adventures in seattle

took a little getaway to seattle a couple weekends ago. it was full of adventures and tons and tons of (over) eating. i've had a love affair with seattle since the first time i visited two years ago, and it's probably my perfect little getaway city. i still haven't recovered and am having trouble adjusting to reality.

here's a little long rundown of our trip!

first stop upon arriving: macrina bakery.

my travel companion had mentioned this place to me and i had been reading about it, and it was near where we were staying so we made it our first stop. there were soooo many delicious-looking pastries, and i wanted to try them all!!

lunch was a meat sandwich of some sort (i can't remember what was in it, ooops) and a quiche. i also got myself a nutella brioche, which was tasty. we also ended up making a return trip later that weekend, and i got a delicious hazelnut orange pinwheel pastry and a spinach pastry as well.

we walked up the waterfront up towards the olympic sculpture park. the weather that weekend was PERFECT - mid-70s to low-80s every day (warmer than san francisco!). this view of the cascades was pretty awesome...

the olympic sculpture park is one of my favorite places in seattle. it's the perfect spot for a nice little walk, and the beautiful weather made it even better (last time i went, it was misty). and that ampersand sculpture is my favorite thing there.

took a little break, then drove up to capitol hill. it's probably my favorite neighborhood in seattle, mostly because that's where i seem to find the best food and coffee. it's where my favorite coffee shop in the world - espresso vivace - is located.

oh, vivace. you are the best.

dinner that night was at poppy, which i ate at the last time i was in town, and has become another one of my seattle favorites.

isn't the branding awesome? their cocktails are also tasty, and i looooove the little thali concept (thalis are a southern indian platter that is a collection of small dishes).

i went ahead and ordered a 10-item thali, and went the veggie route. lots of deliciousness, including a paneer dish, and a goat cheese ravioli, among other goodness. we also HAD to get the cute little dessert thali - lots of sweet treats!

the next morning, we headed back out to capitol hill and hit up crumble & flake. this was highly anticipated, as it came highly recommended by my foodie friend trisha, and because i spent a good two weeks drooling over the photos of the pastries on yelp.

their pistachio croissants are AMAZING, and their macarons were some of the best i've ever had (they have a really bomb strawberry cheesecake one). my travel companion said they had the best croissant he's ever had. we loved it so much that ended up going back the next day, and now i'm having withdrawals. sigh.

we had a little bit of time to kill before brunch, so what better thing to do than eat more - this time, at top pot, another seattle fave of mine!

they have the bestest old-fashioned style donuts there. had a salted caramel one this time...it was quite delicious.

brunch was at lola. i am a huuuuuuge tom douglas fan (that man can do no wrong in my eyes), and i enjoyed lola when i went for lunch. however, the last 3 friends of mine who went to seattle all went to lola for brunch and loved it, so i decided that i had to try the brunch there too.

i had an omelette, with feta, nettles, caramelized onions, and mint. it was a great combination of flavors - that mint made it really different, but it was the perfect touch. travel companion had a lamb burger.

we headed over to the seattle center, and made a stop at EMP.

they had some cool stuff, like a fantasy exhibit and a video game exhibit, in which they let you play on game consoles from throughout the years. it made me want to play super mario bros. allllll day long. some of the hands-on activities were fun too, though i found out that i suck at playing drums.

and this sculpture was really cool.

probably the coolest thing i did on the trip was go to the chihuly garden and glass. i've always been a dale chihuly fan (the glass ceiling in the lobby of the bellagio is my favorite), and so i knew this was going to be a must-visit.

lots of amazing glass sculptures. i also loved the reflections the lights cast on the wall here:

the glass house, and how the glass flowers frame the space needle was pretty freaking awesome, and probably my favorite in the entire museum. apparently, the lighting from the time of day changes the look and feel. next time, i want to see this at night.

we then headed to bathtub gin for a little afternoon cocktail. it's a tiny little speakeasy that you enter through an alley in belltown, with very well-crafted cocktails. we did the dealer's choice, where you choose your base alcohol and then choose between sassy, sweet or savory. i went with gin and sweet, and the bartender whipped me up an amazing concoction with some peach in it. he was pretty awesome and we had an awesome time chatting him up. i must say that the drinks here are STRONG.

