Downtown Seattle and the Best Hot Chocolate Ever

A day off to explore Seattle. It doesn’t get much better than that, does it?

Actually, it does. I get to come back tomorrow and have a whole day here again!

We just left the Space Needle and are set to walk back towards downtown Seattle.

There was lots of construction going in this city, which is something foreign to my hometown. Phoenix still hasn’t recovered enough from the Recession to start building on this scale.

I was on the north side of downtown, looking south towards some of the buildings.

Sheesh, another building crane?

Now they’re just showing off!

My very first time staying in Seattle was about three years ago with my old job. I found a crummy hotel that was affordable enough to allow us to stay in the city instead of south by Boeing Field, where we landed.

I had been to Seattle several times but had never had enough time to leave the airport. This was my first chance to really explore a city that has been on my love list since I was little.

Sight-unseen?! Yes! It’s true! I have had a soft spot for this lovely city even before I had a chance to visit it in person!

This elephant car wash sign wasn’t too far from that hotel, so I have great memories of it!

And, come on…it’s cute!

Pink elephants always remind me of Dumbo.

Speaking of the devil, here was the affordable hotel in which I stayed so long ago.

I even found that post, if you want to read it. Here is the post from that trip!

As you can tell from the title, I already really liked Seattle.

Now I’m just plain smitten!

Anyway, speaking of Seattle, let’s get a little closer to all the action, shall we?

I must be stuck on reflections for this trip. Isn’t this beautiful with the building reflected? The lighting is finally getting really wonderful for some pretty shots, too.

Oh man…wait until you see the sunset on the harbor!

This building looks like it is straight out of the late seventies. Seattle has lots of younger skyscrapers, too, and lots of older ones (which is what I love, though I am no respecter of buildings).

Speaking of mixing old with the new…this building was literally added to after it was built long ago. Can you see the newer section to the left, while the wonderful old section also still shines on the right?

This building reminds me of something from Vegas, actually.

I neared the shopping district of downtown and loved every step that got closer.

Lots of cities have skywalks connecting the shops. Isn’t that cool?

Any store that you could possibly want is located in downtown Seattle, though I promise that this isn’t the only reason that I would love living here.

But it doesn’t hurt, either…

I’ve passed this cupcake shop several times but have never gone in. I didn’t go in today, either, even though this sign had my name written all over it.

I love red velvet anything!

Out of sight, out of mind. I left it in my dust today.

I turned west to intersect with 1st Avenue. Just another block away was Pike Place Market yet again! We had so much fun there earlier today!

But rush hour was nearing for the city. Traffic increased quite a bit as I walked along on this beautiful evening!

Orange cabs, huh? They were hard to miss!

One of my favorite stores recently opened in downtown Seattle. I was happy for everyone involved, since this fine establishment only makes Seattle that much cooler.

Congrats, you guys!

As I walked along downtown, I caught a peek of the ferris wheel near the harbor. It’s so dang tall!

As is this building, which has businesses in the first few floors and condos in the rest. My only complaint is that I wouldn’t have a balcony or patio to enjoy all summer long!

Sorry, Building. You wouldn’t make my potential-housing cut today.

I passed an art studio that had these nifty little birds in the window. Aren’t they cool?

I bet that they are pretty expensive, too. But one can admire from a distance.

The setting sun made for some beautiful light to capture these stately buildings in downtown Seattle.

One of the million Starbucks in the city is peeking out from the bottom-right of the picture, too.

Since their hot chocolate is awful, I was on a mission to find a place that serves the best hot chocolate I’ve ever tasted!

No, it’s not Potbelly Sandwich Shop that makes great hot chocolate. I’m sure that it would be delicious if they made it, though! Everything else is in that place is heavenly!

I’m happy to see that Seattle is now treated to the likes of Dream Bars. It’s one of the best desserts that I’ve ever eaten, and that ain’t no lie!

This top-heaving building was gorgeous.

It never ceases to amaze me what architects can do.

This is why math is important, kids!

Finally! I found what I was searching for!

They are harder to find these days…apparently, lots of the stores are closing to transform them into drive-thru shops. I’m so bummed.

My ignorance took Borders Book Stores for granted when they had Seattle’s Best Coffee shops inside. I had no idea how incredible the Triple Chocolate Hot Chocolate really was until the Borders stores here in the Valley were already shut down.

My hot chocolate treat can now only happen when I’m in Seattle itself.

And maybe that’s a good thing…

Hot chocolate isn’t exactly known as a health food, you know.

Especially with shaved white chocolate and milk chocolate chips on top of the creamiest, frothiest, sweetest hot chocolate in town.

This was a treat indeed at about four-hundred calories. But I justified it by calculating all of the walking that has taken place today as I explored Seattle.

And I can’t get one of these every day, you know?

Treat justification process complete!

With a warm belly, it was time to walk back towards the harbor to explore before the next ferry left for Bremerton in about an hour.

I passed underneath the freeway on my walk towards the pier. I can hardly wait to get some pretty sunset shots of my favorite city!

Happy weekend to you!

I’m at work today (yay!)…and with any luck, we are installing sod tomorrow morning.

By ourselves. Cue the doom music!

Greenwich Village on my Walk to Molly’s Cupcakes

From the post title, you’re probably starting to wonder if I have a cupcake problem…

And I do. It feels good to get it out there.

I had already made an hour-long trip into the city on the bus, and even wandered around the Intrepid Air and Space Museum for a while.

Eventually, my stomach reminded me that lunch was our next priority.

I was still on the west side of Manhattan, around 11th Avenue. So I decided to just walk south until something edible caught my eye.

In hindsight, I wish that I would have had a better plan. I got so hungry that I settled for not the healthiest option!

