Archive for the ‘Seattle’ Category
Saturday, June 28th, 2008
We weren’t the only ones who decided that on this beautiful day, it was necessary - no, imperative, really - to take our lunch break down at Alki Beach. We opted for a sandwich and coffee from Pioneer, but these young ladies had a better idea: gather your people, pack a lunch and swing your feet down at the seawall.
Alki, quiet for so much of the year, is transformed into something startlingly like a California beach town once the sun comes up and we can shed the Goretex and polar fleece. Expect to find us there a lot more frequently now that - FINALLY - summer has arrived.
Posted in Seattle | 1 Comment »
Tuesday, June 24th, 2008
It’s fun to host the Carnival of Cities because I get to discover bloggers I might not find on my own. Last week’s was at Perceptive Travel - so if you can’t get enough virtual touring, head there next!
Here’s a place I know a thing or two about: Maui. This post offers good advice about what do in Lahaina. Here’s Maui After Dark from Travel-Eat-Sleep. Taking a brief moment to remember our time in beautiful Maui and moving on…
It’s not his fault. James can’t have known how much I hate the [placeholder]+cation (staycation, nakation, etc…) when he submitted his “mancation” post to the carnival. But I can look past it because the post has good advice for guys visiting North East Ohio. Father and son getaways? I’m good with that even though I’m neither.
Admittedly, I’m predisposed to love anything that come from Intelligent Travel, it’s one of my favorite blogs. So I’m happy to Goodwill through Good Food - about a volunteer corp traveling to New Orleans focused “on the rebuilding and culinary renaissance of New Orleans.”
Yoo hoo, history nerds! How about a visit to the Virginia Governor’s Palace? Jefferson didn’t care for it, apparently, but it’s still worth a visit. Leslie Carbone takes us there.
Wow, check out these super cute bungalows 10 minutes from Lisbon. Thanks, Culture Shock for some adorable alternative accommodation.
And check out this list of 10 Things to Do in Berlin on Travel Etc.
Providentia takes a look at the backstory behind “a pub and alleyway named for him on Edinburgh’s Royal Mile” named for William Brodie, the Scottish cabinetmaker who inspired the story of Jekyll and Hyde.
For more morbid obsessions, there’s Executed Today. This post talks about Bohemia’s Day of Blood - “the Habsburg crown took 27 nobles’ heads in Prague’s Old Town Square for attempting to lead Bohemia to independence.”
Thanks for your posts, as always! If you want to learn more about the Carnival of Cities, including how you can participate, go here.
Posted in Seattle | 5 Comments »
Sunday, June 22nd, 2008
Up here in the northwest corner of the US, the thing we’re probably most famous for at Solstice time is our naked cyclists. These sun loving two wheelers strip down to their birthday suits and open the Fremont Solstice Parade. They’re a crowd pleaser every year, and hey, a gorgeous physique is not required to participate. Sometimes there’s lots of beautiful body paint, other times there’s that one portly guy wearing nothing but black socks, biking cleats, and a helmet. God bless them and their braver naked roller blading companions for their lack of inhibition and their free spirits.
We used to trek over to Fremont (no really, we’d walk the four-something miles) for the fair but now that we live on Seattle’s southwestern edge, we feel no need to make the excursion. Plus, we live a mere 10 minute stroll from what is surely one of the city’s most underappreciated sites, the Solstice Park. Last year near solstice time, I strolled down with a neighbor to find… no one there. And the actual day of the solstice? The park hosted six or so very civilized people drinking wine from camping water bottles and having a picnic.
“This will NOT do,” I declared, and decided then and there that the following year, I would claim the park for myself. Done and done. First, we spent several hours feasting on grilled whatnots and visiting with old friends and new neighbors, Then, shortly before sunset, the 20 or so guests who did not need to head home to put small children to bed followed my lead to the park. We waited, chatted, and played our ukuleles, but the clouds refused to break and we did not see our long shadows line the path of the summer solstice marker.
Never mind, a fine time was had by all. And last night, we wandered down to the park solo under a spectacular clear sky. The sun lined up perfectly, and just before the bright orange ball dropped behind the Olympic Mountains, our shadows filled the length of the summer solstice channel. Perfect.
We hope to see you here next year.
Posted in Seattle | No Comments »
Tuesday, June 17th, 2008
Hey, Seattle area (and visiting) travel bloggers! Yes, you! The folks from the Adventure Travel Expo want you to come check out their show. They want you there so much that they’ve given me a promo code that lets you get your Expo pass for free, that’s right, free.
We went to the Seattle Travel Show some time back and had a great time, though not for the reasons you’d think - the Adventures in Travel Expo promises to be more up our alley. I’m particularly interested in hearing Arthur Frommer, word has it it’s a joy to hear him talk about travel. Richard Bangs is going to be there; I suppose I am over his not hiring me to write about crossing the Australian Outback by 2CV in 1996 [not my photos] - at the time, Richard Bangs was the editor for a delicious little Microsoft funded boondoggle called Mungo Park. And Philippe Cousteu is going to be there. I have a soft spot for the Cousteau dynasty.
