The Kleins came over for a quick dinner visit. Little Tierza was a happy, happy girl and charmed us all.

My friend Beate and I went to Dream Dinners tonight to make a big batch of meals for the coming month. Dream Dinners is one of those meal-prep places where they have all the ingredients, recipes and instructions set up for you and you just put everything together. It was the first time either of us had done it and I was completely sold on the concept when I walked out the door at the end of the evening. I put together 10 meals in about an hour and a half and it cost about what I usually spend on a week’s worth of groceries. Of course, that week’s worth of groceries usually includes breakfast and lunch items but I still think this will work out pretty well as far as the cost goes — especially if you factor in the convenience and time I will save prepping those ten dinners.

We ate our first meal — chicken enchiladas — tonight and Zach and I both gave it the thumbs up. They were cheesy and gooey and I think Wyatt will enjoy them when we make the second pan later in the month. So far, so good.

This is way over due, but here’s what I did my second day in Seattle.

We got up fairly early in the morning, got our crap together and headed out the door to visit Pike’s Place market. The day was cold, grey and blustery so we were all bundled up pretty well.

Our very first stop at the market was to duck into a cafe for coffees and hot apple cider. We skipped the pastries, but now that I look at the picture I took of them, I’m wondering why.

We wandered around outside for a bit, stopping at various stands to look at the delectables on display. Here’s the big sign for the market. Very Impressive. This is the first of many neon pictures that you’ll see.

The first big fruit stand we encountered was one of the best. Here is Lisa with a pomelo.

Next, we ventured inside the market. But first we stopped at the big pig statue.

There were some interesting things to see down in the bowels of the market. Here you’ll see a mechanical fortune teller.

I loved all the neon signs inside the market.

This glorious fish counter called to me. After sampling a bit of this and that, I bought a lovely, expensive slab of smoked salmon here as a special treat for Zach and I. They packed it up in ice packs for me so it would make it home safely, but then I left it in Lisa’s refrigerator. I didn’t even realize it until we were on the plane home. My disappointment is still palpable writing about this now, over a month later.

Beautiful, huge jars of tea at Market Spice. I wanted to browse in here for awhile, but it was very crowded and the aisles were narrow. Uncharacteristically, I started to feel a little claustrophobic and panicky, so I had to get out before I was ready.

This is the Pike’s Place Fish Co. These are the guys who throw the fish. They didn’t throw any while we were there though. Bummer.

After we were all finished browsing the market, we went to pick up Lisa’s sweetie girl. Her identity will be protected here for her privacy — I will call her “Pinkie” because she likes pink. A lot.

We piled in the car and went to lunch at a Greek restaurant. I have no idea what the name was, and unfortunately, I didn’t write it down in my trip notes, but maybe Lisa will chime in on the comments.

The restaurant was a little bit divey, but the food was oh so good. We started with saganaki which has to be one of my favorite dishes in life. Pinkie was intrigued when we all yelled “Opa!” as it was delivered to our table, but not intrigued enough to eat any.

Here are my dolmades in avgolemono sauce. They were yummy, but those potatoes you see there rocked my world.

As we were waiting for our food, it started to snow. Allison was thrilled because she hasn’t seen snow in years and years so she had to go out and be in it.

I love this shot with the snow sticking to her hair.

Lisa came out to frolic too.

As lunch 1was wrapping up, Pinkie drew pictures of Aja the Mermaid for Allison and me. Lucky us

Next stop — downtown Seattle for the Underground Tour. The timing of our arrival was impeccable because it started raining right as we got out of the car and the tour is almost completely inside. The tour was about Seattle’s frontier days and explains how there was an entire city under the city that you see today. There were lots of stories about outlaws, cheaters and saloon girls too which is always an enjoyable thing in a tour.

I didn’t take a lot of pictures because it was dark and underground, but here is one that came out OK.

Lisa works in a very tall building, and we were nearby, so when we finished the tour we went up to her office to take a look at the view. How would you like to look out the windown next to your desk and see this every day? Yeah, me too. My view of the heater on the roof is pretty nice though….

