Insert Pictures Here

Welp. No pictures. Yet. At least not ones that our group has taken. The Bleeckers toted the lone camera for our crew so I'm awaiting their uploadage. I'll give a rundown, you insert the pictures. For now.

Day 1

We arrived at Sea-Tac 2 p.m.-ish PST, hooked up with Hertz and then made our merry way to downtown Seattle in a stylin' and profilin' mini-van. Matt drove, I navigated. My job was made super-simple thanks to the wonderful, thoughtful Hertz NeverLost. Nirva, as I have renamed her (short for NirvaLost), and I get along pretty well. I only yelled at her once.


NirvaLost

What's the first thing you do in downtown Seattle? Head down to Pike Place Market. We perused trinkets, homemade oils and the token wolf painting vendor. Smells of freshly fried donuts rolled in powdered sugar beckoned our taste buds. Our eyes overloaded on the opulent visual textures of ripe ruby apples, grapes the size of silver dollars, oranges dimpled to perfection and flowers feathered into a flawless rainbow. Who knew a fruit and vegetable stand could be so stunning?

Our view was disrupted by a scruffy man in bright orange wading trousers peddling fish to any passer-by. We had happened upon the "flinging fish" stand. This is when I started to feel picked on. There was the strange looking fish hanging upside down, resting across the ice. It looked terrifying. Sharp teeth...almost like a bat but a fish. Except that it's called a monk fish (I found the picture below online. It looks like it's actually from the same flinging fish stand).



So imagine sticking your face precariously close to that thing so that your over-zealous sister-in-law can take a ridiculous picture of you with it. And then....it moves!!! They had rigged the frickin' thing with fishing wire so they could send people near it into cardiac arrest!

Then...

They start doing the flinging the fish thing. They're yelling something...throwing the fish to each other...but then the guy behind the counter throwing the fish to the guy standing right by us misses by a long shot. The slimy thing comes straight for Heather (my sister-in-law), Faith (Bleecker) and me! We scream. Or, at least I do (Michael got a picture of that...so insert picture here).

But, alas, it was only a stupid pillow in the shape of a fish. Picked on, I tell ya.

Down the way, we found a little spot to grub. The Athenian Inn.



Can you guess the celebrity who once dined here while making a film?? Hint: Insomnia in the Northwest.

That was our Lunner, as we all lovingly called it...lunch + dinner = lunner. We actually had a few of those this weekend. My waistband grew mysteriously tighter.

Dinner unfolded at The Pink Door with paintings of French clowns and monkeys. It tasted nothing like French clowns and monkeys though. It was quite good.

Still with me? It's okay if you're not. You might want to take this in chapters. I'll understand.

Day 2

Breakfast at Le Panier. Delish! Real-deal croissants and other pastries I struggled to pronounce. We took the ferry to Bainbridge Island and were delightfully surprised by a quaint wine-tasting room on the island amidst boutiques and a pizza joint. We met the wine-maker of Eleven and enjoyed the fruit of his labor. I especially loved the Malbec.

Dinner was with friends at Palisade. Talk about a perfect view of Seattle! Palisade is northwest of downtown on the water. Sunset is breathtaking. Which, by the way, we saw every evening we were there. The craziest thing happened: it never rained nor was it overcast. Amazing.

Day 3 & 4 will have to wait. I'm tired and I'm pretty sure most of you are bored! Have a wonderful night. Until next time...