“Seattle is for people who love
culture, but refuse to sacrifice their wild nature to attain it.”
Kimberly Kinrade
One Saturday evening last May,my daughter, the lovely woman who wields the imaginative hands that bake the amazing goodies at Liz Welch Custom Cakes, observed that it had been way too many years since the two of us had gone away together.An observation which led to the following invitation:
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Dear My Daughtie,
We miss our mommy-daughter trips;
The sights, the shops, the nosh-
How 'bout we go explore our way
straight through Seattle Wash.?
Love,
Your Mummy
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Why Seattle? Well, Why not?
It meets all our requirements for an excellent adventure: A quirky and fascinating history , natural and man-made beauty, art, walkability, public transport, ancient bookshops, coffee, and food. Lots and lots of food.
And, we've never been there.
While rediscovering familiar places may be metaphorically and poetically adventuresome, there's nothing quite like an explore in a new place with a reliably fun companion.
There's no better demonstration of the relativity of time than gazing at a pretty girl or sitting on a hot stove- so Einstein said. Which makes me fairly certain that it was Mrs Einstein that did most of the vacation planning. The truth is, there is nothing like preparing for a trip to make time start tripping.
This is why people who travel frequently have those super watches- the ones with more grim faces than are assembled on the losing side of a sports stadium.
Have you ever looked closely at one of those watches?
Each face keeps track of a different aspect of trip time. Well, here, I'll show you:
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| As you can see, I am 3 minutes past "why haven't you packed yet?" 10 minutes from "OH NO!" And quarter past the absurd number of pre-trip projects that I had hoped to finish. |
We'll have two dinners with The Liz before she and I leave the home audience to hold down the fort on his own, and I'm eager beyond telling to share with her two of the best dinner discoveries of the past months:
Wednesday: Homemade pizza with no-knead bread dough crust
The bread dough is ready and waiting and starting to get a little bubbly with excitement. No, wait, that's me.
The bread dough has already been stirred up though, and by the time I bring the Liz home from the airport, it'll be ready for the roll out and the sauce up.
She's been patiently listening to me enthuse about this recipe for weeks- here's hoping I can make it live up to the hype.
Thursday:Salmon in parchment paper
Both Liz and I are smitten with this newly discovered method of packet steaming meat and veg. Liz has been experimenting with chicken breast in parchment, but is interested in trying the approach with fish. We'll be using salmon with asparagus, leeks (or green onions) and zuchinni.
After Thursday things get a little sketchy.
Perhaps you've seen that feminist gem of a movie "The Stepford Wives"?
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| Not 2004 comedy Stepford, 1975 creepy Stepford. |
When the actual trip time clock starts scootching toward "why haven't you packed yet"? I think of those sinister Stepford women.
A Stepford woman would, this close to departure, have the house cleaned, the floors done, the fridge sanitized, the laundry folded, the errands run, her wardrobe sewn, her shoes selected and she most certainly, most definitely, most positively, would have 2 dozen well labeled plastic containerfuls of homemade dinner stacked in the freezer for her home audience.
I am not that woman.
And I can't quite determine whether I feel more guilty or more grateful about that.
At any rate, currently, there's no food in the freezer.
There are only ingredients for food in the freezer.
That will be remedied tomorrow, when I fill the freezer's top tray with the results of this week's research project: Which frozen meals rate the best in nutrition and taste?
The results are here, in articles from Web M.D.,yahoo and Men's health. Looks like the home audience will be tasting the wonders of the three brands that make it to the tops of all the lists that I found:
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| Kashi, Amy's and Organic Bistro |
Sigh. It's not the dinner line up that I'd hoped to leave behind, but it does comply with the first guideline of loving one's loved ones:
First do no harm.
Liz and I will be posting (briefly and irregularly) as we explore our way from markets to bakeries to food trucks to coffee shops all across a lovely new city; if you have any Seattle suggestions, let us know-
Until then,
I want you to know that it matters-
Whenever you greet this tired world with eager curiosity.
Whenever you turn the ordinary into adventure.
Whenever you bring your open explorer's heart to the places you know
and the places you don't know yet.
It matters.
It makes a difference- it really does-
To just to you, but to those lucky enough to journey with you,
To just to you, but to those lucky enough to journey with you,
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| And to the worlds that are waiting to be discovered. |
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