Aug 2008

At first, I was going to make our trip one big blog, but it ended up being so long. Here is part one about Seattle.

Chris was sent on a last minute work trip (during my birthday week) where he started in Oxnard, CA and ended up in Seattle, WA, where I met up with him for a little Pacific Northwest vacation. With the temperatures in KS soaring up near 100 degrees, I was more than happy to leave the Midwest for a little bit! Our plans included eating, visiting friends, eating, meeting two new babies, eating, seeing some art, eating....well, you get the picture.

We had visited Seattle together four summers ago, so I was willing to visit again when he asked. I was especially excited to visit Portland due to the fact that I had never been, but hadn't had a chance to go yet. Chris was excited to have me experience Seattle another time to try to persude me to want to move to the Emerald City.

The day I was leaving Kansas, the temperatures soared to nearly 100 degrees (felt like a 120) and walking off the jetway in Denver for my connecting flight wasn't much better (they were experiencing a heatwave at the time too). When I finally arrived in Seattle around 7 PM, it was perfect weather--low 70s (my favorite temperature). I was thrilled. We started off with a drive to Pike's Place where we ate at Emmett Watson's Oyster Bar, a choice from the http://www.roadfood.com website. I will have to say this restaurant was one of the few disappointing Roadfood picks that we have eaten at. I had wanted to order oysters on the half shell, but decided against them and ordered the Captain's Platter instead (like fried everything-shrimp, scallops, fish, oysters & clams) while Chris got a seafood stew-type item. I was terribly disappointed in the quality of the fried seafood. I couldn't even imagine what a raw oyster would have tasted like because the fried ones were mushy and totally inedible. Chris' food was ok, but nothing like other Roadfood choices that we had tried out. A little disappointing, but it ended up being ok since the rest of our meals made up for the bad one.

We stayed with our friends, Cory and Bob, who have a sweet 8-month old boy, Vinh. We fell in love with this little guy, who was such a handsome and happy baby! We had a great time spending time with their family and they took us to two restaurants in Seattle, China Gate, for great dim sum (delicious) on Sunday and Gordita's on Monday night(for the biggest burrito ever). We also got a chance to eat brunch with Cory and Vinh (when Bob was at work on Monday) at Mae's Phinney Ridge Cafe. The cafe has a couple of booths that they have decorated so that it looks like you are sitting inside a cow plus they also have an all-cow room....really funny. This dining establishment also has an entree of "Shake and Eggs"...we all thought about it, but it was a little early for a shake!

After a wonderful lunch of dim sum, we spent Sunday in Tacoma (just south of Seattle) to visit the Tacoma Art Museum and the Museum of Glass. One of my favorite artists, Dale Chihuly, was born in this Washington city and the city is very proud of their son. If you don't know who you Chihuly is, if you have seen the Belligio ceiling in Vegas, that's his work. There are countless Chihuly works throughout the city including a very impressive bridge (that houses his work on the sides and ceiling) that you walk over to get to the Museum of Glass. http://www.chihuly.com/bridgeofglass/ The Tacoma Art Museum houses an extensive collection of his works and is definitely worth a trip just to see his work.

After getting our art fix, we stopped by Pike's Place Market to enjoy my favorite part of Seattle. If you haven't heard yet, I have started a food blog and always enjoyed visiting the local farmer's market in big cities. With the hustle and bustle of the market, the fresh produce, the beautiful flowers, wonderful food, Chris' favorite store in the world (Metsker's Maps); it's a fun place to explore and people watch. I always wish that I could buy bouquets of flowers and all the produce because everything is so fresh and beautiful. If you didn't know already, I am a big fan of Anthony Bourdain's show "No Reservations" where he travels the world focusing a lot on eating (he is celebrity chef for those who don't know). After I read his first book in 2000, Kitchen Confidential, I have been a foodie obsessed with Mr. Bourdain. Chris has even become a fan of his show which means that we try to eat at places that he eats at on his show. A show on Seattle aired early in 2007 on the Travel Channel, where he ate at countless yummy looking places including Piroshky Piroshky, a Russian bakery located in the marketplace. Here we ate a piroshky, which is a bread shaped like a little pie filled with all kinds of delicious fillings. I indulged in a potato, mushroom & onion one while Chris had a sauerkraut, cabbage, onion & carrot one. Both were wonderful, so wonderful that we stopped there again before our flight back to KS for snacks on the plane! (Anthony Bourdain will appear in our blog later....just wait).

