Seattle!

I took my first trip to Seattle in May with my boyfriend and it was such a great trip! I was impressed with the cleanliness of the city (when you live in Los Angeles, a city's cleanliness standards are not held high), friendliness of the people, cool architecture, the fresh fish and so many amazing restaurants!

We arrived in time for lunch with empty tummies and headed straight to Beecher's Cheese Shop and ordered the "world famous mac n' cheese" and a turkey sandwich. The mac n' cheese was record setting in my book!

After we refueled we were ready start checking out the famous Pike's Place Market. Yes it's busy and touristy, but you HAVE to go! We snacked on a small bag of the Daily Dozen Donuts. I was told I absolutely had to try them, so I did. They were good but not as mind blowing as I had hoped.
We spent a few hours exploring the downtown area and visiting the Nordstrom flagship store. For dinner we headed up to Quinn's in Capitol Hill to grab a few beers and a light dinner. We tried the mussels (I love mussels, but more on that in a later post) and an oyster po boy sandwich. Saldy, no pics of the food. Forgetfullness happens after a few beers!
Day 2- We headed over to Mario Batali's parent's Salami store- Salumi. We heard there would be lines, so we got there early. We lined up about 20 minutes before this place opens and luckily were only a few people in, but the line must have gotten about 30 people deep before they even opened for lunch. We knew this would be some serious Salumi.

This is a serious sandwich people- sharing is caring. We should have only had 1 sandwich for the two of us, but as usual, we were ambitious and our eyes were bigger than our stomachs.

Before & After.

Residents of Seattle- I could not be more awed by your library. I covet! Coolest public building probably in the country!














We walked over to a sculpture garden that was also awesome. Then I crushed the Space Needle!



















After crushing the most well known structure in Seattle, we headed over to the University of Washington for a Built to Spill show. Thanks Doug for being the singer of 1 of my favorite bands and arranging to play in our honor while we were in Seattle. You're the coolest!














Reservations at Campagne were awaiting us for that evening. Beautiful view of the harbor and a wonderful meal! Gougeres, Short rib and roasted duck leg.



























Day 3- Good morning and hello Crumpet Shop! I believe this to be my first crumpet experience. It left me wanting more. This is a wonderful gem just up the street from Pike's Place Market. To know it is to love it!
































Dinner time! We found a place of the water (name escapes me) for some no frills fresh seafood. Oysters, clams, sushi and check out this cranberry (or was it raspberry??) mojito!

































Day 4- We found oursevles at Victrola Coffee on Capitol Hill enjoying lattes and a scone. Beautiful foam art and not a bad scone either!


















Seeing the REI flagship store was great! We walked for a few hours and grabbed a few tapas at Txori, here are the albondigas and stuffed squid.














This was our last afternoon in Seattle and we had some time to kill before heading to the airport. We stopped for a sampling of teas.














Had our final lunch at Pike's Place Chowder. It was delicious! We went with the traditional New England Chowder and a crab sandwich. They ship this chowder and I'm considering getting in on this. It's a little hot with the summer heat wave, but there might have to be some chowder this fall.

We loved Seattle! I leave you with these beautiful peonies!