Seattle, Three Almost Perfect Days

Seattle Pike Place Market

I used to live in the Seattle area way back in the 1980’s and even though I was glad to move back to Colorado I loved many things about the Seattle area. I have returned many times as a visitor over the last twenty years. Big trees is what comes to mind when I think of the north western part of the US, and the Seattle area has plenty. There are some wonderful parks where you can see these famous trees, like O.O. Denny park in Kirkland. This park is on the shores of Lake Washington and has some beautiful Douglas Fir trees standing tall trying to reach the sky.

Marymoor Park in the Redmond area is King County’s largest, oldest and most popular park with over 600 acres to enjoy. Marymoor has nice trails and you can even take in a concert from some big name musicians if you have the time. If you really want to see the big trees hop a ferry to the other side of the Puget Sound from Seattle and drive to the Olympic National Park where there you have the worlds largest Red Cedar, Yellow Cedar, Sitka Spruce, and Douglas Fir.

Seattle is the gateway to the Olympic and Cascade Mountains. Not to mention close to the San Juan Islands. With all this natural beauty one could almost forget Seattle’s attractions. They have a vibrant art scene, and world class food too. Sports fans have the Mariners for baseball and the Seahawks for NFL Football. The summers are often dry with lots of clear blue skes unlike the winters when it can be cloudy or rainy six days a week. With that much rain and clouds you need a variety of things to do inside.

On our recent trip we hoped for sunny weather, but expected rain for most of the three day visit. However we lucked out and had many hours of sunshine. The first two days we walked around the downtown area to take advantage of the sun while it lasted. We walked the world famous Pike Place Market the first thing in the morning and watched the vendors set up. We grabbed the usual breakfast at Le Panier a French bakery that is as good as it gets in the US. The smell of butter comes wafting out of the place long before you even get to the front door. I swear they must have a pot of butter simmering on the stove and exhausted outside to get that level of butter in the air near their bakery. The croissants they bake are the best I have ever had in the US and beat many I have had in France too! Over the years I have tried virtually everything they bake with my favorites being the tarts, croissants, palmiers(pigs ears), and their breads.

After walking the market we headed to Pioneer Square on foot to see the area where many a would be miner heading to the Klondike gold rush bought their equipment before boarding a ship to Alaska back in the 1890’s. This is a nice historic downtown area with many shops and restaurants to chose from. After our visit to the square we hoofed it down to the waterfront to stroll the shops there and watch the ferries come and go. The Washington State Ferry system has many destinations served from the Seattle waterfront. You can hop a ferry to Victoria BC, Bremerton or Bainbridge Island. We decided to return after lunch to ride the Bainbridge Island Ferry just for the fun of it. first we wanted to go to Dahlia Bakery to see if the reviews of the triple coconut cream pie were accurate. You never know about such things until you try them for yourself so even though it was a great sacrifice to my usual healthy eating program off we walked and climbed to the bakery. Once we got there we opted for the Dahlia Lounge for a light lunch of salad two ways, and both were fresh and well dressed. Then came the pie, and let me tell you it’s hard to beat this fluffy creation anywhere on the planet. It was as good as coconut cream pie can be with not too much crust, and great coconut flavor with a touch of shaved white chocolate on top.

After that splurge we walked all the way back to the ferry landing-about a mile- and then under bright blue skies headed for Bainbridge Island. We had been there about ten years ago to see the Bloedel Reserve an old timber baron’s mansion and grounds. It’s worth the trip if you like that sort of thing with beautiful gardens and a waterfront view of Seattle. We did not have the time to grab a taxi to Bloedel due to a reservation at Sutra a restaurant know for great vegan dining. We had never been to a restaurant that just served vegan food so this was an adventure. First we had to get back and check into The Inn at the Market our lodging for the next two nights. After disembarking the ferry in Seattle we walked back up to the market again and grabbed a bottle of local Pinot Gris for a happy hour treat on the rooftop garden of the hotel. We also bought some goodies from City Fish the oldest seafood vendor in Seattle. There we bought a dungeness crab cocktail and salmon poke( a sushi like preparation of raw salmon and seasonings) for our happy hour. At the market we bought a lovely bouquet of flowers for our hotel room for a whopping $5 that would cost double just about anywhere else.

The rooftop garden at the Inn is fabulous with sweeping views of the waterfront and Puget Sound. There we had a happy hour to die for before catching a taxi to Sutra.

Just after arriving at Sutra the skies darkened up and did what Seattle is famous for, and that is rain, but we were safe inside Sutra with no worries other than choosing our drinks to go with dinner. This cool restaurant offers wine pairings as well as non-alcoholic beverage pairings to go with the vegan meal. Since this was a novel idea we decided that one of us would have the wine pairing and the other would do the juice and teal pairing. Both were great with the meal and quite affordable. Of the five courses I think my favorite was the third course of chili cashew cheese lasagne with zucchini, but all of it was creative and very tasty. By the time dinner was over so was the rain and back to the hotel we went for some much deserved rest as our plane was 2 1/2 hours late the night before arriving at 12:30 am.

