portland and seattle

I've been out of town, visiting Seattle and Portland. We only had one day in Seattle, so I don't think I've experienced it adequately. Downtown Seattle is seedy. The few neighborhoods I saw seem beautiful. Capitol Hill and Queen Anne, both near downtown, are pretty and expensive. We walked through a community garden in Capitol Hill that blew my mind, but Capitol Hill (I learn from Zillow) is the Lincoln Park of Seattle. I would have liked to see the neighborhoods, if any, where we could actually afford to live. We ate at Poppy, a restaurant in Capitol Hill that focuses on local foods. It was absolutely wonderful, and one of the best restaurant meals I've had. Part of the appeal is that you get a thali, a platter with 5-7 small dishes in tasting portions; they offer an ordinary thali with a couple meat dishes and also a vegetarian thali. The food was amazing, I loved trying a variety of dishes, and the vegetarian option wasn't just an afterthought as it is in many restaurants.

I didn't have any wine, just iced tea. It's sad, because I love wine, but I feel better if I drink no alcohol at all. Oh well. I wish I could have one drink and feel perfectly okay, but I can't. It only took me 15 years to accept this fact.

Beyond eating at Poppy, on our day in Seattle we went to Pike Place market and ate cherries and scones and coffee, walked around downtown, stopped at Whole Foods and got some lunch and other supplies, went to Washington Park Arboretum and did some walking and jogging, then went back to the hotel and got ready for dinner. We had time to drive through the Queen Anne neighborhood before Poppy. That's it. We should have bagged the Washington Park Arboretum, which was nice but a time-consuming jaunt. On the way out of town the next morning, we stopped at the Columbia City Bakery and got some cookies and scones and walnut levain to take to Richard and Angie's house. (The cookies and scones were eaten quickly, but the walnut levain didn't reach its potential until yesterday, when I made it into bruschetta with a garlicky herbed white bean topping. The walnuts were explosions of wonderfulness. Yes, I brought it home with me in my suitcase.)

Here's what I love about Portland:

1) The neighborhoods are pretty, with adorable wood-framed houses and beautiful gardens. My brother's neighborhood in NE Portland is like this, and he swears that it's a modest and ordinary neighborhood. I'm not as familiar with other neighborhoods, but this seems true. Amazingly, other neighborhoods are just as beautiful, or even more so.

2) Laughing Planet restaurant. I could eat here every day.

3) Close to mountains, hiking, natural beauty.

4) Not cold in the winter.

5) A thousand other things.

6) Angie and Richard and Sabine, who are happy to see me, and nice and kind and funny, and live full and worthwhile lives. Sabine, age 21 mos., is jolly and will laugh at any joke because she loves to laugh.