A Frasier-less Seattle

One of my favourite TV programmes is Frasier and it has been for a long time. So you can imagine that i was disappointed to find out some time back that it was never actually filmed in Seattle meaning I was unlikely to bump into him in Cafe Nervosa ;-).

Putting this disappointment behind me we ventured off bright and early for breakfast. Dan had already looked up some possible places that were on the way to Pike Place and so we barged our way into Ludi's...  Its a great little place - no frills, simple menu and friendly staff.  We were provided with iced waters instantly and orders taken for tea and coffee whilst we made up our minds on the menu. 

Wham was playing in the background (Wake me up before you go go) and I went for the 3 egg omelette with mushroom and swiss. With a side of toast. Yeah cos in America a 3 egg omelette is not going to be enough is it Sarah so you need to order toast!!

HEEUGE! Came with hashed potatoes too!  Anyway, I actually did manage to polish it off and after more coffee we headed off to mooch around. 

We went to Pike Place which was good - I got a fridge magnet and some Bee earrings as you do!  The fish and the fruit and veg stalls were amazing. Absolutely amazing. I don't know how you wouldn't want to eat well with food that fresh and beautiful looking. 

Had me hankering for a big old plate of crab and shellfish for dinner that's for sure.

We moved on to just generally wander our way over to the Space Needle and just see what Seattle had to offer - errm which isn't actually that much dare I say!  Don't get me wrong i like it here but it's just not 'all that'. Guess I have got too used to the really big cities.. But there is a good vibe here and the people are really friendly so that's all to the good. 

We stopped for coffee - you are obliged to in Seattle I believe! - and I found us a hotel in Manzanita 

and got us booked in. We then shifted on to a Sports Bar to watch the bloody match <severe rolling of eyes>.  The bar was nice enough and we, of course, got chatting to a couple of guys also watching the match. They had been doing quite a lot of travelling and had been to Philadelphia, Kansas, NYC and were heading to Canada next. One of the guys was going to meet his half sister for the first time and learn more about his mother who had been forced to give him up for adoption when his natural father had done a bunk and denied he was his. Back in the day, as we know, being an unmarried mother was just unheard of so her father forced the adoption. So sad... 

The match finally finished and we headed on to the Space Needle.. I had to go and buy some shit sunglasses cos Dan had told me that the weather was going to be cold and grey and I wouldn't need mine and I, like a bloody fool believed him. Yeah.. it was bright and sunny grrr!! 

I had to turn and face the wall in the lift as it was just far too much for me to look out of the glass frontage and eventually we arrived at the top. I was OK with that as you're not really able to see straight down and the views were fantastic.  I'll post some pics when I can work out why the frig this blog won't let me do it from my phone but will let Dan.. pfft...

We had another beer up there plus a little snackette and then after a while made our way back down and to the Monorail - which only has 2 stops (the start and the finish!) and only goes partway across town. Anyway, we tootled off then and basically just covered a variety of bars!

Yard House, Elysian on 2nd - where bizarrely we bumped into Josh as we walked out. Dan reckons he was hanging out there all day to see if he could just accidentally bump into us hahaha.. 

Then onto Pike Brewery which was a bit of a strange place but had actual hipsters serving - red lumberjack shirts, top knots and beards! It was quite cavernous with odd little sections to it.. felt quite funky/edgy but also like you were in the local market or underground train station too!

I had previously got some recommendations from the guy serving us in the sports bar for where to get some good seafood but by this time, really wasn't feeling like a big plate of it so we shifted on to a place Dan spotted (Von's 1000 spirits)and grabbed a bite in there. D didn't like where they seated us but I was getting tired and hungry by now so could not be arsed fannying about and moving so we stopped where we were! It was a bit dead though and I think it kind of killed us off...  I had this seafood casserole which had lovely fish in it but was overspiced and underseasoned so it wasn't as tasty as it should have been. We were really tired after this so basically just walked back towards our hotel and went for a last one in our bar.. We were falling asleep now (it was only 9.30!) and so decided that enough was enough as we had been out for over 12 hours and we should just retire to bed and so we did.........