Hearts and Roses of London dress, Flower Cardigan, and the Gardens of Seattle

Romance in the City

The fact that these photos were taken on a Valentine’s Day Weekend Excursion goes to tell you how scattered my blogging brain has been lately. I loved this photoshoot, though, so here we are, even though I’ve just realized I’m almost making the same face in every photo. The things I’ve learned since these photos — such as, being confident in my posing even though people are all around… and also making more eye contact with the camera when I’m being photographed — are pretty apparent to me. My hair is another thing! I have a post coming up on Thursday and you’ll be able to see the big difference in my hair skills! 

Back in February, my husband and I decided to take a day trip into Seattle for Valentine’s day. We did all of the touristy things; riding the foot ferry (a walk-on-only ferry), wandering through Pike’s Place market, walking to the malls, visiting all the little shops along the way. We ate at The Spaghetti Factory, where I had never eaten before (it was delicious!) and halfway through the trip my cousin met us to gift me a vintage feather hat that happened to go perfectly with what I was wearing.

And after a while of wandering, we finally met up with my brother-in-law and his girlfriend so that they could show us a few of their favorite places in Seattle. This park happened to be close to one of them, and at first I thought it was someone’s garden. It is nestled into a neighborhood of beautiful houses, inconspicuously sitting on the corner beside a tall home, and its gates look just like the gates of many other abodes along the way.

It’s a small park, with just a short loop around a lush verdant utopia of rhododendrons and evergreens, deciduous trees that had yet to bring back their leaves from the dead of winter, and beds of flowers that somehow bloomed before spring had yet come.

A stone courtyard houses the sole bench, where one could sit peacefully for hours surrounded by greenery. It may well be my favorite secret discovery of any trip we have done. And, while it’s certainly not a secret to the people who live there, I think it’s so out-of-the-way that those who aren’t residents in the neighborhood would not know it was there.

It was a lovely bit of quiet amidst the hum of the city. Afterward, we went to a small cafe that made the most delicious coffee I’ve ever had, and played a board game (the name of which I cannot remember) wherein Nehemiah and I were sorely beaten.

When we finally started back home, we found ourselves waiting to walk onto the ferry with a crowd of post-baseball-game-goers, most of whom were very drunk. One in particular looked familiar to me, and then I realized that we had been on the same ferry coming, and she had liked my shoes. She recognized me, and tripped over, obviously smashed as she exclaimed “Oh! Look at you! You are so pinup!” she turned to my husband and continued, “Your friend/girlfriend/wife/whatever is so pinup!”

When my husband inserted, “wife!” with a smile, she brightened up and cooed, “you’re in love??? I just LOVE love. I wish someone could love me as much as you love her.” She then gestured to her male companion and loudly asserted “he tolerates me okay, but he doesn’t love me yet.”

After a few more slurred exclamations over how very pinup I was, she went back to the arm of her waiting companion and he smiled at us as if to say “I love her more than she realizes.”

It was the perfect comedic end to the day, and as I finally recount this I’m itching to take another trip to be a tourist somewhere in this beautiful state.

Dress, Hearts and Roses of London/thrifted | shoes, Amazon | tights, Target | cardigan, thrifted | hair flower, thrifted

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