Seattle!

Guys, going back to work is super hard after vacation. So, I'll attempt to relive my short vacation post-staycation last week!

A and I ventured up to Seattle for a long weekend, starting off super early on Friday morning so as to get a full day in Seattle on Friday. The first day, we set off from his friend's condo, walking about 1.5-2 miles from there to Pike Place Market. We took the Elliot Bay Trail there, a scenic trail right on the water, with plenty of awesome views of downtown Seattle, as well as the ferries shuttling folks from Seattle to some of the surrounding islands.

I did a 6-mile run back and forth on this trail on Saturday morning as well, before the rain hit. Beautiful!


I also took a little time to show my appreciation for Seattle's local football team.

(see: billboard behind me)

We arrived at Pike Place Market, where I got friendly with Rachel the Pig - actually a piggy bank that accepts donations!

We checked out the shops at Pike Place Market, and rewarded ourselves for the long walk there with freshly made mini-donuts from a little cart at the market. We had maple, chocolate sprinkles, and powdered. YUM.

We stopped at Serious Pie for lunch on recommendation of A's friend, and got some fennel sausage pizza and salad. Delicious, thin-crust, perfect! We both loved it.

On the advice of A's friend, we went to go see the city views from the Sky View Observatory in the Columbia Center in Downtown Seattle rather than going up the more famous Space Needle. For one, there was no time limit in the Sky View Observatory, it was significantly cheaper, and at 73 stories up, is actually the highest view you can get in Seattle! We looked DOWN at the Space Needle from there!

We even caught a little napping and reading time in the comfy chairs at the observatory. :)


Some more appreciation for the local football.

We DID go to Seattle Center, home of the Space Needle, to get some must-do Seattle touristing out of the way. Since it cost $20+ per person to do pretty much anything in the Seattle Center, we opted to do the self-guided walking tour, and catch some sun (I know, sun! In Seattle! We brought it with us from CA, obviously...) on the lawn outside the Chihuly Museum.

We went home and cooked dinner - well, A's friend Mark cooked dinner. We sorta helped. Kinda. Mostly it was Mark. But I took a picture! Homemade fish tacos, yummmmm.

...and then, began the drinking.



On Friday night, we hit Rooftop Brewery's tasting room, which is literally in a garage and pretty awesome. I had a I got to see my dear friend Elyce and her boyfriend, so that was amazing! I tried some special Schilling Cider that was on tap there as well. Yum.

After Rooftop, we drove to Kerry Park for the views.

Then Saturday was a big drinking day. We started off doing a distillery tour with Local Craft, where we basically sat in a big van with cocktails in jars, eating a few snacks (fancy popcorn, sausage, and a surprisingly good mini maple bacon cupcake), being shuttled from one little local distillery to the next. There has been a boom of craft distilleries in Seattle recently, meaning distilleries that use more than 50% local ingredients and have some rules about how much they can produce or something. Very cool!


1st Stop: Sound Spirits. Guess what? I actually like gin when it's not shitty gin! I enjoyed theirs, and I'm still thinking about their Depth Cacao Liqueur.

2nd Stop: Fremont Mischief. Fremont is an adorable neighborhood in Seattle. The lovely folks at Mischief poured a little more in our tasting cups, and as it turns out, I also enjoy non-shitty vodka. I liked the unfiltered types. Mike, the owner/distiller, also poured us a little unofficial tasting of 150 (or something) proof whiskey. Whew. He is also a former fisherman, so all the machinery in their distillery is named like boats. Cute!

3rd stop: Letterpress Distillery. Also literally in a garage, low key, and awesome. Their specialty is limoncello, and YUM it was awesome.

After that, we got to see Elyce again, and went on a Brewery crawl set up for a friend of hers in Ballard, another cute neighborhood. We hit Stoup, Populuxe, and Peddler. Highlight for me was definitely a belgian spice at Peddler that, as the bartender had told me, "tastes like Christmas."

Aaaaand that night we drank more beer and ate cake.



As the full day of drinking took a lot out of us, we took it a bit easier Sunday. I managed to crawl out of bed to a little local place called Starbucks around 11:30, and luckily, A's friend Mark had omelettes and bagels ready for breakfast. Yummmmm.

We wandered over to Fremont again after breakfast to see what will one day be the Schilling Cider tasting room, and checked out the Fremont Sunday Market. Lots of very cute local stuff. We sampled some local homemade marshmallows, and Mark bought some in the chocolate-covered cherry flavor. Delish.

Mark had to go to Woodinville for a meeting, a little town outside Seattle where a lot of vineyards are located. So, I managed to not die while wine-tasting at Columbia. We also went to see Woodinville Whiskey, but sadly, it was closed for Easter Sunday.

We finished off that night with dinner in Queen Anne, and cupcakes from Cupcake Royale. Mine was carrot with maple cream cheese frosting!

So overall, we had an amazing trip - can't wait to go back! Although next time, I might not plan to drink for 12 hours straight. My booze stamina is not at all what it used to be.

Bye Seattle!

SPRING BREAK SPRING BREAK SPRING BREAK

It has finally arrived! Although it's been feeling a lot like summer 'round these parts recently. Hawt.



I started off Spring Break by making a couple new recipes. First of all, I've been seeing lots of chia seed pudding recipes popping up on Pinterest, so I decided to try making my own, as I had just bought a bag of chia seeds on sale.

I tried this recipe from Food Doodles, and it was pretty good! I probably wouldn't use brown rice syrup if I were to make it again, but it was an easy and yummy treat.

I also made flax pizza crust, on recommendation from my sister! As she mentioned, it was definitely easier to make than cauliflower crust. I had flax SEED and not flax meal at first, so I had to grind up the seeds in my Cuisinart first. Took a long time, but worth it!

Since when given a choice, I wouldn't make one, I put EVERYTHING on the pizza.

It definitely had a "healthy" taste to the crust, but it was delicious and very filling.




I was also very excited to get to the city a few different times at the beginning of break! I went to brunch with some wonderful high school friends, and we got a delicious brunch (mine was a brown rice bowl with black beans, eggs, and salsa - similar to huevos rancheros!) and had a nice walk along the beach.

I went to my first Giants game of the season thanks to one of A's clients getting us amazing seats - and we won in the 10th!

I also got to see Gabby, who I've reconnected with over running and blogging, and take a run with her around Golden Gate Park! Beautiful run, and it was fun to catch up!

It was also fun to do a little touring around in my own city. We saw the famous Painted Ladies in Alamo Square, and went to Three Twins and got ice cream. Mine was chai and a chocolate orange. Delicious!

So with the Summer coming up, so comes a mountain of other stuff - graduations, weddings, vacations. All exciting stuff! That, plus A and I just celebrated one year together today - very exciting. And on Friday, we are off to Seattle!

At my therapist's urging, I'm not only supposed to be taking a break from work this week, but also a bit of a break from worrying so much about food, how I look, when and what I'm going to eat, and the rest. So I'm just trying to have a restful, fun, and stress-free (as much as that is possible!) week.

Ahhhhh. It's nice!

Have a wonderful week everyone!