As part of my effort to do more concerted exploring of Seattle, I went out to two plant sales and a neighborhood garage sale this last weekend!
I found out about the events off The Stranger’s event page, which is always a great way to find out about events happening in the Seattle area.
Saturday: Plant Sales
Saturday, I was lucky enough to have a plant sale buddy to walk around with and we had a great time exploring the UW Arboretum and Volunteer Park plant sales, though we missed both the Kabota Gardens and South Lake Union plant sales (I’m not really sure why this was the day for plant sales).
Below is roughly the walking path we took to get from the Arboretum to Volunteer Park, and then to a (just OK) cafe afterwards.
The plant sales themselves were lovely and I picked up two new succulents, a pot, and a small bag of potting soil for a total of $25. The Arboretum sale had cheaper plants, but mostly outdoor plants, and the Volunteer Park sale had a lot of lovely indoor plants but at closer to store prices.
Part of the Arboretum Plant Sale 
Part of the Volunteer Park Plant Sale 
Wishing Tree 
Conservatory at Volunteer Park 
I5 Park
My favorite part of the day though was just walking around! It’s definitely starting to feel like autumn in Seattle and the weather was a bit glum, so I bundled up in Halloween sweater 1 of 2, getting compliments from three people who were just as excited for the season. Walking between the parks, we ogled the houses in Montlake and the North Capitol Hill area (my dream neighborhood), which are all very unique and bougie with everything from fairytail cottages to estates with manicured lawns and carriage-ways.
In addition to house-admiring, we passed by an adorable wishing tree outside someone’s house, where you could write down your wish and they would laminate them and attach them to the tree!
Volunteer Park also had a lovely Conservatory that I was fully unaware of – a gorgeous Victorian-style greenhouse that is apparently rentable for use in photoshoots and weddings.
As we were walking from Volunteer Park to Eastlake, we walked down the Howe steps, which affords a nice view in addition to just being a strikingly tall stairway, and through the I5 Park, which felt like a elven hall or post post apocalyptic fantasy land.
Sunday: Capitol Hill Garage Sale
Sunday, I ventured into town alone to go to the Capitol Hill Garage Sale at Cal Anderson Park – which was also excellent and totally worth it!
There were maybe 20-30 booths in total with a good range of stuff (mostly clothes with some homegoods) and price variation. Generally, I stuck to the cheaper end and one place was doing “fill a bag for $5,” which I did for just two items – one of which was a Brooks Brother’s button up, which perfectly fit Tom! It was well worth the trip just for that and another beautiful flannel that I picked up for $5, that unfortunately has sleeves a bit too short for Tom (he was devastated) and too large for me, so I’m working on finding a friend to gift it to.
The park was very nice and had a (somewhat gross) reflecting pool, and a (considerably less gross) running water feature.
I stopped by a bubble tea place in Cap Hill before heading back to Ballard – wrapping up a lovely day in town!
Fun-sized: A Travel and Life Blog 