All the Buzz in Seattle

Our merry band moved north to the city center of Seattle and surrounding vineyards. The city has distinct little neighborhoods with their own styles and cultures. The first thing that comes to my mind when I think about the city is the flying fish market at Pike’s Market. But the market has so many more layers with vendors selling homemade huckleberry honey, amazing macaroni and cheese, tiny doughnuts and of course– the original Starbucks Coffee.

And what goes best with coffee? Doughnuts. Hey, it’s your birthday, live a little.

Downtown we shopped and enjoyed observing the “rugged chic” inhabitants. In DC a casually nice restaurant calls for a black dress and kitten heels. In Seattle it is apparently alright to roll out in cargo pants and an under armor tee. Cool. Break dancing and flannel are still abundant here too, giving a fun rebellious streak to the city. One of the trendy spots we visited was the Dahlia Lounge. They have locally famous doughnuts that come paired with fresh huckleberry jam and a whipped marscarpone-vanilla creme.

Dahlia Lounge Doughnuts (apparently doughnuts are a thing in Seattle?!)

We grabbed a great breakfast at the Portage Bay Cafe. This cafe is organic, locally grow, and yummy, living up to their slogan “Eat Like You Mean It”. However, when the weather is nice in Seattle it is important to take advantage of the vitamin D boost. So we headed north to the vineyards. (Did I just pin that decision on weather?! Yeah, weather.)

The most picturesque, Chateau Ste. Michelle, was the perfect place for a mellow afternoon picnic of wine and cheese.

Irene insisted that we make one more high-caloric stop at Molly Moos Homemade Ice Cream. (Serious arm-twisting ensued.) This neighborhood joint scoops up flavors like lavender honey, green tea, salted caramel, and Ba’rocky road. Being from DC I tried to distill a greater political platform in the chunks of fudge and, homemade marshmallow. But I couldn’t come up with anything. Maybe I should have stayed for another bowl to ponder it some more…

The landfill friendly non-plastic spoon and paper bowl did not escape my eye. The really do care about the environment. It was a discernible leap from the “maybe we will recycle that one glass bottle we sell” attitude of east coast establishments. Plastic spoon or not, this ice cream was indulgent. Yet another reason to move to the left coast.