Since then, Fred bought a house, Pranali started her PhD and I got a new job. Life happened! One of the things I'd committed to after completing Ironman was to travel more. So, less than 1 month after the big event, I headed for Seattle to spend time with dear friends and enjoy this great city.
Friday
Friday was my travel day. I wanted to avoid having to take two days off of work, so I arranged to fly out at 6:30pm on Friday. My friend Cory picked me up around 4pm. We went and enjoyed a few margaritas and some nachos prior to heading to the airport. The bartender made our drinks pretty strong and I was already buzzed when I boarded my flight to Minneapolis.
I arrived in Minneapolis with a little over 2 hours to kill. All I wanted was to sit down, have some dinner and a glass of wine. The margaritas had worn off already, what can I say?! I dragged myself throughout the terminal trying to find somewhere that wasn't insanely busy to have dinner. I finally settled on Axel's Bonfire where I had a delicious veggie pizza and a few glasses of wine. I also met an interesting character at the bar. I'm guessing he was about my age. His name was Nick and he's a sculptor. I'd never talked to a sculptor before. He sculpts extremists doing everyday things and then has them photographed - quite interesting. If I can dig anything up on him, I'll post it on my blog.
My flight to Seattle took off and landed without incident. We did have a bit of turbulence on the way out to Seattle, but nothing that left me rattled. My luggage made it one piece and Freddie was right on time to pick me up. I stepped outside the airport and was immediately happy to be greeted by COOL weather. Fall - FINALLY! I had to travel nearly 2000 miles to get it, but Fall had finally arrived!
We headed back to Freddie's new house in Kirkland, chatted for a bit and went to bed. It was late and there was lots of fun to be had in the next two days.
Saturday
Everything was just as beautiful as I remembered in the daylight. HUGE fir and pine trees, lots of green, but also lots of vibrant color. I didn't realize that the Northwest had such a beautiful fall. I was thrilled to be wearing multiple layers and one of my favorite puffy vests. Fall has truly arrived when I can break out one of my many puffy vests. (I think I own about 5 of them!)
Freddie and I headed to Bellevue Square to meet Pranali for lunch. Bellevue Square is a slightly upscale pedestrian mall complete with Nordstroms, Crate and Barrel and a myriad of delicious restaurants. We selected PF Changs for our first meal together in 4 years. Lunch was quite tasty - we shared a bottle of wine, the infamous lettuce wraps and a warm meal.
After lunch, we parted ways. Pranali had to go to lab - something about killing worms and isolating some genes or something. She's smart, in case you couldn't tell. Freddie and I headed for downtown Seattle at this point to hit two Seattle landmarks. I am sure you are all thinking that the Space Needle was one of those landmarks....well it wasn't. In fact, in the 4 times I've been to Seattle, I've never been up the Space Needle. I'm sure it's cool and all, but I like to enjoy and immerse myself in the city. The touristy stuff doesn't do it for me.
Anyways, those two landmarks - REI and Pike's Place Market. Why REI? Because I'm an outdoor retail geek and this is one cool REI. It has two huge floors and a climbing wall that can be seen from the highway. It is always packed in there with people and since it's so large there are usually many brands that I've never been introduced to. I've got to hand it to Freddie - he was awesome about holding my vest while I tried things on and was helpful in finding cute, yet functional items. Honestly though,I think he enjoyed it because after a short trip through the women's section, we hit the men's section and the roles reversed. I think he even called a man's sweater 'Cute'. One of the many reasons I love spending time with Freddie - you never what is going to come out of his mouth.
Following our REI Adventure, we headed to Pike's Place Market. I've been here many times before, but we've always raced through it. This time we really enjoyed it. We were greeted immediately by a group of 'artists' that were doing a project. They would have a person stand at the bottom of a steep hill while someone else pushed them up it and videotaped it. Not sure what that was all about, but we were hoping for a ride back up the hill when we were done at the market. We passed by the Original Starbucks where a quartet of acapella singers was entertaining the masses. We hit up a shop and bought some delicious oils, flowers for Fred's place and a cookie as big as my head! There is also tons of seafood at this market.
The salmon, crabs, lobster tails - all of them were huge and very fresh! It was a really fun afternoon.
