Doing the Weekend Right

With the weather cooling down, and not having any extra family members to entertain, we decided to keep this weekend pretty low-key. Every weekend it's a given that you'll find us heading to Starbucks, but this weekend we went to Roy St. Coffee & Tea (owned and operated by Starbucks or "inspired" by as they say). It's like the non fast-coffee version of Starbucks, and one of our favorite Seattle hang-outs. If we were in a show like Friends, it would be our place. They serve wine and beer, cheese trays, awesome pastries, a good selection of whole leaf teas, and the coffee beans (more of a selection and special reserves) are fresh from the roaster every day. Not to mention, the decor makes our hearts pitter-patter. Lately we've had to incorporate money for something just for Lorelei into our "treat budget" (yep, we are so good we follow a budget for how much we get to spend on things like coffee, junk food, and frozen yogurt in a week!) because if she doesn't have something of her own she fah-reaks out about whatever we're having. Funny story: Lorelei behaves better in coffee shops than just about anywhere. I started taking her to Starbucks when she was just 3 days old. Anywho, she usually chooses those applesauce packets as her treat, but being a hipster fancy cafe, she didn't have that option this week. She got a lemon curd pastry instead, and she ate it more daintily than anything in her life. It killed me. :)

Not far from our fueling station is our favorite Seattle park, Volunteer Park, with most of it's structures being 100 years old! There are lush green rolling hills, trails, a reservoir overlooking the Space Needle, a gorgeous water tower, a wading pool, a conservatory filled with orchids, carnivorous plants, and cacti, and an amphitheater. First stop was the conservatory since we knew Lorelei would only stay in the stroller so long with the great outdoors calling. 

We were ill prepared in going to the park on a beautiful day not knowing about the wading pool. You see, Lorelei is a bit of a mermaid, and where there is water, there is our water baby. Being all about spontaneity, and not wanting to break any little hearts we let her get wet in her regular clothes. I was thinking (ahem, hoping) that it would be cold enough to keep her from submerging her entire self. She walked in nicely, holding my hand, for about 4 steps before thrusting herself in, save her face and head.  And boy was getting her out of there a battle!

We ran around in the grass and basked in the sun to dry off, and somewhere in the midst found this gorgeous Dahlia garden.

 The little lady happily plucked us little "yewo" flowers and treated us to all kinds of affection for such a great day out together.

Yesterday we did some much needed cleaning, checked out Marshalls (which is just a parking lot away from us), and ogled everything at IKEA. Today David worked, like every Sunday, I lounged most of the day, and Lorelei has residual happiness from Friday I think. Tomorrow is another day off, and hopefully it brings about some Schwinning. Hope everyone else is having a lovely Labor Day weekend as well!