May Long: Every Girl’s Guide to an Epic Weekend in Seattle, Washington

 

The skyline is etched in my veins. You can never put that out, 

 

no matter how hard it rains.

 

 

 

Macklemore

 

 

 

 

Have you ever had the pleasure of visiting Seattle Washington? 

 

 

 

It is a beautiful city. I have always had a “thing” for Seattle… I  mean I was a teenage in the ’90’s 🙂  Singles, Sleepless in Seattle, the Real World Seattle, Nirvana, Pearl Jam and the the whole grunge scene, Coffee and Starbucks, Twilight, even Jason Mesnick (LOL).
When my Sister got engaged in late 2011, my Mom and I KNEW we had to plan something epic to celebrate! We decided to plan the best damn girl’s weekend that we could! We would do all the things my Sister liked and stick to her vintage wedding theme.
The 3 of us had never had a Ladies weekend. I know other people do it often… and I honestly think that it is something everyone should do. Life is short. Have a weekend away with the girls! Or the boys! Or your family! Or yourself! Just do it!
We decided our destination would be Seattle and we would surprise her for the May Long Weekend 2012… 2 months before the BIG day!
 

Of course I did my research. I started in the most trustworthy spot you can when planning a holiday, TripAdvisor  I read all the reviews, I read all of the tips and I looked at all of the pictures. I also read blogs. They are accounts of people’s personal views on hotels, attractions and restaurants. I googled girls weekend in Seattle. Once I found a whole list of activities I went online and read reviews of each of them. I also looked at a map. We only had the weekend so I didn’t want to spend our time driving around I wanted to keep our activities close to our hotel.

 
Mom and I drove out on the Friday. We live just North of the border, about a 5 hour drive 🙂 Like I said I had never gone on a road trip with just my Mom before. OMG tears roll down my face just thinking about the hilarity of that day! 
 
My Mom had NO idea that I cannot read a map. 
 
At. All.
 
Like, not even a little bit. When someone asks me which way North is… I point up! I remember us driving and her asking if we should take the next exit and me being quiet for a long time. She was like “Hello? Next exit?” and I was turning the map around and upside down until finally I said in defeat, “ummm I think the lake is supposed to be on that side.” She actually took the map out of my hands, while driving and rolled it up and smacked me over the head with it! LOL At that moment we realized we could NEVER go on the Amazing Race together! LOL
 
We stopped at this little diner called Durn Good, BAHAHA!
 

 

We ordered a medium soda to go and almost pissed ourselves when this honking huge pop came!! It was bigger than Mom’s head! LOL. Obesity in America? I wonder why?!?!?!
 
Driving to the airport was funny too! I got us into the middle of the city, the industrial area, by following the planes in the air! When we hit a dead end in what appeared to be a massive construction apocalypse, I believe that Mom would have kicked me out of the car if she wasn’t laughing so hard! She kept on asking what I learned in University and how such a smart person could be so fucking stupid! LOL When we got to the airport (finally) we were so excited to see Sis! She had no idea what was going on! We had given her husband-to-be a list of items she would need and told him to drive her to the airport and give her a ticket and that’s it!
 
Would you have got on the plane with little to no info?
 
I would have! For sure!
 
My Sister… not so much LOL
 
She actually almost got kicked off her flight before she got on! First, she cried until he told her where she was going and then when customs asked her where she was staying… she couldn’t just say I don’t know, the Super 8, NO, she had to say “I have no idea where I’m going or even what is in my bag! I’m supposed to just get on the plane!” 
 
She had to call my BIL and get the hotel name and everything! What a freak-a-bean!!! LOL 
 
She is NOT easily surpiseable, let me tell you!
 
When we finally saw her coming down the escalators, our weekend truly began!
 
I had picked a beautiful boutique hotel in downtown Seattle, MarQueen Hotel. My Sister’s wedding was going to be a vintage chic wedding so I really tried to stick with that theme. It was gorgeous! 
 
Of course I asked for 2 beds when we booked but we ended up getting 1 bed and a pullout lol. They changed us the next night but that first night on the pullout while feeling more like 8 months pregnant as opposed to the 3 months pregnant I actually was, made it… interesting 😉 Not to mention that my Mom was a snorer. Like I thought Mt St Helen’s was erupting in the middle of the night, snorer. By 5am I was caught standing over her with a pillow debating the best course of action LOL.
 
Our 1st night,
Our 2nd night,
 

As it was dinner time, we had made reservations at The Melting Pot. It was just down a block from our hotel so it was a nice walk. The food was delicious! My Sis is a huge fondue fan!

 

 

 

After dinner we walked a block the other way and had drinks and a fabulous time at, Keys On Main! The duelling pianists were fantastic and they took requests. Mom requested Crazy Little Thing Called Love… that was actually the song my Sis and BIL ended up doing the jive to for their wedding dance!

The next morning I had planned something super special! However… I was the direction giver because I didn’t want my Sis to know what we were doing! 


