Seaattle: Half of week two highlights

Week Two Highlights, semi-abbreviated

Pics are art from our light rail adventure (and THB forgot to take the camera the next two days)

Day 5: We ride the newish light rail to look at the art, not easy unless a) you get off at every station and b) you realize not all the art is in the stations, some is a ways away! And, amazingly, the one gallery owner that is trying to arrange a studio visit with Akio gets on while we are riding back to downtown. We have been waiting for his e-mail with date and time. He sez he sent one…DB has not got it. This is impossible, how could we bump into the one person in Seattle that requires an unknown face-to-face reconciliation on the light rail, in mid-day, in a city the size of Seattle?

Lunch at Serious Pie (THB renames it Superior Pie). Great pizza (fiddleheads, roasted garlic, small bits of pancetta), including the guy sitting next to us sharing the last of his pizza, salad of shaved asparagus and wild greens and parmesan, Shared beer THB and DB, not with the guy at next table), $40.

Cider and cheese tasting (includes Tieton Cider, see week 3 highlights, if they ever get posted) at Quinn’s on Capitol Hill followed by dinner at Quinn’s with Susan and Alex. Susan knows everyone! While walking to dinner at another spot (closed) before returning to Quinn’s, we run into someone who works at the now-relocated Elliott Bay Books, who tells us there is a reading going on by the author of Crow Planet (highly recommended) then at dinner Susan, who does a ton of yoga, knows Claire Dederer, author of Poser (chic-lit, recommended), a book we listened to on our last road trip.

Day 6: DB’s b’day!!!!! Breakfast at Macrina Bakery on Queen Anne, scone, brioche, marionberry coffeecake, coffees, $16. Then a walk through the arboretum, lunch in Madison Park at Cactus (tortilla soup, corn tamales, ice tea, $27}, walk back through the arboretum, In honor of DB, the sun makes one of those rare appearances, after noon, and it is gorgeous the rest of the day and evening. Dinner at Tilth, in Wallenford neighborhood, we share small plates: crunchy cracker with cheese and date starter, smoked halibut with consommé, salmon and squash with consommé, three bean cassoulet, chocolate torte, strong drinks, three glasses of wine, complimentary glasses of moscato amabile, $170. Excellent!

Day 7: So much for carryover effect – it rains all day! Yep, spring has ended again and it has gone back to late winter (temps in the low to mid 50s). This morning, we decide to head to Tacoma to visit the Glass Museum, doing a walk anywhere doesn’t make much sense. It’s a great show, a mix of various pieces by artists that have done a residency, including one terrific gigantic piece by Beth Lipman (we visited her studio near Kohler a few weeks ago). Lunch at local sandwich spot and back to Seattle for a visit to Akio Takimori’s studio with Akio and his dealer (Jim Harris, the guy we ran into on the light rail!).

The visit lasts about an hour and a quarter, we see several ceramics pieces in-process and a number of pieces on paper, two of which we like a lot….no decisions made yet!

Nearby, we meet Sharon, Craig and Susan for a second birthday celebration, at Staple and Fancy in the Ballard neighborhood. What a great meal!!! We order the tasting menu, and proceed to see: crispy fried oysters, prosciutto and caramelized mini-cauliflower, beet and grapefruit and arugula salad, soft shelled crabs on crispy toast with garlic aioli, raw escolar with green topping….all great….and these were the appetizers! Next up English pea ravioli and pasta with nettles pesto, both excellent. Finally, the main courses: hanger steak and potatoes and the best swordfish THB has ever eaten. Phew, only 3 desserts: chocolate torte with ice cream, tangy key lime pie with ice cream, and soft whipped cheese cake with rhubarb on top. Lots of wine, and the tasting menu is only (truly a bargain) $45/person…and, we are treated, a very nice birthday gift!