After being away from home for so long, I fear I became quite a bit of a tourist in my own state... California.

It wasn't until I moved back home two years ago, that I realized I was missing out on so many explorations. Now, if you know me or anything about me, you know I love to travel & often refer to myself as "Dora the Explorer". Life is truly an adventure to me, and I love to explore the good, bad, & ugly. Which is exactly what i've done over the past 7 or more years, living in between California, North Carolina, & Louisiana.

I told myself, that once I came back home to regroup, I would make sure my life would be dedicated to doing the things that I genuinely love, Travel being #1.

I've had the chance to explore cities in California that i've never been as well as my usual spots that include, Oakland, Atlanta, & Raleigh. It wasn't until, I really took out a map of the US & begin to look at the bordering states, that I realized I was missing out on so much new territory. For some reason, Seattle & Portland kept popping up in my mind whenever I had the feeling that I needed to get out (happens frequently). So, like Lewis & Clark, I decided I would explore the west coast for as long as I was here.

Just like that, I stopped thinking about it & made it a reality. Now, most people think traveling is super expensive, but there are plenty of ways to cut cost without sacrificing the experience. Since it was Valentine's day weekend, & i've never been, I wanted to make sure I treated myself to a nice time.

I didn't realize I actually had the upcoming Monday off due to President's day, so I only booked my trip from Friday evening to Sunday Afternoon. Boy, do I wish I would've had that extra day. Nonetheless I had a blast! The plane ride was short & sweet, only taking about 2 hours from LAX.The scenery in flight was beautiful of course, even more so we were flying to a place surround by so much water. Truthfully, I didn't know what to expect when going to Seattle. I'm not a Seahawks fan, & I definitely didn't do my research before I went. Let's just say I was not disappointed.

When I first landed, I picked up my rental & headed to where my airbnb was located. Now, if you like to travel or plan on going somewhere soon & never heard of this, check it out. It's a really awesome site that shows you a slew of hosts in whatever area you're searching, that are either renting out rooms, full houses, cabins, etc to people passing by. Some of these hosts even offer these spaces for extended period of time. All types of locations offer space, whether you want a beach front room or house in California or Florida, or you prefer a nook or palace like home in India, airbnb is a "must-checkout". They pride themselves on giving you a platform to be able to "Rent unique places to stay from local hosts in 190+ countries".

My room was just as beautiful as it was described. I had a bed full of fluffy purple pillows *perfect match for my hair ;-), a beautiful picture of the Seattle skyline hanging above my bed, not to mean access to my own bathroom.(Score!) What really topped it off, was the beautiful patio space I had to myself. Now, I must admit I didn't get to spend a lot of time out there due to my time constraint mixed with everything else on my itinerary. Check out the gorgeous pics below:

Now that you got to see where I slept, check out pt.2 to see what I did!