Oh well. This church is pretty, so that helps.

They have actually chopped down some of the older living buildings, apparently to make room for new ones. Look how old this building in the left corner looks. Don’t you love it?

I was about to comment on how neat that old painted advertisement was towards the top…but it’s graffiti.

My bad.

I’m still not quite sure what a “Pork Shop” entails, but I wholeheartedly agree with it.

Whatever it is. Probably a butcher? Stamp of approval, guys.

Oh, Empire. I love you.

It was actually fun to walk on this side of town, since I had never visited this area before. I saw so many new and exciting things!

But seeing the Empire State Building reminded me of how happy I was to be in New York City today.

But remember…we’re on the hunt for a place to eat lunch!

I love love love Mexican food. In fact, in an emotional moment during a dinner of homemade steak tacos last night, I even told Hubby that tacos are my favorite food in the world.

So I totally considered this Lucy’s Tacos for lunch today.

And the menu looked pretty enticing, too. I was all over this place until I realized that it was a sit-down.

I just didn’t want to waste time at a sit-down today! I have too much to see!

But I probably would have gotten the tacos, just so you know. The Skirt Steak and the Carnitas.

Drool.

So I foolishly left Lucy’s behind to find something quick and healthy.

While walking, I passed Penn Station. I’ve never been here before!

And now I really regret not going in to take a peek around.

Dang you, hunger! You make all of my bad decisions!

I’ve never seen this before, either!

It’s Madison Square Garden, where concerts and sports and everything in between are played here in NYC.

It’s pretty small…

I was blown away at the massive size of the Post Office across the street. They should hold concerts and basketball games here instead!

Ooooo, this looks promising. And if I’m being indecisive today, I can have BBQ and burgers!

Bummer that this was a sit-down place as well. I decided to keep looking.

Much to the disappointment of my belly. I love BBQ!

I finally found a fast place for lunch. I didn’t even read the name of the pizza shop until afterwards.

But I thought that pizza could be healthy fun, considering that I was in New York City and all.

This sign confuses me, though. These pizzas are for display only? What do we eat?!

I would eat them. I’m just sayin’…

These tiny garlic knots looked heavenly (and they were!).

Especially because he threw them in tin foil and then into the oven to heat up.

I wish that I would have just ordered a few more of these for my lunch. They were that good!

And I could have skipped the calzone. It was not very good, and I only had a few bites.

What a waste, after wandering so long being hungry!

After some yummy bread, I was on my way back south. I had double-checked the distance and knew that my tired feet could make this next trek.

Cupcakes were at stake now. I only had 1.6 miles left to go, after already walking about a mile towards this place when looking for lunch.

By the way, cupcakes are totally justifiable if you walk more than three miles to get to one.

I wandered south and passed through so many quaint and cool neighborhoods. I think that at some point I crossed over into Greenwich Village, but I don’t know when it started.

I didn’t feel any different, is what I’m saying.

Little spots like this warm my heart because of the reminder of years gone by. It really puts things into perspective when you think about how long ago this tree was planted for it to just now be pushing up these ancient bricks surrounding it.

Maybe the Twenties? Thirties? I love imagining how old it is!

Google has quite a presence here in Manhattan. I had no idea, but the building was massive.

I guess that they are doing OK?

And this picture was fun because of all the fire escapes. That is one of the things often portrayed in movies based in this city, so it was nice to see so many in one shot.

And look at the cool gothic detail with the faces!

No doubt that this men’s spa costs a fortune for them to afford such a neat building.

But, as you can see, if used to belong to the New York County for something. I can’t make out the rest!

I walked down 8th Avenue until I turned onto Bleecher Street, which is where Molly’s Cupcakes is located. Even with the help of a phone, it was still hard to find!

But I passed this beautiful old entry to an apartment. Isn’t this fun? Could you imagine getting mail through that slot?

These workers were prepping the building surface for a new advertisement. It looks like Grand Theft Auto to me, but I can’t imagine that they would need or want to advertise for a video game like that!

Especially in this part of town!

This was a pleasant surprise…a view of the nearly-completed One World Trade Center in lower Manhattan.

They put the antenna on just this past week!

I sat in this park to rest my feet. I’ve probably already done about five miles today, and it’s only lunch time! It feels good to sit down for a while and watch some kids play.

I’m so tickled that the weather has cooperated for my two days in the city!

This place, The Garage, looked pretty cool. Anything transformed from an old car shop would make me happy, though.

And I have actually eaten at the sister company of this Jekyll and Hyde with my sister when I came to visit her in NYC about thirteen years ago. We ate at the Times Square location, and I am just now remembering it now after seeing this pub!

How fun!

At last, the bright yellow building came into view. My phone had thought that it was a block away still, so I was getting worried!

But how can you miss a bright yellow building like this?!

The shop was cute and had plenty of sweet offerings. This place is famous and has always been on my must-try list!

Today is my day!

Except how to choose when everything sounds so interesting!

This place filled up right behind me. Lots of people figured out that it’s a nice way to warm up…with a cupcake in-hand.

Aren’t these bar stools cool? I’ve never seen anything like that!

So I think that I ended up trying to Cake Batter Cupcake.

Maybe it was the frosting color that drew me in?

Either way, I was surprised when I found a filling inside. I think that it was vanilla pudding, but I’m still not sure. It was good, but it made the cupcake even sweeter.

I’m just sayin’…yet again, and with the most humility possible: my cupcakes are better.

The decorations were so creative and cute. They used ceiling medallions with homemade shelves to display antique lunch boxes.

The plastic bubble probably protects the precious lunch boxes from theft because, hey, it is New York City.

It’s been a nice walk so far today! Just a few more posts and our tour of NYC will be complete!

Happy Weekend!