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!
