Trip to Seattle: Days 1 and 2

Hey, everyone!  Whether I'm happy about it or not, I am back on the East Coast!  It's weird re-adjusted to Eastern time, but it does feel nice to be back at home.  I really enjoyed visiting Kristie and Joe, and I already miss hanging out with them!

I wanted to recap my trip to Seattle, and I'll do so in a few different posts.  We fit a lot of fun things into the time I was out there!  Let's start with the first two days.

Saturday

After a bit of a scare of catching my connecting flight, I made it out to Seattle at about 7:40 p.m. on Saturday.  Kristie and Joe were right on time to pick me up, and we spent the car ride catching up.  I hadn't really eaten, so we decided to meet some of our other friends Brad, Russell, and Mia for dinner.

The restaurant: Din Tai Fung in Bellevue, WA.  The restaurant features Dimsum food, which is a bunch of steamed dumplings.  We put our name on the list, then headed to Earl's for some drinks before dinner.

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Funny/awkward story from Earl's: The bartender IDed Kristie and me before we even tried to order drinks.  He asked us if we were 21, we both said we were 25, then he turns to me and says "You look like you're 17."  What?!  Ok, I know I look young, but 17?  Really?  He almost thought my ID was a fake!  Then, I choked on my wine after the first sip.  Talk about me looking like a 17-year-old.

It was time for dinner, and we all ordered a bunch of different dumplings, green beans, and rice cakes.  I must say, this food was DELICIOUS!  I can see why Kristie, Joe, Brad, and Russell all crave it all the time!  You dipped each dumpling in a mixture of soy sauce, vinegar, and ginger, which added a great taste to each little bit.  My favorite?  The spicy vegetable and pork wontons.

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We went straight to Joe and Kristie's house after dinner and just chatted on the couch, making plans for the next day.  We also watched their boxer, Lexi, play around and do her adorable little excited wiggle when she saw me.

Sunday

The weather was beautiful in Seattle, so we decided to head in to the city and explore.

We grabbed the Bainbridge Ferry to check out the little town on the island.  Riding on the ferry was a really cool experience!  We stayed inside, but we had a great view of the city and surrounding mountain ranges (see above).

Once we docked, we went straight to our lunch destination: The Harbor Public House.  It required that we walked through the whole town, which allowed us to plan the rest of our day.

We sat down and were very excited for lunch!  Everything on the menu looked so fresh and delicious.  We were also excited about the local Washington beers and wines offered.  Our wines were poured from the barrel, they were so fresh!  We started our meal with a traditional Canadian dish of Poutine.

Kristie and Joe couldn't wait to dig in

We thought it was pretty tasty.  Afterward, our meals arrived.  I got the Asian Salmon Bowl, which was SO GOOD!  The salmon was fresh with a hint of Asian flavor.  Kristie's burger was fantastic, and Joe's fish-and-chips were great, as well.  We left full and happy.

Next stop: Bon Bon Candies.  The fudge sign drew us in to the store and we picked up some delicious treats.  In addition to some nonpraeils, I picked up some of those raspberry and blackberry candies.  They count as fruit, right? :)

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We continued through the town to the winery tasting rooms.  There were four tasting rooms in the vicinity, which excited all of us!  Wine is one of our favorite things, and we were ready for some tastings. 

First up: Eagle Harbor Winery.  They had some very good wines, and my favorite was their 2008 Raptor.  Strong name, but a very good red wine.

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Right across the street was the Eleven winery tasting room.  We chose 5 wines to taste from their 9 wines.  Each of us chose a different combination to taste, and I went with most of their red wines.

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I loved their Malbec!  Another hit was their Sweet Sarah dessert wine.  The description said "Sarah has a best friend: chocolate." so Kristie and I sampled this wine with one of my nonpraeils.  DE.LIC.IOUS.  I don't usually like dessert wines, but this was perfect with chocolate.  Even the woman who worked their tried it out and thought it tasted great.

We decided to take a break from wines and headed to Hitchcock Deli next per recommendation from the girl who worked at Eleven.  She said they had the best pastrami, so we went and tried it out.  None of us had tasted pastrami before, but after one bit, we were hooked!  We bought a half pound of the meat and snacked on it as we headed to our next destination.

Mora Iced Creamery was another place we had to try!  We went by and each got a cup of ice cream.  While their signature flavor is Blackberry, I went with Mint with Shaved Chocolate and highly recommend it.

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Last stop of our Bainbridge trip was Island Vintners tasting room.  They feature wines from the Amelia Wynn winery and Fletcher Bay winery and offer white flights, red flights, or 2 white/2 red combo flights for their tasting.  I went with the red flight and loved two of the wines: Fletcher Bay Tempranillo and Barking Dog Red.  We wound up getting an extra glass while we waited for the ferry and had a great time just talking and laughing with each other.

Someone's been drinking red wine all day...

It was time to head to the ferry and get back to Seattle.  We had a great day on this cute little island.  We got in a lot of walking, a lot of wine, and a lot of fun times.  I enjoyed the scenery on the ferry home.

Please ignore my wine-stained teeth

For some reason, I think ports are beautiful!  I love all the colorful containers and the neat-looking cranes.  Call me crazy, but that is a cool picture.

It was time to head back to the house and make a light dinner.  Joe is of Lebanese decent, and his mom taught Kristie to make tabouli.

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I love this dish, so we decided it was the perfect dinner to make.  It turned out PERFECT, and Joe made some biscuits to go along with this satisfying salad.  We ate, talked, and started feeling sleepy.  It was time to head to bed after a very fun day!

Well, those are my first two days in Seattle!  If you are ever in Seattle, I HIGHLY recommend going to Bainbridge Island.  As you can see, there is a lot to do, AND you get to ride a classic Seattle ferry to get there.

I'll be back tomorrow with the details of the rest of my trip.

Question for you: Have you had Dimsum before?  Do you love wine as much as I do?