Seattle Birthday Trip Part 2

So let's see, I left off right in the middle of Friday.... we were bouncing around Discovery Park and planned on making our way a bit more north on our friend Jeanne's recommendation again and checking out the Chittenden Locks.

It was pretty nice walking around the park and seeing the boats move through. I remember the first time I had the whole locks concept explained to me when our school visited the C&O Canal. I still think it makes only partial sense.

Also did I mention I'm pretty terrified of boats? So as we're watching this process I keep turning to Ed and explaining to him how boats make no sense as well and how they are bound to topple over at any moment and sink and how I should probably go rescue that little girl that is standing on that boat oh so calmly not knowing the death trap she is on. Ed rightfully just shakes his head.

After the locks we made our way to another restaurant from The Layover that I was determined to visit: The Walrus and the Carpenter. It was a bit chaotic considering it's very small, max capacity 45 if I remember right.

Ed's excited!

Ok. Ok. Straight talk. These are the best oysters I've ever had. It was ridiculous how delicious they were. And something I wanted to say before but I don't want people to get the wrong idea. Seattle kind of smells like oysters - fresh, watery, muted ocean. I'm sure that contributed to my being so in love with it all.

I loved this little guy, all covered in his finery. :) I know, they're just barnacles, but it looked like it was all dressed up!

Don't. Even. Say. It. I was so mad I cracked the yoke before taking a picture. I got too excited for this steak tartare. It was pretty great.... I think I prefer using quail eggs just because it's a bit less yoke. And I like our Eric Ripert recipe mostly because it's tangy-er. This was more rich and meaty tasting, with a straight forward flavor. I realize I'm saying raw meat tastes meaty but, our other recipe takes a bit of the animal taste away and you have something more varied with the cornichons and a little hot sauce. Still thought this was very good, just not my all time favorite.

Ok this picture doesn't make it look great, but these brussel sprouts were fantastic. A little salty, but I loved how much they were cooked and how fresh it tasted, despite the appearance.

This was the pickled herring on toast with beets, topped with salmon roe. This was also really good. If you like herring, you'll like this. No we didn't eat the head :) We were pretty stuffed so we didn't get a dessert but I did have a liiiiiittle bit more room so.... more oysters! We picked out three of our favorites and had two more of each. If you don't like oysters you need to go here, try these oysters and if your mind isn't changed you are just missing out my friend.

We drove back to the hotel and refreshed ourselves for the evening. Now, I think I'm portraying our visit as one that followed a particular timeline, let me clarify. We did everything EARLY. Partially because of reservation issues, but also because we would generally skip breakfast and just do two meal days, cramming in activities but still ready for bed by like 9:30. I know, we're WILD! But! This night we decided to go out and enjoy ourselves, hell it was the weekend. So we went down to a bar in Pioneer Square called Merchant's Cafe. It's the oldest restaurant in Seattle and by cafe they really mean bar. It reminded me a lot of Wheaton's Royal Mile and Barnaby's mashed together. I should also say for those of you thinking of visiting, Pioneer Square is... sketchy. I felt safe with Ed and at one point we did see a huge herd of police officers on horses, but I'm not sure I would recommend hanging around there solo, late at night. That being said we had a great experience. The bartender at Merchant's was really nice and gave us free tickets to a nearby comedy club so we walked on over for that.

The brick walls are all part of that underground I was talking about in the last post... this all used to be street level. And wait I see a familiar face....

The comics were great, and made for a fun end to the night. It was a biiiiiig night out! And we still managed to be in bed by 11pm. That is what I call winning.

Our last day in Seattle we didn't really have any plans so we just decided to wing it. We stopped for breakfast and I got my salmon fix. Bagel and lox, one of my all time favorites. Ed did the ham, egg and cheese you see across the table from me.

Trudged over to the Aquarium which was pretty nice. Boy if you want to test to see if you're ready to have kids? Visit the aquarium on the weekend. Inundated with babies and toddlers and families desperate to stay on top of it all. Either my patience levels are miraculously growing or Seattle has some kind of niceness intoxicant in the air because I just want to pick up all the little ones and give them a biiiiiiig hug.

They also have the largest species of octopus...

Here's the big guy on the move:

And then Ed communicated with some fishies:

This little girl was entranced. She wasn't moving an inch and her dad was patiently waiting by her side.

A distant relative of the grumpy cat:

The next part of the aquarium I didn't enjoy as much. The animals were stunning but the enclosures were.... way too small. Painfully small. The kind of small that makes your heart ache. They are building new habitats as we speak so they are rectifying the problem... I hope.

