Let's get together, what do you say? We can have a swinging time.

Over President's Day weekend, we celebrated Michelle's Birthday over in Seattle. It was her 30th, so I knew we had to make it special. Plans for her birthday had gone from a cruise to vegas to Seattle, due to time and money, so I had to make it cool.  I planned the whole weekend, with the stipulation that Michelle could know nothing that was going to happen and we had to do things that we hadn't done before.  It was so much fun!  

(I made Michelle this shirt)

Saturday morning we dropped off Q with Vikki 

and headed over to the Westside.  Our first stop...Snoqualmie Casino. I figured since one of the original ideas was Vegas, that it would be appropriate that we hit up a casino. We had Michelle blindfolded since the pass, and Emily helped her walk into the casino for the big reveal. Her reaction was fabulous. We hit up the buffet, and did some damage. 

yeah. let's just say the diet was put on hold for the weekend...and I was punished for it on the scales. Oh, it was so worth it. 

Then we hit up the slots. None of us are gamblers, but we like things that light up, and make us feel like winners...even if it's only a couple dollars. I am sad that the machine's don't have the lever anymore. It's all buttons now. Not cool. I'm sure the serious gamblers were not amused by our antics, but I didn't care. 

I did want to try roulette just once. We found an empty table and had that guy show us how to play. They we found a working table and split up my last 5$ (from my 20$ budget) onto 5 numbers.  

(true story: pictures at the tables are not allowed...whoops...awkward)

After we were done here, we did some quick shopping to kill time, then checked into our hotel room. Here, Michelle got her second surprise, our friends Nick and Robert had decided to join us. How fun. 

Nick wanted to "get fancy" for the night out, which I thought was a great idea.  

That night, lookin good, we headed out to dinner at Marrakesh, a Moroccan restaurant my friend Liz had told me about. It's a 5 course feast, that starts and ends with a hand washing over a bath. 

The food was all so delicious, and it was fun sitting on floor, eating with your hands, talking, and enjoying the entertainment. 

The dancer brought Emily up to show her some moves..it was entertaining...

Then this little girl got up..it was entertaining as well..until she wouldn't sit down, and got up to dance whenever the belly dancer was even close to her table. Annoying kid. 

True story: There was a table of a couple parents and a bunch of kids, mostly boys around 10 years old. Apparently the parents thought it was totally appropriate to give these little boys dollar bills to stuff into the dancers skirt. NO JOKE!! Even Robert and Nick, grown men, felt uncomfortable doing it. 

Afterwards we headed up to Capitol Hill for the main event of the weekend. 

The drag show!

Of course we had to get dessert first. 

I chose the naughty and nice cupcakes

and the chocolate covered bacon (which was good, but rich. one or two bites was enough)

(yeah, I do realize it looks like poo....but it tasted delilcious)

I'm sure many of you, have no desuire to ever attend a drag show, but that is not the case with us. I find it fascinating, and we knew it was one thing we had to do. 

Oh the drag show was everything I thought it would be. 

The performers were quite impressive, and we had an amazing time. 

Check that one off the bucket list!

Nick wasn't too happy about sitting on the aisle, but I think he screamed "hetero" cause they left him alone. 

 The MC: Busty Mcgee

 Cher

 Pink

 Liza

Ke$ha

 Britney

 Gaga

 MJ

The next day, we headed back into Seattle to RIDE THE DUCKS.

The weather was sunny, but cold, but that didn't stop us from being obnoxious, loud, hilarious, and entertaining. I am a tour lover. I love everything about them. I love getting into it, being super friendly to those around me, and waving hi to passerbyes on the street. Basically, I love making a fool out of myself. 

The duck tour is a land and water tour, and it was so fun and even informative. Plus we got to see some sites in movies like the sleepless in seattle house, and gas works park and under bridge troll shown in 10 things i hate about you. you know i'm a sucker for pop culture references.

After this, the boys went home and we headed over to ride the monorail, something Michelle has never done. 

Michelle is pretty terrified of heights, so she wasn't super excited being high up, but it was fun. We killed some time at the Westlake Center, then headed back.  We found this cute hat store in the mall, and pretty much hung out there for awhile. Don't know if the worker's thought we were funny or obnoxious...don't know if I care. 

As a little time filler we headed over to Kirkland for a drive, and walk around Marina Park. And of course we had to take pictures. 

After the park we headed up to Kirkland Parkplace to watch "the fighter"

and have some sushi. Just perfect.

True story:the bathrooms at the sushi place didn't have men and women on the door, but instead had japanese anime drawings on the door. good thing that eyelashes make something "female", otherwise that could have been pretty awkward. 

For dessert, cause no meal is complete without a sweet ending, we headed over to the Melting pot (per Kristy's suggestion), and feasted on cheesecake, brownies, strawberries, rice krispy treats, bananas, and marshmallows dipped in chocolate peanut butter goodness.

That night, we were pretty tired, so we just hung out in our hotel room, talking and laughing.

The next morning before heading home, we hit up brunch at Voula's offshore Cafe. A spot visited by Guy on diners, drive-ins, and dives. Oh my goodness it was goooooooodddddd.

 I got the smokey the salmon. Happiness in my mouth. 

After a quick stop at the outlet mall, we headed home. 

tired, full, and happy. 

Emily leaves this month for her mission and I leave next month for Utah, so this was our last getaway together. The three of us. It was a great weekend, but a bitter ending to a great era of good times. 

Q had a great weekend as well, and was completely spoiled.