Seattle, Day 1

After a very early departure from St. Louis this morning, K and I arrived in Seattle at almost exactly the same moment.  We both had layovers in Denver too, but unfortunately we were in different terminals.

It was going to be a few hours before mom and E arrived, so we headed into town for lunch at Pike Place Bar and Grill.  I had the lunch special, which was a blackened Cajun burger with blue cheese and bacon.  It was awfully good, but I was so hungry that I bet shoe leather would have tasted pretty good.

After we were sufficiently sated (K not only cleaned her plate, but also ate all my leftover french fries), we motored off to the hotel to drop our bags, then back to the monorail station to pick up mom and E.

The Space Needle, right near the monorail station

After depositing their baggage, we made the long walk to Elliott Bay Books (and though she tripped over her shoes many times, K managed to never fall down).  We're all book people, and Elliott Bay is a famous shop.  They recently relocated from their previous location, which I never visited.  According to C, though, it was a charming space cobbled together over time.  Their new location has lost some of that, but it is bright and very open, and really quite lovely.

The Paramount Theater, originally built in 1928, which we passed by on our way to Elliott Bay

It's a bad picture, but I just had to post it!

C recommended "a great little restaurant a few doors down from Elliott Bay" for dinner, and when I saw Oddfellows, I knew that was what he was talking about.

My dinner consisted of a very lemony summer squash soup with Dungeness crab (a staple on every Seattle restaurant menu), and the "something chocolate," which that night was a rather large pot de creme, which mom helped me finish.

 E's dinner: watermelon salad and sauteed greens

 Mom's asparagus with poached egg

K had a veritable pupu platter of meats, cheese, and anchovies (which were left uneaten), but my picture of the lovely array didn't turn out, and I'm pretty sure K would have poked out my eye with a fork if I made her wait any longer to eat.  Alas, no picture.

After our long day of travel we were all pretty beat, so we tromped back to the hotel, and that was it for the night.