We finally got a lie-in! Since we weren’t staying at Izzy’s, we had time to waste, so, what better way than to catch up some much needed sleep? When we got up, I loaded some more pics (yes, we have a lot of photos!) and while Col was showering, the hairdresser called to tell me that my hairdresser had to cancel her appointments for the next day and that no one else could take me.
After about 15 minutes of being sad (I was desperate for a haircut!) and wondering how to fill our day, the guy called back and said they could fit us in at their downtown location with a different stylist – I jumped at the chance.
We had lunch at an Irish pub close to the hotel (complete with camogie stick door handles).
I don’t tend to like Irish pubs here in the US, but this one was pretty authentic as Irish pubs go and there was some close attention to detail.
The food was ok (fish was a little dry) and the staff was pretty unfriendly and made us feel like we were some kind of burden to them – our glasses sat empty a for ages (more than once!), AND they didn’t have vinegar! Fish and no vinegar? *shakes head*
We decided to check out the Aquarium in town since we’d no major plans for the afternoon. It was fun, it didn’t have a white tiger like Houston’s Aquarium (Col was very sad!) but it did have plenty to look at.
I fell in love with the Otters, I could have stood and watched them all day – the wee friggers were hard to get a good picture of since they didn’t stop for a second, but they were cute and funny!
After the aquarium, we went for a cuppa in a coffee house called Tullys, as soon as we sat down the server went around telling everyone they were closing in 10 minutes! What is it with this city? Everything closes so early!
It was the 2nd or 3rd place we’d closed out, which was sad cause the tea was actually pretty yummy – and they didn’t look at me like I was crazy when I asked for milk in it! (Texans think there’s only one kind of tea, the iced kind!)
What happened next was probably my favourite part of the trip! I have penpals, lots of them in fact, scattered across the world, who I write to on a regular basis. Most of them have been long-term penpals, some, as long as 5 years, some, even more!
Two of my penpals live in the Seattle area, Gen in Seattle itself, and Izzy up in Burlington – North of Seattle. A 3rd penpal of mine, Nicole, lives in Maine. She scheduled a weekend visit in Seattle to fall on our last weekend in Seattle and we’d all made a plan to meet up for dinner and drinks!
Gen chose the restaurant since it was on her turf – what a choice!
She picked an intimate restaurant called Bleu Bistro, it’s like lots of mini-restaurants. Each table has a curtain for privacy and it’s all very close and cosy, we had a bigger table cause we had 5 in our group – I’m not sure how well we’d have held up in one of the smaller booths.
The drinks menu was extensive, 5-odd pages and the names of the drinks cracked us all up. It took a good 20 minutes to settle on our drinks selections and all of us (except for Col) settled on a cocktail.
They were definitely a hit!
Food-wise, the restaurant was also a big hit! Col and I both ordered mac and cheese with chicken (he told the server that he picked it first and I copied him lol!) and it was delicious.
We chatted, we laughed, we took pics (not nearly enough!) and, when we were done, I decided I wanted ice cream! Being the localite, Gen took us to an independent ice cream parlour.
Actually, now I mention it, Seattle seems to have a lot of independent small businesses as opposed to Texas’s huge conglomerate, ‘chain’ society – it was an interesting and somewhat refreshing contrast.
The ice cream parlour, ‘Molly Moons’ is known for it’s somewhat bizarre flavours (Gen got honey and lavender) but it was delicious! I got 2 scoops (and could barely finish half of it!), I got a scoop of theo chocolate and a scoop of scout mint – with a crumbly girl scout cookie topping.
Col got a scoop each of maple walnut and vivaci coffee with a hot fudge topping – they all went down very, very well! We took some pictures before Izzy headed home and Col and I headed back to the hotel.
En route, we realised that we were going to do the Space Needle that night, turned around, parked up and walked right up to the needle door in the rain, before we discovered it was closed so we headed back to the hotel for the night and crashed – hard.
It was a day full of excitement and ‘new’ people and it is one that will go down as one of the most precious for me in 2011. I fully intend on meeting up with some more of my penpals – hopefully this year at some stage!
