Following My Fernweh

As a traveler, I LOVE to send postcards to friends and family back home!  I mean, when does anyone ever get mail anymore?!

It is so fun to pop into a shop, find some postcards that show the places I’ve been, write them up in a coffee shop or on a train, and then drop them in a post box.  Images worthy of a travel show!

Let’s be honest, though, it’s not always this romantic.  The shops don’t always have cards of places we’ve been to and love, they don’t always have stamps, a post box isn’t just around every corner.  So, have I ever come home with unsent postcards, and had to drop them in the local mail box to be sent?  Sadly, yes.  Boo!

But, these probs are now solved, with some great apps!  These babies let you use your own pictures to create, write, and send postcards from your phone!  No need for multiple stops for cards and stamps and postal service, and you can even put yourself on the card!  The one I currently use is called Touchnote, but there are Postsnap,  My Postcard, and others, so check out your options!

If you happen to be between trips, use these as quick notes to friends, grandparents, and anyone else who could use a little reminder they are on your mind and in your heart!  Happy Mailing!

My hope is that this space is a place for us to dream, plan, and share…about travel, adventure and all the things learned along the way!  I’ll tell stories about my #ayearontheroad and #followingmyfernweh, and also hope to give you some great ideas for your next adventure!  In that spirit, here is a great way to spend a few days in one of my favorite cities!

Seattle, named after Chief Seattle a Suquamish Tribe and Duwamish chief, is without a doubt one of my favorite cities.  Having lived there for two summers, almost two decades apart, and traveled to the city for weddings, girls’ weekends, and visiting friends, I’ve gotten to know a few things.

Here’s how you might spend three days in the Emerald City, be sure to check schedules and re-arrange as needed!

Day One:

Breakfast:

Top Pot Doughnuts on 3rd Ave.  So famous, American Presidents have been spotted there!  Get the Ovaltine Latte…you’re welcome.

Morning:

**Bill Speidel’s Underground Tour:  A stroll through the subterranean storefronts and sidewalks entombed when the city rebuilt on itself after the Great Fire of 1889.  Under and around Pioneer Square, this is a great way to learn the history of the city, and start where Seattle was born!

**Wander through the shops in Pioneer Square, and then north to Pike Place Market.  
**Pike Place Market:  start on the south end, at the pig statue and the world famous Pike Place Fish Market.  Yep, the guys who throw the fish!  Stroll up through the market, taste the samples, take pictures with the flowers (dahlias in the summer!).  About halfway down the market and across the street is Beecher’s Mac and Cheese.

Lunch!

At Beecher’s, grab some mac n cheese, a cup of tomato soup, and head back outside.  Keep walking to the north side of the Marketplace and you’ll find the Victor Steinbrueck Park.  Grab a piece of grass or a bench, enjoy the breeze and the ferries coming and going from Bremerton and Bainbridge Island while you feast on Beecher’s.  

**If you turn around and look at the storefronts, somewhere to the right, you’ll see the original Starbucks…photo op!

Afternoon:

**Continue wandering around the Pike Place Market.  A lot of folks don’t know there are lower levels of shops and lots of treasures to be found, so keep going!

**Get all the way down to the street level, and catch the ferry to Bainbridge Island.  I’m sure Bainbridge has some fun stuff you can find to do, but to me the best part is just being out on the water.  It’s really cool to walk on the ferry and then hang near the back to see how they load up the passenger vehicles and pull away from the dock!

Dinner:

**If you’re ready for dinner by the time the ferry returns, there is an Ivar’s somewhere near the ferry terminal.  They are famous in Seattle for fish n chips and clam chowder.  Gotta do it at least once!

Evening:

**Head back to Pioneer Square, pull up to the bar at Fado Irish Pub, and relish in how much you already love Seattle over a properly poured Guinness.  

Day 2:

Breakfast:

The 5 Spot in Queen Anne!

Morning:

**Book a boat cruise of Lake Union, or rent kayaks/SUP and power that tour yourself!  Lake Union is best known for the seaplanes and floating houses made famous by Sleepless in Seattle.  Get really crazy and do a seaplane ride!

**Grab an Uber up to Gas Works Park, wander around and get a higher view of Lake Union.  From here, it’s less than a mile walk to the Fremont Troll.  Use your GPS to find the Troll.  If you don’t find yourself headed to the underside of a bridge, ask someone where to find him.  Another photo op!

Lunch:

Fremont is lush with breweries, just Google or Yelp one!  If you’re not hungry yet, save this for dinner.