On Sunday after our museum visits, we went to visit Matt and Cress, who also have a new addition to their family, 9-month old, Ryder. He is another cute, super sweet, smiling bundle of joy! We were thrilled to finally get to meet the two Seattle babies and look forward to watching them grow up. Thank goodness for the internet where we can follow their lives through pics, blogs and emails. Matt took us on a long 2 1/2 hour walk around the Freemont area by their house after dinner and showed us all the points of interests along the way. We had a great time with Matt (who is extremely funny and is never going to ever let one of Chris' comments ever be forgotten) and his lovely family.

Monday after our lovely brunch at the cow cafe, Chris and I headed to the Snoqualmie Falls about 20 miles outside of Seattle. It was getting a little hot that day for Seattle (upper 80s?--I can't remember, but it wasn't very cool) and our flip flops weren't exactly the right footwear to hike down to the falls, so we did not climb over the railing and obeyed the sign that said not to climb down to the bottom of the falls on the rocks (unlike the many people that decided to). Instead, we climbed back up to the top and head back to downtown to Top Pot Doughnuts (another Anthony Bourdain suggestion) where they have some very delicious, dense doughnuts. I am not a coffee drinker, so I did not have any of their supposedly wonderful coffee.
That night we went to visit yet another group of friends, who have moved to Seattle from Lawrence, Alena and Rebecca (Paula was gone with her parents). We got an added bonus that Rebecca's sister, Hannah (who lives in Lawrence, but we never see her), was also visiting with her daughter and niece. It was great to catch up with everyone even if it was a short visit.

We did have some time in Seattle after our two days in Oregon (blog to follow) before our 4:45 PM flight, so we decided to eat at Mario Batali's dad's deli, Salumi http://www.salumicuredmeats.com/. If you have watched the Food Network, Mario Batali is the red-headed Italian chef. His father has perfected the art of curing meats in a location in Pioneer Square (where one of my favorite bookstores in the world is). The deli has gained even more popularity due to Anthony Bourdain's show and at 11:20 AM, the line was already 30+ deep. Our 40 minute wait was more than worth it when one of the girls came out with samples of their salami that was cured with orange peel and cardamom. Their salami is to die for and we were especially fortunate to visit the deli on the day that the special was pork butt sandwiches (a speciality that is produced only once a month). Chris and I ordered three sandwiches, with the idea that the third one would be for the flight. We ordered a pork butt sandwich on their olive oil bread, paprika salami also on olive oil bread and a pork w/onions & green peppers one on the baguette with the intention to share a little bit of all of them. One bite of the pork butt sandwich and I wasn't sharing anymore! The piece of pork butt tasted as good as an extremely juicy piece of filet mignon (maybe even better). It was amazing. I think that Chris might have gotten two bite of the pork butt sandwich and asked if I wanted to trade halves. While devouring the pork butt sandwich, I had to swat his hand away multiple times. I would have been willing to standing in the line (even longer when we left) again if we had enough time before our flight for one more pork butt sandwich. The other two sandwiches were quite excellent as well, but let's just say that I haven't stopped thinking about that pork butt sandwich since! This little deli houses maybe enough seating for 20 people (many people would take their sandwiches to go). Little did we know that we would be sharing the communal table in back with one of the girls who worked there, her boyfriend and co-worker. While eating our lunch, we listened to her talk about how Mr. Bourdain was visiting Seattle and had just come in to eat lunch the day before to bring in an autographed copy of his book for the owners. I MISSED MY FOOD IDOL BY ONE DAY! A real bummer for me.

After our fantastic meal, we walked down to Elliot Bay Book Company. It's also located in Pioneer Square and a bookophile could spend hours in this wonderful cedar bookcase lined bookstore. http://www.elliottbaybook.com/ But we had one more stop before we had to head to the airport which was the newly opened this year, Olympic Sculpture Park. This nine-acre park was once an industrial site and has been transformed to an open waterfront park with great views of the water, the Space Needle, and the mountains. It's owned by the Seattle Art Museum and is proof that an eyesore in the city can be made into something nice for people to enjoy.

We ended our time in Seattle with picking up some piroskhy for the flight and being tempted with free flights to give up our seats on the return home. Since Chris had been gone for so long, we decided against it and flew home.

Has he convinced me to move yet? I told him that we needed to spend a week there in the winter when the skies are dark and gloomy, then we'll see. I do love the water, the restaurants, Pike's Place, the mountains, all the trees, Elliot Bay bookstore and who could forget that pork butt sandwich. I am almost sold just on that sandwich alone. Just don't tell Chris....shhhhhh......