For my birthday last month, I took a trip across the country to one of my very favorite cities: Seattle.

I also went to visit one of my very favorite people: my brother Dave. He has lived out there for about four years now, and I’ve visited once with our brother Joe, once with Matt (when we ran the Rock & Roll Marathon) and now this time I was going all by my lonesome. While I was bummed that I wouldn’t have anyone to hang out with on the plane ride over (read: help carry my stupid amount of carry-on stuff, calm me down when I can’t find my ID in the security line and grab extra free snacks on the plane for me to throw in my purse) I was excited to kick off my 28th birthday with a solo excursion to the Pacific Northwest.  Plus, since I hadn’t seen Dave in a little over a year, brother-sister bonding time was in order.

And really, going by myself allowed for one major thing: unlimited time at Pike Place Market while Dave was at work. Seriously, I spent an embarrassing amount of time there and I was really, reallyyyyy happy about it!

Besides spending countless hours accepting free samples of apples and hanging out in the original Starbucks, the rest of my trip was packed with activities outside of Pike Place. Dave really set up an incredible weekend, including a couple of nights out with his friends, an afternoon at the Seattle Art Museum and Experience Music Project, a pit stop at Top Pot for donuts and coffee, a trip to Woodinville’s “Warehouse District” of wineries/distilleries, the Head and the Heart concert at the beautiful Paramore Theater, a stop at the beautiful Seattle library and even a night spent cooking a (vegetarian!) feast for friends. His apartment was right in the heart of the city and also included a full restaurant, smoothie/juice bar and mini market. I am still craving those “restore” smoothies!

Oh, and I managed to sneak in visits to a few vegetarian restaurants I’d been lusting over, including the eclectic Cyber Dogs Cafe (an internet cafe that serves gourmet vegan hots) and the much-raved about Cafe Flora. I was in foodie heaven.

This trip was also the perfect reason to get familiar with my brand new “professional” camera. So here are a few photos (along with some iPhone snaps) of my incredible trip to the Emerald City. I cannot wait to visit again!

(saved the best for last: this is Dave’s idea of cutting an avocado. right through the pit. i have a lot of work to do with this one!)