About two weeks ago J and I went to Seattle for a long weekend. Instead of writing a long missive (like I have for San Fran) I decided to let the pictures do most of the talking. It was a whirlwind visit. Flying from the East Coast to the West Coast twice now in four months has given me a new appreciation for folks who do the LA to NYC commute on the regular. It is rough. We couldn't have done the trip without J's dad. He flew down to Miami to take care of all of our fur babies while we were crossing the country.
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| For dinner our first night in town we went to The Brave Horse Tavern. I'd seen it on Unique Eats. They have communal seating, which is something a misanthrope like me would usually detest, but their Wisconsin-style cheese curds and dill-pickle dipping sauce helped me get over that quickly. J liked the artisinal beer selection. Look at my dopey face. Can you tell how much I liked this dish? |
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| Another picture of the glorious cheese curds and an excellent pretzel. I didn't care much for the pimento cheese spread, but J loved it. They have plenty of other spreads to try. We happened to get another soft pretzel at Schultzy's Sausage the next day. I can never get enough soft pretzels. |
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| J and I in front of Pike's Place Market. I could have spent hours there. Just down the hill I ran into one of the adjunct instructors from my department back in Miami. Go figure! We also saw a couple with an Italian Greyhound and a French Bulldog. I usually don't approach pet owners but I had to ask this couple and they were kind enough to answer our questions about how the Frenchie and Iggy got along (we've always wanted a Frenchie!). Their dogs (both boys) were so loving and gave me lots of kisses. It helped with the hole in my heart I had from being away from my girls. |
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| The famous fish throwers. |
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| Gorgeous flowers for a really reasonable price. |
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| Amazing selection of produce. I loved getting all of the samples. We only saw a small portion of the Public Market and I could have spent hours there. Maybe someday! |
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| My first chowder. Probably my last. I'm sure it was excellent. The place was packed despite the drizzly weather. This is actually a scallop chowder. I just don't like creamy based seafood dishes. | | | |
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| View from the 73rd floor of the Columbia Tower. It is cheaper than the Space Needle and higher up. It is a little odd to be walking through a business skyscraper on a weekend. Everything was eerily quiet and we weren't quiet sure we were headed in the right direction (we had to take two sets of elevators up). |
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| My only complaint with the Columbia Tower is that you cannot get a 360 degree view. But it is still spectacular. I never realized how big Seattle is. This pictures don't really do it justice. The mountains are incredible. |
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| Me looking over Puget Sound. |
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| The Famous Fremont Troll (seen in movies like 10 Things I Hate About You). I had to see this guy before we left. It was sort of in an odd location (in the midst of a neighborhood). He wasn't as big as I was expecting him to be, but he isn't as cute as I expected him to be either. Right before we found him we stopped at a place called Pie. I had an amazing Rhubarb Raspberry hand pie. Across the street I popped into a used book store called Ophelia's books. (This particular trip was a reading success for me because I finished two books!) |
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| From Fremont we walked all the way to Gasworks Park. It's a pretty neat park that has some old industrial complex/buildings around it. That's me way off in the distance. I added this picture because it epitomizes why Seattle is called the Emerald City. Living in Miami, I had forgotten what spring looked like. But I realized that after 21 years of living in Wisconsin, I had never seen a prettier, more story-book spring than a Seattle spring. It looked like a fairy tale come to life. Fall might have a run for it's money for my favorite season... |
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| Another view of downtown Seattle. This is from Gasworks Park. The Space Needle is on the right side. |
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| Gasworks Park and some of the structures there. It was pretty nippy noodles outside, but there were still plenty of folks playing. The sky was over-cast, but all in all, we had excellent weather for our trip. |
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I need to finish Part 2 of my San Fran post and post about my experience swimming with manatees! I have been busy volunteering at a local branch of my library in addition to taking steps and making decisions about our future (with J, of course). I've also been dealing with a very sick cat. Trini has lost all control of her bowel movements. We clean up after her and not five minutes later there is another puddle on the floor. This involves baths and drying her with a blow dryer. It is particularly messy because she has also stopped using her back legs entirely and she chooses to drag herself everywhere. Often times this leads to a puddle and then an extensive trail of urine through the apartment. After she is cleaned up then the floor needs to be mopped. I've made an appointment for her for a day that I had my own doctor's appointment. I am dealing with a lot of emotions on the matter of my life-long companion (19 and a half years old!). One emotion I feel in particular is frustration. For the last five months I have been in and out of the vet explaining how she has been rapidly and steadily declining (losing weight [6 lbs or less], urinating out of the litter box, hiding) and they insisted on tests, ultrasounds, and medications. They are excellent vets and I have been very pleased with every other situation we've been in, but I feel that the story of Trini has been unnecessarily prolonged in an undignified way. I feel terrible for her but on the other hand J and I are exhausted. After working full time, volunteering, and caring for my husband and fur-family I don't really want to blog. I'm taking the time to do this on a Sunday because it is the best time for me to do it.
(Please note, I almost never get comments on my blog, but I did turn off my comments on this post because I've talked about Trini ad nauseum to the people in my life who know about how much I care for her [J, my parents, my Gma F, a handful of friends, my coworkers] and that last paragraph was all I am going to say on the matter until we have a discussion with the vet. Thank you for respecting my wishes.)
