Showing posts with label Pacific Northwest. Show all posts

Seattle + environs


Two years ago to the weekend! Lauren and I made a long-weekend trip to Seattle to visit Amy and Brian and baby girl. Amy is one of my oldest and dearest friends and we were roommates for several years in college. Lauren and I had such a great time with these dear friends and baby Katherine. We spent time in the city—eating good food, walking Pike Place Market, visiting noteworthy landmarks in Brian and Amy's relationship (the above photo was taken at Alki Beach, where they broke up at one point. As we all know, they got back together!), and favorite spots closer to home.


Lauren and I pulled a classic roadtrip-through-the-night (probably we stopped for 2 AM naps at a rest stop, we are not crazy people), so we arrived in the early morning and decided to visit Snoqualmie Falls upon arrival. The falls were magnificent, with the early morning light catching the mist just-so.


We also visited Snoqualmie's railway museum, which was delightful. Below is a darling shop we visited on the main street; it was a florist also specializing in gifts (many from artists in the area). We also popped in a vintage shop where Lauren fell in love with sifting through a bin of old photographs and imagining the stories behind the people pictured in them.


I had been to Seattle a couple of times previously, but it was Lauren's first visit, so Amy made sure to take us to classic sights throughout the city. It was a drizzly overcast day, perfect Seattle weather.


We also spent a decent amount of time laying low at Amy and Brian's apartment, playing with baby Katherine (I LOVE HER SO MUCH, OBVIOUSLY), making homemade pretzels, watching "Arrival" <3, and doing puzzles (see the fractal puzzle pictured later in this post).


Despite its touristy trappings, I think I will always love Pike Place. There is so much good food at the ready, and in summer the stalls are filled with Oregon berries and local peaches. The floral booths always leave me gutted with seasonal blooms amassed in buckets as far as the eye can see. The florists who work there are so talented, able to craft a bouquet on the spot, and displaying their premade bouquets as well. This paper-wrapped bouquet of pink and marbled tulips, sea lavender, greens, and pussy willows was so stunning and unique.

Pavement poetry at Pike Place <3

more tulips—any color you might possibly want

Now, to the food. We ate fresh pasta at Il Corvo and it was divine. Their sign-skyline resembles the Palazzo Pubblico in my beloved Siena, it's fine, I'M FINE.

I loved their decor, made of collections of pasta cookware. I had never seen these kinds of pasta rolling pins, but aren't they equal parts beautiful and brilliant?! I had the baked cannelloni with spinach pasta and artichoke + ricotta filling. OH MY.

On a more recent trip to Seattle, I found a restaurant in Pike Place called Casalinga (in case you did not know: casalinga is one of my favorite Italian words, meaning housewife, and always makes me smile because of the store called Supercasalinga in Siena). I popped in to take a look at their menu, but due to being with a large group, I didn't have time to split off by myself to eat there. The proprietors of Casalinga (in typical Italian fashion) said flatout that their pasta was better, the people who ran Il Corvo weren't even Italian. I believe them, and Casalinga is high up on my list for my next Seattle trip, but there is no doubt that Il Corvo was nevertheless buonissimo.


One of our other gastronomic adventures led us to Serious Pie & Biscuits. We thought pie meant PIE, but it was actually a pizzeria which also served biscuit-fixings. We would have been more disappointed about the false pie-advertising but for this to-die-for-dessert we had after our meal—buttermilk biscuit bread pudding + caramelized star king apples + toasted hazelnuts + tarragon + bourbon caramel! (!!!!) In addition to taking photos of my food, as a true culinary dévotée, I am also fastidious about taking a photo of the menu as well, so as not to miss any of the wonderful flavor notes that I might not otherwise remember without something to jog my memory.


We had lunch before dessert, but my mother always says "life is short, eat dessert first," so it follows that that order would apply in recounting our visit and meal. My lunch was delicious, too: homemade buttermilk biscuit sandwich with truffle frittata + tomato + caper + arugula. It had never occurred to me to put a slice of frittata on a sandwich, but now I can't imagine why it had never occurred to me (though, this sandwich's height being what it was, required use of cutlery)!


Another restaurant we ate at was Portage Bay Cafe, and around the corner from it was the. fanciest. Goodwill (South Lake Union Goodwill) I have ever beheld. I wear size 11 shoes, and consequently I rarely, if ever, look at the shoe sections of Goodwill or other such places, as it's rare that I can even find something in my size (let alone something in my shoe size that I would actually want to wear); if I have to sift, it is supremely Not Worth It. But at this Goodwill, the shoes were not only sorted by color, but also loosely by size! I immediately landed upon this like-new pair of leather cutouts with a tiny wedge heel (so tiny as to be quite subtle but these shoes make the nicest sound when one walks). I have loved these shoes dearly and have all but worn them to pieces (crying emoji x1000).  
  
