This year, Nate and I spent Thanksgiving weekend in Seattle with Nate’s family. His sister lives in Portland with her boyfriend, so they drove to meet Nate, his mom, and I in Seattle for a fun family weekend. I fell down some stairs and injured my knee a week before we left for this trip, so we didn’t go hiking or do as much as we could have, since I was quite gimpy, but we still did a lot and had a blast!
It all started bright and early for Nate, his mom and I on Thanksgiving day. We caught an 8:30 am flight to Seattle to arrive there at 10:30 am their time. His sister picked us up from the airport and took us back to the Airbnb so we could drop our stuff off and change for the day. Since we hadn’t eaten anything, our first stop after that was lunch. We ended up at an Indian buffet, which had lots of different kinds of curry. After lunch, we tried to go to a winery but it was closed. We ended up at McMenamin’s, had a couple drinks and played a game called Sushi Go. We went back to the Airbnb to change for dinner, where we went downtown to get Dim Sum. We originally went to the wrong restraunt, so we walked to the right one (Dough Zone) in the rain with my poor gimpy knee 😅 but we had a great spread of food, that I forgot to take a picture of. But the food was delicious and we always have a great time together.
The next day, the weather was much better; the sun was out, it was warmer, and we got up relatively early to continue exploring. Our first stop was Pike Place Market, which is a fish market on the Puget Sound that also has 5 stories of other vendors and shops! This was my favorite stop of the whole trip. Don’t get me wrong, it was very busy, but I adore a good market. We went to Pike Place Bar & Grill for brunch, which was awesome. We surprisingly didn’t have to wait for a table. I ordered the fish tacos, and Nate got the Eggs Benedict, and everyone else really enjoyed their food as well. I know someone ordered the crab cakes and someone else ordered a burger. They had good drinks and our table had a perfect view of the street outside the Market. Nate and I walked through more of the market after we ate to find a t-shirt for me, and we got some fresh octopus and tuna poke. We met back up with the rest of his family and decided to go to Chihuly Garden and Glass next. We wanted to go to the Space Needle as well, since it was such a nice day, but those tickets were sold out 😔 The attractions are right next to each other, so its easy to do both if you wanted to. The glass museum was incredible. The artwork there is amazing, and we got to watch a glass blowing demonstration. If you are ever in Seattle, I would say this museum is a must-visit. After heading back to the Airbnb for a refresher, we went to Sushi Suzuki for a sushi omakase dinner.
If you know anything about Nate, he is a massive foodie and this was absolutely the highlight of our trip for him 😂 This isn’t the first time Nate and I have had an omakase dinner, but it was the first time for everyone else in his family. Omakase is a Japanese tradition meaning “I’ll leave it up to you”, so you don’t actually order anything; it’s all chefs choice. We had 11 courses, each with professionally paired sake, which we got to watch the chefs prepare and explain while they did so. One of my favorite parts of omakase (besides the food) is watching the care and concentration these chefs put into our food. We even got to watch them grate real wasabi root for our meal. They showed us a few of the dishes before they cooked them, including the 3 layer tuna pictured in the bottom left hand corner of the picture ↘️ Everyone was happy to answer any questions anyone had. Some of the other dishes included uni (top right), mushroom broth tea, prawn nigiri, an octopus soup (bottom right), caviar, wagyu, and shredded monk fish liver over salmon roe. Aside from the amazing food and incredibly friendly and knowledgeable staff, Sushi Suzuki also had a sense of humor. They called their restroom the “Oval Office”, and it was decorated with past presidents and an old fashion red phone. I had to take a picture because I knew my dad back at home would love the joke 🤣
It was pretty late when we got back to the Airbnb, since omakase takes a while. We played a game of Qwirkle, and Nate’s mom had gone to bed. Us younen’s (🤣) decided we still wanted to hit the town. There was a dive bar just 2 blocks away from our Airbnb that we had passed a few times in the couple days we had been there, so we decided to walk there. It was called Zoo Tavern. It was an interesting little bar; they had pool tables (which Nate loves) and some arcade games. It was a cash only bar that had some interesting characters sitting at the bar. I was sitting at the very last seat at the bar next to some woman I didn’t know, watching Nate play pool while his sister and her boyfriend were playing some of the other arcade games. I feel it is important at this point to note that I am not someone to sit next to a stranger and strike up a conversation. Actually, I can barely hold a conversation with someone I do know 😅 Anyway, while I was sitting there minding my own business, the woman next to me starts talking to me. She seemed nice enough, I guess, but our interaction was a little weird in hindsight. She asked where I was from, and when I mentioned that I wasn’t from the area, she asked why we were there. I was quite obviously watching the pool tables, so she asked who I was rooting for. I told her my boyfriend was playing, and had actually been winning most of his games. She asked his name and had actually started cheering for him, which is when I learned she was there alone and not with the guy she was talking to before she started talking to me. She asked me Nate’s name and how old I was, but never actually asked me my name (she was 55 😳). She then started cheering for him, and bought him a drink. I also feel like I should note that I don’t oppose women doing things on their own, but maybe don’t buy a drink for the boyfriend of the woman sitting next to you that your 20 years older than? Thankfully, Nate’s sister came and saved me shortly after, and the 4 of us closed down the bar playing a family game of pool. Once back at the Airbnb, we actually played another card game until about 3:30 or 4 am.
Saturday morning I felt surprisingly good despite mixing drinks all day on Friday. It was our last full day in Washington, so we took the ferry to Bainbridge Island. Once you are on the ferry, its about a 40 minute ride from Seattle to the Island. You can either stay in your car for the ride, or you can go higher up on the ferry where they have indoor seating, an outdoor observation deck, and a cafe. Nate and I sat in the indoor seating and checked out the observation deck while his mom and sister stayed in the car. When we got there, we went to Eleven winery. We tried a flight of wine and played Ticket to Ride for a couple hours. When we were done, we went to visit Pia the Peacekeeper ⬅️ at Sakai Park before heading back to the line for the ferry. There wasn’t enough room on the ferry that was docked when we got in line, so after we pulled up to the first spot in line, we got out of the car to walk to Hi Life for some poke since we hadn’t eaten anything all day. We each got a different kind and tried each other’s and it was all delicious. Since we were first in line, we got a great spot on the ferry to watch where we were going from the comfort of the car. The Seattle skyline lit up at night was beautiful in a way I couldn’t quite capture on my cell phone camera. We had reservations for dinner at Musang for dinner, so we were on a bit of time crunch.
Musang is a Filipino restaurant in Seattle that Nate’s sister had wanted to try, but we had actually considered cancelling our reservations to try something else. They had an expensive cancellation fee, so we decided to go even if we only got an appetizer to share before going somewhere else. Once we got there, all the food looked, smelled and sounded so good we decided to stay, and I’m glad we did. As with most of our meals, we just ordered a bunch of different stuff to share, and everything was excellent. If you are in the area and looking for something different to try, I highly recommend it. We had an early flight the next morning, so when we got back to the Airbnb, we cleaned up and started packing for the next morning.
Overall, we had a great time in Seattle. It was nice to travel with others and not just Nate and I. If you are looking for somewhere in the Pacific Northwest to visit, this is a great starting place! Don’t get me wrong , it has a few drawbacks, but it’s better than other places I have been in the PNW and seems to be more tourist friendly. There are lots of great museums, amazing food, and local history to explore.