dinner the second night was at tavolata, which is one of ethan stowell's restaurants. since stowell is the other well-known restaurateur of seattle, i wanted to try one of his restaurants as well. tavolata is well-known for its pasta, so that's what we ordered here.

the rigatoni, with spicy sausage and tomato sauce, is their signature and was phenomenal. we also ordered a paperdelle with pork belly and egg which was also delicious. our waitress was also pretty awesome, and they gave us some of their pasta to take home! all in all, a pretty amazing meal.

the next morning, we headed out to fremont for  brunch at joule.

joule is a koean-french fusion place and i thought it would be an interesting twist on brunch. i was right. travel companion got some sesame waffles with a fried chicken steak (so basically, a korean-style chicken & waffles), and i got a sausage mac 'n cheese. both were delicious, although the wafffles were heavy on the syrup. each brunch entree comes with a breakfast buffet, which includes salads, sides, and pastries, and there were some tasty items there as well.

we tried to go to the mobile food rodeo, which ended up being a big fail: too many people in a too narrow street, which ensued in chaos. we kind of just gave up. oh well.

travel companion wanted to take a nap, but i wanted some oysters and a glass of wine on the water. so, i left him in the apartment, and i headed down the waterfront...

the weather was still amazing, and so the views were equally amazing. mt. rainier made an appearance all weekend long.

i stopped into elliott's oyster house.

craving satisfied.

we had some time to kill, and travel companion wanted to watch some games at a sports bar in queen anne, so i made him make a stop at kerry park, which is where they take that photo of the space needle and seattle skyline in all those postcards.

how can you beat that view?!?! you really can't.

dinner was at serious pie, tom douglas's pizza joint.

this place had been on my to-eat list every time i headed up to seattle, and i failed both times i was there before, so i made sure i went this time. we had a sausage & fennel pizza. it was delicious. the crust was perfection.

on our last day, we finally made our way to pike place.

all the activity and the array of goods is just so inspiring to me that i can't stop snapping away every time i'm here.

had to make a stop at the gum wall, just cuz. it's equally super disgusting and super awesome at the same time.

ate something like 4 lunches, while at the market...

our stops:
- le painier. they have tasty pastries and macarons (the noisette/hazelnut one is by far the best).
- beecher's cheese. the mac & cheese is amazing.
- pike place chowder. it was something like 84 degrees out that day, and it was not the best day to be eating chowder...but it was damn good chowder.
- piroshky piroshky. i had to cancel a trip to seattle last fall, and while my friends were there, i had a dream about pike place and the piroshkys here. i was so sad when i woke up. it was extra satisfying to finally have one.
- pike brewing company. i keep hearing that seattle has some great breweries and i keep meaning to try them, but i never do. we did the flight here.  

headed to bedlam coffee for some joe. i loved the funky interior of the place.

they have some fun stuff, like a lavender mocha.

our last stop in seattle was umi sake house, for a quick sushi dinner.

they have some great happy hour specials, and i wish we had time to stay and eat longer, but we had to rush off to the airport after 30 minutes. oh well. i will be back next time, for sure.

an iphone snap on the way to the airport:

mt. rainier always looks so majestic.

i miss seattle already. can't wait to be back.

(i also shot a couple rolls of film there, so i'm sure that will be eventually be another post...along with the 5 rolls of film i have yet to develop. oops).

sometimes

sometimes, as much as i love living in san francisco, i miss my friends back at home. and then they end up in a bunch of my scrapbook pages...

i especially miss them when they text you about how they went to eat at your favorite places, like fosselmans and zankou chicken. then somehow you start talking about how you miss portos and savoy's too...i apparently just really need to get my butt down to LA again soooooon.

here's another scrapbook page that is probably my current favorite!

epic seattle post to come sometime this week.

seattle instas

i've just returned from a long weekend in seattle and i'm not taking kindly to this whole "return to reality" thing. so i'm posting some instagram shots to help me relive the good times...

