance to get to Mount Rainier, but GPS showed 30 minutes faster to go in through Sunrise, so Hunter and I made our way through a different entrance seeing the completely different side than we ever thought we would prior. When we leave tomorrow, we leave through Nisqually, so we will do all the little hikes and trails that we wanted to do.

Because we came in a completely unexpected way, we had unexpected pull-offs and adventures, the first being The Box Canyon of Cowlitz where met five lovely women also on a road trip. We ran into them a few times. All the non-selfies of Hunter and I are thanks to them.

And then we saw her for the first and second time.

After some white knuckle driving, we finally arrived in Paradise! I will say that you know you are ascending a legit mountain when there are snow chain pull-offs!

Finally, we hiked. And I left my leggings in the car, so yes, I was in jeans. Let’s not discuss it…lol But what we saw was awe-inspiring. Just pure beauty. 

Dinner was at the Paradise Inn Dining Room, and honestly we were so hungry, I never got a pic, but Hunter got the roasted chicken and I got a burger. But then Hunter did something he never does! Dessert!

Vertullo Summary – Fish and real hiking