Seattle/Oly Saturday

This Saturday was truly fantastic! I had the day completely off . . . no school, no work, no babysitting gigs, nothing. I decided the ideal way to celebrate would be getting up at 6am to go get my tires replaced. Yep, I sure know how to party. Actually, I just wanted to make sure I had time to get the tires replaced AND go to brunch with Kristine and Megan AND get down to Olympia in a timely fashion. It actually wasn't so bad . . . I dropped the Rufus (yeah, my car is named Rufus) off and spent a couple hours wandering around chilly, sleepy Ballard (I get Rufus's maintenance done at the Ballard Firestone . . . FYI, they've always done a really good job and I highly recommend them). Here's a couple of things I saw during my wanderings:

The Ballard Sip and Ship: A coffee house/post office. It wasn't open, but it looked really cute, so I googled it just now. Apparently, they serve Batdorf and Bronson coffee/espresso, as well as sandwiches and pastries, and also run a full-service post office and sell cards, gift wrap, and knicknacks. I've never heard of anything like that before; I will definitely be checking it out soon!

Carnegie's, a restaurant/bar in an old Carnegie Library building. So cool! I am definitely going there sometime!

So anyway, my original plan for my walk was to end up in Cafe Besalu, but it was too far and I was too cold, so I ended up popping into a Tully's instead. I had some coffee and hung out for awhile, and just as I was finishing my coffee Firestone called to tell me my tires were done, so I headed back, got the car, and went to meet Megan and Kristine for brunch!

We drove to Belltown and went to the Bang Bang cafe. It was excellent! Tasty, healthy, inexpensive breakfast burritios, lots of vegetarian options, but some meat stuff, too, if you're into that, and good coffee. We met the owner (well, Megan and I met her; Kristine already had), and she was really nice and friendly. Plus, it's just cool to go into a restuarant and the owner's right there, taking orders and making drinks just like the rest of the staff. Plus, she remembered Kristine on sight, which is pretty impressive considering the amount of people she must see every day.

After brunch I took off for Olympia, and spend a cozy, rainy afternoon with my aunt and cousin at RC Ridge. I've been going to RC ridge since I was a kid, but I still have trouble describing exactly what it is to people. So there's this married couple, two really awesome people, and quite a long time ago they built this big treehouse type thing in the woods in Olympia. The husband takes photographs in his studio in the basement (it's where we've gotten all our family pictures done since I was little). Upstairs, there's homemade rootbeer, soup, and other delicious goodies. There's also a shop with beautiful jewelry and other treasures, and wonderful company and conversation. The wife (I don't know if she'd like me sharing their names on the internet so I'll just call her "The Goddess" since she jokes that her husband's the boss, but she's the goddess) is like the ultimate hostess . . . she introduces everyone to everyone else, makes everyone feel comfortable, welcome, and loved, and organizes crafts/parties/treasure hunts from time to time. RC ridge isn't open to the public; it's just friends, and friends bring their friends, etc. Most of the time when we go there we don't get pictures done or buy anything, we just hang out. Today, everyone was doing collage valentines -- making collages from magazines and putting them on little doilies which the Goddess then hung on the windows. It was so much fun . . . they are lovely people and I was so glad I got to see them today.

After RC Ridge came a deliciously fattening Red Robin dinner and then I drove home. Now I'm sleepy, and happy, and not especially excited about a day of studying and work tomorrow . . . today was like a mini-vacation, and I'm not sure I'm ready for it to be done.

