Seattle

Our last stop of the trip was Seattle. We only had the car for the first day in the city (parking is expensive and public transportation is relatively easy to use), so we decided to check out the last coffee shop on my list before heading to our airbnb. The coffee shop is called Slate and is located in the neighborhood of Ballard, which was easier to get to by car than by bus. (Side note: I would highly recommend a trip to Slate! The friendliest coffee bar with the best coffee in Seattle) After we got our coffee and hot chocolate, we headed to Capitol Hill to drop off our luggage. Unlike our previous stops, we had to get literally everything out of the car and into a suitcase so that we could return the car the next morning. We were sad to have to say goodbye to the car, but it was definitely nice not to have to worry about paying for parking downtown.

We had one more iphone to purchase before Luca and Salpa flew back to London and Italy, so we headed for the Apple store near the University of Washington. I was able to get a glimpse of boats going out on the water from the car, and that was really cool. The Apple store was in University Village, an Eastwood Town Center-like outdoors mall, and we decided to grab dinner there after doing some more shopping. We ended up going to Veggie Grill, a west coast chain. It reminded me a lot of Noodles and Co. with less carbs and more vegetables. It was definitely a welcomed meal after our McDonald's lunch stop. We headed back to our airbnb after dinner, which had an amazing view of Lake Union from the deck.

Lake Union from our apartment on Capitol Hill

The car rental had a drop-off location downtown, which was super convenient and only a couple blocks away from Pike Place Market. The market sits on a steep hill overlooking Elliott Bay. First opened in 1907, it is one of the oldest continuously operated farmers' markets in the country. Pike Place is known by many as "the place where they throw the fish." Sure enough, as soon as we walked into the market, we spotted a crowd around one of the seafood vendors, all with cameras and iPhones and anxiously awaiting the next toss. They even let tourists with zero fish catching ability try to catch the flying fish. It was quite the show. We spent awhile enjoying the flying fish before moving on to the other vendors and unique attractions, such as a massive chewing gum wall on the outskirts of the market. I had a pretty big craving for fresh seafood after visiting Pike Place Market and the flying fish. We asked one of the guys working at the seafood vendor where he would go for seafood in the area. He suggested getting the salmon burger at Seatown, which was just up the street, so we headed there for lunch and did just that.

After lunch, we wandered around the downtown area a bit. We stopped at the Olympic Sculpture Park, found a neat map store, searched for gelato, and ended up at Seattle's Public Library. The central library building is a really interesting building. It was designed by Dutch architect Rem Koolhaas. In a way, the exterior of the building reminds me of the Broad Art Museum at MSU. The interior of the building was interesting, too. Our first stop was the restrooms. Imagine my surprise when I walked in and realized I could see over the stall doors without even trying. Very strange. We then ventured upstairs, and stumbled upon a room called the Red Hall. The floor, walls, and ceiling are all a strikingly bright and plastic looking red. Luca had a great idea to take photos on our DSLRs with long exposures and play with the weird lighting. As you can probably gather from the photos, we spent the rest of the afternoon in the Red Hall.

We had hit the "main" sites of Seattle on our first full day, so we decided to ask our airbnb host for some more local recommendations for the remainder of our trop. They suggested walking to South Lake Union. The area is home to, among other thing, the Center for Wooden Boats. Our walk to South Lake Union was... interesting. Some of the areas we walked through were picturesque, some were freeways. I guess that's the risk you take with Google maps. The Center for Wooden Boats had a wide range of boats: sail boats, fishing boats, rowing boats, etc. I was beginning to think they didn't have any rowing shells when I turned the corned and looked up to see an original Pocock single hanging over my head. So. Cool.

Our next stop was another local favorite: Serious Biscuit. Our host told us that these were the best biscuits he'd ever had, so naturally we had to go. On our walk to the restaurant, it occurred to us that we weren't sure if he had meant biscuits as in cookies or biscuits as in southern biscuits and gravy. When we walked through the restaurant doors, we realized he had meant the latter. Serious Biscuit is owned by Tom Douglas, who appears to have a very successful restaurant presence in Seattle (he also owns Seatown). Serious Biscuit is part of a hybrid sort of restaurant. Biscuits are made on the ground floor, and Serious Pie (pizza, not dessert) is made in woodfire ovens on the second floor. We split the fennel sausage, egg, and fontina biscuit and a buffalo mozzarella pizza. Pretty perfect lunch, if you ask me.

It was a gorgeous day and we had plenty of time left in the afternoon, so we decided to walk to the Space Needle. It's definitely an interesting area. It feels futuristic, but in the "this was meant to be futuristic in the 70s" sense. It reminds me a bit of the Jetsons. We didn't go into any of the exhibits or up the needle because admission was pretty expensive, but it was still fun to look around. We then made our way back up to Capitol Hill, with a quick stop at a market for a bottle of wine to enjoy on the deck.

Post group nap in front of the Space Needle

It was our last night together, so we decided to go out for dinner and drinks on Capitol Hill. Our hosts recommended a great neighborhood fish house and oyster bar called Coastal Kitchen. I ordered "Cuban Pete's Shipwreck"-- clams, mussels, and chorizo with peppers, tomatoes, and rice. It was delicious! After out dinner, we walked a block to the infamous Liberty Bar and re-met our friend Willi from Slate! He had told us while we were at the coffee bar about this great dive bar with awesome drinks on Capitol Hill that we must go to on Saturday. He later confessed that he worked there, so we obviously had to stop for a drink. I ordered the "Point of No Return," which is a gin and absinthe drink that they light on fire. It was bittersweet to leave Liberty, knowing that packing, repacking, and a longgg day of travel awaited us the following afternoon.

Our flights left later in the day on Sunday, so we spent a leisurely morning walking around the park in the neighborhood, packing (and repacking), and swapping photos from the trip. Early afternoon we got an Uber to take us downtown so we could get on the Central Link light rail to the airport. It all went smoothly, and we got to the airport pretty early. I hate goodbyes, and was feeling kind of sad when we got to Luca and Salpa's gate. In order to make the goodbye easier, we decided to tentatively plan a trip to London during my winter break next year. Who knows if it will happen, but I certainly wouldn't be opposed to spending Boxing Day in London. My trip home didn't go smoothly (delays, cancelled flights, literally flying in circles across the country, lost luggage), but my persuasive skills got me a travel voucher, so perhaps I'll earmark that for London! ;]