Going To Seattle For The First Time With My SO Was The Perfect Escape From Adulting

As a freelance writer and editor, I spend most of my day on the computer and in meetings. I rarely travel if it isn't for work, and I often have trouble separating my business and personal life, because I work from home. But for my birthday this year, my boyfriend and I decided to take a last-minute weekend trip to Seattle to give both of us a tiny break. Going to Seattle for the first time was the perfect getaway from adulting for the both of us — and it couldn't have come at a better time.

Both my boyfriend, Colin, and I travel for work, so even though we live together, we don't see each other as often as we'd like to. We spend a lot of our relationship planning out when we're going to see each other next, and FaceTiming when we're apart. We're both freelancers, too, which means that we often have to take our work home with us.

We both blocked off the weekend before my birthday so that we could spend some time together — regardless of what that was. He had airline points saved up, so we decided to say goodbye to our home in Los Angeles for a few days and go to Seattle, a city neither of us had ever been to. It was the best decision we could have possibly made.

Seattle was the best city for our last-minute getaway. It's small enough that we were able to see everything we wanted to in one weekend, and it's the kind of place that doesn't get boring even if you're there for three days, like we were.

We were able to walk around and get lost in the various trendy neighborhoods, breathe in the fresh Pacific Northwest air, and just enjoy the few days that we were able to take off from work. (I even left my laptop at home, so you know I was ready for a weekend of doing a whole lot of not working.) We even took full advantage of the start of #RooftopSeason, Seattle edition, by hitting not one, not two, but three different rooftop bars.

Seattle blended two of our interests pretty perfectly. Colin is a huge grunge and '90s music fan, so we visited A Sound Garden, which, according to Atlas Obscura, is the spot where the band Soundgarden got their name from. We also checked out Kurt Cobain's benches in Viretta Park. (Yes, we definitely listened to music by Soundgarden and Nirvana on our way to each of the spots like the music nerds we are.)

Colin's also a huge coffee drinker, and since Seattle's coffee scene is seriously iconic (and even though I don't drink coffee), he had a fun time trying out drinks from different craft spots around the city.

I had the chance to visit some of my bucket list Instagram spots, including Pike Place Market's infamous Gum Wall and the original Starbucks Reserve Roastery, which I've always wanted to visit because of my love for Starbucks, even though I'm not a coffee drinker. (I 100% spent $5 on a cold brew coffee to pose with in front of the store, and then handed it off to Colin for him to drink.)

We both also really love seafood, so we were excited to try some of the Pacific Northwest's best offerings at Seattle's trendiest restaurants, like RockCreek Seattle. (If you go for dinner, do yourself a favor and try the manila clams, the grilled mackerel, and their version of shrimp and grits. It was some of the best food I've had in a while.)

We both also really like spending time outdoors, so even though we didn't get a chance to hike (It's on the list for next time.), we walked around various parks in the city, as well as the Japanese Garden.

We stayed at the Thompson Seattle, which is a trendy hotel literally right across the street from Pike Place Market. Our room had incredible #views, and it was a wonderful place for us to relax in between all of our activities. We enjoyed a really romantic dinner at Conversation, the restaurant inside the hotel. Our meal was finished off with an unbelievably delicious macaron ice cream sandwich, which is made with corn ice cream.

The location put us within walking distance of most things we wanted to explore, and we rode LimeBikes to other parts of town that weren't necessarily walkable. Seattle is a super bike-friendly city, and LimeBikes have phone mounts on the handlebars, so we were able to follow the GPS when we needed to.

The trip allowed us to be our best touristy selves, because we were officially taking time off (We even set OOO replies on our emails.), and we had an amazing time exploring a city that neither of us had been to before. All in all, it was a much-needed escape from our normally hectic lives, and I hope we get the chance to do it again soon.