Besalu Deliciousness

I went to Cafe Besalu, in Ballard, today, for the first time in a really long while. I'd forgotten how much I love it! My quasi-uncle Andy (he was actually my mother's best friend, they knew each other since high school, but he's like family), introduced me to it right after I moved to Seattle. He's been going there since they opened, so he knows the owner and a lot of the staff. The owner's name is James, he has a philosophy degree (random), and he's super nice. Anyway, Besalu has great coffee and DELICIOUS pastry. I had a blueberry danish today, and I also really love their ginger biscuits and nectarine tart . . . everything there is amazing. So go! They're closed for the next two weeks because James and his wife are going on vacation, but normally they're open Wednesday-Sunday from 7am-3pm. There's sometimes a really line, but it's well worth it, and also they're right next to the Java Bean, which also has really good coffee and shorter lines, so some people buy Java Bean coffee while they wait in line for Besalu (which has better coffee and infinitely better pastry).

My fabulous day in Pike Place Market

On Saturday, the lovely Megan and I headed down to Pike Place Market to enjoy Seattle in the sunshine (when that happens, you take advantage of it!). We had a great time, and hit up some really cool places, so I thought I'd share some photos:

"Sisters," where we had lunch. This place rocks! It's in Post Alley, and it's a pretty tiny place, like most places in Post Alley, but man, their tomato and mozzarella paninis are excellent! Plus, it's an open cafe . . . there's basically no front wall or window; if you're sitting at the counter, you're practically outside. There are actual tables outside, too, which is where Megan and I sat, and what with being on a cobblestone street, and having a street performer not five feet from us, we both agreed that it felt a little like being in Europe. And hey, who doesn't love a chance to pretend they're in Europe


After lunch, we grabbed some iced coffee at Local Color. It's Megan's favorite coffee place, and would be one of mine, except I don't like it that their 120z beverage only contains one shot (I feel like every espresso drink should have at least two shots in it, but that may be just me). Aside from that, though, it is truly excellent. Good coffee, if you pay the extra 55 cents or whatever for the extra shot, and lots of pretty quality art by local artists on the walls, often Seattle-themed. I've never once gone in there and not felt compelled to hang around and check out all the pictures, and have more than once considered buying something (never have, though).


We went to this little bookstore in the downstairs part of the market . . . I wanted to live there! I couldn't find a sign to take a picture of, and actually didn't know what it was called until just recently: it's the Lionheart Bookstore. It has lots of used and new books at really good prices; I got a copy of Animal Dreams by Barbara Kingsolver in perfect condition for $7.50. They sell a lot of the Dover Thrift Editions of the classics; they're all around $3.00 NEW, which is pretty rocking in my opinion. And the guy who was behind the counter when we were there (I think he must be the owner) is friendly and hilarious. He calls out random things to you while you're shopping, like quotes from the books you're looking at, or, in my case, when I was looking at a journal "Young lady, that journal has a secret pocket!" The way he said it cracked both Megan and me up. But anyway, since I couldn't find a good sign to photograph, I just photographed the front of the store. And yes, that is the children's classic Everyone Poops in the window. We debated buying it and reading it to Megan's class of prekindergarteners . . . that wouldn't cause a full-scale riot of five-year-old giggling or anything.

We got some ice cream, sat by the water, and watched the boats.


And on our way out we stopped to watch these guys . . . my favorite street performers EVER. These guys are amazing; I see them almost every time I go to the market. They're an a cappella group called A Moment in Time, and they sing oldies songs like "My Girl" and "Somebody to Lean On" and they usually attact a pretty sizeable crowd.


So the moral of the story is that every day should be a sunny Saturday in Seattle spent wandering the market with an awesome friend :).

Pictures from Saturday's kayaking trip

I went kayaking on Saturday and, thanks to the dry bag my aunt got me for Christmas, I was able to take a few pictures! What's lame, though, is that even I went through the Arboretum, and it was beautiful, and I saw a blue heron up closer that I've ever seen one before, my stupid camera batteries died before I actually got into the Arboretum itself, so I missed some excellent photo opportunities. But anyways, these are pretty.

I've always wanted to do this to a sign . . .

. . . but it looks like someone beat me to it. This is the stop sign at 40th and Brooklyn in the U-District, near the UW Steven's court apartments, and it makes me smile every time I walk/drive by it.