That evening we met Pranali in the U District for dinner. We had sushi that was not as good as I was expecting given the west coast location. However, it was a really unique place. The chefs were in the middle of the room and a conveyor belt of sushi went all around them. When the item you want comes by your table, you just remove it from the belt and eat! At the end of the evening, the waitress calculates your bill by the number and color of the plates on your table.
Very cool concept, but I had better sushi in Vegas than I did in Seattle. Our dessert location more than made up for it though. We went to this place called 'Delietante's'. They had all sorts of wonderful cakes, coffees, drinks, etc...We each ordered a very large piece of sugary goodness and stuffed ourselves. What a delightful end to a wonderful evening!
Although we had every intention of 'partying' in Seattle, some of us were tired and cold and ready for bed. Sorry Freddie!
Sunday
I woke up Sunday morning and decided I better go for a run to counteract all of the gluttony from Saturday. To my surprise and delight it was nice and balmy outside, which made for a very pleasant run. I went for about an hour and really enjoyed all the hills, fall colors and tall fir tress.
Fred and I met Pranali at an awesome little breakfast place called 'The Brown Bag Cafe'. It was in a small little house where the portions were enormous. I had the French Toast with fruit on top. Yum!
Our mission for the afternoon was to hit the local wineries. Our first stop was Chateau St. Michelle. We tasted 4 different wines here - a Merlot, a Cab, a Riesling and a Sauvignon Blanc. It was a very relaxing way to spend a rainy Sunday in Seattle. I bought a bottle of the Merlot, which was surprising since I'm not a 'Merlot' person typically. Pranali purchased a bottle for her parents as well. We made our way to Columbia Winery next, which was just across the street. Columbia was our favorite. The environment was warm, social and inviting. We got to taste 5 different wines here. We really took our time and savored the afternoon.
After 9 pours of wine, we were all a bit tipsy. We toyed with hitting a 3rd winery, but we really needed food and to get home for the Packer-Bears game that evening. We headed for Kirkland and went to the WingDome. Mmmmm! It was this 'hole in the wall' type place with killer food. We shared some Jalapeno Poppers, Waffle Fries (with buffalo sauce and blue cheese!) and wings. It was way too much food, but it helped counter the 9 pours of wine we just had. All was right with the world!
We headed back to Fred's place where we watched a very disappointing Packer loss to the Bears. At least we watched it in HD. That's something, right? Pranali and I packed up the car and headed for her place. I was flying out early in the morning and Pranali was taking me to the airport.
Pranali lives in a great little house that she shares with her roomate. She made me some of her infamous tea and we stayed up and talked for a few hours before calling it a night.
Monday
We woke up early and headed for the airport. It was smooth sailing right up until it was time to board. We were going to be delayed 45 minutes due to weather in Minneapolis and runway construction. Given that my next flight was less than an hour from the original flight, I knew things were going to get interesting.
I called my mom and she checked on the Madison flights for me. Luckily, mine was delayed. This would buy me some time. If I miss my flight, I'll have another 3 hours to sit around Minneapolis airport before heading home. Not a bad airport to be stuck in, but I really wanted to get home.
We finally landed in Minneapolis at 1:15pm. I called my mom again from the plane as we were taxiing. She said my flight had been delayed until 1:45pm. Sweet! If I ran I could make it. I was looking forward to a workout that day, although I hadn't planned on it being a dead sprint through the MSP airport.
I was off the plane at 1:25pm. I had to go clear across the airport to make my connection. Time to put those Ironman skills to work and get a move on. I booked across the airport and managed to arrive at my gate around 1:32pm. It was kind of fun and exciting to run across the airport. But, it was also pretty exhausting as well.
I arrived in Madison and my friend Wes was there to greet me. As expected, my luggage didn't make the flight and I knew we would have to drive back and pick it up a few hours later. In the meantime, we enjoyed a meal and good conversation at Brocach. We headed back to the airport and my luggage was there. What a relief! I was happy it wouldn't get any more complicated than that.
I can't wait to make my next trip back. It's such a beautiful area and I have great friends who are always there for me. I do think I could live in Seattle - it's a cultured, beautiful, active city. I have a nice base of close friendships there and I could pretty much ride and run there all year long and STILL have the benefits of fall. Plus, if I want snow, there are plenty of mountains within miles of there.
Thanks Fred and Pranali for a wonderful weekend! I miss you guys already!
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