a more detailed post on things i did/saw/ate to follow soon.

twenty-thirteen

happy (belated) new year, ya'll. two layouts that sum up what i want for myself this year:

first up is my one little word for 2013: go. both in a "ready, set, go" kind of sense and a "go, see, do" way. i have so many things that i want to do, places to go, things to see and plenty i want to experience but i tend to overthink and let that get the best of me. i want to spend less time thinking and just letting go and spend more time doing and just say "go."

this one was inspired by this quote that i saw on pinterest:

Source: weheartit.com via Caroline on Pinterest

as soon as i saw it, i knew it was going to be scrapped. it basically sums up everything i want for 2013.

(both layouts were made by the december studio calico kits).

between the raindrops

i headed up to portland a few weekends ago to hang out with hipsters eat my way through the town and consume lots and lots of coffee. it was quite the trip.

i had less than 48 hours there and DEFINITELY made the most of every second i had. i sure am getting pretty damn good at fitting a week's worth of stuff to do in about 2 days worth of time.

here's a recap of what i did/ate/saw!

i flew into PDX at about 3:30 in the afternoon, and after a quick stop at the hotel to check in, drop off my stuff, and change (it was 80 degrees in portland, whereas i was dressed for 60 degree san francisco weather), i was ready to go at about 4:45. first stop: the international rose test garden. this was the city of roses, after all.

it was quite a sight. i was amazed by all the different varietals of roses - who knew there were so many? i spent about an hour walking around, taking it all in and snapping tons of photos. so pretty.

i then walked up the hill to the japanese gardens.

apparently, it is considered the "most authentic japanese garden outside of japan." it reminded me a lot of being in kyoto exactly a year ago. it was gorgeous - very lush and tranquil. and it was huge!

i made my way back towards downtown, ready for my first cup of coffee in portland.

i actually had stumptown while in seattle, but since it originated in portland, i had to stop there first of course. it was probably my favorite of all the different coffee that i had in portland (which means, by comparison, that  vivace in seattle is still my favorite coffee, EVER). i had a nice conversation with the barista there about coffee - he asked if i worked in coffee since i told him i was in town to sample all the different offerings, and apparently that's what you do when you work in the industry. he gave me suggestions for other places to hit up in town - which all ended up being on my list (sadly, i ran out of time and didn't get to all of them. but close enough).

popped into the ace hotel lobby. 

the ace was my first choice for lodging in portland, but by the time i was ready to book, it was sold out. grrrr. will definitely have to stay there next time because i stayed at the ace in seattle and quite enjoyed it, and seriously - isn't that the coolest lobby ever?!?!?!

i popped into the photo booth too, of course. i already scrapped my photo strip:

then popped into clyde common for dinner.

three things i can say about portland, and clyde common: 1) communal-style dining is big here (which made for a little bit of awkwardness as i was traveling by myself); 2) it's super hipster; and 3) hipsters make the best cocktails. EVER. i had the kingston club to drink (Drambuie, pineapple, lime, Fernet, Angostura, orange peel) and a dungeness crab tagliarini to eat. good stuff.

walked over to cacao for some drinking chocolate.

picked up a couple of bars too. you know, research for work (i may not work in the coffee biz but i DO work in the chocolate biz). they have TONSSS of bars. i ended up buying the most bizarre bar i came across - a bar with foie gras. it was not the best choice on my part, but it was...uh...interesting.

then walked over to powell's.

HOLY CRAP. this was by far my favorite thing that i did in portland. it was AMAZING - it takes up an entire city block and is four stories high and is filled to the brim with books!!! they even give you a map to help you navigate inside. so awesome. i had gone in expecting to kill maybe a half hour to an hour there, then had to kick myself out after 2 1/2 hours so i could cross off the rest of my to-do list for the day. but i could've spent all day in there (and could've probably bought out the whole store. i settled for four).

headed back to the hotel to drop my newly purchased books off and then headed to biwa.

i don't know what it is about ramen, but i can eat it all day long. they also had other izakaya-style food and their cocktails were tasty.

i then ended the night with a drink at dig a pony. super hipster bar. which meant that my drink was DELICIOUS.

