Day 3: SJI to Seattle

Day 3: SJI to Seattle

Uniquely filling the bath tub

Weather: Overcast with light drizzle in Friday Harbor, raining in Seattle

Utility box

QOTD:  

And I'll stand on the ocean until I start sinkin'
But I'll know my song well before I start singing
And it's a hard, it's a hard, it's a hard, and it's a hard
It's a hard rain's a-gonna fall.

Another travel day via ferry and car to Seattle. During breakfast, DB and K let THB know that this is one special day, Bobby has gone Nobel. Damn!! YOWZA!!

Okay, back to life on the road. Breakfast at FHH, same-same as yesterday except now THB has an apple fresh from the Four Winds’ orchard with his yogurt and granola and English muffin.

After checking a bit after 8am to ensure it is open, the four of us walk a half mile uphill to the Bakery San Juan, right next to the FH Airport. OOOOPS, it’s too early, the bread isn’t out until 9am. Easy stroll downhill to FHH, loll around a bit, check out (rooms here with breakfast are around $255/night with taxes included), and drive back to the bakery.

We’re getting a picnic for the ferry: two different types of bread (sourdough, multi-grain), Comte cheese, salami stick, olives, drinks and a folding knife to cut the lunch up into sharable quantities, $70.

On to the ferry right on time, dine in style (it doesn’t take much to top the vending machines on board), an hour back to the mainland, and about 1.5 hours in a steady rain back to Seattle. Like every major west coast city, traffic on the highway near downtown crawls all day long, and Seattle in the rain is no exception (nor was it an exception when we drove through on Tuesday in the sun).

The Hotel 1000 (at 1000 First Street) is lovely: one couple is in a city view suite, the other in a Puget Sound view suite. Gosh, it’s raining on both sides of the hotel, so the views are somewhat similar - very grey.  The rooms are expansive and comfortable; at these prices that means they are meeting expectations. An excellent snack tray is delivered, there’s a complementary bottle of local red, and lots of ledges to place our belongings.

Dinner at Lark, on Capitol Hill. The hotel drives us up, and while it is less than two miles away, it is not easy to find. The streets are very convoluted and it would’ve been easier to get out nearby and walk…except it is raining and there are three phones triangulating where the place is and how to get there (oh, wait, that might be why it is not easy to find).

It’s worth the convolution. SC joins us and there’s much catching up to do (she was unable to make K&E’s wedding and had not met E before). Tonight is also restaurant week, so the special menu is chosen by three of us, K&E go the a la carte route. Here’s what THB had for dinner:

•       Kings apple, fennel and Treviso salad, Rogue smoky blue cheese dressing, roasted walnuts
•            Fried pork knuckle, braised red cabbage, fingerling potatoes, whole grain mustard
•     Blackberry apple sorbet with red wine apple jam, cider vinegar meringue, and oat pecan granola
•       Lemon drop cocktail
•       A smidgeon of sauvignon blanc

The three course meal was $32, a bargain for restaurant week. When the bill came, the waitress explained that someone at another table was picking up our drink bill…VERY NICE (something to do with the stars aligning for Bob and restaurant week?). Ooops, they are really treating the table next to us. Up goes our bill by $50. THB starts paying closer attention: the waitress has added in the drinks and forgot the wine. Up goes our bill by another $50. Total: $390 for five.

It is still raining when we finally finish paying and head out into the night. Uber back to hotel: $8, and much less convoluted on the return, straight shot downhill. Welcome to Seattle!