LOL It is a good thing we left early because we ended up on the wrong side of the tracks! Literally lol and we couldn’t even go into a gas station to ask because nobody we met/saw spoke English! We kept driving around this area that looked like the Projects of New Jack City until we finally saw a police car. Mom got out and asked directions LOL. Seriously I am the WORST navigator, EVER! After that my Sis grabbed all my Google map printouts and took charge 🙂

We finally arrived at our destination! A Turkish Spa called, Banya 5. Ah-Mazing! I had been to spas before but nothing prepared me for this. I had arranged for each of us to get 2 treatments. Mom and I started with mud wraps. OMG. It was Heaven on Earth! We were rubbed down with warm mineral mud containing kaolin clay, lavender, rose, peppermint and sage all over our bodies and then wrapped like Mummies in muslin while they washed our hair with rosemary and massaged our feet with honey. While we relaxed they gave us facials with rose water and then bathed all the glorious mud off us while we laid there. I have never been bathed before. Everyone NEEDS to be bathed by steaming hot water while you LAY on a table with beautiful scents all around you. 

While we were being wrapped, my Sis was getting a Supreme facial!

Next my Mom and Sis had a scrub. A full body honey application with a full body exfoliation, plus an ultra-relaxing head and scalp treatment.The scrub was made of sea salts, local clover honey and ultra hydrating cocoa butter. They were washed, exfoliated, massaged and cleansed!

While they were scrubbed I was having a blissful pregnancy massage! 

After our treatments we were able to use the baths. I of course couldn’t because of my pregnancy and my Sis chickened out lol but Mom… she took the plunge! She did the salt water tepid pool, the cold plunge pool and the hot pool!

Next we went for lunch! Of course Mom and I live in a small town and couldn’t for the life of us figure out the credit card parking meters! LOL My Sister, the big-city girl once again took charge 🙂
 

We had lunch at this awesome Thai place… and Mom the adventurous eater that she was, chose honey garlic chicken wings! HAHAHAHA

We then adventured around Pioneer Square. I chose Banya because it was close to this area. It was listed as a place to see in so many of my researched blogs and lists and it truly was  beautiful historic area! My Sis even found her GORGEOUS bridal shower dress there! Of course it was a little out of her price range lol but we talked her into it anyways, and I am so glad because she looked beautiful in it… all $250 of it! BAHAHAHA

 

That evening Mom and I had planned a night out at the dinner theatre, Teatro ZinZanni! Best. Dinner. Theatre. Ever. We had reserved a fabulous table right on the edge of all the action. We had purchased a celebration package that was waiting for us at our table. It included hats, sunglasses, chocolate and necklaces. The show we saw was about a hot tamale circus! It was funny and entertaining and all of the acrobats/actors/singers/performers were supremely talented! The service was the BEST, they nicknamed us the Triplets LOL and the 5 course dinner was 5 stars! It was a night of laughter and love!

 

The next morning we got up early and headed to Pike Place Market. I knew that was a must see but I didn’t want to miss anything so we had booked a Savor Seattle Food Tours. I would recommend this tour to anyone! We wore headsets and the hilarious tour guide recounted history, stories, myths, legends, and facts to us all morning long. He took us to 16 of the best market vendors and allowed us to taste test the best of what the best had to offer! We tried, doughnuts, cherry salsa, chowder, mac and cheese, Piroshky-Piroshky, crab cakes, candied salmon, and other tasty treats! We had beautiful weather all weekend and the Market was truly amazing and worth all of the flattering reviews that I had read in my research. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After eating all morning we tried to burn some calories while shopping in Downtown Seattle! Mom was a real trooper through all of this. Her MS didn’t let her walk that much, especially up and down all the hills that make up Seattle, but she never complained and she kept up to us all weekend long!

Mom was sooooo excited to use an IPhone to pay at Nordstrom’s lol The idea that you didn’t have to get in line at a cashier but just slid your card with any worker that happened to be around, was EVERYTHING to her! LOL
 

We did well… 🙂

For dinner I had planned on a REAL restaurant. Like one that was known for their culinary expertise. I chose The Purple Cafe & Wine Bar. It was unreal. There was an actual tower of wine in the middle of the restaurant! They used ropes and a pulley system to get the bottle you ordered down! Coolio! Of course being pregnant, I couldn’t try any of the wine 🙁 But they did have a nice pinot noir grape juice that even came in a nice big wine glass, so I didn’t feel too left out lol. We were actually still so full from the Market that morning that we ate VERY little lol. I am still a bit bummed that we didn’t try all the delicious menu offerings, but I am happy that we had restraint and didn’t waste what little money we had left after shopping all day 🙂

 

 

 

 

The next morning we packed up and drove home. Of course we stopped at the Bellingham outlet malls along the way 😉
 
My BIL had driven to our place while we were away and he was waiting to hear all about it when we got back!
 
I hope everyone enjoyed their 2016 May Long Weekend, despite the rain, the snow and the head colds that some of us had 🙁 Mine was quiet and cold but it is nice to have warm memories of long weekends past to keep me warm 🙂
 
Our trip to Seattle was the BEST May Long Weekend I have ever had. I am so happy that we did it! It was the perfect introduction to an amazing city, an Epic experience to celebrate my Sister’s wedding and it will go down in my memory as one of the greatest adventures the 3 of us ever had together. 
 

 

I really cherish the memories I have of my trips. 

 

For some reason, when you travel, it’s like your mind picks up on the fact that this is something uncharacteristic, 

 

so it tunes in more 

 

acutely and remembers better. 
Jennette McCurdy

 

0 thoughts on “May Long: Every Girl’s Guide to an Epic Weekend in Seattle, Washington”

  1. Thanks for reading! She was a wonderful woman that was full of life! We miss her so much but continue to live life with laughter as she would want it 🙂 She left us all with a lifetime of love and memories and we can only hope to do the same for our children. Next month we are planning something special for her anniversary (as we do every year) stay tuned to read all about it!

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