i started off day two with a stop at extracto for coffee, then headed over to beast for a super epic brunch.

everything was amazing. the only negative was that i was seated at a communal table (very portland-esque) by myself and i felt super awkward - especially because i kept pulling out my camera to take pictures of my food. apparently no one does that in portland, pffft. the first course was a summer berry claufoutis (a french pancake sort of thing) with bacon (YUM), followed by a lamb hash as the main. SO GOOD. that was followed by a cheese plate (which i forgot to photograph), then an amazing chocolate truffle cake.

needless to say, i was stuffed, so the next order of business to walk around the neighborhood.

i quite enjoyed the alberta neighborhood a lot. it was kind of funky, lots of color, and LOTS of cute + fun shops. some notable ones: ampersand, troolie, redbird studio, and billygoat vintage.

had to stop off at salt & straw for ice cream even though my stomach wasn't quite ready for it...

i had the sea salt with caramel ribbons. deliciousness.

made my way towards downtown again, and stopped into barista for coffee.

ended up strolling through chinatown...

walked past the "keep portland weird" sign...

tried to get in line for voodoo doughnuts but it was insane. overheard someone talk about a second location and looked it up on my phone. turns out it was in a neighborhood i was planning to head to later that day anyway, so i promptly got out of line and headed over to the saturday market (which also goes on on sundays as well).

finally got myself my donut fix. i would definitely recommend the other location - no line!!!

i got the maple bacon bar, but was definitely impressed by the fruit loop one.

strolled around east burnside for a bit. stopped into nationale, which is a cute little store that my coworker recommended. ended up at heart coffee.

that was something like my fifth cup of coffee that day. yep, i'm also surprised my heart didn't pop oout of my chest, either.

ended up on the burnside bridge, and snapped some pictures of the willamette and the other surrounding bridges in the city.

then headed to pok pok for dinner.

again, communal-style dining is big in portland. these plates are made for sharing. not ideal for me, but that was okay, because everything was delicioud. i had the kai yaang (the stuffed hen - their signature), and yam tuna (a thai-style tuna salad). i also had a drink which was basically an alcoholic mango lassi. SO GOOD.

one of the things on my portland to-do list was to go to a show. of course, all the bands i wanted to see were either playing right before or right after my trip. i came across the band animal kingdom after scouring a bunch of show listings and decided i liked them enough, so i went to see them.

the show was at the doug fir lounge, which was actually a pretty awesome venue. would definitely see a show there again.

was getting hungry (again), so the last stop of the night was at the cartopia pod for a late night food cart fix.

i had a fried chicken pot pie from whiffies and a crepe from perierra creperie. i wanted to try the wood-fired pizza too, but my stomach couldn't handle it.

side note: cartopia is the food truck pod that's featured in portlandia. i started watching that show again after i came back, and went "I WAS THERE!!!!" also, that show is doubly hilarious (it was already hilarious before but even more so now!) now that i've actually been to portland.

anyhow. i woke up bright and early the next morning to maximize the few hours i had left until i had to head to the airport. first order of business: the aerial tram.

ok, this was pretty awesome. sometimes i wish san francisco had one of these to help us with some of the hills :P while being on the tram was cool, the best part was the amazing views of the city you get from the top of the hill. on a clear day, you are supposed to have amazing views of mt. hood, but it was a bit overcast. come to think of it, i did not see mt. hood at all that weekend!

it was time for coffee and breakfast, so i headed over to oui presse.

CUTEST CAFE EVER. seriously, i wish i took more pictures. i want to go back to take more pictures of it. but the coffee was tasty and their coffee cake was fresh out of the oven and super delicious.

decided i had time for one more stop. i had to choose wisely. i ended up going with pine state biscuits.

biscuits, fried chicken, gravy and cheese? YES PLEASE.

and thus ended my adventure in portland. til we meet again...

(p.s. a lot of my planning was based on places that were in the rather: portland guide. the rather, or hunt, series of guidebooks focus on food and shopping - my kinda guides, and is very photo-heavy. i now want one for every city.)