city sidewalks

I’ve been loving the holiday season here in Seattle. It’s my first time ever living in this city at the holidays and I’m so impressed with all the festive cheer that the city displays. Lights on every tree, carolers on every corner (okay, not quite), and fun holiday events all over the city. Here are some of my favorites.

JINGLE BELL RUN
This run benefiting arthritis research was so much fun! It’s a 5k and 95% of it is on the I-5 express lanes. When else are you going to be able to run on the freeway for 3 miles with thousands of people dressed in antlers, Santa suits, and tutus? I even saw an abominable snowman and accompanying lumberjack. The added bonus, since it’s on the express way it’s covered in case of rain, which let’s be honest it’s pretty miraculous it wasn’t raining this year on race day (side note: as of December 17, it’s the driest December on record). I bet it’s one of the only practically indoor 5k courses in the world. I’ve been running a lot lately, so I was hoping for a fast time, but once I realized just how crowded it was with 12,000 people running down I-5, I opted for an enjoyable time instead and just marveled at all the creative costumes as I trotted along in my jingle bell antlers and red stripy socks.

GINGERBREAD HOUSES AT THE SHERATON
Local architecture firms design massive gingerbread houses around a designated theme to benefit JDRF Northwest Chapter. This year, I think the theme was global train stations. Here are my two favorites:

Source: http://gingerbreadvillage.myevent.com/3/gallery.htm

 

Source: http://gingerbreadvillage.myevent.com/3/gallery.htm

THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST BALLET NUTCRACKER
A holiday tradition for many Seattle families, I hadn’t been to the Nutcracker in more than 10 years. The last time, my best friend and I leaned for two hours in the standing room only section at the Vienna ballet. This time, we paid for real tickets where we actually were able to sit and enjoy the production and take in the brilliant Maurice Sendak designed set. Here's a pretty worthless photo of said set. Just take my word for it, it's spectacular.

sitka & spruce

On Tuesday, our third wedding anniversary, we found ourselves on Capitol Hill for the second time in a week. This time it was to dine at Sitka and Spruce. I'd noticed that this is the restaurant that all Seattle food bloggers take their visiting friends and family to when they want to impress and give them a real Seattle experience. Since we had a special occasion, we figured it was time we gave it a try.

An open space with an open kitchen, smaller than most suburban home's kitchens, tiny Sitka and Spruce is located in the corner of Melrose Market, which also houses a butcher, a shellfish shop, a florist, a sandwich shop, a cheese shop, and a bar.

Bar Ferd'nand

Hands down, the best thing about the entire meal was the fresh sourdough bread with soft butter and maldon flake salt. In particular the butter. It outshone pretty much everything else we ate that night: albacore and green beans, heirloom tomatoes and crème fraiche, flatbread with chickpeas. Yes, all nice. But the butter was far and away the star of the show.

Mmmm, Butter.

I forgot both my camera and my phone, so all these photos are taken by Blackberry and then modified in Instagram and I don't have any food photos to share because the light was too low. But there were these two great cut away windows into the pantry, so we could see the food before it made it's way to our plates.

A sight that would have made my former-vegetarian-self faint.

All kinds of vegetable goodness, including some
twiggy berries (top left) that I couldn't identify and featured
heavily in our albacore dish.

Anniversary flowers from my sweet husband. The same
colors and flowers from our wedding.

Lunch with the Ruskies

Did you see that amazing sailing ship moored in downtown Seattle last week? The Pallada is the fastest sailing ship in the world and the Russian Navy has been taking it on a spin around the Pacific Ocean.

When I learned they were offering free tours, a co-worker and I took a gander during lunchtime last Friday.

Sadly no borscht or other Russian delicacies were served, but there was plenty of Russian spoken and crackling Russian folk music playing on the loud speakers. My photos are a bit shabby—I was unprepared for this impromptu outing with just my iPhone.

I can only assume this says "if sinking, break glass."

oddfellows and ice cream

I haven’t spent much time in Capitol Hill in Seattle yet, but after my brief visit there on Sunday I think I’ll definitely be frequenting the area much more often. After stopping by Fleet Feet for a new pair of running shoes for Mr. Husband (expert knowledge and service at this store, btw, highly recommend!), we went to Oddfellows for a Sunday afternoon martini and snack.

