May 29: To Seattle, and a Happy Anniversary to Us!

Happy 3rd anniversary to us!

We had another wonderful breakfast at our hotel. It was continental style, but everything was made on site. I have developed a taste for plain yogurt and granola – the granola was just so good! It was crisper than the stuff I used to get (“get”? More like “be addicted to.”) from Whole Foods. I think I’m going to have to start making my own, if only so I can pick the raisins out in advance. I also had a hard-boiled egg for breakfast, and I can’t remember the last time I did that. I developed a hunger for one some time right after Easter, and bugged Greg about it for like a week before I forgot about it. I’m thinking this will satisfy the craving for another year or so. The chef also made some apple-cinnamon scones that were really good. This hotel has also had, far and away, the best coffee we’ve had on this trip. It’s roasted on the island by a little company called San Juan Roasters, and was literally 3 blocks from the hotel. I don’t know enough (yet!) about coffee to know what makes it good – if it’s the beans, the roasting, the water, the coffee maker, etc. The hotel also kept making fresh coffee up until 4pm or so, which was nice.

I hated to check out; I think we both could have stayed there much longer. But we did eventually make our way over to the ferry terminal, and it was a rather uneventful trip back to the mainland. One of our new skills is driving on water.


On our way to Seattle, I talked Greg in to stopping at a craft store called Ben Franklin. I wasn’t sure what to expect, if it was going to be like another Michael’s or something, but they had lots of neat scrapbooking stuff (for those of you who care: the new, bright Cosmo Cricket line, the alphabets for the new Basic Grey lines, some American Crafts stuff, lots of the Making Memories alphabets, including a green velvet one I hadn’t seen before, etc). They also had the Vera Bradley fabric lines, including little swatches you could buy. It’s a good thing I made Greg pack light.

The other reason Greg agreed to go to the craft store (well, sit outside and talk to Jeff while I went in the craft store) was because the GPS and I convinced him that there was a Chipotle nearby that we could have lunch at. Nah, we’re not addicted.

We headed into Seattle, and hit a bit more traffic than we expected heading in to town at 4:30 (and the GPS flaked a little right when we were taking our exit, because we were in a tunnel!). But we made it to our hotel in one piece. We’re staying at a place called the Edgewater because, well, it’s on the edge of the water. We’re basically on a pier towards the north end of downtown. It’s a great location, and we’ve got a nice little balcony right on the water.



We are 5 or 6 blocks from the Pike Place Market, and we decided to walk up there for a bit, just to explore. Everything was pretty much closing down at that point.




We came back and got ready for dinner. Greg’s friend Jeff (who we’ll see tomorrow) live out here, and recommended this place called the Dahlia Lounge. It wasn’t until after we made the reservation that I looked in Fodor’s and saw that it was in Sleepless in Seattle. (I don’t know if I ever saw the movie…)
We took some “Happy Anniversary” pictures:



Anyhow, it was gorgeous and very romantic. It’s owned by a guy named Tom Douglas, who owns a couple of restaurants out here. We had a great smoked trout appetizer, and then Greg had crab cakes and I had halibut. Dessert was fantastic, if I can do it justice by trying to describe it: a small piece of rich chocolate cake on a bed of carmelized nuts, a small scoop of ice cream, and a small piece of fried banana with chocolate sauce. Oh my goodness. We were going to share a dessert, but it’s a good thing we didn’t, or the marriage may have ended right there. :)

Jeff surprised us by sending us a gift bag to our table, and everyone there seemed to know it was our anniversary. It was so nice! Before they brought out dessert, Jeff had also sent us 2 glasses of champagne. It was just a perfect night, and we can’t thank Jeff enough for recommending the restaurant, and then for all of his generous gifts.

Our view at night: