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.
