Husband and I like to occasionally take an afternoon to romp around downtown Seattle – we really enjoy this city and our “favorite neighborhood” is constantly changing as we discover new things. Most recently, we (re)discovered Pioneer Square – particularly a couple of shops down there that I love. So when he said we were going to check out an exhibit at SAM (Seattle Art Museum), I asked to go to Elm Coffee Roasters first. It’s a new coffee shop & roaster that I love, but rarely have the opportunity to get to. (Their coffee is delicious, the location is cool, and the space is gorgeous.) (Also, I already got my coffee fix at Elm this time, but if not Elm then I would definitely get a latte at Caffe Umbria.)
This time, I got a cortado. So damn good.
Then we took a quick stroll around the ‘hood to pop into a couple other places we love. London Plane is a restaurant/flower shop that’s also new and we checked out a couple months ago. I could sit in their space all day, it’s lovely. Dry Goods design sells the most amazing fabrics and sewing notions, I cannot NOT take a quick peek in whenever I’m nearby. And I can’t ever leave empty handed. Same with London Plane, although we didn’t stop in for lunch or even take home any flowers. But WE grab a couple of cookies (my son is fascinated with their rose scented meringue cookies.)
And then we walked around for a few because Pioneer Square is a full of great sights. We stumbled upon something we’d never seen before and had no knowledge of – Seattle is the birthplace of the UPS? Huh.
Then we headed over to SAM downtown to see what there was to see. Sidenote: I first went to SAM a few years ago when my son was 2 years old. I took him with me to see the temporary Gauguin exhibit – we’d been reading to him from the “little artists” book series we had for him and Gauguin was one of them. The masks scared him a little bit but man, did he love all the cars hanging in the museum lobby! (see below – obviously unrelated to the Gauguin exhibit and still in the lobby years later.) Husband was really excited to discover the current exhibit of Pacific Northwest Native American tribes, particularly the Haida. He loves their artwork and totems (he’s got a Haida totem tattoo on his back that he adds to every few years as well as a Haida sun on his shoulder.)
And then… AND THEN we headed off to Volunteer Park and the Asian Museum (part of SAM) to see the Anime/Japanese Neo-Pop exhibit I’d been wanting to see. So fun!!