Afternoon:

**Theo Chocolate Factory Tour:  OH MY!  Be sure to book this one in advance, and early!  These tours are really popular, because, well…chocolate!  Theo also has a bunch of classes and special events, so if chocolate is your thing, check those out too!

Evening:

**The Laser Dome at the Pacific Science Center.  What’s that you say?  A laser light show choreographed to Nirvana, Michael Jackson, the Beatles or Beyonce?  If you must…..

Day 3:

Morning:

**Space Needle!  You’ve got to do it at least once.  Elevator to the observation deck, and panoramic views on all sides!  

If you happen to be in town on a weekend, they do a brunch in the SkyCity restaurant.  Of course it’s overpriced for the level of cuisine and service, but you are paying to sit in a rotating restaurant and watch the entire Puget Sound go by while you sip mimosas.  TOTALLY worth it.  

(They do lunch & dinner too.  Last time I went, we took so long enjoying our dinner they had to tell us they needed our table for the next reservation.  Whoops!)

**EMP:  Experience Music Project, also called Museum of Pop Culture or MoPOP.  Right next to the Space Needle, rotating exhibits, and some permanent ones too.  Not just music, last time I was there they had a fantastic Star Trek exhibit!

**Bonus:  Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Visitor Center.  Two blocks down the street, cool to find out what they are up to!

Afternoon:

So, so many options…

Spend more time at the Pacific Science Center, check out the Duck Tours, the Stalking Seattle Rock & Roll Tour, or ride the monorail at Westlake Center.  (And you thought they only had those at Disney).  

Evening:

**What better way to end your three days than at the water’s edge on the Sound?  The Edgewater Hotel hosted the Beatles back in the day, where they famously fished from the window of their room.  This is your splurge night!  Make a reservation (well before your trip) at SixSeven, around sunset, ask for a table near one of the sliding doors, and get dolled up.  Be fabulous on the settee, order a hand crafted libation and the tempura asparagus fries (on the bar menu), watch the ferries come & go, and dream of your next trip to Seattle…  

If you have some extra days, you’ll love these too:

**Mariner’s Game

**Seahawks game

**Alki Beach.  Great views of Seattle skyline.  

**Tillicum Excursion on Argosy Cruises.  Dinner and First Nation storytelling show.

**Ballard Locks Fish Ladder.  Best in summer when the salmon are on the move.

**Day or one night trip to Friday Harbor and the San Juan Islands.  In the summer, look for whales!

**Overnight trip to Victoria, B.C.  Bring your passport, have tea at the Empress Hotel, visit Butchart Gardens and ride the water taxis.

**Tulip Festival

**Lavender Festival

**Seafair

**Bumbershoot Music Festival

 

When I was a kid, our family had a topographic map of the United States above the dining room table.  The mountain ranges stuck up off the map, the middle shockingly flat next to the Rockies.  It was the best piece of decor that ever happened to me.  We would spend night after night talking about travel.  Our parents told us about how in 1973, before my brother and I were around yet, they loaded up their mustard colored Ford van with camping gear and their black lab, and spent three months adventuring across the U.S. and back.  We heard stories from that trip for years growing up, and with each telling, I started collecting my own list of places I wanted to see.  In the early 80s, we took a three week road trip in our wood paneled Buick station wagon, up the Pacific Coast to Vancouver, B.C. and back.  In 1989 we took our first flight as a family, to Hawaii.  In 1993, our first overseas adventure, to England and The Netherlands.  That map became a planning tool, but more than anything it triggered a passion and curiosity for places not yet discovered.

You’ve heard of wanderlust, yeah?  It’s the German word meaning “a great desire to travel and rove about”.  The Germans must really love their travel, because they have another, lesser known word:  fernweh.  This word embodies what that map ignited in me as a kid.  Fernweh is not just a desire to travel.  Fernweh is “an ache for distant places; the craving for travel”.  An ache.  An emptiness exists without it.  I found a blog post that explains, “Wanderlust means the desire to travel.  Fernweh elevates that urge to a need.  [Some] say it is the opposite of homesickness.  That means one feels sick when at home too long; lethargic and sad.  A person who has fernweh feels best when not at home.”

A word.  For a thing that just seemed simply like a gut feeling my whole life.  This was actually a thing!  It helped me understand why I always need to have a trip planned.  It brought into clear focus why, while so many people I knew felt incomplete without a significant other, I felt incomplete without adventure on the horizon.

At least, this was true until the summer of 2015, when #ayearontheroad began……the adventure I called #followingmyfernweh.

 

Photo Credit:  PartyInked, Etsy Shop