Wednesday, August 6, 2008

How I Spent My Summer Vacation

SUNDAY - July 27, 2008

Since we girls were in the “penthouse” with no ETD , we took our time readying. Debbie, the always early riser, may have grown impatient with me, the lolligagger. None the less, we departed the Penthouse at a very reasonable, early hour. Our destination was downtown Seattle.

Debbie was very familiar with the neighborhood, and I just nodded in agreement as to where we’d park, etc,. I love this about cities in Washington State, that they agree to waive the parking fees on Sundays. What a cool thing for cities to do. Debbie found a good spot ..FREE!… near the Space Needle. We bought a round trip ticket on the monorail and then progressed to the Pike Place Market!

 

 

 

I LOVED!!! The Market!!!

God, I loved it! We had so much fun!!

Sampling all the fruits and veggies and nuts and candies didn’t dent the appetite we had, so we entered a restaurant whose name escapes me, unfortunately. But the cuisine was Bolivian. We had a great seat overlooking the Market.

 

 

We both ordered the Paella, and I ordered a mojito and Debbie ordered a marguerita. Absolutely superb, all around. The saffron rice was rich and delicious, the mussels tender and the chicken perfectly roasted. (If you’ve been reading these entries, you may think that we live to eat!! Lol!)

We left the market and headed down to Pioneer Square. We took a city bus and strolled in and out of various shops. We entered one antique shopthat seemed to go on forever; each room and another room off of it and so on. The shop was filled with so much, it was almost overwhelming. I spotted two pieces of jewelry that caught my eye. Some of you may know about me that I collect, and love to wear, bug pins. It started back in about 1990, after the death of my mother-in-law, Gloria. I inherited many pieces of her jewelry, and she had a couple of very interesting pins - a spider, a wasp, a bee. These pins were of the finest metal and stones - not costume jewelry at all - but I carried the theme with me to present day. So, I’ve digressed, only to tell you that there were two pieces of jewelry in this shop that I had to investigate. One was only partially visible, so I asked the shopkeeper to unlock the case so that I could see it. It was a spider pin. It was rather large for my taste, but appeared to be sterling silver with (probably) rhinestones inlaid on the ends of its legs. The body was a turquoise stone. The price tag was much too high for a piece that only somewhat appealed to me. I asked to see the other piece - in a different jewelry case, of course. This also was a spider pin. The body was a beautiful blush-pearl stone. It was nearly as large as the other spider pin, and not quite as pricey. But it had eyes and a ring around its neck that looked painted on, and almost carnival in its style. It didn’t seem to fit. I thanked the shopkeeper, but declined the purchase. Debbie was sitting in a chair waiting for me, I suspected. We had been on our feet a very very long time.

The Underground Tour of Seattle took place next door and it was one “attraction” that I thought would be interesting. It toured Seattle before the great fire in 1889 or something (don’t quote me). The tour was $30, and our feet were pretty tired. As we passed the entrance way, there were several “characters” hanging around the entrance, and we sort of put together the cost, the tiredeness of our feet, and the seediness of the area and decided we’d like to go sit down and have a cold beer.

We walked into a tavern, restaurant called Mitchelli’s which touted the world’s best Italian beer, or something. Sounded great to us. We took seats at the bar and ordered two drafts. We discussed how we’d spend the rest of our evening, even though by now it was probably 4:30 or 5:00. We talked about maybe taking in a movie, and the bartender was very friendly and helpful in showing us the local “what’s happening” newspaper tabloid with movie listings and times.

We left Pioneer Square, taking the bus back to downtown Seattle, taking the monorail back to the car, and driving back toward Bellevue. We passed through the downtown area and parked near Lincoln Square. We entered the several story shopping extravaganza-type building that housed the cinemas. Nothing seemed to appeal to us in terms of content and times. We hemmed and hawed, and decided to leave.

Driving back to our “Penthouse’ <giggle!> I asked Debbie if she could stop somewhere to purchase a bottle of wine. As we passed a “World Market”, Debbie said that I just had to see this place. She was right, it was awesome. I admittedly got carried away, but left the store with a bottle of local Washington State red, a bottle of local Washington State white, a couple of wedges of local cheeses (one goat, and one sheep - I think..?) a loaf of freshly baked bread and some marinated olives. Yummy. (this would be dinner!)

We returned to our “penthouse”, kicked off shoes, washed up, lit the fire in the fireplace, sliced the cheese, tore the bread and uncorked the wine. We spent several hours in great conversation, drinking, eating and relaxing. A great end to a great day.

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