Diane and spent a great summer weekend in Seattle over the last couple days - a testament to how much fun stuff there is to do just minutes from where we live in the Ballard neighborhood.
Here's what we did...
Friday Evening
After long and trying week at work for both of us, we ventured over to
Senor Moose near where we live in
Ballard. If you haven't been to "the Moose" and you like Mexican food - go! For those of you who've been there, well, you know. Diane had the carne asada and I had the enchiladas suaza (sp?). And margaritas of course.
Stuffed to to the gills with some of the best Mexican food north of Mexico, we packed in for the night.
Saturday
With temperatures once again warming up, we got our exercise in the morning. I went for a nice six mile run on the Burke Gilman trail. Diane went to a class at our gym.
After some yard work and a rest, we then went to the
Majestic Bay theater in Ballard to see the movie,
Julie and Julia. This is true story movie about a) a young woman in New York City who in 2002 decided to cook every recipe in
Julia Child's famous
Mastering the Art of French Cooking cook book and to blog about it, and b) how Julia Child became, well, Julia Child as she learned to cook in 1950s Europe. The role of Child is expertly played by
Meryl Streep and is alone worth going to see this movie. Anyway, this was a much better movie than I anticipated. However, I could never quite get over how the younger woman, Julie, ends up (SPOILER ALERT) getting a book deal and becoming famous for....nothing.
All she did was cook the recipes in the book and blog about them. That's it. I guess that's how our society is today. You don't need to do something original. All you have to do is use something that somebody else has already done and then just comment on it or add a little something on top and, boom, you're famous and rich. This happens all the time in music these days where "DJs" take music that someone else wrote, performed and recorded and then the mix it around using different sections and portions to create a "new" song. Right.
None the less, amply inspired by Julia Child's French experience and efforts, we went for an outdoor French diner in the garden at
Sambar. Sambar is a tiny but cool place right next to the
Le Gourmand restaurant at the base of Phinney Ridge. In the summer, they open up a delightful little garden dining area that is nice green oasis right in the middle of the city. We shared a wonderful salad, beef shank and pasta, a chard greens souffle, and slices of pheasant. All of these dishes were divine. They were also small...which is perfect for sharing.
Sunday
Another warm sunny day in Seattle. After a trip to the
Ballard Farmer's Market in the morning to pick up some berries and flowers, we decided to take a bike ride on the
Burke Gilman trail from
Gasworks Park in Seattle to the
Redhook Brewery in Woodenville and back. It's about a 50 mile round trip, but along the well paved path you get to see great views of Lake Washington, a lot of neat houses and the halfway point is the brewery for lunch! There, we both had a brew and a brat. Delicious.
Following our return ride back to Seattle, we decided to stop by
Molly Moo's Ice Cream on 45th Street for a hit of cold goodness. Diane had a scoop of the balsamic strawberry and I had straight away chocolate. Very, very good.
We finished the evening off with a Margherita pizza pie from
Veraci Pizza - also a few short blocks away (across the street from Le Gourmand and Sambar actually).
Obviously, we had a great time. But on top of that, it's great to live in a city and neighborhood where so much goodness and fun is so nearby and so easily accessible. A great weekend indeed.
