Seattle 2016: Day One

In 2016, Dan and I had the rare opportunity to travel alone, meaning not associated with work or with visiting family. We had just started our home-based travel company and this afforded us an amazing opportunity to take a last minute Alaskan cruise on the cheap.

When I say last-minute, I mean we booked the last room on the ship, just two days prior to sailing. We sailed on Holland America's MS Amsterdam, departing from the port in Seattle on a Sunday. We left Los Angeles early in the morning on the day prior to our cruise, so that we could explore Seattle. This was my first trip to the city and Dan had not visited in a long time.

When we arrived at the Seattle-Tacoma airport, we saw the sign for Holland America. Unfortunately, we booked too late, to take advantage of the airport-to-city transportation.

Dan had points to use at the Homewood Suites by Hilton, making it a free option for staying downtown. The hotel was perfect for us: located in a safe neighborhood and a short walk from all of the Seattle attractions. Our room was comfortable too. I highly recommend this hotel for anyone heading to Seattle. As a bonus, it included a kitchenette with full-sized refrigerator.

We only had twenty-four hours to tour Seattle, so we left the hotel immediately, not wanting to waste anytime. We headed straight to Pike Place Market. Here are some pictures that we took along our walk. The Bernie Sanders poster puts this in context, Spring of 2016.

Pike Place Market is a bit of a tourist trap, but when in Seattle, it's a must-do. Arriving on a rain-free, Saturday afternoon in spring, meant that it was jammed.

Priority #1, was lunch. Having not eaten since breakfast, we were super hungry. There are so many dining options at Pike Place Market, that it was overwhelming. We just went to the first thing we saw: Jack's Fish and Chips Spot. This is where we learned about "True Cod." I guess there is fake cod? In any case, everywhere we went in Seattle and Alaska, was proud to proclaim that they sold "True Cod." I'm not sure that I would have known the difference or cared. The "true cod" fish and chips from Jack's was delicious: piping hot and with light batter that wasn't overly greasy. I'm not a huge fan of tartar sauce, but Jack's was very good. I recommend it!

After lunch, we walked around the market. There was a lot of fish, but not anyone tossing it around, as I had seen in videos. I had been led to believe that flying fish was the thing to see. I wanted some fish throwing action! Half of the area is a market and the other half are tourist-trap shops. It reminded me the Original Farmers Market in Los Angeles. Locals probably do go here to get fresh fish and produce, but it was definitely a tourist-trap.

Pike Place Market is also famously the home of the first Starbucks! The line was around the block, so we skipped it. I mean, we do give Starbucks our regular business; we didn't need to wait in a long line for our usual lattes. Here it is in the background!

And before this, I had no idea about the "Pike Place" coffee. I get it now!

The best part of the day, was after Pike Place Market, when we discovered a wine bar. Chocolate & Wine on Pine, is just a block from Pike Place Market. It's an artisanal chocolate shop, that offers wine/chocolate pairings. We loved it so much, that we did two different wine/chocolate flights and had an additional hot chocolate. Plus, we bought more chocolate to have on our cruise. It was amazing and we enjoyed chatting with the staff. Seriously, it's a good thing that we don't live near Chocolate & Wine on Pine, otherwise we'd be here all of the time.

Speaking of places that fall under the category "good thing I don't live near this" = Seattle is home to the flagship Nordstrom department store. It was hard to pass this by, without taking a look. Next time I visit Seattle, I'm going shopping or at the very least, having a coffee at the Nordstrom Ebar! I wonder if the Seattle Nordstrom has retained a pianist. I miss the piano music in Nordstrom, it was such a classy touch!

Game of Thrones : Live Concert Experience

Dan took me on a surprise date night and bought last-minute tickets for us to see the Game of Thrones: Live Concert Experience at the Moda Center in Portland. We didn't realize it at the time, but we were seeing the last night of the tour, with made stops in twenty-four major cities.

This was our first time visiting the Moda Center, which is the home of the Portland Trailblazers. Living in downtown, it was just a short train ride to the Moda Center. When I lived in Los Angeles, I tried taking the train to the Staples Center for a Taylor Swift concert and it was a complete disaster. The trains in Portland are much more efficient. Each trip was about twenty minutes, including the walk time to/from the stations. It was easier and much cheaper, than if we had decided to drive.

Our tickets!

We had about thirty minutes to kill before the concert began, so we walked a majority of the interior perimeter of the Moda Center, trying to find a Game of Thrones prop and costume exhibit. I guess we didn't walk far enough before giving up, because I've since seen pictures of what we missed, like the Iron Throne. Darn! We saw a huge queue at a green screen photo spot, which would have been fun too. Instead, we had a pre-concert cider.

A panorama of the arena. It was approximately 2/3rd full, with the very top section completely blocked off.

