Take only memories, leave nothing but footprints

Chief Seattle, a chief of the Suquamish Tribe who welcomed the arrival of the white settlers, and for whom this town was named said: "Take only memories, leave nothing but footprints."

Chief Seattle

As we walked through Seattle today we didn't leave many footprints in the concrete, but we got lots of pleasant memories of this delightful City to take with us.

So below I share some of these memories.

Breakfast

I slept until 7.00am and a comfy sleep it was too. The latest time I have slept until during the holiday. From the bed I had a  lovely view to sit and watch as the town comes to life below us. 

I make coffee for Drew and I, given we are in Seattle, it is, of course, Starbucks coffee here where it all began. 

We shower and dress and at 8:45 leave the hotel and walk down to Pike Place Market. Unlike the Comfort and Best Western hotels where we have stayed for most of the holiday, there is no buffet breakfast at the Westin, so our first stop at Pike Place Market is to the Sound View Cafe, with its lovely views over Puget Sound. We watch the large and slow boats plow across the harbour as we enjoy our breakfast. 

Puget Sound

I went for steak-hash and eggs. A steak-mince hash with eggs (over hard) and sourdough toast. The potatoes in the hash were very well cooked, somewhere between roast and sauteed potatoes with a lovely amount of peppers and onions cooked through with them. 

Haydn's Steak Hash and Eggs

Drew went with the Joe's Special. Which was scrambled eggs, turkey sausage and ciabatta toast. He found it very tasty.

Drew's Breakfast - Joe's Special

We both had orange juice and coffee with our breakfasts.

Around Seattle

This morning the bay is cloudy, on a positive note the sea winds are pushing the smoke out of the city, so the air seems so much clearer. On a less positive note it is bringing in a rain shower, but this remains light and stops after thirty minutes. 

Pike Place Market

After breakfast we walk through Pike Place Market taking in all the sounds, sights and smells of this amazing place. The range of fruit, fish, shellfish and flowers are just amazing. To have so much delight in such close quarters is just astounding. These photos are only a small sample of all of those I took - which can be viewed on Flickr.

Vegetables in Pike Place Market

A range of Pastas - Pike Place Market

Huge Crab Legs - Pike Place Market

Fish - Pike Place Market

Belltown Cottage Park

We walk away from the Market and come to a number of side streets where there are level crossing signs. Indeed as we walked along they began flashing and the level crossing closed and two, long, trains passed below. Completely blocking the traffic on the surrounding streets.

Trains Crossing - Creating a Traffic Jam

We continued to walk along Elliott Avenue until we came to a very unexpected sight - a small garden fitted in behind some small old fashioned cottages. This is Belltown Cottage Park with its well kept flowerbeds and decorated routes through the park. It is great to see such a relaxing area in a built up town like Seattle.

Belltown Cottages Park with the modern buildings behind

We stopped for a Coffee in Starbucks opposite the Park and, as we are two mean to pay for wi-fi in the hotel, I upload photos from yesterday's journey and last night's lovely meal, and caught up with emails.

Olympic Sculpture Park

The next place we came across along the route was the Olympic Sculpture Park part of the Seattle Art Museum. The area was open and attractive, but it was sometimes difficult to distinguish the unusual art from other features - like a row of chairs. 

Art

Chairs

Art

Though with all the sense of a free movement of art, it was a surprise to come to the gate and find a 'you must do nothing' sign:

This Art needs lots of rules!!

Space Needle

We walked up the hill from the park to the Space Needle, though there was still too much cloud to make sense of getting to the top of the Needle, especially as we had been up on a very clear day Nine years ago. 

Space Needle

Around the Space Needle are a wide range of other things. Including the Museum of Pop Culture by Drew's favourite architect - Frank Gehry. Drew became a fan of Gehry due to his interest in the New York building in New York when we visited there last.

Impressive design in the Museum of Pop Culture

International Fountain

Behind the Museum is the International Fountain. The fountain was designed in 1962 for the World Fair held in Seattle. It was reviewed and revised into its present form in 1995.

International Fountain

The water spurting from the fountain reacts to the music and the children (and some parents) get a bit (or quite a lot) wet as the music plays and the water changes direction. 

Spending just a few minutes here is wonderful fun and really relaxing. So we sat and enjoyed for 30 minutes or so. Even we got wet as a light mist reaches the benches beyond the fountains compound where we are sitting. 

Drew in front of the Fountain

Back to the Westin

From the fountain we walk back past the Opera House and the Ballet Theatre and along to Fifth Avenue. 

