What Sarah Said

I love writing recaps of trips I’ve taken, and this one was no exception. There have been a few over the years, including a previous post called “Welcome Home to Seattle.” It’s a city that fascinates me — it’s dive-y and grungy (for lack of a less cliche word), it has fun tourist spots (more on that later), a strong counter culture, a solid (obviously) music scene, ridiculous food, all set against the waterfront and Pacific Northwest fog and chill. And it keeps calling me back, this time to attend a wedding. I’m so glad we took a few extra days to explore, connect with old friends, and go hard. 

Before we even boarded our flight out of RDU, we had a fun interaction with a woman at the checkout counter at Hudson News, which set the tone for the trip.

[My husband and I] Approaching the counter with eight snacks and drinks between us. 
[Checkout woman] “Dang, can I fly with y’all?”
[Me] “We like to party.”

And party we did. But before that, I had some more Airplane Thoughts. This happens to me when I travel. The fact that I’m disconnected from the world, only kept company by my downloaded Spotify playlists and a Moleskine notebook, I switch from overloaded working stiff to creative-good-idea-machine. It’s pretty fun!

After navigating the Escher-esque car rental situation at SeaTac airport, we arrived a few minutes later at our hotel, the Cedarbook Lodge. It’s a gorgeous little resort tucked away from everything. The grounds were filled with lush hostas, ferns, eucalyptus, and spruce trees. We checked in around 10:30 a.m. and were fortunate that our room was ready. 

Needing sustenance, we scooted over to Sharps RoastHouse located next to SeaTac. Do not write off this place because of the location and assume poor quality, this place was delicious and inventive. A good food omen. My husband ordered the Seattle Sourdough Wild Cod and Chips.

This wasn’t faux fish, it was enormous and flaky and the fries were outstanding. And they had sourdough pasta at several places on the trip. Either I’m super late to the game or this is a recent thing, but damn, it sounds good. I had planned on it for dinner, but we were thwarted by an hour wait time at Von’s in downtown Seattle. 

Later we hit Pike Place Market to kill time before meeting up with an old Space Coast Slashers roller derby friend (Slash Dancer) and her partner. We stumbled into Studio 102, a veteran-owned and operated art studio and storefront on the waterfront. We met artist Michael Staum and were fascinated by his work. The manipulation of leather and unique techniques of laser printing paired with cultural commentary had me sold on this piece.

Can I just rant for a second? 

Starbucks does fancy, expensive drinks very well, but their basic coffee, which is what I drink, is nasty. You can get a better cup — a fresher roast and higher quality beans, not mention a better experience in general — at any local coffee shop. But you may not see this there.

A tradeoff, I suppose. Michael mentioned the idea for this piece came from sitting across from the flagship Starbucks store in disgust  just steps away from his studio, seeing all the people go apeshit over it, taking selfies and such, and the idea popped into his head. He was a delight to speak with. I mentioned the Seattle Freeze which I’d heard of on my last trip. He jovially proclaimed that the Seattle Freeze was B.S. He said, “You’re talking to me aren’t you?” Point taken.

From there, I picked up a copy of “The Stranger,” Seattle’s local indie rag, or “Seattle’s only newspaper” as their masthead states. So glad I picked one up, because this article had me laughing out loud: 20 Hours on the 1. If you want to learn about Seattle, laugh your arse off, and get strong McSweeney’s vibes, check out The Stranger.  

A few cocktails were procured at Rachel’s Ginger Beer, which ships, by the way! I ordered the El Diablo, a black currant ginger beer paired with tequila. It was fairly sweet, but in a SweeTART kind of way. As mentioned, we were supposed to hit Von’s for sourdough pasta yum yums, but ended up at Ben Paris instead, which was also pretty good. The company was what shined that night, though. We chatted all things weird crafts and hobbies, and I got to meet internet celebrity Jeff Conner, who has a bit of a cult following on Facebook. He runs an all-admin group of purse chaos and anarchy called All Admin Group A.

The next day, we traipsed on up to Seattle’s touristy area. And by traipsed I mean we made a hellish drive through rainy downtown Seattle where people speed through bus-only lanes and are generally punk rock about traffic laws. Once there, we went to the Space Needle first, snapped a few pictures outside, and then visited the extensive gift shop. The day was super foggy, and neither of us were interested in going up in the elevator with the group of sweaty, damp tourists we walked past. We got some cool gifts and goodies at the gift shop, though.

From there, we walked to the Chihuly Garden and Glass museum. It was filled with interesting blown glass sculptures, a lot of which looked like happy accidents. My husband said the work was like Dr. Seuss meets Tim Burton. We also wondered how these extremely fragile pieces were transported. The consensus: packing peanuts out the ass. I also loved learning about his craft and process, plus the fact he didn’t study to be an artists, it just came naturally to him. He made what he wanted and it turned out to be prolific. Here are a few of my favorite photos from the exhibit.

After buying some gifts and bitchin’ earrings at the Chihuly gift shop, we headed to the final spot on our touristy morning — the Museum of Pop Culture a.k.a. MoPOP. This place is about as cool as it gets, we definitely could have made a whole day out of it. One of my favorite pieces was this rad guitar tornado sculpture called “IF VI WAS IX” which was designed by Neal Potter and developed by sound sculptor Trimpin. 

There were exhibits on guitars, Jimi Hendrix, Nirvana, video games, and an exhibit called “Never Turn Back” which was about Black music, culture, and influence. It consisted of concert regalia, documentary interviews with Al Green and Steve Wonder, and a really sweet interactive exhibit where you could pick a hip hop or R&B song and then listen to the song it sampled, side by side. For example, I discovered that Erykah Badu’s “Didn’t Cha Know” samples the 1977 song “Dreamflower” by Tarika Blue. I highly recommend visiting MoPOP is you’re ever in Seattle. Here are a few pictures:

After the morning of hardcore sightseeing, we needed caffeine and food, so we stumbled into the Tavern Five Points Cafe which reminded me of Flatiron in East Atlanta Village but with food. This was a rad diner/bar combo where we ate lunch, I drank the best coffee of the trip thus far, and we watched a patron get kicked out. It wasn’t even noon yet. I loved it so much, I bought a tank top and snapped a few more photos. After my previous trip to Seattle, I realized I took zero photos, so I was hellbent on documenting this one better.

Later that day, we dropped into a pre-wedding event hosted for out-of-towners at Tinte Cellar & Tasting Room in the Georgetown neighborhood. From there we met up with a friend I hadn’t seen or talked to since my last trip to Seattle. We got a drink at Star Brass, then walked to Mezzanotte which had great focaccia and burrata and a full-on disco bathroom, which apparently is a thing in Seattle. It was completely unexpected and yet somehow on-brand. 

The next day was the wedding at Sanders Estate in Auburn, Washington. Watching the bride walk down the aisle, I was overcome with emotion because it had been a little over a year since I’d walked down the aisle myself. I remembered exactly what it felt like. The couple exchanged beautiful, heartfelt vows and we danced the night away.

The next day, we hopped in the car and drove down to Portland. I had been before for a work conference in 2015, but it was my husband’s first time. We got a Nordic brunch at a unique spot called Broder Söder just outside of the city. I ordered a life-changing London Fog, we got Danish Pancake Balls with lingonberry jam and house-made lemon curd for the table. I ordered the Lost Eggs which contained two soft baked eggs, creamed spinach and sherry roasted mushrooms, topped with parmesan and breadcrumbs served in a cast iron skillet and paired with sourdough levain toast. The company and conversation was delightful as my husband got to see some old coworkers.

After checking into our hotel, we walked over to Powell’s Books.

It’s one of my favorite places on earth, and my husband’s first time visiting. If you’ve never been, it’s a full city block full of sexy book goodness. We grabbed maps and split up. Not only is the place filled with books and magazines you’ve never discover elsewhere, but everything is clearly laid out and labeled with a good flow from room to room. Among other books, I got a few hobby-related books on topics like sewing, gardening for beginners, interior design, and watercolor painting. I also found a reading journal, where I can keep track of books I’ve read, my likes and dislike, favorite quotes, and other notes. All told, we bought an obscene amount of books and had them shipped to our home across the country.  We can’t wait for them to arrive, it’ll be like Christmas!

Later we went to Din Tai Fung for a delicious dinner of Taiwanese soup dumplings and other fare with one of my old friends and professors from my SCAD days. 

It was such an amazing, action-packed trip, and we have the bride and groom to thank for giving us a reason to visit. The two cities were kind to us and very inspiring. I can’t wait until round three. Stay gold, Pacific Northwest. Stay gold.