the Hoffmans: Anniversary Flashback-- Seattle 2011

Today is our anniversary. Instead of posting a bunch of pictures from 8 years ago, I'm going to post some pictures from one year ago. Mainly because our wedding pictures are not digital, but also because I never got around to blogging about last year's anniversary trip. So come along with me while I load up the blog time machine and flashback to 2011. . .

We decided to drive out to Seattle to mark the occasion. Not only do we have relatives there (read "free place to stay and free babysitting"), but for years I'd always wanted to eat in the restaurant at the top of the Space Needle. Since we lived so close (only 4 hours!), we had to take advantage of Mark and Erin . . . and visit with them, too.

We left our children with their cousins and headed for the Seattle Center. We arrived early, parked at the grocery store after checking out the expensive valet parking option, and rode the elevator up to the Sky City restaurant. We dined on our food while watching the rotating city views below us. Thankfully it wasn't completely overcast, so we had some amazing scenery to look at. In case you're wondering, this is what we ate:

After lunch we walked back over to Whole Foods, bought some diapers to ease my mind about using their parking facilities, and then drove up some random roads to get another view of the city. We ended up on Queen Anne Hill and drove right past the High School that my grandfather went to years ago. We also checked out some real estate signs and saw just how expensive Seattle-with-a-view property can be. When we figured our date time was up, we called Mark and Erin to see where to meet them. They were running around the Pacific Science Center with 5 children under the age of 6, yet graciously told us to take our time and continue our date. Sweet!

*** As an interruption note: Ally says she really liked the museum, except for the part where the animatronic dinosaur turned and roared at her. She survived the encounter by hiding behind Erin and closing her eyes.

She is, however, quick to point out that she was very brave while holding a large insect in her hands that no one else was willing to even touch. I think it was a Madagascar Hissing Cockroach. I imagine it looked something like this:

With the gift of additional kid-free time, we chose to go back down to the Seattle Center and visit the Experience Music Project. I was curious as to what the museum was all about, and Chris was excited about seeing their temporary Nirvana exhibit. We figured it wasn't a place we'd ever get to with children, so we bought our tickets and went inside.

I will admit that my curiosity about the museum was 100% sparked by its architectural uniqueness--anyone with two functioning eyeballs can appreciate its quirks. The guitar tornado in the center was pretty unique, too. Most of the Nirvana exhibit was kind of lost on me, but it was like walking down memory lane for Chris. I enjoyed myself by watching Chris enjoy it. We also walked through a "history of the guitar" section, a "history of select musicians" section, a Jimi Hendrix section, an Avitar the Movie section (which looked neat but and neither of us has seen the movie), a random hodge-podge of sci-fi vehicles section, and a "make your own music" section. Here is Chris messing around on the spin tables. He also learned to play the guitar and keyboard while we were there. He's such a renaissance man.

And that, my friends, about covers the excitement of last year's anniversary. Tonight we are planning on celebrating our 8th year of being superglued together by ditching our children at a friend's house and going out to dinner. I'm sure it'll be a nice evening, but so low-key that I'll probably never blog about it-- even a year or two later.