These guys below were being really active and cute, showing off. I'm glad I got the shot of the one guy in the back diving in, flippers in the air and all!

Argh! I wish you could see the below picture like we were seeing in person. There are a bunch of clouds out there but in between them you could see all the mountains and snow dotting them. It was really beautiful. Lame photo....

We stumbled onto a CSI: Seattle moment....

Yes sir, I think you are my prime suspect!

We then made our way to the art museum... it was pretty neat. The usual. They had a ton of written works and art from Egypt which is one of my favorite times. I used to be fascinated by those organ jars they used when preparing bodies for mummification.

And also we saw this piece and I swear. The women look just like that Judy skit from SNL...

We ended up walking around a bit more, headed over to Le Pichet for lunch, yes, another The Layover pick.

This was about the same size as Walrus and just as crowded. I picked out the quiche special of the day and it was everything I wanted. Light texture, rich taste, crisp top. It was just delicious.

We also tried the smoked trout with creme fraiche, apples and potatoes. I really liked it even though I was a little uncertain about it all.

We went back to the hotel to regroup again, but this time mostly a forced rest because there were no reservations for anywhere open before 9pm. We opted for a sushi place for dinner and I think we sure did choose right. Everything was delicious. We also had the sweetest waitress, named Misty I think, who misplaced our ticket and was worried we had been sitting too long waiting to order. We were absolutely fine and enjoying ourselves and Misty bent over backwards trying to accommodate us which was unbelievably nice of her, going so far as to buy us some edamame and pay for one of our rolls. Little did she know how amazing she was helping to make the end of our trip to Seattle.

I'd tell you what we ordered but all I can remember are names, dishes left to right: The Union, The Barcelona Sunset and The Last Samuri.

We walked around and took it all in one more time, even stopping by the (closed at that hour) flagship Starbucks store.

It was an amazing trip and the absolute best birthday present. I couldn't have asked for more, and I wouldn't hesitate to visit again. If our family lived close to the area it would certainly be on the list of places I would like to live.

Ok, thanks for sticking with me guys, I know this post has been looooong but let me just squeeze in the briefest recap of my actual birthday-day!

Ed got up ridiculously early and made his breakfast casserole which, admittedly, doesn't photograph well, but is hands down right up there as my favorite breakfast. Alongside honeymoon french toast with rum butter of course.

He picked out the sweetest card:

And gave me a fantastic birthday gift. I've been obsessed with this show lately, singing all the songs from it and imagining a future with three very bizarre children.

And for my birthday lunch? Ethiopian! I used to think the bread was gross when I was little but boy have I come around.

The rest of the day was spent on the phone with friends and family, a quick but delightful afternoon nap, and then an evening course sponsored by the community on Personal Emergency Preparedness. I now know what to do in a hazardous material emergency. Ask me the next time you see me!

Thanks for reading this blog guys. I really appreciate the support and interest in our lives. Like I said in the last couple posts, we miss you guys on the east coast a whole bunch and we're hoping that through this blog we'll feel a bit more conencted to you all. Like we haven't been away at all! :)

Seattle Birthday Trip Part 1

I cannot tell you how perfect this trip was. It only drizzled once! And everything was as wonderful as promised by friends and celebrities alike.

We took an early - oh God so early - flight at 6am. The descent into the city is so beautiful. In the distance you can see the snow covered mountains, which in the morning sun were all pinks and creams and blues and just breathtakingly beautiful. I told Ed the flight in over the water and islands and keeping the mountains in eye line the whole time made that descent the most beautiful I've ever seen. Even more than Hawaii and the Grenadines! We got into the city a little bit too early for the hotel to be ready for us. The nice guy at the front desk, Alexander, said he was going to try to upgrade us a bit to a room with a view, and in the meantime we should explore the city. Works for us! We had our breakfast options before us. I was dying to try the fried egg sandwich with crab that Bourdain had on his episode of The Layover last week so we walked on over to Seatown Seabar . It was pretty empty at 9am on a Thursday so we got lots of friendly attention from the ladies working there. I feel like a jerk, I should have remembered their names. They were generous with recommendations from food to things to do in the city.

Because what is a vacation breakfast without cool drinks? Mine had little fizzy pieces of ginger in it.

DELICIOUS Biscuits and gravy. I may or may not have accidentally eaten all of it without checking to see if Ed wanted any extra... :)

Fried egg sandwich with crab and avocado. The fruit salad was pretty delicious - pomegranate seeds always sucker me in. Also that egg is for the biscuits and gravy recommended by the waitress. She was spot on with that.

