City exploration

When we are not out hiking or traveling, one of our next favorite things to do is explore the city. Having both grown up on the Eastside, our experience with the city was relatively limited. Now that we have such great access to the city, we try to get out as much as possible. Too often the residents of a city are the ones who have not done any of the touristy things their city has to offer. In order to remedy this, we set sail on a Seattle Lakes Argosy cruise this past weekend.

The sun was shining and the sky was a dynamic blend of blue punctuated with white puffy clouds, it was the perfect time to get out on the water. We started our cruise in Lake Union, went through Portage bay, under 520 and then out to Lake Washington. We were able to see the colorful houseboat featured in the Bachelor and Sleepless in Seattle, along with the home of Bill Gates, Starbuck's Howard Schultz and many other wealthy people.

The house on the left was featured on The Bachelor.

Looking at all the colorful houses on the water just makes me happy.

Heading out to Portage Bay. The reason it is called Portage Bay is because there used to not be water here, so they would have to get out of their boats and portage (carry) them to the other body of water.

The blend of architecture not only speaks to residents diversity, but demonstrates how these waterfront homes have been built over time.

Sunshine, on the water with a camera in hand, what more could I ask for?

The 520 bridge in the distance, the longest floating bridge in the world at 7,500 feet long.

Bill and Melinda Gates' home and the fifth most expensive house in the world, at around $164 million dollars.

Stand up paddlers or S.U.P with Gasworks in the background. Gasworks in the last factory of its kind still standing in the U.S.

The Sleepless in Seattle house on the left.

In order to warm up a bit and try a new place, we headed over to Caffe Vita for none other than a little hot chocolate. Go figure? Surprisingly, it is hard to find a good chocolate in this coffee town. Their hot chocolate was not that chocolatey, but now we can cross it off our to do list.

For those of you dying/not dying to visit us, don't worry we are only ranked the fourth cloudiest city in the U.S., the third best city to live if you have allergies and we did not even make the top ten for the rainiest cities in the U.S. Take that Hilo, Hawaii (ranked the rainiest city in the U.S.)