Trip 2013: IFBC in Seattle, WA

It's been a few weeks now since I attended IFBC (International Food Blogger Conference) in Seattle.  Since neither Marc nor I had really visited the States since we were kids, we decided to plan a 2 week vacation around the conference.  The first week we travelled through Jasper and Banff to get to Montana, Idaho, and Oregon before arriving in Washington.  The following week we spent some time on Vancouver Island, visiting with family and going to Salt Spring Island (such a wonderful experience).  As soon as we arrived home from our vacation we dived right back into work.  It's taken me nearly all that time to digest the oodles of information and knowledge I gained from the conference! From start to finish it was packed with things to do - information sessions, meet and greets with brands, advertisers, other bloggers, and enough food tastings to feed all of Seattle (so much in fact, I had to devote an entire post just to that).  The conference was held at the "W Hotel" in downtown Seattle.  Here's a shot of the completely decked out lobby.  Right around the corner was a bar where Marc and I ended up having a few drinks here and there throughout the weekend. 

Upon walking into our room, the bathroom vanity was the first thing that caught my eye - it was pretty swank to say the least.  It didn't hurt that it also came with some really great freebie bathroom products (Bliss). It's not often you actually enjoy the mini shampoos and soaps you get in hotels. 

Everywhere I went in the hotel, whether it be a seminar, food tasting, or even the lobby, I was greeted with a refreshing carafe of ice cold water infused with fresh strawberries, lemons, and mint leaves.   That alone scored big points in my books! 

One of my favourite things to do in any new place is to explore.  Throughout the weekend anytime I got a break from the conference I would be on the streets of Seattle taking it all in.  I wanted to soak up as much experience as I could handle in the short time I was there.   Here's something really cool I found - a stone that was part of the pavement with this excellent quote on it - "I have always known that at last I would take this road, but yesterday I did not know it would be today." I absolutely love this kind of stuff so it was very neat to see. 

Just down the street from our hotel was a dress shop - I simply had to take a picture of this gorgeous dress!  

... and around the corner from that was an area full of blue trees.  Upon arriving home I learned that a local artist painted the trees blue with a mixture of blue rock and water in hopes to raise awareness about deforestation.  You can read more about the project by clicking here. 

I had so many awesome experiences on this trip - I can't wait to share more details about the conference in my next post!