80 degrees and sunny...one of the best gifts any Seattle mom could receive! We made the most of it, too, we spent all day Saturday, Pre-Mother's Day in Seattle...eating, shopping and eating some more...and we got to see THE TUG BOAT RACES!!! And the Fire Tug Water show and the Tug Boat Ballet!!! I could not have been happier. I have a thing for tug boats...those little tiny, funny shaped boats working so hard to pull the bigger boats/containers/barges through the water...brings a tear to my eye just thinking about it!
Pay no attention to that black spot - it's not a swarm of locusts, just a dirty camera lens! After the "water" show, the tugs lined up for their big race - it was great!! Then we watched the Tug ballet...where the tugs do "wheelies" in the water and turn in circles while the crowds of onlookers ooh and aah. At the end of the show a rescue helicopter raced over-head, hovered over the water and dropped a line, minutes later two men were pulled from the cold waters...all part of the show! And we had front row seats from the beautiful patio at Maximiliens! If you haven't been to Maximiliens at Pike Place Market - put it on your bucket list today! It's a very charming French restaurant, just down the hall from Spice Market and DeLaurentiis Italian Market...you can't miss it. The Blonde Bombshell gave me a thank-you-gift-card so since the sun was shining we decided to use it...we are smart like that! The view, as you can see was amazing, the food was fabulous, the service was horrid and the prices were outrageous...but...it was worth every penny and every second of time we were there...glorious weather and views - we would have paid double!
We brought home two bunches of fresh cut lilacs, pastries from the French bakery (only about half made it home!) salmon, ling cod, shrimp and the most amazing cantaloupe! It was a cross between a honeydew melon and a cantaloupe - the outside rind was smooth, like a honeydew, but the inside was orange like a cantaloupe and it tasted like melon buttah...you leave as much of the green next to the rind on as possible, that's the honeydew taste! Look for them at your market!
On our way home from Seattle we made a quick stop at Crumble and Flake - a new patisserie/bakery at 1500 East Olive Street in Seattle (Capitol Hill to be exact). Let me back up a bit - before we left the house that morning, the Fashionista called to tell me about Crumble and Flake and begged me to go there - she was unable to get into town and the thought of throngs of people buying hyped pastries at ridiculous prices was almost too much for her to handle - so she called to tell me about the place and asked me to go and get her a kouignamann...a buttery pastry that she assured me would be worth the drive (pronounced qwee-gah-mon)...kouignamann is the new black/crack.
Crumble and Flake is a tiny little shop - no tables inside to sit and enjoy a pastry - this is a buy it and take it place...except when I got there, there was nothing to buy! They were completely sold out, as they have been every day for the last week since they opened! And sold out by 10:00 in the morning!!! I called the Fashionista and broke the bad news to her...and then broke the even worse news...if she really wanted a Kouignamann she would have to drive into Seattle in rush hour traffic at 7:00 AM to get one! And I'd bet my left arm that she did that this morning!
Mount Rainier was out on Saturday...you know, people from all over the world come to Seattle just to see our mountain...and most of the time it is hidden in the clouds...Saturday, it put on quite a show! Our last stop of the day was the grocery store, to pick up a few items for our feast on Sunday...and the mister walked out carrying the groceries and a new hanging plant for me...what a guy!
Up tomorrow...Part Two of Mother's Day - with a grilled salmon recipe you're going to want! Hope you had as great of a weekend as we did!