For some years before I started a blog, I took notes on trips.  Sometimes friends ask for these notes to help with trip planning.  To organize everything in one place, I’m adding my old trip notes to my blog.  These were written shorthand and probably not too enjoyable to read but hopefully useful to plan a trip.

I do not have access while traveling to my old photos, but I think through the link below you can see Jenni’s Facebook album from this trip even if you do not have a Facebook account.

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.779966219285.2396349.414086&type=1&l=3a7bd49431

We visited Seatlle July 1-5, 2010 and had a great time.  The weather wasn’t so good but the food was outstanding, and Olympic National Park was beautiful.

7/1 – arrive around 9 pm, maybe 15-20 min drive in to city, no traffic; check in to Hotel Andra, then had drink each and split lamb carpaccio at Dahlia Lounge across way, was delish.

7/2 – went to pike place around 8:30 am then had brunch at cafe campagne which was pretty good and then we went back to the market.  After, we went to the Seattle Art Museum which was pretty cool with Cobain exhibit and some sculpture and Warhol exhibit…not a lot of big name artists that I saw.  Left there maybe 1:30 pm or so and walked down to pioneer square and to Salumi (Mario Batali’s family place) with 30 min wait but worth it…we split grilled copa with fontina and hot peppers and agrumi salami which has cardamom.  Then we walked to little park with waterfall in it and back through Pioneer Square and to Purple Café and wine bar where we each got a flight of WA white wines which were not very good ( purple has high ceiling, great menu) then W for drinks and then Zoe for dinner. Was very solid, lots of food and two drinks each (no dessert) for $128 all in. Walked few blocks back through Belltown and seems cool.

7/3 – woke about 6:30 and got to ferry about 7:15 got sandwiches and coffee there, plenty of time for 7:55 ferry to Bainbridge. Cold. 35 min ride then drive across island and over to 101 to Olympic National Park. Go to hurricane ridge about 17 miles in from hwy. Cloudy but clear at times. At top we parked the car around 5200′ and see lots of snow covered mtns across valley. Beautiful. Hike hurricane hill 1.6 miles each way and about 650’ gain. Saw little birds, black tail deer, marmot, goat, black bear in distance, chipmunks. Very pretty spot, chilly but fine when working. Drove back down and headed west again on 101 few minutes to lunch at kokopelli in port angeles . Had Dungeness crab (seems to be from here, crossed Dungeness river) club sandwiches with fries. Drove 101W another 20-30 minutes to lake crescent but pressed for time seemed so just couple pics then about 2+ hour drive back to Bainbridge. Olympic park and peninsula very green and reminiscent to me of Maine or Vermont and of course much lusher than SoCal. Got on 5:30 pm ferry back to Seattle (was about $14 while morning was $21) and nice and sunny but still cold on deck. Water kind of brown, see lots of jellies in the ocean.  That night we had a 8:30 reservation at Crush restaurant in Madison Valley .  I heard about it b/c believe Jason Wilson is the chef and he won a James Beard award.  We got the 6 course tasting menu with paired wines.

Salmon roe with bacon whipped creme fraiche with parsnip base and maple syrup; hamachi crudo with meyer lemon and mint; tagliatelle with morels, peas, truffle and parm; sparkling loire; Italian pinot grigio; chardonnay; salmon with peas etc oregon dundee hills pinot; split foie with cherries and almond financier with muscat; orange and yeast sorbet palate cleanse; cabernet with short rib; port for me and mousse with peanut and some ice cream and j had pinot gris and blueberry thing with mascarpone ice cream. So full and tired!

In Madison Valley area, pretty hilly around there. Reminds of Cambridge . Crush in a little house with wood floors, enter and there’s host stand and some stairs and to right is bar with about 8 seats and open kitchen and a few tables or to left is little room with big window and seating for about 16. J and I had four top, she on bench side and I in a low plastic mod white chair. Service quite good and food great. All in was $394 and about 2.5 hours. Planned to go out but too full and tired.  Excellent meal and worth it.

7/4 – Slept in and drove down and over West Seattle bridge to Salty’s on Alki Beach . Big place and way crowded. All you can eat brunch with crab legs, shrimp, oysters, omelets, mac n cheese, smoked salmon hash, chocolate fountain, waffles, dessert, bloody mary bar, etc. $40++ each. Awesome. Big windows with views of bay and city. Stuffed we drove up to Green Lake . No traffic ever and get around quickly and parking easy. Walked 2.8 miles round lake with lots of peeps and dogs and bikes etc and little pitch n putt course. Drove back to hotel.

Relax in room then down to lobby for comfy chairs in front of window looking on 4th ave with NY times. Hip but cozy lobby with good music. Got glasses of wine. Then ate at Lola which is another Tom Douglas spot in our hotel. Greek, had few apps. Tasty. The man has great menus. Took carafes of house red up to our room and watched fireworks on TV. Yeah, it’s true. Seattle almost canceled all due to budget but had biz sponsor I guess and only did em on Lake Union .

7/5 – morning went back to pike place and pastries and lattes at le panier. Jenni bought a little purse thing for phone etc while biking. We got dungeness crab rolls to go and clam chowder to split at pike place chowder. The chowder was great, the crab rolls OK (too much bread). Walked up 1st Ave to Broad and then went to experience music project at seattle center. Pretty cool, had hendrix exhibit and room where hear artists etc talk and then mary wilson of the supremes dress display and section with lots of rooms where can play instruments etc. Then walked up queen anne rd (fairly steep hill) and over on highland to kerry park with views of city and ate our crab rolls. Weather overcast again so see downtown and bay but never saw mt rainier at all. The area at queen anne and mercer had some cool looking shops/bars and 1st ave in Belltown has a bunch of bars and food etc.

Hotel location was great, think you want to be around there and pike place. Lobby nice and restaurant good, guess worth the $ but of course could go cheaper. Food in city was great..

On plane ride home saw Mt Rainier and several snow capped mtns to the West. Didn’t realize so many. Also interesting how in Olympic there are so many snow capped mtns and even on our hike there was snow in several places on the trail, at just 5500′ or so elevation and in July. Off our trail there were some long hikes with several thousand verts down then back up but some hard to do because of snow.