duck.wine.rock.well.

i had such a great weekend. it was busy, but great. what made it sooooo great, you may ask???

because my GRANDMA came to seattle to visit! picture my heart bursting into a million pieces because of happiness-THAT'S how excited i was when i learned about this trip.

she was staying in seattle with my mom and i got to spend saturday and sunday with her...of course, as usual, good times ensued...

i drove up to seattle from tacoma on saturday morning where the three of us (moi,gma, and mom) went to westlake center to catch the seattle duck boat tour. if you've EVER been to seattle, chances are you've seen this bus driving around town.



now, having lived in seattle for 15ish years, i've been to seattle approximately 629 times, and have probably seen that amount of duck boat bus car things but never knew what the big deal was. holy crap i've been missing out! it was sooo much fun!

we left westlake center where we proceeded to drive to lake union where the bus literally drove off the dock straight into the water! along the way the driver (who was hilarious) made jokes and played fun songs all the while telling us fun facts and tidbits about the areas we were driving through.

hey, look, it's the famous needle!



while on lake union we saw:

a gorgeous view of what i THINK is i-5??


the boathouse(or houseboat?? apparently there is a difference) from the movie sleepless in seattle (see the two white flags? it's directly below them. right there. there it is. do you see it???)



and gasworks park. julia stiles and heath ledger played paintball here in the movie 10 things i hate about you:



on our way back to westlake center we drove through the little town of fremont. apparently if you picture the weirdest person you've ever seen in seattle-THAT person's weird cousin is someone who would (allegedly) reside in fremont. there's even a crazy parade that this town throws every year called the fremont solstice parade. people ride bikes naked, dress up in funny costumes and just basically go all out. of course i, someone who is wanting to experience most everything in this world, will be attending the parade this year just to see what all the hoopla is about. if you are a close, personal friend of mine, chances are you will be attending this parade as well.

this is a cool statue we drove by in fremont. the driver didn't really say anything about it, i would love to know the story behind it, though:



after our adventure on the duck boat we were staaaaarving so we had a delish lunch at p.f. changs. after lunch it was time to say bye to grandma but i wasn't terribly sad because i'd be seeing her the next day!

so i left seattle and drove to renton for my next adventure of the day...

in case you haven't noticed, me and my (girl)friends, we're classy gals. so when my friend wants to throw a boxed wine party, i will support her with all the classiness i have in me! there isn't too much to say about the party in general, there was, of course, boxed wine(pics were taken at the beginning of the party, there ended up being about twice the amount of food and wine shown):



and food:


it was a blast. of course. because wine+food=instant blast. i met a lot of people, made some new friends, and little did i know there was a magician at the party! i've always been fascinated by slight of hand and illusions so i begged him to show me a trick:



at about 1230 i ended up falling asleep at the hostesses house (never drink and drive, kids!). and dreampt(sp???) of living on a island with jimmy fallon, ryan reynolds, and an endless supply of calorie-free girl scout thin mint cookies....

the next morning i woke up, drove home and promptly got ready to spend another day with grandma<3!! this time her and my mom were driving to tacoma so we could see the norman rockwell exhibit at the tacoma art museum.

i've heard of norman rockwell, i've seen his art, but i had NO idea, not even a clue of what an AMAZING talent he was. i'm not a huge art fan, i'm pretty sure i've been to an art gallery never, but i was literally in awe over his pieces. he had such a way of telling a story with each painting. he dealt with multiple subjects from civil rights, to current events and even the presidents of the united states. he used models for his paintings and a lot of times he painted in his own family members, or even himself! he was also a funny guy,which shows through the characters actions or facial expressions in his work. there was an audio tour that i took of his paintings that told background stories behind them. i learned SO much i'm really glad i went to see this exhibit-it definitely made a new fan out of me!

after the exhibit we went to the old spaghetti factory and had a nice lunch. and then... it was time to say our good byes. i'm totally sad, i only see grandma about once a year, but i'm SO glad she was able to fly up and see a little bit of where i live. thanks again grandma for visiting, i hope you had as much fun as i did :) LOVE YOU!!<3