Seattle Day 1 + 2

The epic PNW trip of 2014 was a doozy. I mean, isn't that what epic means anyway? I went on an adventure a few weeks ago with my good friend, who is coincidentally also a vegetarian. She's not a 'sometimes veggie' like myself, but more of the "marathon-running, smart, doctor vegetarians" that you don't argue with when it comes to reasons behind why choosing a veggie lifestyle is important. Let's say ... it's easy to keep it up when she is around. Beyond just having a veggie friend to go on vacation with, we had the same ideals for this trip. We were to a) do what we wanted when we wanted, and b) not worry too much about ANYTHING. 

We started our trip in Seattle, a great place to fly in and out of and get the lay of the PNW land. We stayed downtown, and besides some dinner reservations, we were playing everything by ear. We had a recommendation for dinner the first night, and let me tell you. I am STILL thinking about that damn curry.

WILD GINGER: from the look of the menu and the website, I thought we were hopping into a chill and casual asian restaurant that would be good food, but nothing special to talk about. Well boy was I wrong. The restaurant is a big downtown hot-spot with incredible decor, the mix of modern asian design and industrial kitchen was incredible, it felt fancy enough for business lunches, great for a quick dinner before a night on the town, but also nice enough for a special occasion. We opted for cocktails (ginger martini and the grapefruit habanero margarita - both of which were to die for) and our usual spring rolls to start. I then had the red curry with tofu and sweet potato and she had spicy green beans and a stew. I almost picked up the plate from my curry and licked it. The flavor was complex, sweet, spicy and brought something new to the table. As we continued our trip around the PNW we were recommended to visit Wild Ginger by a ton of people we met, obviously the locals and I agree on the kick ass food and atmosphere.

RADIATOR WHISKEY: I'm not huge on whiskey or bourbon, but I like a great theme bar whenever I come across one. This one, you could literally miss unless looking for it. Located on 1st street, there's no store front by the Pike Place Market, instead look for a hallway/staircase by the main entrance to pike place and go upstairs above the map store/falafel king etc. This bar is small, offers a ton of whiskeys and popcorn. Saying that popcorn is possibly the best drinking food ever, we knew we had hit the hot spot. The only drawback to this place were the stools. Gosh, I love the look of built in stools, but they are extremely ridiculous when two people are trying to stand NEAR the bar and share one stool. In fact - it's impossible. Great small fun bar to stop by if you are in the downtown area and want a bit of pretension with your whiskey drinking. 

SIDE STORY: Possibly the nicest comment EVER was given to me and my friend while sitting at the bar at RADIATOR WHISKEY. The place was pretty full, being a Saturday night at 9pm, people were starting to gather, including a bachelorette party, one where they were wearing silly pink crowns and everyone had on stripy stiletto sandals (why they were there is a question that I am unable to answer, ever). Some more girls walked in and headed towards the bar and joined their friends who were next to us. One of the girls, after sitting there for a few minutes walked right over to my friend and myself and said "I was looking around the room and realized everyone looked alike. Then I saw you two and I thought 'wow they look different' you guys are definitely not cookie cutter" She literally took all worries right out of my brain. I had been thinking to myself, and considering telling my friend "don't ever let me become cookie cutter like the girls behind us". So cheers to the girl in the bar, the nicest stranger ever.

BOOKSTORE BAR: We headed here last for our early night out on the town, since we were still on east coast time. We figured a great bar at a hotel that was also a bookstore would be heaven on earth. You couldn't have pinpointed a better place for us to end the night. It was on our walk back from pike place to our hotel, so we stopped there for a nightcap. The bar is the hotel bar at the Alexis hotel on 1st street. It's probably one of the best hotel bars Ive been to of late because it felt like just a fun place to have a chat and get a great drink, instead of the sometimes sad and lonely feel that many hotel bars give off. We both had a Seelbach (Eagle Rare Single Barrel Bourbon, Contrieau, Peychaud's Bitters, Angostura Bitters, Bellafina Proseco). This comes highly recommended, as well as their late night happy hour, which starts at 10pm.

This concluded our first day in Seatlle, which I think was quite successful for being ... what 6 hours long? 

The next day we headed out to Pike Place for some Starbucks, a walk around the market (to appease my photo taking urge) and then off to Nordstrom's (duh! it's the flagship). We realized that it was going to be a magical trip based on the fact that I walked in to the store to find new jeans and tried on the first pair, the last pair of Rag and Bone Jeans - they fit perfectly, were on sale and we walked out. 

The day continued with our first stop at the kick-ass PURPLE CAFE in downtown Seattle, and a walk around capitol hill, and a few shops, and then to dinner, which deserves an entire post of it's own.