Travels of THB

Day 3: Seattle

Right colors, right team, wrong city

Quote of the Day: What kind of salmon is it?

Either future A's fans are cheering on their team or giving the universal baby sign for milk. Note the baby feeding station for two...twin ephemera is available in significant quantities.

Weather: Pleasant then warm-ish in the early afternoon

We have decided to walk around today and thus THB skips the fitness center. Our first walk of the day is to breakfast at Lola, a place we’ve enjoyed on prior trips. It is a bit less than a mile away and we stop along the way to get the Sunday NYT at one of the many Starbucks in this town.

Hold the potatoes. A terrific scramble

To get us off to an excellent start, we share a bag of hot doughnuts (think beignets except better, with cinnamon-sugar instead of powdered sugar) accompanied by mascarpone and apricot jam and a pot of decaf with small pitchers of hot milk. Hot Damn!! This is followed by soft scrambled eggs with bacon and fresh corn with toast for DB (hold the potatoes) and a mix of potatoes, onions, grilled octopus, tomatoes, and peppers topped with a soft-boiled egg and toast for THB. With 20% tip included, $72. Highly recommended.

Across the street is a small to-go outlet, Dahlia Bakery, and we stock up with a couple of pastries and a baguette for the train ride tomorrow morning. $15 (and hopefully no Canadian quarters given as change).

It’s a bit early to continue sauntering around town so it’s back to the 1000 for blogging and the NYT. Around 10:30 we head to SAM (Seattle Art Museum) just up 1st avenue; the museum has reciprocity with SFMOMA so get free entry. The big show is a photography exhibition of Native Americans by Edward Curtis, most of the photos were taken in the mid to late 1800s. Interspersed with the photos are narratives by now-living Native Americans revealing and discussing their understanding of the context as it differs from Curtis’ views.

Huge installation in the foyer of SAM

Robert Colescott

A very good Rothko

Jasper Johns

A small and potent (21C-like) exhibit

Kiluanji Kia Henda

Kiefer

A couple and their two teenage children take a quixotic trip around the world making replicas of pavement; THB thinks we may have seen a piece by them hanging in the Voorlinden museum in the Netherlands

The one Basquiat in a traveling show; yep, just one

El Anatsui

Larry Calkins; we own a headless piece by Calkins

Of course, THB’s fave exhibition is something straight from a 21C with a range of new artists in mostly 2D formats. Very edgy, and fascinating work. Next door to this exhibition is a small selection of modern art work including several large, exquisite pieces by Anselm Kiefer.

Blue Jays fans hoping for a sweep. Alas, it was not to be. Even so, the A's won and Red Sox fans got to wave their brooms at Fenway so the A's are closing in on Yankees and Astros. How amazing is it that they found brooms with Blue Jay blue bristles!

From SAM we head uphill to Capitol Hill (not as steeply uphill near the 1000 where it is possible to be going straight up straight down). On the way we cross paths with a large number of Blue Jays fans heading to the game, some carrying newly bought brooms to celebrate a Jays sweep of the Mariners. Didn’t happen, M’s finally won a game. No problema: the A’s fans were rewarded for bringing their brooms when the A’s brushed aside the Tigers.

A light lunch of sandwiches (crushed chickpea for THB, turkey and bacon for DB) and salad and ice tea at Homegrown (which shares a space with three of four other dining places and a butcher); $34 total.

DB has been to this area more recently than THB and she guides THB around to different locales: we buy a CS&N compilation at a used “record” store that we’ll listen to after we wrap up N’s Wild Tales; THB buys a copy of A Boy’s Own Story at the famous Elliott Bay Bookstore (formerly near Pioneer Square); we rest up in an alleyway loaded with small shops and restaurants; and finally we head steeply back down Madison to the 1000 for more NYT reading, blogging, and resting up.

Dinner is a monthly affair held in a small foody store in the Washington Park area (near Madison Park). The table for 20 is normally a display area. The meal is a benefit for a non-profit group dedicated to converting fishing in the Salish Sea to sustainable methods. The executive director of the non-profit is on hand to explain what is being done now, how much is left to be done, and explains a method of killing fish that enables the meat to stay fresh for 1-2 weeks.

So, we’re dining on one week old sockeye salmon done three different ways, and a dessert of polenta and fruit cake with cream. All the French white and red you can drink (THB liked the Cotes du Rhone enough to buy two bottles as house gifts for SA&DA. Dinner is $110pp, a great evening.