The next day we went back to the French bakery(Le Panier) for another lovely meal before heading to the Chihuly gardens of glass exhibit at the Pacific Science Center. We rode the monorail there just because it is a cool and goofy way to travel, and it was included with our hotel package. The exhibit was a mind blowing, glass blowing trip through several rooms of Dale Chihuly’s best work, and included a movie room where you could watch several short films on the artist who is known world wide for his talent and large displays. My favorite was the small boat filled with all sorts of beautiful glass objects on top of a black mirrored platform. Too cool for words! The outside part of the exhibit was great too in the way natural elements were at play with Chihuly’s glass masterpieces.

Chihuly glass boat

If you ever get a chance to see one of his exhibits just do it! Often his works are featured outside of Seattle. My wife and I stumbled upon one in Dallas a year ago when we were visiting the area and it was great.

After the glass show we went to the market for lunch at the Athenian since it’s a tradition to do so. The steamed clams lived up the expectations, but the clam chowder fell short. Hey, but the view was great as we got a window seat overlooking the Puget Sound.

After lunch we walked ten blocks of 2nd avenue through Belltown on our way to the Olympic Sculpture Park that opened in 2007 and winds down the hillside until you reach the waterfront. It was a fun walk and we enjoyed the many sculptures, including the house rooftop that we both climbed up on. Then we walked the waterfront for a bit until we noticed several people looking towards the water where a school of about 30 salmon were swimming by. Nice to know the water is still clean enough to support wild salmon!

We walked towards our hotel, but stopped when we came to Anthony’s seafood Restaurant for a small bite to eat and some much needed ice water. We had a fine preparation of edamame tossed in soy sauce, sesame oil and hot peppers that was one of the best ways to eat edamame I have ever had. We were sad we didn’t have room for the Boysenberry Cobbler, but we had reservations at Canlis, one of the best high end restaurants in the Seattle area for dinner and didn’t want to fill up before that. So up the hill to the market we walked once again to get cleaned up for dinner.

We arrived at Canlis at 4:45 a full 15 minutes before they opened. That gave us time to gawk at the view of Lake Union and Gasworks Park. Canlis has been around for more than 60 years(three generations) and many think of it as the best fine dining restaurant in Seattle. If you like fancy high end dining with fresh local ingredients this is worth a visit. The service is top notch as well as the presentation of the foods. We were wowed by the trio of complimentary appetizers sent out before the salad course. Even though the the main course was good our favorite part of the meal was the Canlis salad, a family recipe of the house includes romaine lettuce, fresh oregano, bacon, romano cheese, green onions, croutons, fresh mint, and a dressing of olive oil and lemon. You can get the recipe on their website:http://canlis.com/food/recipes/the-canlis-salad/ if you want to try and make your own. After being sufficiently stuffed we went back to the hotel for some reading time before bed after our long day of hiking scenic Seattle.

Canlis salad

Day three was upon us and it looked like it might rain all day. We had reserved a rental car for exploring the area and since it was raining decided to go to Woodinville to visit Chateau St Michelle winery. Back in the 1990’s when we visited this winery there was only one other in the area so we were surprised to find out there are more than 100 in the area now. The other big change was price. Gone were the $7-10 priced bottles of wine. Now most wines were in the $15-25 range, but it was still fun to try a few even if we didn’t buy any. The chateau is best visited on a sunny day so you can stroll the grounds and enjoy the fine landscaping that includes trout ponds. Columbia Crest winery is just across the street so we went there too and tasted some of their best. The prices had gone up a bunch there also so we didn’t buy, but when we left the sun had come out so we popped into the world famous Herb Farm just up the road to see what the fuss was all about. It wasn’t open but the lodge was so we asked to see a room for future trips, and were quite surprised how nice they were and affordable too for what you got. The Willows Lodge and Spa occupy several acres of well landscaped gardens across from the Herb Farm. The other restaurant onsite-The Barking Frog- was open so we decided to have a small meal before heading south. I got the antipasti plate and boy was it good. It had olives, marinated feta cheese, sun dried/oil cured tomatoes, humus and pita chips. Just the right snack before heading to Marymoor Park in Redmond on our way to our airport hotel. Marymoor has both regional and back country trail access, but we just did a quick drive through because we were on a time cruch to get to our next stop.

That place to explore before ending the trip was the Copperleaf Restaurant at the Cedarbrook Lodge. I have stayed at the Doubletree hotel in Seatac, Washington for over twenty years and never had a clue the Cedarbrook Lodge was just a couple hundred yards behind it hidden in the trees, This used to be owned by the now defunct Washington Mutual mortgage lender. Now it’s a really nice hotel with manicured grounds that remind one of a fine Japanese garden with water features and fish ponds. It’s quite the building with it’s large exposed wooden beams and huge windows.

The Copperleaf Restaurant was highly rated on Tripadvisor so we decided to give it a try. The farm to table themed food was excellent, and presented well. Even though we only had appetizers and salads we can’t wait to go back and try their seven course vegetarian tasting menu. As for the service, they thought it took too long to get the first course on the table and comped us a nice appetizer of caviar on cute little blinis that was quite good. This kind of service isn’t found everywhere unfortunately.

So ends the almost perfect three days in Seattle for this year. Why only almost perfect? Well it did rain half the day on our last day in town after all when we had high hopes for three sunny days, but this is Seattle we are talking about.