Next up, we hopped in the car and drove over to Ballard to visit a place I’ve always wanted to go — the Archie McPhee store! Seriously, this is up there with the Grand Canyon, Santorini and the Great Wall of China on my visit-in-my-lifetime list. It did not disappoint. There were a ton of cool things to take pictures of and you can see a more of them over on Flickr.

I spent a couple of bucks there, but did not by this enticing snake.

While we were in the neighborhood, we decided to stop at Cupcake Royale for some treats.

Mmmmmm….beautiful cupcakes.

We finished up the night with dinner at a tapas place with Lisa’s lady friends. No pictures of that though — we were too busy eating and having a whoop-dee-doo time.

And someday, I’ll post pictures of our final day when we visited the Space Needle.

I just had a great weekend visiting Seattle. Allison and I flew up Thursday night to visit our friend Lisa. I’d never been there before, but I’d wanted to visit for awhile. We all thought a nice girls weekend was in order.

Our flight in was delayed about an hour, so we got there later than we expected, but it was still early enough that we had time for dinner. Lisa asked us if we were up for Vietnamese food and since Allison and I aren’t crazy we of course said we were. She took us to this tiny little place called Green Leaf in the international district. We chowed down on three different appetizers — spring rolls, tofu pancakes, and grilled eggplant with lemon grass — and then we all ordered Lisa’s favorite dish for our entrees, grilled beef with lot leaf over vermicelli noodles. I’m not sure what lot leaf is, but it’s pretty tasty.

After dinner, we were all pretty tired, so we went back to Lisa’s cool apartment and chatted until bed time. I wish I’d taken some pictures of Lisa’s place because it’s really cool.

Saturday morning, we got up around 8:30 and went to get coffee and walk around the campus. Lisa lives in the University district about three blocks from the University of Washington campus and she is surrounded by lots of cafes, shops and restaurants. There’s good people watching and a lot to see in the area.

Here Lisa and Allison stop for a photo on the street.

Pink guy in a shop window:

Forbidden, but lovely, caffeine:

After our walk, we went back to Lisa’s, took showers and got dressed and then set off to the Capitol Hill neighborhood for shopping and lunch at the Coastal Kitchen. The Coastal Kitchen has a rotating culinary theme and this month’s theme was Peru. Here are the Titicaca pancakes Lisa and Al shared. They were chock full of sweet potatoes and almonds and came with a caramel sauce. Ridiculously good.

Allison and I:

Lisa and Al. We were right by a big window, so the light was great for photos.

After we ate and goofed around in some of the shops we went back to Lisa’s neighborhood to shoe shop. I got these cute shoes:

Next, we got in the car and headed for the Snoqualmie Falls and Salish Lodge. Lisa’s GPS told her to go some crazy way so we took a detour through bad traffic, but we got there just in time to check out the falls in the last evening light. The falls were really lovely, as you can see here:

The Lodge is situated right at the top of the falls and is also very pretty.

We were at the Lodge to have dinner with Lisa’s boss and co-workers. The people in her office have been working very hard on some big projects, so her boss treated them all to spa treatments and a very fancy dinner at the lodge as a thank you. Unfortunately, Lisa had to forgo her spa treatment because of our visit, but I did appreciate the sacrifice. Dinner was great. There was lots of wine, lots of creative food and lots of stimulating conversation. When our desserts came, I couldn’t resist taking photos of them because they were so nicely presented.

More about day two coming soon!

Last Sunday, Zach and I had a big bbq. Normally, I don’t like to bbq all that much, but we got all the food off the grill when it was still light out, so that put me in a good party mood. We had lots of old friends over: Manny and Allison, Paul and Tressa, Tjames and Robyn, Adam, and Evan and Maj (who flew in from Montreal just for our party). Our new friends, Beate and Randolf, from around the corner stopped by too, as did Zach’s brother, Charlie. Totally fun and a good time was had by all. Check out the pictures over at Flickr (you might need to register for an account and become my friend to see the photos):

Big Baby Party