Fun things to do in Seattle

[marypcbuk]

• Find the new Elliot Bay Books and discover it feels exactly the same, though maybe without the second hand books (we didn't fnd them if they're there; everything else from the stained glass to the shelves to giant-cathedral-of-reading feeling is there)


• Go to dinner, decide to finish dinner with Molly Moon's ice cream and drive all around Seattle only to find it's right around the corner from the new Elliot Bay Books.


• Drive down to see Mount Rainier and be amazed by how blue the oxygen trapped in the glaciers is; the tannin washing down the grey moraines is also very colourful for somewhere you'd swear was in monochrome by looking at the snow-covered trees. Don't forget fried chicken with garlic mashed potatoes and blackberry pie at the Copper Creek Inn. Must remember to try making the blackberry syrup butter at home...


• Drive up and across to Anacortes to look out over the straights and look down Deception Pass at how amazingly green the water is and how fast the tides is (8+ knots according to a local diver) and how lazily the seals and sea lions swim in it; carry on to Whidbey to gaze at the distant haze of Canada and take the ferry to Mulikteo for seafood at Ivar's.


• Start with lunch at Elysian Brewing Company with daveon and his friend Dan, where the Pumpkin ale is fantastic and the Still 3 and 5 sour beers are pretty great; drink through the afternoon, sober up with latte at the Cafe Vivace on - I think - Broadway, get some excellent Belgian beer at a tiny bar I can't even remember the name of (Duchesse du Bourgougne!) and drive over to Wallingford in the pouring rain to introduce one friend to another at RAIN sushi.


• Visit both Half Price Books - Redmond Town Center and Crossroads Mall. And the second-hand bookshop inside Pike Place Market. Extra points for saying 'I want to see if they have the Tamora Pierce I want; I need books 2, 3 and 4 of the Alanna quartet' and then turning around to see them on the shelves. sbisson warns I must not overuse this power, so I have vowed to to use it only for good (good books that is).


• Have lunch at Pike Place Market; it's a ritual for us. Coffee at Local Colour where I bought the most awesome earrings with feathers and hearts and a key on a chain; cheese curds and The World's Best Mac & Cheese from Beechers, fried chicken wings from the Korean stall, donuts from the robot donut maker - usually with the best chowder in Seattle at the halibut sandwich grill in the market and candy cherries from Chukar and market spice tea and then a stroll around the market to work it off. I could not resist a red velvet shirt from Yezda, and a turqoise/sea green silk coat with embroidery and a beaded seahorse on the front...


• Drink Abominable Snowman winter beer at the Red Door in Fremont; extra points if you're pulled over *right next to it* when you get the message but drive around the block because your phone thinks you're in the middle of Lake Union... the greek restaurant around the corner is nice, especially for flaming cheese and geeking out.


• Have coffee and donuts at Top Pot Donuts in Bellevue; choose carefully because I'm not sure if the chocolate glazed and the blueberry glazed and the raspberry iced are the only good ones, I have to taste the others to find out.


• Eat at at least two of the Essential Baking cafes; both have equally good coffee and bread and cakes and raisin pecan toast, the one near Fremont has better parking than the one on Madison.


• Eat comfort food at Malay Satay Hut; yam pot for me (it's more like a giant yam donut full of veggies and shrimp), mango chicken for Simon, spinach with garlic to keep away the vampires.


• Try just about everything on the menu at re:public. The tuna rillettes needs to be tasted before you go onto the confit pheasant and on balance the crispy pig tail is a little more awsome than the pig cheek and after the belly of beef with horseradish creme fraiche the sous vide chicken was too simple a flavour but the pumpkin torelloni with hazelnut and sausage was amazing and the spaghettini was amazing. Good bread, superb butter and nice pot au chocolat but the cinnamon apple fritters with honey and cream for dipping are worth licking your fingers for.

It may not sound like it but we've been enjoying staying in spiritmoving and elimloth's condo and being able to cook and heat leftovers and take a bath and read and work quietly; the only thing that would be nicer would be if they were here!