Seattle
This week has seriously gotten away from me. We got back from Seattle on Monday and I have been studiously ignoring my homework all week. It's a good think I don't have a job because I'm going to need all weekend to make up for my procrastination. I've *finally* finished processing my photos and have uploaded them to flickr. I'm learning how to use Adobe Lightroom (love it) so some of the colors might be just a wee bit over-saturated. If I had a job, I'd get some software to synch my monitor colors, but I'm on an extremely restricted budget at the moment. I also really want a new laptop and Adobe CS 3, but that's just a dream right now.
The job search is a little bit depressing....I get teasers of interest, but nothing beyond that. Right now, my experience is just too generalized, which SUCKS. Something will come along, but I wish it would come along more quickly. Ideally, I'd love for it to come along before my SILs bachelorette party because I really don't want to drive 3.5 hours up to Windsor, Canada for an overnighter.
Anyway. Seattle. It was AWESOME. The weather was fabulous, the food was fabulous, it was great to see our friends. We ate our way through the city. It was awesome. Both Erin and I had armed ourselves with a list of restaurants we wanted to hit, so I'd say we did a good job on the food department. To start, we stayed at The Ace Hotel, which describes their clientele as Urban Nomads. They have two different levels of rooms, some with shared baths and some with private baths. Because Bill and I were on a budget (although our food bills would tell you differently), we opted for a room with a shared bath and for $99/night you can't find a better location. We were seriously within blocks everything, plus we had a bus stop right outside the hotel door which was in the ride free zone. The hotel has won some design and architectural awards, it has this really cool modern, minimal design. The staff was really friendly, although not the most knowledgeable.
The funniest part of the hotel was the copy of the Kama Sutra and condoms that they leave in each room.
Belltown, the neighborhood we were staying in is this hip, quirky, young part of Seattle that has a lot of restaurants and bars with newly renovated condos. It is blocks from the Space Needle and Pike Place Market. Love it.
Food-wise, this trip was all about the seafood. We went to Flying Fish, an incredible seafood restaurant in Belltown and ate way too much. Bill and I shared the seared sea scallops appetizer with crispy prosciutto and our friends, Erin and James shared the ahi tuna poke. For the main course, I had an Alaskan salmon dish that I don't see on the menu, which was fabulous. Bill had steak (at a seafood restaurant!) that was actually really really yummy...melt in your mouth delish. I forget what Erin and James got. Despite being completely stuffed, I ended up getting a dessert.... a frozen lemon cheesecake mousse thingy that I don't see on the menu, but it was YUM. They also had this FANTASTIC lime/basil martini that was really incredible. Basil was a re-occurring theme throughout this trip, I had another dish later on in the trip that included basil when you wouldn't expect it to.
We took the trip over to Alki Beach on Saturday and while we were there we ate lunch at Duke's Chowder House. This was one of the places that neither Erin or I had researched and we were lucky enough to make a good pick. All four of us split the steamers as an appetizer, which were delish. They had huge cloves of roasted garlic in the broth. Then, I had a wild mixed greens salad with candied pecans, blue cheese and orange and grapefruit segments and finally I had the chowder sampler with Dungeness crab and bourbon chowder, Northwest seafood chowder (more of a cioppino), Duke's award winning clam chowder, and Lobster pernod chowder. Of the four, my two favorites were the crab and the clam chowder. Bill got fish and chips which were definitely some of the best I've had, but not the best we had on the trip, then Erin and James both had the blackened salmon club and a side of chowder.
That evening, we went for sushi. We went to Umi Sake House and while the fish was incredibly fresh and the sake was really good (we got an unfiltered sake that had tropical overtones--banana and pineapple), my one complaint was that they used too much mayonaise and sauce in the mixes. The nigiri was better for the most part and I especially enjoyed the red salmon nigiri and the uni (sea urchin) nigiri.
We also went to Steelhead Diner which is located right at Pike Place Market. It was a bit pricey for a restaurant with diner in the name, but the food was fantastic. Again, we were all about the seafood. Both couple each split the crab cake are a starter (huuuge chunks of dungeness crab) and then I had the crab roll and Bill had some of the best fish (Alaskan ling cod, a rock fish that is super flaky and mild) and chips I've ever had. My sandwich was fantastic too, crab with cheese and bacon on a crunchy baguette. Everyone else was drinking the yummy microbrews that are so outstanding in Seattle, but my stomach kept on getting upset whenever I had my own, so I ended up drinking pomegranite caiperegnas (sp) and I got a little loopy. I had strawberry shortcake with an amazing basil simple syrup for dessert. I am now on a quest to recreate that basil simple syrup. Oh so good.
