cat named pig

We got home from Seattle! on Sunday night. I see it that way in my head, italicized with exclamation point, because it’s a city I’ve been dying to visit for years. A handful of my favorite people live there, so it was pretty exciting to finally visit their current hometown. It’s also beautiful, and jam-packed with things that taste good. If you enjoy food, coffee, and life, you should totally go there.

Since I am sitting here at the cabin on Vacation #2, I thought I should get some pictures and highlights recorded from Vacation #1 before too much longer. We had an excellent time and duper-excellent (Siena’s expression) weather: warm and sunny every day but the last. That made it a tiny bit easier to leave, but only a tiny bit. Here are a few highlights, from a list I made on the plane home:

• Pike’s Place Market. Two blocks from our hotel; awesome people watching and the best smoothie I’ve had in a long time: Rainier cherry and pluot. We didn’t see any fish-throwing though, just lots of people standing around waiting to see the fish-throwing. Matt and I laughed at them and moved on, because we love our fellow Americans like that.
• Meeting Baby Caleb, new son of our friends Jenny and Peter, and one of Seattle’s most adorable attractions.

• Antipasti on the patio at The Pink Door.
• Bachelorette party Thursday night: champagne in our hotel room, followed by a pub crawl with games, ending the night with dancing. The best part was the outfits: Team JoJo baseball T’s (Jo’s said “Captain” on the back).

• Coffee.
• Great Mexican food at Agua Verde the day after the bachelorette party. Exactly what we needed. If you’re ever in Seattle on a sunny day, eat here and sit outside overlooking the water — you won’t regret it.

• Meeting Jo’s fiance husband Peter for the first time, after hearing many, many good things about him. Seeing how happy they looked together, and agreeing with everyone else there how perfect they are for each other.
• Espresso.
• Friday evening party ON A BOAT. Repeated references to this (lyrics NSFW) mostly from my husband.

• Walking around downtown.
• Cappuccino.
• Jo and Peter’s wedding! She looked beautiful, the food was fabulous, the cake was cupcakes, and the favors were chocolate bars. Well done, guys.

• Dancing. Drinking sparkling wine. Dancing some more.
• Pizza at 2:00 a.m. Two nights in a row.
• Watching MTV in the hotel room, while eating 2:00 a.m. pizza. A vacation-only guilty pleasure.
• Le Pichet. We just had croissants and coffee, but next time we’re out that way we’ll definitely try to fit in a dinner there.
• Iced coffee.
• Fish tacos.
• Holing up in Elliott Bay Books for a few hours — definitely how I’d spend every rainy Sunday if I lived in Seattle.
• Our two-bedroom suite at the Moore Hotel with Katie and Brad. Simultaneously reminded us of college and Europe, neither in a bad way.

Clearly this list includes more meals (and caffeinated beverages) than should fit into a four-day trip. We ate some great food and spent some great quality time with good college friends. At the risk of sounding treacly, Seattle was nourishing both physically and emotionally. We can’t wait to go back.