The Millers truly got the Seattle experience during the visit with us this past weekend; rain, wine, sun, ferry ride, food, rain…and it was really a great visit with them. They just may never be coming back in February! Actually, the forecast screamed rain but they actually lucked out with fairly good weather this time of year.
Thursday afternoon the Millers arrived in Seattle, taking the light rail to downtown and a taxi to our house to (I’m sure) eagerly await our arrival home from work. We caught up at home with one another before setting out for dinner. Instead of doing FareStart like planned (poor restaurant and menu for the night) we decided to take them back to Annapurna, where even Bryan and I hadn’t been for nearly a year now. We had a great, casual meal together filled with four different kinds of curries and garlic naan and cleared the table. We returned home to watch The Intern on Redbox which was quite enjoyable.
On Friday, Bryan and I still had to work to save that much-needed vacation time for the year. The Millers used the day to get lunch in the Market and then explored the Aquarium. Friday night we got tickets to see How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying at the 5th Avenue Theater. The show was at 8 pm so we got dinner before the show at Tom Douglas’ The Carlile Room. Having only been for lunch before we learned the dinner service was quite a bit different but equally delicious. Their menu is meant to be shared so we ordered regular size servings of the filet mignon, sides of the seared tuna and roasted pork loin with chorizo and then three vegetable sides of their coal roasted carrots with a beet yogurt and feta cheese, roasted cauliflower head in a lobster broth with fregola sarda (mini pasta balls), and the roasted beets. All was very enjoyable and fun to share and try a bunch of different things. The show was really delightful, witty, funny, and colorful. Bryan and I both could relate a bit with the “business” aspect to it all and we both loved the Mad Men-like qualities to the show.
Saturday was the one ultra sunny day of their entire trip. We had breakfast of Bryan’s banana pancakes and bacon and eggs at home. We took our time in the morning and Bryan and I skirted out to Lake Washington to run around Seward Park for the first time in six weeks. We hurried back and set out for the ferry terminal. It was a beautiful late afternoon ferry ride over to Bainbridge Island.
Once ashore we drove to Poulsbo, did some browsing in the cute Scandinavian shops there and then headed to the upstairs loft of Tizley’s Europub for the family platter of Bavarian delicacies. We were all pretty hungry and with European beers and a freshly made delicious Bavarian pretzel we waited for our platter. Out it came with pork schnitzel, sausage, chicken goulash, spatzle and red cabbage. We also ordered sides of German potato salad and saurkraut. All of it was delicious and we somehow managed to finish the entire table of food. Stuffed to the gills and happy we continued our stroll down Poulsbo to Mora Iced Creamery for small cups of ice cream for all of us. We hurried back to the Bainbridge ferry to miraculously make a late ferry, drove home, had glasses of Lagavulin scotch, and Netflix and chilled.
Sunday was our last real day with the Millers. We all woke and dressed for church. The service was a good one and I think we all left church feeling and thinking differently than when we got there. We drove down the street for brunch at The 5 Spot which ended up being a great decision. The Millers shared the chicken fried steak and eggs, I got the special of tomato and mushroom ragout on a griddled polenta cake and two poached eggs, and Bryan was thrilled with his huevos rancheros. Trish and I moved on down the hill to get some pedicures (and me a manicure) while the boys headed back up the hill for a “heart to heart”.
After us girls were beautified the boys picked us up and we headed out to Woodinville to do some wine tasting. We stopped at our wine club Januik Novelty Hill to get treated to four samples of delicious wines, spent a while chatting, and then finally picked up our wine membership quarterly case and a few individuals for Lon and Trish. We moved on next to the REI flagship store. Trish picked out a beautiful red hooded long rain jacket that looked stunning on her. Bryan looked at skis but without success and the Millers are contemplating some Fitbits of their own. We finally headed back home where Bryan started on making his famous Callalloo stew for the four of us. The stew came out great and paired perfectly with the cooler, damp evening and in conjunction with watching The Kingsman. We ended the night with chocolate and strawberry puddings and said our goodnights and equally our goodbyes.
It was a short but sweet trip that we had with Lon and Trish and we are so happy and lucky that they were able to come out and see us in Seattle. We realize that the next time we see them we will be steps away from being wed. Hopefully the next five months go by in a flash…but I think they will!
Chelsea
Evolving in the Emerald City 