The only other place to mention is The Pike Pub and Brewery for their microbrews. The food was good...not outstanding, but good. I had a salmon sandwich and Bill had a burger. Their artichoke crab dip was our favorite dish we had there.
I do have pictures of what we did, but I wanted to get the food review out of the way first.
The job search is a little bit depressing....I get teasers of interest, but nothing beyond that. Right now, my experience is just too generalized, which SUCKS. Something will come along, but I wish it would come along more quickly. Ideally, I'd love for it to come along before my SILs bachelorette party because I really don't want to drive 3.5 hours up to Windsor, Canada for an overnighter.
Anyway. Seattle. It was AWESOME. The weather was fabulous, the food was fabulous, it was great to see our friends. We ate our way through the city. It was awesome. Both Erin and I had armed ourselves with a list of restaurants we wanted to hit, so I'd say we did a good job on the food department. To start, we stayed at The Ace Hotel, which describes their clientele as Urban Nomads. They have two different levels of rooms, some with shared baths and some with private baths. Because Bill and I were on a budget (although our food bills would tell you differently), we opted for a room with a shared bath and for $99/night you can't find a better location. We were seriously within blocks everything, plus we had a bus stop right outside the hotel door which was in the ride free zone. The hotel has won some design and architectural awards, it has this really cool modern, minimal design. The staff was really friendly, although not the most knowledgeable.
The funniest part of the hotel was the copy of the Kama Sutra and condoms that they leave in each room.
Belltown, the neighborhood we were staying in is this hip, quirky, young part of Seattle that has a lot of restaurants and bars with newly renovated condos. It is blocks from the Space Needle and Pike Place Market. Love it.
Food-wise, this trip was all about the seafood. We went to Flying Fish, an incredible seafood restaurant in Belltown and ate way too much. Bill and I shared the seared sea scallops appetizer with crispy prosciutto and our friends, Erin and James shared the ahi tuna poke. For the main course, I had an Alaskan salmon dish that I don't see on the menu, which was fabulous. Bill had steak (at a seafood restaurant!) that was actually really really yummy...melt in your mouth delish. I forget what Erin and James got. Despite being completely stuffed, I ended up getting a dessert.... a frozen lemon cheesecake mousse thingy that I don't see on the menu, but it was YUM. They also had this FANTASTIC lime/basil martini that was really incredible. Basil was a re-occurring theme throughout this trip, I had another dish later on in the trip that included basil when you wouldn't expect it to.
We took the trip over to Alki Beach on Saturday and while we were there we ate lunch at Duke's Chowder House. This was one of the places that neither Erin or I had researched and we were lucky enough to make a good pick. All four of us split the steamers as an appetizer, which were delish. They had huge cloves of roasted garlic in the broth. Then, I had a wild mixed greens salad with candied pecans, blue cheese and orange and grapefruit segments and finally I had the chowder sampler with Dungeness crab and bourbon chowder, Northwest seafood chowder (more of a cioppino), Duke's award winning clam chowder, and Lobster pernod chowder. Of the four, my two favorites were the crab and the clam chowder. Bill got fish and chips which were definitely some of the best I've had, but not the best we had on the trip, then Erin and James both had the blackened salmon club and a side of chowder.
That evening, we went for sushi. We went to Umi Sake House and while the fish was incredibly fresh and the sake was really good (we got an unfiltered sake that had tropical overtones--banana and pineapple), my one complaint was that they used too much mayonaise and sauce in the mixes. The nigiri was better for the most part and I especially enjoyed the red salmon nigiri and the uni (sea urchin) nigiri.
We also went to Steelhead Diner which is located right at Pike Place Market. It was a bit pricey for a restaurant with diner in the name, but the food was fantastic. Again, we were all about the seafood. Both couple each split the crab cake are a starter (huuuge chunks of dungeness crab) and then I had the crab roll and Bill had some of the best fish (Alaskan ling cod, a rock fish that is super flaky and mild) and chips I've ever had. My sandwich was fantastic too, crab with cheese and bacon on a crunchy baguette. Everyone else was drinking the yummy microbrews that are so outstanding in Seattle, but my stomach kept on getting upset whenever I had my own, so I ended up drinking pomegranite caiperegnas (sp) and I got a little loopy. I had strawberry shortcake with an amazing basil simple syrup for dessert. I am now on a quest to recreate that basil simple syrup. Oh so good.
The only other place to mention is The Pike Pub and Brewery for their microbrews. The food was good...not outstanding, but good. I had a salmon sandwich and Bill had a burger. Their artichoke crab dip was our favorite dish we had there.
I do have pictures of what we did, but I wanted to get the food review out of the way first.