Hey look, it's us on our date night!

Ramin Djawadi, the composer for Game of Thrones, was the one who dreamed up this tour. It featured Djawadi conducting an eighty- piece orchestra and choir against the backdrop of clips from the show with special effects. I've watched the entire series ( thus far), but to be honest, I couldn't recall any music except for the theme. During the concert, I was reminded of music that I knew from the show, but never really thought about, it must have been tucked in my mind somewhere. Djwadi's score is beautiful and diverse. Game of Thrones is such a grand production, that it's rare to have a chance to appreciate its parts, such as the music.

Speaking of grand, let's talk about the special effects for the Game of Thrones: Live Concert Experience - they were kind of distracting. I understand that by tacking on the word "experience," the audience is going to set the bar a little higher than a regular orchestral concert, however the experience part was a little odd. The stage had fire blasts for a few songs and some low-level sparkler fireworks shooting upwards as a replica of the Iron Throne rose from beneath the stage. They also had a little smoke, and at one point, confetti to mimic leaves falling from a tree. The oddest thing was this rather cool reflective/mirror, that casted beams of light, but that was only used once. The should have either done more with the special effects or eliminated them.

The video graphics were mostly very good. I liked seeing the scenes that accompanied the music, as it gave context. However, the screen closest to us, was not aligned properly, creating blurry and cut-off images. I kept having to look at a screen that was much further away. It would have looked fabulous, had it been properly installed. Perhaps something was wrong with it and they either, didn't have time to fix it, or didn't want to bother with it, since it was the final night?

Here's a picture of it- the screen I'm talking about it on the left. This picture is not a good example, as what is displayed basically looks okay, but when moving images were shown, it looked terrible.

The show had one intermission and they used the screen to count-down the twenty minutes.

The tour utilized a core group of musicians, but also filled in with local artists. For the encore, the primary musicians played an upbeat song, while a memorium clip played a tribute to all of the characters who have died, in order of their deaths. Game of Thrones has had a lot of death!

Djawadi and his musicians are all insanely talented and they put on a high-energy, amazing show. However, my favorite part of the night was before the show started, and we got an announcement from Cersei Lannister, in what sounded like a voice-over performed by Lena Headey herself, explaining the rules. I don't remember the exact words, but her punishment for those with ringing cell phones was "Boiled alive in the blood of your children." It couldn't have been a more perfect way to open the show!

Lan Su Chinese Garden

On the last weekend in March, there was a break in the rainy weather, so we headed to the Lan Su Chinese Garden in downtown Portland. As members of the Portland Zoo, we had free entry for the month of March, as part of a reciprocal local attraction program. Including the zoo, eight organizations are participating this year, each on a different month. So this means, as an added bonus to our zoo membership, we get to visit seven other local attractions. We saved twenty dollars, as the normal admission price for the garden is ten dollars each for adults.

The Lan Su Chinese Garden is a short, fifteen minute walk from our apartment. It's in the heart of Chinatown. Unfortunately, Chinatown is not a nice part of downtown Portland. It's crime ridden, filled with drug addicts and homeless. A huge part of the problem is many of the businesses are closed and boarded up. It was a ghost town.

Oddly enough, considering it was 10am on a Saturday, we did see a few people in the Darcelle XV Showplace. I think they were rehearsing? In any case, via a sign on the door, we learned that this was home to Darcelle, who in 2016 was certified by the Guinness Book of World Records, as the oldest drag queen still performing. In 2016, Darcelle was eighty-five years old. Darcelle might be the utmost Portland thing I've ever heard of: how fabulous.

In the middle of Darcelle, and not much else, stands the Lan Su Chinese Garden. It's an oasis: one city block of tranquility.

Here are a few pictures from out front. Even though the rain had stopped, it was still cold, and I was bundled up. Spring weather in Portland, is like winter in Los Angeles. I've only adjusted a little bit!

Portland's "sister or twin" city is Suzhou, which is known for its gardens. Over sixty artists came over from Suzhou to help build the Lan Su Chinese Garden. I also learned that China is home to the most varieties of Magnolia flowers. Speaking of flowers, we were given a spring plant guide.

I absolutely loved the beautifully arranged stepping stones.

Here are some of the first plants we discovered in the garden.

In the center of the garden, there is a huge pond with Koi fish.

Dan took this panorama (and all of the other pictures). I love how this shot shows both the garden and the modern downtown skyscrapers.

The garden is filled with bridges, pagodas and waterfalls. It felt like every time we turned a corner, we made a new discovery.

Sprinkled through the Lan Su Chinese Garden, are little rooms with cultural and art exhibits.

As a writer and book lover, I was thrilled to find this basket of children's books. How wonderful is it to promote reading with your child in the garden? Love this!