At the crossroads between Fifth Avenue, Cedar Street and Denny Way - called Five Points - is the Statue of Chief Seattle. 

Chief Seattle

We walk along Fifth Avenue and find another Starbucks for more uploading and blog post writing. This Starbucks is attached to the City University here in Seattle, so it was fun to hear staff trying to persuade students why they should study here rather than anywhere else. Nice that I don't have to do that, so important a part of my early University career, any longer.

As we left Starbucks we could see our hotel in the distance:

Westin Hotel Seattle

So we walked back to the hotel, getting to our room just after 3:30pm. 

Afternoon

Having been out walking for seven hours I spent the afternoon cpoying photos across to the PC, reading and relaxing while Drew went for another run on the wonder machines at the Fitness Centre in the Westin.

Dinner

We leave the hotel at 7:20pm and head for dinner. We had a booking for 8:00pm and arrived at 7:45pm.

This took us to another new part of town - our route was as follows:

Westin to Lark

Our destination tonight was a lovely restaurant that I had read about online called Lark. 

Lark

The restaurant is in a modern setting just on the edge of Seattle University's campus. Even though it was busy, each table is far enough apart to make it feel very intimate. 

We began with lovely, warm, bread served with butter and lardo, this tasted lovely spread on the bread.

Wonderfully crusty bread

For starters I had seared foie gras served with a duck crackling cornbread, ruby port duck jus, brown butter figs. The liver was cooked perfectly, with the one edge seared and crisp, but with the rest soft and juicy. A delicious taste experience.

Foie Gras

Drew opted to start with the Montana wagyu steak tartare which had capers, cornichons, aioli and crackers with it. He made his usual joke about it being 'a little undercooked'. The dish was very well seasoned. So Drew became quite extactic about it. With its strong flavoured, nicely textured meat. 

Steak Tartare

At Lark the Italian tradition of a antipasta, pasta and mains is maintained. So we were offered an 'Il Secundo' (second) course. From this I choose the Octopus a la plancha with Bomba rice, Piquillo peppers, smoked jowl. The rich sauce, which I had seen crafted by hand in the kitchen just beside us, was delightful. It carried the strength of the octopus and added a whole new exciting flavour making it hard for me to decide if I liked the sauce or the octopus more. Though I think it was the combination of both that made it so perfect. 

Pulpo

Drew opted for paccheri pasta which was served with a lamb and pork ragu, green garlic, dandelion and Parmigiano-Reggiano.  The shape of the pasta allowed the ragu to flow over and through it, making it easy to eat. The seasoning of the dish was again superb, the ragu was rich, more pork flavoured than lamb flavoured, but very good. He will be looking out for dishes like this when he goes to an italian elsewhere. 

Paccheri and Ragu

For mains (or thirds if you prefer) I had the Pork Belly this was crisp on the top and juicy below. It came with charred corn, mushroom, padron peppers, tomato aioli, chili vinaigrette and pepitas. While I love my meat the vegetables and sauce came as a great counterpoint to it, and were truly excellent in flavour and texture.

Pork Belly

Drew's main was Crispy Duck Leg served with pozole verde, hominy, green chickpeas, spring onion and crispy radish. Drew would have liked a bit more crispiness in his duck. The meat was perfectly cooked and soft, but the skin was not as crisp as he would have liked. The sauce had a spiciness with it, making it feel warming and comfortable. The vegetables were crisp and delightful.

Crispy Duck Leg

  
Even though we had eaten very well we thought we would ask to see the dessert menu and were both grateful that we did.

Drew ordered the blackberry sorbet with raspberry granita, shiso and matcha rice pudding. Drew loved the sharpness of the sorbet. Often berry sorbets are too sweet, but these were not. The rice pudding had good bite but was overall soft and comforting, just as rice puddings should be. Drew is not sure about the use of matcha in a rice pudding. It would have tasted nice enough without the introduction of the tea flavour.  

A delicious dessert

I, to my delight, discovered the restaurant offered a selection of Cheese. I chose: Dinah’s Cheese, Vashon, WA - a silky, luscious rich cow’s cheese (nearest me on the photo); Garrotxa, Catalonia – an earthy, strong, aromatic goat’s cheese (to the left of the picture) and Forme d’Ambert, Auvergne, France – a rich, salty, blue cow’s cheese (to the right). Each were excellent, with my preference being for the strong, tasty French blue.

Cheese - A perfect end to the meal

We left Lark at 10:00pm, after a delicious well paced meal and got back to the hotel at 10:30pm and to be by 11:00pm at the end of a lovely, lovely day.