Pacific Northwest camouflage


Amy and Brian also took us to one of their favorite nearby hikes. It was rainy, but it simply meant we had the trail to ourselves and everything looked even more impossibly lush.

Thank you Brian for this hilarious candid.

NEEDS NO EXPLANATION.

<3 <3 <3

(a sneaky photo I took after the meeting ended of the gorgeous marbled stained glass at Brian and Amy's church meetinghouse!)

This fractal puzzle was a recent Christmas present to Brian and it was mind-bogglingly amazing.

roadtrip views <3

I love spending time with my dearest people, and I'm grateful Lauren was up to escape Utah on this particular holiday weekend. My next visit can't come soon enough.

Volunteer Park Conservatory


While recently in Seattle for a quick weekend trip and concert, I found myself with some downtime and split from the rest of the group to visit the Volunteer Park Conservatory (a quick Google search yielded several results of the botanical-garden-variety, and to my delight, the Volunteer Park Conservatory offered free admission that day—fortuitous!). I was more than pleasantly surprised at this gem-jackpot, before then unbeknownst to me—in addition to the Victorian-era conservatory built in 1912, the park itself was landscaped by the Olmsted brothers (not to be confused with their father, The Frederick Law Olmsted).

The Volunteer Park Conservatory was ah-mazing, to say the least. I have been drawn to greenhouses since nearly a decade ago when I spent many hours in the research greenhouses at my summer job (indeed, back in the day when I was an avid user of flickr, if one were to delve deep into my saved favorites, one would stumble upon a cache of saved images of turn-of-the-century, crumbling-but-still-growing, and all other kinds of greenhouses). I love the mustiness and warmth of greenhouses, and the abundance of growing green things. Upon further reflection, I've come to realize part of my love of greenhouses is the juxtaposition of architectural forms and botanical species. The mixing of the two results in a blend of organized, contained chaos of the very best kind. Walking through a greenhouse fills me with happiness and delight; there are few things that I love more.

Thus, this conservatory quickly won a place among my favorites: its beautiful hand-painted sign, its entryway's peacock-feathered-stained-glass lintel(!!!), the art show underway at the time of my visit (lithographs and prints poised and hanging from invisible fishing line amongst the greenery), the absolutely fabulously over-the-top tillandsia display, maidenhair ferns growing from every possible surface, the metalwork screens between the orchid collection and the entryway, a tiny conservatory sign built in the image of the conservatory!!—every. single. thing.


From the tillandsia display placard:
"Look closely at these two trees and you will discover that the branches are made of wrought iron! In 1999 the Conservatory commissioned metal artist Randy Benson to create these lasting and beautiful trees to display our extensive collection of Tillandsias.
"Tillandsias are members of the Bromeliaceae or Pineapple family, indigenous to tropical and subtropical regions or North, Central, and South America as well as islands of the Caribbean. There are over 500 species of Tillandsia, plus many hybrids.
"Most Tillandsias are epiphytic, that is, they live on tree branches or rocks and take their nourishment from the air, rainfall and detritus that collect around them. They are not parasites because they do not take nourishment from the trees they live upon. Many of them appear fuzzy or silvery because their leaves are covered with specialized microscopic scales called trichomes that absorb moisture from the air."

I love the tiny fringe of monstera fronds that crept into the photos immediately above and below.

As if there weren't already enough to love—the rest of Volunteer Park proper was likewise a delight. This was only one of a dozen similar trees, with sprawling limbs dipping low and skirting the ground beneath. Amongst the winding pathways, several ponds were filled with aquatic plants and the local duck family. And hydrangeas—they were growing all about in abundance, every jewel-toned hue imaginable. Currently under construction for restoration purposes, the park is also home to an Art Deco gem that is now Seattle's Asian Art Museum (this obviously necessitates a return visit in 2019 when the museum reopens, who's with me?).

And at last—but certainly not least—the grand finale: a water tower, built in 1906 and tucked away in the trees, offers stunning views of the Seattle skyline and Puget Sound.

sea holly/eryngium, spied on my walk back from Volunteer Park <3

My only regret is that I was otherwise engaged that evening and couldn't experience the live music event held in the Conservatory (next time). If you're ever in Seattle, please please please promise me you'll visit this newfound favorite for me? please and thank you.
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