Girlfriend get-away...for a day

I have a travel bug. Although I will be going out of state soon (Chicago in August, hopefully Europe/East Coast in October), I felt like exploring this past weekend. My amazingly easygoing (translation: perfect travel companion) friend Angela and I took a day exploring different places in Seattle. And apologies to my male blog readers, but our girlfriend get-away for a day focused on things we enjoy--namely, shopping, chocolate and coffee.

Wallingford: Go for the restaurants and Wallingford Center

First, we went to Wallingford. There are a lot of cute restaurants there, but not much shopping in walking distance from where we parked. We enjoyed some time at Wallingford Center, an architecturally cool building that looks like a renovated old city hall (I'm not sure what it once was). We liked Amita, a gift shop with some amazing jewelry, and Zanadia, a home furnishings store with some high-end furniture and smaller, affordable items (including candles with the Colin Cowie stamp of approval).

Ballard: Shopping, cupcakes, coffee--oh my! What's not to love?


Our first stop? Cupcake Royale, baby! I tried the mocha cupcake with...let's get crazy creative here...a mocha. Now, I'm definitely a Starbucks girl, but the coffee here (Verite Coffee) is great--and the presentation by baristas takes coffee to another, artistic level. I also learned that Cupcake Royale is a woman-owned business--another good reason to support it.

Here are a few of the stores we visited:

*Note: These are the ones I could find again on the Web--there are lots of other cute finds, though!

Duque Salon + Spa + Boutique: Check out the accessories for the best trendy deals--I found a great evening bag for a friend. They also have cute (and expensive) clothes...and a spa (if you're comfortable getting your hair cut/dyed in front of those looking at t-shirts, wallets and hair accessories).



Archie McPhee: I would call this place the Mecca of Cubicle Flair. It has a random assortment of weird stuff. Need a giant handlebar moustache? A rubber chicken? A thermal lunchbox that looks like a Chinese take-out box? This is your place...

Gifted: Smaller version of Archie McPhee...I think they sold jelly bracelets, wacky air fresheners Pop-Its and Razzles.


At one of the smaller stores we visited, I bought this yellow (yellow is my "it" color of the moment) necklace with "love" written inside. There were other options with beautiful colors and words (alive, sweet). Loved them!

Dinner: Mediterranean cuisine to die for

We headed to Cedars restaurant (which both of us had been to before). It's a Mediterranean restaurant with outdoor seating and good prices. Order the garlic nan ($2.50) as an appetizer with the hummus spread ($3.95 - comes with great pitas as well). I had coconut curry chicken for dinner ($11.95)--mmm mmm good!

Gasworks Park: Check out the view!

After dinner, we headed over to Gasworks Park (home of a huge 4th of July fireworks show). I'd never been there before, but Gasworks Park has an incredible view of Seattle and Lake Union. There's a paved trail where you can run, walk, bike, etc. and I saw some people out on picnics and tossing Frisbees.

If you want to stay in the South Sound...

For a micro-mini girlfriends get-away, grab some gelato at Forza in downtown Puyallup. Bonus--gelato has less butter fat than ice cream.

The real reason to get it? Oh. my. word. It's amazing. I've tried hazelnut and chili chocolate so far--and they both rocked.