And to top it all off? The sweet women bought me a birthday dessert, lit candle and all! Amazing start to the weekend.

We made our way back to the hotel and got set-up. The room... was fantastic. It was one of those awesome suites with a dining room area and a living room. They had a pretty great 'hub' feature in the lobby and in the rooms that had all of your information easily accessible when you turned on the T.V. The fitness room was pretty awesome too and while I was aiming for going multiple times, I'll give myself a high-five for even making it once. Apparently, my knees are aging right along with me and walking multiple miles does not enable much extra running.

The picture below doesn't do the view justice or the room. The windows were ENORMOUS. To Ed's dismay I love leaving windows open and having cold, fresh outside air (and light and noise) rushing indoors. In general, I get really claustrophobic in closed off rooms and homes. Hell, I get claustrophobic when I pull the sheets over my face. Or my shoulder crowds my throat when I'm sleeping on my side. I may or may not be a highly strung person. Annnnnnyways!

We made our way down to Pike Place Market just to explore even though we knew it would be pretty quite on a weekday. I enjoy seeing places when they aren't insane with crowds and I can get a feel for an area. After that I don't mind it being chaotic, I feel like I've already got my sea-legs about me.

This was the wall across the way from the gum wall in Post Alley. I thought it was too bad there weren't more people taking pictures of this side!

And of course the gum wall. No we did not add anything to it. I'll just blame that one on my temporary crown.

After exploring the area a bit, checking out the waterfront and all, we made our way to the Underground Tour recommended to us by Jeanne. It was great fun. The tour guide, (Betsy I think?), was very funny and a great lead. My only complaint was how freaking fast it was going. It was nearly impossible to take many pictures because of the pace moving in and out of rooms and areas. We passed a bunch of things I wanted to hear more about but we just had to keep walking along. I still recommend it though. A great deal of the things we learned about on the tour we ended up talking about for the rest of the trip! I had no idea Seattle had such grimy and hodgepodge beginnings. And I mean that in the best way. I would much rather live in a city with hauntings and sketchy back stories than some whitewashed humdrum area.

At this point we're in what appears to be a basement.... but at one point this was the ground floor and these windows would have looked out onto the street... the street which later was lifted up some 30 feet in the air and could only be reached by ladders. You can't make this stuff up.

As the day wound down, we made our way to dinner, based on the recommendation of Man vs. Food's Adam Richman, The Crab Pot. A giant pile of seafood? Yes. Please.

We ordered the Westport: dungeness crab, snow crab, mussels  clams, shrimps in the shell (heads and all!), corn, red potatoes, and andouille sausage.

Snow crab? You're giving blue crabs a run for their money, I can't lie. You're dividing my Maryland heart!!!!

The next day we started out by trying to get in on Salumi. This. was. ridiculous. It opens at 11. We got there about five minutes before. Big mistakes. The reviews say get there early, but that is not clear enough. You need to get there REALLY early, like, 30 minutes before open. They were offering the oxtail sandwich, one of their best apparently, and it sold out to the customer 3 people in front of us. Ed was debating attacking them. Thankfully we weren't like the people directly in front of us who were here for a second time that week trying to get the oxtail. While we didn't get out first choice, we did get the muffo, the porchetta and the beef tongue. It saddens me to say that waiting in line for over an hour outside in the cold was worth it but... it was worth it. I was in love with the porchetta. In LOVE. I could eat that every single day. The beef tongue was just alright, not in the same winning league as the muffo and porchetta for me, it was a bit on the sweet side. It had a similar nutmeg-y flavor to some of the salami we picked up to try.

I've never felt more like a silly foodie in my whole life. 

The Muffo with vegetables, olives, pimento, provolone, cotto salami, and hot sopressata salami

Beef tongue with peppers and onions and some fantastic mozarella added on

Pork butterflied and stuffed with meatballs, spices topped with peppers and onions

Afterwards I desperately needed some coffee to help me out of my food coma so we made our way to one down the street named Trabant. I fell for a non-coffee drink however and ordered the Freddy Quimby: a spicy chai and cider drink that is possibly my new favorite warm drink. Ed tried the Pfefferneusse at my request which was ginger molasses syrup, espresso, rimmed with Mexican chocolate, nutmeg and pepper.

Oh delicious spicy chai and cider, someday you will be mine again!

We made our way over to Discovery Point to walk around a bit and see more of the water. As you can see it was pretty overcast, but I have to admit, I was falling deeply in love with Seattle. The food, the people, the weather, and the sights.

More tomorrow!