My 5-Day Dress Challenge in Seattle

For no particular reason other than I love (& miss) dressing up, I decided I was going to wear a dress for the 5 days that we were in Seattle. Cue Taylor Swift’s “Dress” from Reputation. Literally, I just saw an opportunity and the perfect occasion, so I ran with it.

But because of that, I can give you my 5-day itinerary for Seattle plus the dresses that go with each activity!

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Day 1 (Travel dress!)

I may not have traveled by plane for a long time, but even I’m aware that delays are to be expected. For that reason, we deliberately didn’t plan to do anything today (other than, you know, getting there).

Luckily, we still managed to explore a little of the area near the hotel we stayed at.

We even managed to make a last-minute reservation at The Melting Pot for 8 p.m., which was a lot of fun for me, since it was my first time doing fondue.

We didn’t get out of the restaurant until around 10 p.m., so I was a little worried about walking back to our hotel.

But I felt surprisingly safe, walking around Bellevue late at night.

It was a totally new & foreign feeling for me to feel safe walking around that late, but I did. It was odd but nice.

I realized though that Bellevue wasn’t somewhere I could see myself living. Mainly because it felt like it was a fast-paced, business-driven area. Maybe back when I was single and ready to move wherever the wind – and job opportunities – took me, I wouldn’t have felt out of place.

But as I am now, with my current situation & goals, I just felt out of place. Don’t get me wrong, it’s lovely for a visit or a nice day out, but it’s no longer the speed I want my everyday life to be like.

Day 2 (Chill dress for a chill day)

This was the first outfit I had planned out for this trip. That means I essentially planned my other outfits around the black denim jacket + zip-up combat boots.

Today was a go-with-the-flow type of day.

We did plan to check out the Museum of Glass and Point Defiance today, but at what time? Who knows.

I didn’t even check what time the live glass-blowing demonstration was, but I’m glad we managed to arrive about 30 minutes before one started. I’m not sure how many demos they do in a day, and I couldn’t quite find a schedule on their website. I’m mostly sure we still managed to at least see all the exhibits before we checked out the demo though.

At least, I know we covered the 1st floor – so if there are more floors than that, then I stand (or sit) corrected.

The live demo itself was pretty interesting, but since there wasn’t much context or explanation, it’s a little difficult to follow. We left as soon as we got hungry, after a quick detour at the gift shop where I bought some earrings.

Honestly, though, the most fun & interesting part of the Museum of Glass was the interactive exhibits. Being able to manipulate projections via hand and/or body movements was fun (think Tony Stark in his lab).

After that, we drove around Point Defiance. We did stop by near the entrance, so I could get some footage + photos of me in my dress. It might’ve been fun to have gone out at other stops to take photos, but it was getting a little late so we decided to head back to Bellevue for some Starbucks for me, then back to the hotel for both of us.

Day 3 (Can’t-miss-me dress for our tourist-y day)

It’s a little more neon pink and more wrinkly than it looked in the photos, but when I put it on, it just felt so right on me. I think it’s the square neckline, maybe?

We decided on a “typical tourist” day, checking out the Pike Place Market. I decided to wear this dress because it’s so bright, I figured it would act as a beacon so my husband could easily find me in case we got separated. Practical and cute.

I wanted to get a general feel for Seattle anyway, plus I wanted to shop around for souvenirs. We ended up having lunch at The Athenian, where I saw the Ferris wheel from our table, and I just had to go. 

This was a little funny since I hadn’t even been on the Pacific Wheel in Santa Monica, which is much closer to me, but before I knew it, we were in line. At least the experience was enough to satisfy the typical tourist in me.

After that, it was time for something a little less typical touristy!

We walked over to Chinatown since my husband wanted to get some good quality loose-leaf tea. It didn’t look too bad on Google Maps, and honestly, the walk going there wasn’t too bad at all. Oh no, what got me was after Chinatown, when we walked to the local matcha cafe I wanted to check out (Nana’s Green Tea). I do not recommend doing all that walking in anything less than the comfiest of shoes.

My husband and I sat there to chill for a little bit, and he offered to walk back alone to the parking lot and drive back to Nana’s Green Tea to pick me up. From there, we drove over to Chocolati Cafe in Wallingford, where we both got to sit down, enjoy our drinks, and try some truffles.

Day 4 (Comfy dress to go exploring in)

Of course, this was the day when the heat spiked up instead. Is it truly a vacation if the weather doesn’t behave the opposite of what was expected?

Luckily, the dress itself wasn’t warm – it’s one of the transitional dresses I use when California is in between Summer and fall. So all I had to do was leave the jacket in the car, the few times we were out of the car.

I’m just gonna go ahead and say it: I definitely wouldn’t mind moving out of California someday. A large part of it is from the rising cost of living, but also, I never really saw myself staying here. When I first started studying here, even the idea/thoughts that I might find work here were so vague, and I thought that’s as far as I would go at most.

Ultimately, I thought California was a stepping stone for me, not a landing zone.

While living here for the rest (or most) of my life isn’t something I mind, it’s definitely not what I had planned or even envisioned for myself.

So we dedicated a day to exploring potential suburbs near Seattle, where we might be able to settle down – whether it be temporarily or permanently. Given that it’s so far from everything both my husband and I were used to, it seemed prudent to do personal research for such a huge decision. I realize this is a privilege not everyone can do when making a huge move, so I appreciate the fact that we can do this.

We haven’t yet reached a decision one way or another, but we’re not quite done exploring other cities & states.

Day 5 (Last day in Seattle + Travel dress 2)

This dress was a surprisingly good find from Target. I saw a friend wearing it and she looked so comfy, so I asked her where the dress was from. I saw the ombré version, and I was in love.

Like no time at all, it was back to reality (unfortunately).

Although we did have one more city on my list to explore, that we decided to do today instead of day 4. Mostly because it was on our way from the hotel to the airport anyway. We also managed to stop by another grocery store in the area, just to compare prices.

Afterward, we checked out a Korean BBQ place for lunch – which I can’t believe we’ve put off for this long. I knew that if we were to move anywhere, we would absolutely have to check the quality of seafood and Asian restaurants because we won’t thrive anywhere those two food scenes in particular suck. It’s alright so far, though I feel I don’t have enough data to come to a verdict yet…

I was also looking for a cheesy little Seattle mug from Starbucks. In retrospect, it was not a good call to wait until the last day to do this, since I couldn’t find one. 

But in my defense, I did look for mugs at all 3 of the local cafes we stopped at (Nana’s Green Tea, Chocolati Cafe, and Sidekick Coffee). But it was either they had tumblers but no mugs, or that the mug they did have were lackluster. Luckily, I managed to find a Washington mug instead, at the airport.

Other than that, I’m glad I was very comfy since we arrived at the airport early (deliberately) and spent a good chunk of time just waiting.

What I realized

Dresses may not be the most efficient (packing-wise) but it was so easy to move around in, comfortable, and most importantly, easy to pee in while I was 35,000 feet in the air.

I will say, that I was a little worried about wearing dresses the entire trip, including travel days, but it worked out pretty well. I would definitely recommend it if you’re able to pack efficiently for the other days. 

It’s not for everyone, but my goodness the ease of movement was so nice when the plane aisles were so cramped.