A long time ago, when I was a bookish, skinny, nerd-child (as opposed to a bookish, somewhat better insulated nerd-adult) I wanted nothing more than to be a marine biologist. Cousteau was my hero, every time he was on TV taking about the wonders of underwater nature with that classic French accent, I was transfixed. I wrote to the Cousteau Society, telling them of my youthful enthusiasm for their work and they wrote back - I received an aeropost envelope covered in stamps with tropical fish on them. Inside was a letter from the society, signed by one of the Cousteau offspring, apologizing that Jacques could not answer me directly as he was out at sea, but I should keep up my studies and my love for the ocean, thank you for writing! I still get a little weepy thinking about it, though sadly, I have no idea where that letter is. Wouldn’t it be fun to have a Cousteau over for Fish Wednesday?
Anyhow, enough of that. You want to know how to get your free passes. Leave a link to your travel story or travel blog in the comments on this post. Make sure you fill out the email address and I’ll send you the promo code and a sign up link. I promise I won’t share your email address - and it’s not visible to anyone but me when you comment.
And hey, if you’re going to be at the show, let me know! I love meeting my fellow travelbloggers.
Posted in Seattle | 8 Comments »
Monday, June 9th, 2008
It used to be I thought that any place north of the Montlake Bridge was full of sea monsters, I’d not venture there without the Sea Witch at my side to protect me with spells and amulets. I’m long over my provincial hangups, plus, people act like our West Seattle home is somewhere beyond Hawaii, so reluctant are they to make the crossing. We understand how you feel, far flung neighborhoods, and we won’t make fun of you anymore.
Today’s errands found us in Wedgwood and when we’re there, we like to snack it up at the Grateful Bread bakery on 35th and 70th. It’s right across the street from a newish Top Pot donuts, but while we can get our hipster donuts downtown, we can’t get our hippie lunches there, at least not in that “you might be in Eugene, Oregon but that doesn’t mean you have to eat vegan food” sort of way.
We shared the chicken and red pepper pannini - a mighty serving of sandwich it is, easily big enough for two - fresh and delicious, stuffed with plenty of greens and other filling, and on house made bread. We followed that with coffee and a cinnamon roll. My sidekick is on something of a quest to try every available cinnamon roll in the greater Seattle area. He’s given the green flag to hardly any of them, the Essential Baking Company version doesn’t have raisins in it, the one at the Original Bakery is actually more of a donut, the Grateful Bread one is too doughy, the only one that’s up to his exacting Austrian standards is the Bakery Nouveau rendition and they don’t have them in the case often enough.
Never mind. I like the quiche at Grateful Bread, it makes a nice lunch, as do their big sandwiches, and I like the way the staff is mellow even during the lunch rush. It’s almost always crowded in there, meaning you have to double up and share tables (this means you too, wi-fi users), and I like that too. Today we overheard a little girl asking her mom about the existence of pirates, which the mom denied. We had enough restraint to not dive in with horror stories of modern buccaneers on the high seas, but we wish she’d said that yes, pirates still exist, even if they’re only the Seafair Pirates.
Perhaps our decision not to breed was a good one. Our choice of lunch stop, though? Not bad at all.
Grateful Bread is on the corner of 35th and 70th.
Side note on wifi: For some time I’ve been pondering the issue of wifi users in cafes. I hate it when I go into a cafe and it’s all one person+laptop per table. “Double up, people!” I think, probably out loud. I have a possibly unpopular solution to this - rather than free wifi, I’d like to see cafes offer free Internet but at wired hub tables. That way, the non-social wifi users all hook up around a wired hub and they have to share space, leaving more real estate for, well, everyone. Or maybe just a sign that says, “Yo, wifi guy! Double up!”
Posted in Food, Glorious Food, Seattle | 6 Comments »
Thursday, June 5th, 2008
We don’t call it Chinatown, it’s the International District. And it is, it’s Chinese, sure, but it’s also Vietnamese, Japanese, Korean and loads more. During the time I’ve lived in Seattle, it’s gone from the site of ramshackle flop houses and weird smelling supermarkets with unidentifiable produce to a shinier neighborhood with a handsome new gate, an expansive and attractive international grocery mecca, and a hang out for hip Japanese kids with remarkable hair.
The latest change involved moving the Wing Luke Asian Museum from a cramped and somewhat tired space to stunning new digs on King Street. We picked today for our visit because it’s First Thursday and First Thursdays are free at the museums.
I’m generally content to shell out for museum admissions, but I’m happy we didn’t pay today because there’s not a lot going on in the exhibit spaces just yet. Some of the historical objects and displays that tell the story of our Asian immigrant population are up, but they were sharing space with a media extravaganza. The community galleries were empty, as were some of the other spaces and while it was a little disappointing to see so little on display, it was nice to get to see the building in its fresh out of the wrapper state. It’s a stunner, I’m looking forward to going back when the museum has their A game on To my delight, one of the first major exhibits scheduled is one focusing on native Hawaiian culture.
The most magnificent thing we saw today by far - and I expect it will hold its wonder over time - was the theater curtain from an early 1900s International District movie theater. The curtain is covered with had painted advertisements from the theater’s hey days - it hangs in the museum’s beautiful little auditorium under stage spots. The back windows of the theater look out on to one of the International District’s remaining renovated brick buildings. It’s a beautiful thing, the way they did not hide the less than perfect face of the neighborhood from inside the immaculate new space. I have my doubts if the “view” will last, but even when the surroundings change, the curtain will be a thing of beauty.
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