5 Day Challenge: Day 1 (a.k.a. Britta Bottle is Back and Ready for Action!)

I’m back from spring break and ready to share some stories and pictures!

Incidentally, a couple weeks ago, I was nominated for the 5 day picture challenge by Amy from Snapshots, Snippets, and Scribbles. What is this challenge? For those of you who aren’t already aware, the five day picture challenge requires participants to post a picture for five days in a row, with an adjoining story each day. I’m excited to share some of my adventures with you through this challenge, as I push myself to write a little differently than I usually do on my blog. To participate in this, we are supposed to nominate one person each day to continue on the challenge; I, however, have chosen not to nominate anyone. I’d rather not have to worry about that extra little bit. I find that nominating people for these kinds of things is way too stressful, as I think way too much about it!

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My spring break adventures brought me to Seattle, Washington. My friends and I drove through North Dakota, Montana, and Idaho to get there and I saw so many new places. I’ve never been through the Rocky Mountains before, and it was absolutely amazing! I’ve never been to Seattle, either, for the record, and I absolutely loved it. Seattle is such a beautifully situated city and we met so many friendly people while there.

I’ve said before that I’m no photographer, and I mean it. All these pictures were taken on my phone so they aren’t the greatest quality. However, with this challenge in mind, I enjoyed looking for beauty in unusual places and I tried extra hard to take well-thought out, half-way decent images. You can be the judge of how well they turned out. 🙂

So, without further ado…

Day 1: “Reward”

March 13, 2015

We would be leaving Seattle in a couple of hours. First, we had to check out of the hostel; after having one last brunch at a local place that I found recommended on Instagram of all places, we would head back on the road for the journey back home.

The car was parked about a half an hour away from our Belltown hostel, in the Queen Anne neighborhood. It was the closest area that had free on-street parking and we jumped on the opportunity when one of the staff members at the hostel told us about it on our first night there. Paul and I headed on our way up to get the car, so we could load all our belongings up before checking out. We were about fifteen minutes into our walk when we realized Laura, who stayed behind, had the car keys. So, a bit disgruntled with our failure to check for the keys beforehand, we turned back, got the keys, and headed out for a second time. Good thing it was a beautiful day! 

Queen Anne is one of the residential districts of Seattle, elevated from the main downtown. A great big hill separates Belltown from Queen Anne. Paul and I found ourselves huffing and puffing by the time we had made our way up the hill. We had journeyed up this particular hill before to get the car, but for some reason today seemed harder. Maybe because we were exhausted from all of our adventures; we had done a lot of walking in the last few days. It was also a bit warmer than it had been the previous few days and my light raincoat and scarf proved to be too much after our tiring climb. Seattle had greeted us with beautiful spring time weather–cool, light jacket weather. A nice and very welcomed change from the snow and cold we had left in Minnesota. Today, though, felt more like summer. I had no complaints about that, I just wasn’t dressed appropriately. 

So, we were exhausted and a little sweaty by the time we reached the street the car was parked on. We both were in need of water and had taken our coats off. But the view would be our reward. We knew that the street we had parked on provided an excellent panorama of the city…and we were eager to take it all in one last time. In fact, the view was what kept pushing me forward on the way up the hill. The walk up wasn’t fun at all, but I knew that view was waiting for me at the top. 

To our delight, when we made our way down to street and to the lookout, not only were we provided with an excellent view of Downtown Seattle and Elliott Bay–as we were expecting–but we were also greeted with an amazing view of Mount Rainier. The last two times we had been up there, Mount Rainier had not been visible…I didn’t even realize it could be visible from that point, though I guess I should have given its location in relationship to the city. 

In the end, we not only had Seattle with its iconic Space Needle and the bay to enjoy; Mount Rainier in the background was most certainly the icing on the cake. Of course I had to snap a few pictures, only hoping that one or two would turn out decent. This is, without a doubt, one of the most breathtaking views I have ever set eyes on; it is undeniable proof that a clear day in that city called Seattle, which is so often covered in fog, is quite unlike anything else on Earth. 

And so, the walk up hill, as tiring as it was, was so unbelievably worth it.