Seattle trip
This past weekend I went to Seattle, basically I've never been there and a cousin lives there so I had a pad to crash and someone who could be tour guide. This weather for the weekend was perfect, apparently it was a heat wave for Seattle (which meant it was very nice moderate temperature elsewhere).
Thursday night I arrived in at Seatac airport. We stopped by a great gyro place for food before getting to my cousin's place to crash. My aunt and uncle was also in town visiting so I chatted with them for a bit, though it's interesting because I've only met them three times in life so I had to endure a round of twenty questions by my aunt (she's cousin to my father), so she was a curious (well, nosy) about me and the rest of the family.
On Friday, we went to a Woodinville and visited two winery tasting rooms. One was St Michelle and the other was Columbia winery. Washington wine is pretty good, I even bought a bottle of the dessert (fruity) wine to drink later. I think my aunt and uncle thinks I'm a drunkard, they and their kids have the bad affliction where even a small bit of alcohol gets them really, really red and affects them a bit. Which is a stark contrast as I went through several glasses from the tasting with little redness.
For lunch, we grabbed some awesome carribean sandwiches and ate at the Gas plant park that's right by Union Lake. It was a perfect place as you see all the boats and sailing ships on the lake, the landing and takeoff of float planes, and the occassional duck ride (amphibious vintage ww2 vehicles used for tours) going by. In the background there was the old gas plant works, a stark contrast between rusting industrial works with the scenic nature surroundings of the lake.
That afternoon I had my cousin take me to a local Seattle coffee shop to take in some coffee shop scene. Afterwards we picked up some clam chowder soup and fish and chips from Iver's (a well known Seattle seafood chain restaurant) along with sourdough bread for dinner. Saw Shrek 3 from movie rental, it wasn't that good, it was such a disappointment with the plot and scenes being too contrived.
Saturday, we went to pick up my cousin's friends who were coming in town for some dental conference, mainly for some oral surgeons or something. We did the downtown scene, going to Pike place market and we did see the folks toss some fish around. There was a russian bakery there that had some really good pastries. For lunch we went to Iver's this one along the pier, the neat part was the outdoor dockside seating where all these seagulls wait to be fed. It's pretty fun to toss some fries to the birds.
Afterwards we went for the Seattle Underground tour. That was an interesting tour though one of the 'interesting' highlights was when the tour came back up on the streets in an alleway with a dumpster nearby, the smell was a bit overpowering.
After the tour, we stopped by the Seattle library:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seattle_Central_Library
If you ever go to Seattle I recommend stopping by there to see the architecture of the building, it is amazing though not for those afraid of heights. There are points where you can look all the way down to the main floor about 10 floors below. Afterwards, we went for kayaking that took two hours. The kayak rental shop was right by the University of Washington campus. I had to go in the one man kayak while the others got into two two-person kayaks, the three-person one was being returned as we were leaving, doof. Still, it was fun kayaking on my own, it was a great test of endurance for me and I was proud of myself.
That evening we ate at this great Vietnamese restaurant that was rather upscale on the inside while on the outside it was tucked away in the corner of a more ramshackle shopping center. I watched the movie bucket list that we rented for the evening. It was not bad, a good buddy buddy movie.
Sunday, we went to this restaurant in Western Seattle which is situated across the bay from downtown Seattle on the Puget Sound side. The restaurant called Salty's(?) has a great sunday brunch with lots of great food including lots and lots of seafood, yum! After eating for two hours, I was taken to the airport where I then went through food coma on the 4 hour flight. :-)
Drinks consumed on the trip: ~4 glass worth of wine (all the wine from 9 different taste glasses combined probably equaled to 4 glasses worth), irish car bomb, margarita, vodka iced latte, and champagne mimosa. :-) for non-alcoholic drinks: the mocha from a local Seattle coffee shop.
good stuff eaten: carribean sandwiches (good stuff), clam chowder with sourdough bread, tons and tons of crab legs!!!
Thursday night I arrived in at Seatac airport. We stopped by a great gyro place for food before getting to my cousin's place to crash. My aunt and uncle was also in town visiting so I chatted with them for a bit, though it's interesting because I've only met them three times in life so I had to endure a round of twenty questions by my aunt (she's cousin to my father), so she was a curious (well, nosy) about me and the rest of the family.
On Friday, we went to a Woodinville and visited two winery tasting rooms. One was St Michelle and the other was Columbia winery. Washington wine is pretty good, I even bought a bottle of the dessert (fruity) wine to drink later. I think my aunt and uncle thinks I'm a drunkard, they and their kids have the bad affliction where even a small bit of alcohol gets them really, really red and affects them a bit. Which is a stark contrast as I went through several glasses from the tasting with little redness.
For lunch, we grabbed some awesome carribean sandwiches and ate at the Gas plant park that's right by Union Lake. It was a perfect place as you see all the boats and sailing ships on the lake, the landing and takeoff of float planes, and the occassional duck ride (amphibious vintage ww2 vehicles used for tours) going by. In the background there was the old gas plant works, a stark contrast between rusting industrial works with the scenic nature surroundings of the lake.
That afternoon I had my cousin take me to a local Seattle coffee shop to take in some coffee shop scene. Afterwards we picked up some clam chowder soup and fish and chips from Iver's (a well known Seattle seafood chain restaurant) along with sourdough bread for dinner. Saw Shrek 3 from movie rental, it wasn't that good, it was such a disappointment with the plot and scenes being too contrived.
Saturday, we went to pick up my cousin's friends who were coming in town for some dental conference, mainly for some oral surgeons or something. We did the downtown scene, going to Pike place market and we did see the folks toss some fish around. There was a russian bakery there that had some really good pastries. For lunch we went to Iver's this one along the pier, the neat part was the outdoor dockside seating where all these seagulls wait to be fed. It's pretty fun to toss some fries to the birds.
Afterwards we went for the Seattle Underground tour. That was an interesting tour though one of the 'interesting' highlights was when the tour came back up on the streets in an alleway with a dumpster nearby, the smell was a bit overpowering.
After the tour, we stopped by the Seattle library:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seattle_Central_Library
If you ever go to Seattle I recommend stopping by there to see the architecture of the building, it is amazing though not for those afraid of heights. There are points where you can look all the way down to the main floor about 10 floors below. Afterwards, we went for kayaking that took two hours. The kayak rental shop was right by the University of Washington campus. I had to go in the one man kayak while the others got into two two-person kayaks, the three-person one was being returned as we were leaving, doof. Still, it was fun kayaking on my own, it was a great test of endurance for me and I was proud of myself.
That evening we ate at this great Vietnamese restaurant that was rather upscale on the inside while on the outside it was tucked away in the corner of a more ramshackle shopping center. I watched the movie bucket list that we rented for the evening. It was not bad, a good buddy buddy movie.
Sunday, we went to this restaurant in Western Seattle which is situated across the bay from downtown Seattle on the Puget Sound side. The restaurant called Salty's(?) has a great sunday brunch with lots of great food including lots and lots of seafood, yum! After eating for two hours, I was taken to the airport where I then went through food coma on the 4 hour flight. :-)
Drinks consumed on the trip: ~4 glass worth of wine (all the wine from 9 different taste glasses combined probably equaled to 4 glasses worth), irish car bomb, margarita, vodka iced latte, and champagne mimosa. :-) for non-alcoholic drinks: the mocha from a local Seattle coffee shop.
good stuff eaten: carribean sandwiches (good stuff), clam chowder with sourdough bread, tons and tons of crab legs!!!