Dan's Birthday

We swooped into Seattle last night around midnight. Dan had arranged a room at the Weston in downtown Seattle. An interesting building, the Weston. The first 3 floors comprise the restaurants, bar and reception. The rooms are in two round towers that extend 30 some floors into the air. This means the rooms are circular. These two photos are the view from the room. Beautiful. Oh, the beds are indeed heavenly as they advertisements say. A good sleep was had before we got up and started our day.

My first day in Seattle! Yippee! Dan had a meeting to attend in the morning, so I took the opportunity to wander around downtown. I started with a stroll through the Nordstroms. Being the flagship store, I figured I had to check it out. I also can highly recommend the shoe shiner on the basement level. He gave my boots an amazing rebirth!! From here I walked down to the waterfront to Pike Market. What a cool set of shops. Seeing all of the amazing fish markets and produce markets made me wish that I had a kitchen nearby. I stopped by the Market Grill for a cup of chowder. Knowing we had many meals lined up still for the day, I refrained from trying one of the grilled fish platters, but it was hard – they looked and smelled SO GOOD!! After a good wander around I stopped by the flagship Starbuck’s across from Pike Market. They had a fun 3pc band pluckin’ away outside. Fun!

Before I knew it the morning had flown by, Dan had picked me up and we were off to pick up Meg for continued birthday fun. Meg was going to play tour guide! First stop, the section of town called Ballard and Than Brother’s Pho for a bowl of Dan’s favorite pho. I’d heard about it for months, so it was nice to try it. They give you a cream puff to wrap up the meal. Yum! Meg showed me how good she’s gotten with chopsticks! I still remember the first time she was able to use them last summer when she came to NYC! I love Meg's new glasses! They're fancy, from PARIS! (She's very proud of that!)

Since it was Dan’s birthday, we walked across the street to a fun spot called Cupcake Royale! Mint chocolate and Red Velvet cupcakes – YUM! Meg and I packed most of ours into a box for later (we were still full from lunch!) We spent the afternoon browsing the stores in Ballard. Nice neighborhood! Reminded me of some towns in Westchester County, NY.


We decided to stop at a café so Dan could open his gifts before we joined Dan’s friends for dinner. Of course, somehow I walked into the wrong door and before I knew it we were seated in a Mexican restaurant ordering a few appetizers to snack on while Dan opened gifts. Dan’s lucky! All of his presents were homemade! First he opened the BIG BOX from Meg. She’d made him a custom back-to-school kit complete with painted/glitter covered pencil case, special notebook, school supplies and a wonderful card!! Next he came to my gift – the scarf I’d been knitting since late September, from the Italian Merino boucle yarn he picked out when we were in Florence. It’s so soft, and warm. I love it! He said it’s the warmest thing he owns!

From here we continued the birthday fun by meeting at Simon and Molly’s house for some more present opening followed by dinner at Dandelion. We had some tasty meals, yummy wine and wonderful company! It was so nice to finally meet Simon after all I’ve heard about him this past year!! I hope to have more time for conversation on our next visit.

After dinner, on our way back to the hotel, we swung by the Space Needle so I could have a closer look. Voila!
Phew! Busy day! Another to follow tomorrow!! Bring on the Heavenly sleep!