We had such a fun family trip to Seattle last week. The weather was perfect, the people were pleasant, the air was fresh, the food was amazing, and I just fell in love with the city. As I was prepping this recap post of our trip, it was becoming absurdly long so I've decide to break it up into two posts. This one will cover a few of the things we did and where we stayed. And since I like to eat my way through every city I visit, the second post will cover what we ate in Seattle…

Chihuly Garden and Glass Museum – I learned about Dale Chihuly in art school and have seen his work in museums and office buildings here and there since then. But to see his work in such magnitude was simply amazing. The museum is small but full of so much color, life, and whimsy. Ruby loved it. And, Coco was there, too—she was just sleeping in the stroller during this outing.

The Space Needle – It's totally touristy but kind of one of those things you have to do in Seattle. While the views were super cool, what I was most impressed with what the technology and the interactive displays they have inside. It was the most up-to-date tourist attraction I've ever seen with the way they incorporated physical interactivity with social media. Also, the website is really well done (I know I am a design nerd for saying that, but it's true).

Volunteer Park in Capitol Hill – When you're a parent, finding a good park is like finding a $20 bill in your old pair of jeans. You don't expect it, but when you find it, your day is just that much better. This park was in walking distance to our house rental, and it was such a great park with a big playground, wading pool, and a ton of green grass to play around in and explore.

Looking for rainbows – Ruby is obsessed with rainbows, so she was pretty thrilled to come across these. She's been saying she wants her grown-up car to be rainbow-colored so she had to take a photo in front of this random van we found.

Shopping – We didn't do a ton of shopping while in Seattle (shopping is way more enjoyable for me when I'm alone…ha!), but I did love this housewares and clothing shop called Glasswing in the Melrose Market. The Melrose Market is great, by the way, with some artisanal food shops that would have been great to shop at for making dinners at home.

Now onto where we stayed in Seattle…

Based on what we had heard about various Seattle neighborhoods, we decided to stay in Capitol Hill for it's combination of restaurants, shops, and neighborhood vibe. With two kids who go to bed around 7pm every night, we usually find it better for us to rent a home when on vacation. That way, we're not all crammed into one hotel room, the kids have space to run around, and we have other rooms to go into after they're in bed for the night. We stayed at this amazing home in Capitol Hill through Kid & Coe—which has listings for vacation home rentals that are not only kid-friendly but also beautiful and well-designed.

Usually on other trips, we've had to lug around a travel crib or booster seats, but since we stayed in a home of someone who has kids, the host had a bunk bed that Ruby was so excited to sleep in, a pack n' play for Coco to sleep in, and a booster seat for Coco to enjoy her meals. They had a ton of toys and books for the kids to play with so we didn't have to bring anything for them other than their clothes. It made me stress a lot less and enjoy our time way more than if we had stayed in a hotel or a non kid-friendly rental. AND, they had a backyard (which we don't have in LA), so it was so nice to get to see what it would be like to have a yard and let Ruby run out and play while Coco napped.

Oh, and another thing I should mention that was super helpful was having Instacart available at our destination. Since we needed basic foods at the rental house to make breakfast and snacks, I ordered groceries before we left LA and had them arrive the night we got into Seattle so that we'd have all the basics we'd need for us and the kids without having to lug everyone to the grocery store in a city we weren't familiar with. I'm totally doing this for every vacation rental from now on!

The house also had an indoor/outdoor cat that we let in and out every day. Ruby loved calling the cat in at night before she went to bed. And, this chalkboard wall in the bathroom…pretty genius!

Stay tuned early next week for my giant post of where we ate in Seattle (it's okay to eat 5 meals a day, right?)…

{Photos by Oh Joy}