So long Seattle

Leaving downtowb Seattle and heading for the airport. Heres some of the views from the train ride.

Kindat rough taking pictures from train but mt rainier is supposed to be in there somewhere.

Theo Chocolate Factory

Took a tour of the first and only organic chocolate making factory, Theo's chocolate. I know, what do i care about organic, but tour was still interesting and of course, it came with chocolate samples.

Tom Douglas' Seatown

Tom Douglas is a pretty well known chef/restauranteur in Seattle, so we tried one of his more casual restaurabts, Seatown. Pretty good, had the roast rub porchetta with some dripping potatoes, and sophy got the alaskan dungeness crab.

Cruise through Elliott Bay and to Lake Union

Took a guided cruise tour while in Seattle. It started in Elliott Bay, made its way through Puget Sound. The locks brought us up to the level of the freshwater and we continued into Lake Union.

Beecher's Handmade Cheese

Had lunch at Beecher's Handmade Cheese where they make cheese kurd. We ordered a tomato soup, mac n cheese, and a turkey grilled cheese, all of which was made with their flagship cheese. All very good, although as much as i love cheese, it got a little cheesy even for me.

Seattle Aquarium

Long Beach and Monterey aquariums are much bigger but the Seattle one is really nicely done and you can get a great view of the sea otters!
They also have river otters!

Breakfast at Pike Place

Had breakfast at various places at Pike Place Market. Cinnamon Works, La Panier french bakery, Piroshky Piroshky....and i dont usually like salmon, but got to try some reeeeally good salmon at Pike Place Fish Market

Steelhead Diner

Had dinner at the Steelhead Diner at Pike Market. I dont usually order fish, but i figured im not just at a seafood restaurant, but a seafood restaurant in seattle. With that, i went with the Sauteed Oregon Petrale Sole with bacon and marsala sauce. Delish.

Space Needle

Via a convenient monorail from downtown, we made it to the Seattle Center where the Space Needle is. Unfortunately, they closed for a private event at 4:45. Damn it haha...

All we got to see was this fountain with the old Key Arena behind it. No wonder the sonics wanted to leave haha...

Sent from my HTC smartphone on the Now Network from Sprint!

Seattle's Underground Tour

Took the Underground tour which i found to be pretty interesting, but you definitely have to be into a little history. Seattle has quite a unique history with the stories of the old underground city and the city built above it. The last picture is the old city which we now walk through underground.

Salumi

Went to Salumi which apparently is owned by mario batali's relatives. They have a wide variety of salami and cured deli meats. Had the hot sopressatta with fresh mozarella, one of the best deli sandwiches ive had. Sophy got the mole type of salami.

Hello Seattle

Arrived at Seattle International airport around noon and hopped aboard the relatively new Link Light Rail. For only $2.75, the train gets you to downtown in about 40 minutes.

Interesting scenery on the way included a river which we dont see in LA (la river doesnt count), lots of trees, and a lot of old houses. I meant to take pictures but never got around to it.

The train station in downtown is about a block from the Sheraton Seattle where we're staying, adding to the convenience of the train.

San Diego

Originally, going to san diego was to watch sophy and some of our coworkers go skydiving. Unfortunately, due to bad business, skydiving was cancelled, but we continued with the sd plans for faye's birthday. Stayed T the Sheraton Harbor Island.

We gave kayaking in la jolla another try but this time with a motion sickness pill an hour in advance. (If u dont know what happened last time, check out last years blog from early july).

Went to a pizza place in gaslamp called bar basic which sells all sorts of pizza. Afterwards, went to the rooftop bar at the Marriott. Pretty cool cause you get this view of Petco Park.

UCLA v. San Jose State

Went to UCLA's home opener against San Jose State. UCLA won, but they sure did make it difficult on themselves.

We didn't get season tickets this year, but we do plan on going to whatever games we can. Having season seats is pretty cool because you get to know the people around you, but it's also not a bad deal to sit in different parts of the stadium which is what we'll be doing this year. For yesterday's game, we got to sit closer to the middle (somewhere near the 30), and in the 8th row. Turns out though, even with all the lettered rows in front, the number 8 row is just a bit too close for watching football.

Boat Fishing in Newport Harbor

Got a deal on travelzoo for a discounted Skiff Boat rental at Newport Harbor, so today, Sophy, Dale, Mark and I rented a boat to go fishing.

Didn't catch a whole lot of stuff (4 fish between 4 people isn't a very good success rate), but the trip was pretty fun nonetheless. A 4 hour boat rental seems pretty long, but time flew by and at the end when we actually started catching stuff, we realized we had to head back to the docks to return the boat.

Looking forward to the next boat fishing trip...