Weekend in Seattle

Ah, a long weekend.
Life has been all together to busy lately, and we needed a little family time away from home. So we took the long weekend to stay at one of our favorite Seattle hotels and enjoy some of the sites of Seattle.

Checking into the Maxwell Hotel went smoothly and it wasn't long before we had eaten a couple mini pineapple cupcakes and were in our room.
Tonight was a bit disjointed as we did have a meeting to attend locally, but once that was over we enjoyed a casual dinner at Panera and relaxed into the room.

Relaxing in the room

Love the bedding here

This is our first stay at the Maxwell that didn't involve a Hot Chocolate Race...otherwise known as getting up way too early. So we were looking forward to the European style bedding and sleeping in til we woke up.

Our oldest had other plans... apparently he has become a morning person... why?
But his stirring woke me and then I needed coffee. We had the foresight to pick up some breakfasty foods from Panera the evening before. So as we each woke up... we had some food to tide us over til the rest of the day got going.

This was Valentine's Day - and we headed to the Pacific Science Center for some exhibits and an IMAX.

We thoroughly enjoyed the National Parks Imax... go see it if you are a fan of National parks, or enjoy a good road trip.
We lunched at the Science Center and we got to see the limited-time math exhibit. Which was cool, but very crowded.
I guess it's that whole Holiday Weekend thing.

Needle in the fog

We decided on a relaxed dinner at a pizza place within walking distance from the hotel and picked up dessert from a store on the walk back to the hotel.

Yum! 

We always travel with a Amazon FireTV stick and a Google Chromecast stick, So we were able to watch the Peanuts Movie in our room from Amazon.

It was a fun way to wrap up the day. And we hadn't seen it yet, so we were due.

Monday was check out day :( So sad. The early riser and I headed down to the coffee bar this morning and picked up some breakfast for everyone to nosh on in the room. After a leisurely morning and checking out we headed to the Seattle Aquarium. Ummmm..... apparently EVERYONE in Seattle decided to do this today too.
Besides the construction down by the waterfront, which totally messed with traffic, and any direct walking path to the aquarium... the line to get in was 30 mins long... in the rain.... with lots of grumpy people.... in the rain (did I say that?). But we got in.

The Great Wheel in the rain

OH! A happy surprise we discovered - it's museum month in Seattle. If you stay at a Seattle hotel this month you get half-off all museum admission this month - delightful! The discount wasn't enough to cover the cost of the hotel stay, but it was a nice perk.

So, back to the aquarium... on a crazy busy day. The big event today was the release of Rocky the octopus back to the wild. And we were able to watch along as he returned to the cold waters of Puget Sound.

Once we had covered the Aquarium and the gift shop, we found our way back to the car and headed home. With a stop for a late lunch at California Pizza Kitchen, our weekend escape was over... back to reality.

Thanks the Maxwell Hotel, known affectionately by our family as "the Pineapple", from this point forward. We needed the short but sweet getaway.