Husband and I are enjoying the state of Washington on our vacation in the Pacific Northwest, and here are some of my impressions of the Space Needle city:
1. Seattle is very clean. The fine for tossing a cigarette butt on the sidewalk is $250. If NYC had this law, we could have bailed out Wall Street without the Fed’s help.
2. Seattle is very white. The first ten houses on my block back in New York have more ethnic groups living in them than this entire city. A weekend in Seattle feels like you’re at a two-day NHL hockey game.
3. Seattle is walkable and accessible although insanely hilly. Your thighs will hate you and then love you. In between, you will hear them cry.
4. The people are friendly and comfortable and the food is exceptional.
5. No one wears bright colors.
6. What passes for heavy traffic is tame by NY standards in that the cars do eventually move, but parking is horrific no matter where you’re from.
Fortunately, we were on foot and the city buses are FREE, so in two days we managed to touch on every major neighborhood and do all the things on our list. My list, that is. Husband’s list consisted of “drink coffee” which is a gimme in Seattle. Espresso is the major local crop. Every business has ‘and espresso’ after it, as in ‘Car Wash and Espresso’, or ‘Nail Salon and Espresso’. By the end of our visit, we were expecting to see ‘No Parking and Espresso’.
The first of our memorable meals was at a spot called Sazerac in the downtown area. Our charming server responded to my request for something different by suggesting an amazing appetizer of bacon wrapped grilled dates filled with goat cheese. Husband said his free-range chicken with its moist meat and crispy skin was the best he could remember having. It came with an individual loaf pan of bread pudding-like stuffing redolent with onion and homey goodness. He had to keep pushing my fork aside. The creamy butterscotch/caramel cheesecake was also outstanding albeit another battle of the forks.
That night in our hotel room, we watched the vice presidential debate and I have to say Sarah Palin’s Joe-six-pack, hockey-mom around the kitchen table rhetoric almost brought my grilled dates back up. Yes, she’s glib and easy on the eyes – like my early boyfriends before I knew better – but the specter of her in the White House would mean another Bush-like administration warning us about the spread of all things nukular which has worn me out. It’s NUCLEAR, you boneheads. You can’t stop it if you can’t pronounce it.
Our plan after Seattle was to rent a car and head north to Canada, but the Weather Channel convinced us to head east for a better forecast. So we found ourselves in Yakima, Washington in yet another coffeehouse ordering cappuccino. At the table next to us were a couple of Joe-six-packs discussing their take on the debate, which was clearly different from my own. They were both in agreement that the best-case scenario would be for McCain to be elected, meet an unfortunate fate, and clear the way for President Palin. I could have sworn by then those grilled dates were long gone, but damn if I didn’t feel them coming back for an encore.
My snaps of Seattle give Daughter’s Featured Fotos the day off
needle in the rain
downtown congestion, ground and air
crayfish at pike place market
under the bridge troll
starbucks hq: pinky and the brain try to take over the world one bean at a time
Note: This entry marks the end of my second year writing this blog. I thank you all for reading and please stay tuned for season three.