Mini-Vacation

I'm listening to Annika snore (again), only this time it is the morning of our last day of official vacation.  We have had a great time.  It has been more entertaining that I thought it would be..showing Annika downtown Seattle for the first time has been a kick. 

She has been in Seattle many times.  After all it is probably my favorite city to spend a quick weekend at.  After all, it is where all my favorite extended family reside.  And after all, it is where Josh attends college (and where Kirsten will be attending college as well).  We have taken the kids to the waterfront, to Pike's Place Market, to the Seattle Art Museum, to Pioneer Square and many other sites, but Annika has never stayed DOWNTOWN Seattle. 



Downtown is a nostalgic place for me.  My first grown-up job was in the midst of the city, 6th and University.  Every morning I would drive from my apartment on West Queen Anne, to my co-worker's apartment on Lower Queen Anne and we would walk from there to our office.  My lunch hours were filled with time hoofing it around that downtown grid.  I loved to frequent Nordstrom and use my beloved credit card with the $300 limit.  You have to understand that I was 18 when I first started working downtown and my starting salary as a law firm receptionist was $850/month.  I shared a one-room apartment with a college friend and we paid the exorbitant rent of $325/month.  I LOVED that time.  I felt so 'adult'.  So to be able to spend a few days downtown showing Annika the center of the city has been a kick.

We splurged a bit.  After all the justification was that Josh is currently living it up in Paris and Dean and Kirsten are in London.  We booked a room at the Hyatt at Olive 8.  Luckily we scored a really nice room rate.  We had tried other hotels, but Annika needs to swim as part of her therapy, so our options were narrowed down a bit.  Upon our check-in, we were greeted with this beautiful lobby:

Annika was 'WOWED'.  First, she was shocked that you just pulled your car in, handed the keys to the valet and they went and parked for you.  She was a little unsure of this, especially when I told her that we wouldn't need the car for the next three days...WE.WERE.GOING.TO.WALK.EVERYWHERE.  Now, Annika is not big on walking, or hiking, or anything in between so she was a little worried.  Until that is we actually got out and started walking.  When she realized that everything we would need or want was within a few block radius, she LOVED.IT.

Then we checked into our room:

Now, our kids have stayed in many different hotels before, and I will readily admit I am a bit of a hotel snob when it comes to staying in hotels (although I have no problem staying in less than a 3 star when I travel outside the country), but this room made her gleeful.  Especially when she got to look out the window at the sights of the city.  When she found out we could order room service, she was hooked.

Then we went swimming:

Have you ever gone swimming in a saline pool??   Me neither, but I really liked it.  The first day we headed down, Annika got to experience something new, NAKED.PEOPLE.  No, no, don't get me wrong, people in the pool were fully suited up, it was in the accompanying bathroom (although I don't think that word sufficiently describes the beauty and amenities of this room).  See, the second floor of the hotel was the pool, spa, yoga room, fitness room and yes AMAZING bathrooms.  These bathrooms/locker rooms included a steam room, sauna, beautiful showers, and every luxurious amenity you could imagine.  Towels, body lotions and soaps, hair care products, hair brushes, even mouthwash.  Annika decided that she wanted to check out the steam room.

The steam room is a room with marble tiled steps that you can sit or lay on.  Eucalyptus infused steam is pumped into the room.  You leave that room luxuriant-feeling skin.  Annika opened the door and looked in.  She quickly backed out of the room when she saw that a lone female was laying on a step in all her naked glory.  She rejoined me pool side and began to giggle.  'That I could have gone a lifetime without seeing', she said.  She went on to describe her shock at a woman laying naked in a steam room.  She waited a while and decided she would head into the sauna. 

She returned in about 15 seconds, bursting with giggles.  'Uhm, those two older ladies that were out here swimming, they are in the sauna, NAKED.'  We decided to remain poolside for a while.  We watched the older gentleman swim, or his version of swimming.  The guy had laid out towels along the edge of the pool where he placed his newspaper.  Then, he got into the pool and walked over to where he had left his newspaper and proceeded to stand there and read.  I'm not sure if he had promised someone he would go into the pool and this was the best he could manage or??  He stood there for about half an hour and then got back out.  He walked over to his robe and proceeded to drop his swim trunks.  Poor Annika happened to look over at THE most inopportune moment and was blessed with viewing the full meal deal.  The man quickly put on his robe and left the pool deck.  Annika, however, is scarred for a while.

Yup, it has been an entertaining stay.