Entering Emerald City

Seattle, Seattle, where to begin?!?  Too much good stuff. 

There’s no way I could fit everything in one post – and why would I want to?  No sense in glossing over the sweet eats and fun times. 

Soooo, now that I’m back in the Bay Area and doing mostly wedding shiz, I’ll spare you all and skip the boring non-blogworthy crap (you’re welcome), and instead share my vacation in Seattle post by post!  Sound good?  Great!

We arrived Sunday afternoon, fueled by Starbucks coffee.  The drive wasn’t too bad and navigating the city was fairly easy too, aside from the steep hills.  Once we had checked into our hotel and unloaded our 20 pieces of luggage (including a soccer ball, flat of apples, electric guitar, 5 suitcases and much much more), we explored the surrounding downtown area (Pioneer Square). 

By then it was lunch time, and we found ourselves at the Pike Place market.

 

Fresh local produce and the first ever Starbucks…it’s like I went to heaven.  I sampled sampled sampled to my hearts content, and don’t think I even came close to trying 5% of the farm fresh fare.  It was almost too much for me to process.  So happy!!

Pomegranate, apricots, and several varieties of plums. 

Carrots, beets, and turnips.

Greens and the siren (oh how she called to me…).

White and yellow cauliflower.

The most beautiful cabbage ever.

There was just no end to it…rows and rows of glorious produce.

Thyme, sage, oregano, spearmint, chives, etc. 

I wanted to buy this entire cluster of planters, but something tells me the commute back to CA wouldn’t have been easy on them.  I can’t wait to get my own herb garden once we move into our new apartment!!!  Our balcony has a planter on it’s ledge and I’m constantly brainstorming which herbs I want to grow in it.  Ideas are welcome!

Anyways, we snacked our way through the afternoon, explored the water front area, wandered through Post Alley, and eventually made it to the Space Needle.

Post Alley parallels the market and has restaurants, shops, and cafes hidden away.  It also has the famous (?) gum wall. 

It’s a little gross and a little cool.

Nobody can say Seattle is lacking in it’s uniqueness.

I love that everything is within walking distance in Seattle, which makes the area so accessible.  Homeless people aside, I found it to be very friendly with a fun vibe.  They also have a decent public transportation system, including a bus route that’s free within the downtown area. 

We found our way to the Space Needle with ease and up we went!

Lake Union

Seattle and Mt. Rainier

After soaking up the views, we headed back to the Pike Place market area for dinner at Steelhead Diner. 

We had seen this place while dilly-dallying around earlier in the day and decided it looked good.  It was gorgeous weather so we sat outside.

We started with bread and wine.

There were two whole grain pieces and two cheesy pieces.  I hardly got one piece before Kyle had dominated his way through the other three.

It was super yummy, full of flax seeds and other grainy deliciousness. 

Then my Sparkling Riesling arrived.  I’m such a light-weight, I was drunk by the time our entrees arrived. 

Kyle got the daily special which was a SALMON dish. 

He was mmmmm-ing through the entire meal, so it must have been good.

Despite the numerous veg options on the menu, I was in the mood for fish.  My order actually shocked me as well as Kyle…but the fish entrees sounded amazing, so I just went with it.  The weird part is, I rarely read non-vegan items on the menu, and my eyes just made their way there.  Bizarre.  I can’t even explain myself, so I’ll just stop and show you my dinner.

This was the KASU MARINATED OREGON BLACK COD with Sautéed Shiitake Mushrooms, Baby Bok Choy & Carrot Ginger Salad.  I did ensure that there was no butter or dairy in the broth before ordering it, but otherwise I was pretty much flying by the seat of my pants in terms of expectations.

Let me tell you something.  This was one of the best meals I’ve had in a very long time.  Fresh caught fish makes a world of difference.  It practically melted in my mouth, and I savored each and every morsel.  Sorry Eric Ripert, but this was actually better than the $$$$ dish I had at Le Bernardin.

After dinner, we took a stroll and found our way at The 5 Point Cafe, a dingy bar that is so ghetto small it hardly deserves blog time (it wasn’t a completely random choices though, Kyle has some kind of history with the joint).

The only notable thing about this P.O.S. bar is the fact that they have Bragg’s apple cider vinegar on the shelf.  But other than that, it was kinda your average hole-in-the-wall.  The chardonnay I ordered was so bad I couldn’t even finish. 

Once the sun began to set, we again made our way to the Space Needle.  We had purchased the day/night pass so it was time for the PM pics.

Gorgeous no?

Can you believe everything we managed to tackle in half a day?  The rest of our time in Seattle only got better and better, so stay tuned.  🙂