October 29, 2012

Family Visit: Part 2

Pike Place Market

Matt's at the Market

Matt's at the Market

Pike Place Market

Pike Place Market

Ballard Locks

Ballard Locks

Theo Chocolate factory tour

Saturday we went to Pike Place market and wandered through a lot of it; the coolest place was a mineral and fossil shop owned by an awesome, happy guy named Jim. I didn't take pictures of the great ammonite fossils my dad bought unfortunately (I'll get some over Christmas), but I got a pyritized ammonite pendant from him that a friend of his who is a jeweler in France wrapped very minimally and cleanly in silver. It's really incredible and I've been getting a lot of comments on it having only worn it a couple of times so far; it's the only piece of ammonite jewelry I own because normally the mounting is done so cheese-ily or poorly, or using boring/cruddy specimens. I got really lucky with this one, and now I have an awesome new fossil connection in Jim.

We ate lunch at Matt's at the Market, where I had Oregon rock shrimp tostadas. My brother was intensely fond of the hot bacon caramelized onion dip with hand-cut potato chips. We'll have to take him back when he visits in December.

After lunch we headed to the Ballard Locks, which is always a cool walk along and across the canal. The variety of leaves on the ground is fantastic this time of year. My dad demonstrates a head-sized one above. We booked a tour at the Theo chocolate factory as well - everyone on the tour had to wear a hair net. My brother is trying to block me taking his picture in that last shot above.

Not pictured is our trip to The Noble Fir in Ballard and dinner after, with a stop off at Card Kingdom (huge board game and card game store) were we bought a few games. We spent the rest of the night playing those games, by far the best of which was Wits and Wagers. That's one I'll be hauling home for the holidays to play again for sure.

I don't have any pictures from Sunday because the flights out of here were in the morning, so this concludes my Family Visit blog posting. It was really great to see my family and get a chance to show them around my new house and new city.

October 28, 2012

Family Visit: Part 1

Seattle

Space Needle

Space Needle

Chihuly Garden and Glass

Chihuly Garden and Glass

Chihuly Garden and Glass

Chihuly Garden and Glass

Chihuly Garden and Glass

Chihuly Garden and Glass

Chihuly Garden and Glass

Space Needle at dusk

My parents and my brother all flew in to Seattle early Friday afternoon. We hung out at our place a bit and then headed off to the Space Needle. We got lucky with the weather considering the season; it was minimally foggy and not really raining. After we walked around the perimeter of the needle for a while we went inside to have a beer, however, it completely fogged over outside, so we timed it just right.

We headed to the Chilhuly glass museum and garden after that, featuring the works of a very famous glass artist. It was great to see this stuff at dusk/evening because the lighting made things really glow. A Cajun dinner at Toulouse Petit after that finished off the evening. That place is amazing, I highly recommend it. More to come soon...

[more pictures on Flickr]

October 21, 2012

Cafe Flora and the Seattle Japanese Garden

Cafe Flora

Cafe Flora

Cafe Flora

Cafe Flora

Seattle Japanese Garden

Seattle Japanese Garden

Seattle Japanese Garden

Seattle Japanese Garden

Seattle Japanese Garden

Seattle Japanese Garden

Seattle Japanese Garden

Seattle Japanese Garden

Seattle Japanese Garden

Seattle Japanese Garden

Fall had started full-force since I last blogged, so today we took a few hours to go try a vegetarian restaurant called Cafe Flora near Madison Park and then visit the Seattle Japanese Garden. Cafe Flora was amazing -- we both agreed it was one of the best meals we've had in the city. The garden was right nearby and was really gorgeous as well. It was built surrounding a huge koi pond full of truly huge koi, and a few turtles and ducks.

Things moved fast this past few weeks and we've been really busy, or maybe just really preoccupied, hence the slow-down in blogging. I am participating in my first major release this week of multiple connected features/projects I've been managing for the past few months, so I'm really hoping everything goes well. And I'm really looking forward to having that done with... my ambient stress level has been pretty high as I'm still getting settled in to this new job.