Seattle

To celebrate the advent of my getting old and stuff, I took Friday off and went to Seattle. It was pretty cool. Seattle is a neat city. I went with The Jedi, a friend from the ward.

We went to the public market, or Pike's market. It's one enormous farmer's market, several stories high, that spans about 5 city blocks. We wandered around the shops and booths, buying various foodstuffs as we went. Foodstuffs I will now list just for Big Sis. :)
I got these wierd, soft fruitsticks from a fruitstand. They were okay. I also got a ham and cheese crepe, because I was starving for real food (it was our first stop after the plane ride) It was very good.

We found some amazing fried chicken across from a small bronze pig statue. A lady on the plane recommened it. It was right by the flinging fish stand, so she should have used that as a marker, although watching The Jedi walking up to random strangers and asking about the bronze pig in his thick Mexican accent was pretty dang funny.

The flinging fish stand looks like any other fish booth, with enormous dead fish on ice, looking up at you with their dead, googley eyes. However, when you order from the customer guy he turns around and yells the order ("Hallibut!, or as it sounded to me AALIBOOT!") back at the guy at the counter (ALLIBOOT!), who then yells at the stocker guy, (ALLIBOOT!) who then selects your order (AALIBOOOT!!) and you see this enormous silvery fish, flying gracefully through the air, it gets caught by counter guy, (AALIBOOOT!) who throws the fish to audience guy (ALLIBOOT!), who then wraps it up and hands it to the paying customer. It's hilarious.

But I digress.

We also got an enormous chocolate chip cookie, which was bigger than my two hands put together. We took it to a park (featuring a fine sampling of Seattle's crazy homeless and angry punk youth) and played cards until it was time to wander downtown and see Spiderman 3. Which was pretty good. I'll post my full review later.

Saturday we went back in and had brunch at the Space Needle. The restaurant revolves, making a full circuit every 50 minutes or so. It's moving fast enough that you get a slight vertigo sensation when you step on it and again while you take your seat. I had clam chowder (excellent) and the waiter whipped out a pepper grinder that was longer than my arm (would the Lady care for freshly ground pepper? Yes, the lady would!) Followed by a Belgian waffle with fruit, cream, and real maple syrup, with bacon and smoked sausage, followed by Bread pudding.
It was a set menu, so you get to pick one item from each category, alot like restaurant week actually.
While you eat, the restaurant revolves so you get to see the entire view of Seattle while you dine. Very pleasant.

Then we went to the sci fi museum, which didn't allow pictures (punks) so you'll just have imagine the glory that is the self destruct panel from the original Star Trek. They also had a still suit from Dune, and one of those funky voice weapon thingies (the wierding way) and a fremen knife.
After that we made our way to Pioneer Square, and took the underground Seattle tour. After a fire in the late 1800's the city rebuilt, raising the city 8-30 feet. You can still walk around the buired portions, and there are skylits in the sidewalk above, and you can see the people walking above you.
It was really cool.

We then made our way to the International District to check out a giant Asian market that was on our "Walking Seattle" map. It was a grocery store with paper lantern lights.
However, while we made our way back towards downtown we passed a store with something so awesome, you'll just have to wait for me to get home so I can post my photos. Words just won't do it justice.

We found a nice seafood restuarant (McCormick's) around 5ish. We walked in, and since it was still early there were two hostesses and several waiters lingering around the front podium. One of the guys says "Happy Cinco de Mayo, do you have a reservation." The Jedi replies "No, but I'm Mexican" in his best snooty tone. They all laughed and the guy said "well, in THAT case, you can have as much Mexican beer as you want, but I'll have to check on the table."

We got a table. I had fresh Alaskan Halibut (AALIBOOT!!) with a crushed Macadamian nut crust, served with a mango butter sauce and asparagus. Hmmm.

Sunday we flew home. Our connecting flight in Denver got delayed, so I didn't make it home til 2:30am. After an entirely too brief 4 hour nap, I got up and went to work. Not fun.