 

And what goes better after vodka than a summer ice cream cone from Maggie Moos while sitting in the Cal Anderson Park?

Salted Caramel and Theo Chocolate. Mmmmmmmm.

 

Hiking Mt Si

On Saturday we climbed a mountain.

For years, I’ve driven by Mt. Si on my way to and from Eastern Washington. Under an hour away from Seattle, it’s one of the first big mountains you see as you approach the pass, just north of I-90 in North Bend. I never once considered climbing it or even realized you could. But on Saturday we were hankering for an outdoor adventure but didn't want to spend hours in the car getting there. Mt Si seemed like a great option. An awesome and challenging hike, it was well worth it even when we reached the top and found it cloudy. Will definitely be making a trip back on a guaranteed clear day.

Look at all those switchbacks.

It's four steeeeep miles up to an elevation of 4,176 feet. And then four steep, much faster, miles back down.

When we started the hike, the top was hidden in clouds. Good thing I couldn't see what I was getting myself in to or I would have been really intimidated. 

Even when we got to the top, the views weren’t quite as spectacular as they could have been…or really there weren’t many views at all.

  




But we still lingered at the top and snacked on peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and pita chips, while the clouds swirled around us.

It wasn't until we staggered to the bottom and stopped the North Bend outlet mall that the top of the mountain emerged and we could see clearly what we had just accomplished. No wonder I’m still having trouble walking, three days later.

Dining Alfresco

Here's one of the best outside dining spots in Seattle. Hold on summer, don't go away--I need more days to bask in the (cool) sun outside on my lunch break!

Weekend Smorgasbord

Last weekend was a dining smorgasbord. Family was visiting and we had a lot of eating and celebrating to do.

We started out at Friday night at a launch party for Dry Fly Bourbon. This is the best stuff I've ever tasted come out of a bottle. Seriously.

After that, we dined at Steelhead Brewery. No photos of the food, but let me assure you that I ate a burger that was larger than my face and received absolutely no teasing about that fact.

Photo: Juliette Cook, from steelheaddiner.com

The next day we took my brother-in-law, sister-in-law, and baby niece to eat Homegrown sandwiches at Green Lake.

Then we dined at Salty's on Alki.

Arguably the best view in the city (here is said view across the parking lot), the interior and decor haven't been updated since the late 80s and the menu is woefully overpriced.

But, it was a great place for a celebration and the Dry Fly Whiskey Manhattans were delicious.

And if that wasn't enough, we started Sunday off with brunch at Portage Bay in South Lake Union. Don't let this photo deceive you. Weekend mornings it's swarming with people and requires at least an hour wait for a table.

Photo: urbanspoon.com

 Needless to say, this week it's been all salads all the time.

Beach Blanket View

It's been quiet on the blog front for me the past week. I seem to have accidentally deleted some of my photos for my planned posts. Yikes!

Instead, here's what I've been up to the past two weekends:
Went to Bite of Seattle (crowded!!) and watched the Dock Dogs Competition (fun!!)
Saw Harry Potter
Walked around Green Lake twice.
Ate tacos at Aqua Verde but chose not to wait in the mile long line to rent kayaks.
Played Frisbee instead.
Had brunch at Emmer & Rye.

And had a fabulous day at the beach at Discovery Park, complete with picnic, beach blanket, and a book. Thankfully I didn't delete these photos!

Orzo with Olives and Artichokes, Curry Cous Cous with Currants, and Swedish Cheese.

The view from my blanket.

Last Weekend...

…my mother-in-law was visiting, so we were excited to show her around our new city.

…we stumbled upon the Ballard Seafood Festival.

…where we drank the Best Beverage on Earth. (It was good, but probably false advertising.)

that dude is tall!

Were we supposed to add ketchup to our drinks? Not sure what that's doing there...

this dude is tall too.

…we were mildly traumatized by this pig.

…we ventured to the Seattle Art Museum for the Beauty and Bounty exhibit (where we oddly enough all got in free thanks to my late father-in-law's illustrious military career ♥).

…we also saw some striking modern art.

…my favorite was Mann und Maus.

And now it's time to make plans for this weekend. Hopefully a little Bite of Seattle (of course!) and hopefully a little Harry Potter!