Bettie Page House (now with a friend!)

For the last decade, Seattle commuters have been able to admire the beautiful Bettie Page as they make their way to and from Seattle's downtown and now, we can thank the owners of this Ravenna home for a new addition: Divine. 

Bettie Page (what a hottie, right?!) has been eyeing us for so long she seems like she must have always been painted two stories high on the side of I-5. But, alas, her story only began in 2006 when home owner Chris Brugos asked a friend, John Green, to add a little color to his home, even if it was in black and white. Bettie Page emerged after a lot of hours of work and is now a signature of Seattle, representing the openness of Seattle and the openness Bettie Page represented, far before her time. 

Sadly, in June Bettie was vandalized. The vandals stating feminism as their cause (yes...because that makes sense...vandalize a beautiful woman expressing herself openly...great logic. <---that was sarcasm). But the homeowners were not deterred; they brought Bettie back to her original spender and have given her a friend whose image is equally powerful: Divine. Divine was given the title "Drag Queen of the Century" and has been a powerful figure in the LGBT community. 

These ladies are killing it up there and that is saying something. We're not sure we could pull off the siding look. 

All joking aside, we love this house and hope that the community continues to support this art. It makes our city a better place! 

Our 5 Favorite Travel Blogs

We love to travel. We live to travel. It's a basic need that we must fulfill at this point. Today we wanted to share some of the blogs that inspire and help us with these endeavors. So, besides the obvious one, Rain or Shine Guides, the worlds best travel guide to all that is the PNW, here are our favorite travel writers! 

This American Girl

Camille Willemain is a female travel writer who has amazing travel advice for places like Costa Rica, India, and countries in Southeast Asia. She also has a pretty cool perspective on life that we can appreciate. She, like so many, used to try to find happiness through material objects. One day she realized she was done with that lifestyle, packed her bags, and moved to Costa Rica. Boss move, Camille. Respect.

One of our favorite posts? This one on how not to get food poisoning while traveling. If you are a traveler with a sensitive stomach we recommend trying out her suggestion!

The Borderless Project

This blog is great for travellors who like to travel cheap and see things off the beaten path. They specialize in South America, but go other places as well! The creators, Megan and Henry, met at The World Cup in Rio, hit it off, and have been traveling and documenting ever since. They have a fun and honest way of writing that we enjoy and their videos are great too! 

 One of our favorite posts? This packing guide to Machu Picchu! We had a million questions when we went and this post covers it all! 

Trans World Expedition

This blog is no longer maintained, but for a year in 2009 Nicholas Rapp recorded his adventure as he drove around the entire world in his 1996 Toyota Land Cruiser. His trip was unique and amazing in so many ways and it's fun to get lost in his archives. He breaks down his entire budget, how he outfitted his car for living and all of his adventure and mis-adventures along the way. He is now a freelance designer.

One of our favorite posts? We love his time spent in Africa for so many reasons. 

The Wanderlust Chronicles 

These two Aussie travelers are wonderful at photographing and giving tips and details of their travels ALL over the globe. When we decide where we are headed on our next trip, we always check out their blog to see what resources they might have for that particular location. 

One of our favorite posts? This one on driving the Great Ocean Road in Australia gave us some serious travel lust! 

The Everywhereist

To say we are envious of Geraldine DeRuiter's life would be an understatement. She is hilarious, smart, and gets to travel the world as her job because she is such an amazing writer. Her posts make us laugh out loud and her brutal honesty is so refreshing. It is one we bookmark and read consistently, we recommend you do as well; it's good for the soul! 

One of our favorite posts? The German in both of us pine for everything in this ode to Bavarian food post. 

Seattle Gems: Bakeman's

The Soup Nazi is a someone we all know and love from the days of Seinfeld. The nervousness on Jerry and George's faces as they approach the counter to order, the shout of "No soup for you!" and George's soup being snatched from his hands. Classic comedy. 

Well you can live their hilarious experience right here in Seattle. Bakeman's in Pioneer Square is a cheap, cafeteria style lunch spot where the ordering moves FAST and if you slow down the process they will not be happy. Owner, Jason Wang, shoots options for sides and drinks at you rapid fire once you reach the register and you better believe he will have opinions about your decisions. 

Oh and don't make the mistake of pulling out your credit card. Obviously, they only accept cash. 

Besides the pure joy you feel when you make it through the ordering process ("I am AMAZING. I just successfully ordered a sandwich without being yelled at!") their sandwiches are delicious and dirt cheap! Their bread and butter is definitely the turkey with cranberry, but we are suckers for the meatloaf too. 

Alright, god speed, best of luck, you got this. Now GO GO GO. 

The incredible turkey sandwich with cranberry

The incredible turkey sandwich with cranberry

The meatloaf sandwich. We never said it looked pretty, but it tastes amazing!

The meatloaf sandwich. We never said it looked pretty, but it tastes amazing!

Bakeman's cafeteria

Bakeman's cafeteria

The intimating ordering counter

The intimating ordering counter

Rain or Shine Guides on GPSMyCity

We have news! 

We recently partnered with GPSMyCity to help them create walking tours with our content. They solve a problem many travelers have. Say you read a great article about public art around Seattle before you take your trip here. Then when you arrive you either cannot find the article you read or you don't have access to internet to search for it. In addition, even if you have the article, it can be hard to figure out where all the mentioned places are located in a new place. 

GPSMyCity turns a blog/article into a walking tour, with detailed GPS coordinates that take you to the places you read about. Best part? You can download the tours to be accessible offline, so you never have to worry about losing internet and access to your info!

Right now we have our Art From the Center of the Universe blog on GPSMyCity as a free walking tour download! Check it out and see what you think.