Sunny Sunday
Monday, June 13, 2011 at 2:24AM
Jet lag? What’s that?
A stack of blueberry pancakes, a cup of spiced “Market Tea” and a view like this – can there be a better way to begin the day? I don’t think so.
We wished the fish good morning and went on our way, admiring the reflections in the Seattle Art Gallery windows as we passed.
We planned our day, exploring the suburbs of the city and Lake Washington. Yes, we knew the Sketchbooks were in town, but read originally that Sunday was to be “invitation only” during the very short noon-4pm opening. By the time we read that this was an error, we’d decided to do other things – and anyway, did I really want the reminder that I failed to complete my sketchbook? No, not really.
So, with blue sky overhead we drove out towards the eastern part of the city and found ourselves in Kirkwood, where I left a surprisingly small number of dollars in Michaels in return for an equally surprisingly large bag of goodies! With sets of alphabet stamps on sale of $1 each, I couldn’t leave them behind, could I?
Next stop, Redmond, where we stopped for drinks and had a reminder that Starbucks isn’t the only coffee shop in town!
From there, it was only a step to the Columbia Winery. This beautiful place was quite at odds with the remainder of the area – with another winery opposite, the two opposing mansions faced each other across a remarkably busy road. Five tasting glasses of the same Cabernet Sauvignon later (each was from a different year of production), I would have loved a plate of the cheese from yesterday! Delicious wine, it was rather enlightening to sample the different vintages – 2005 was the star, undoubtedly, but the $48 bottle of “Peninsula” blend beat the lot. However, at that price, we chose not to bring home a souvenir!
Back across the bridge then, for a late Sunday afternoon on the terrace with the papers. Like weekend papers everywhere, they were light on news, heavy on adverts but at least we resisted the temptation to snooze!
Tonight, we’ll return to the Steelhead Diner across the street, where hopefully I’ll be more awake than I was last Friday!
As for the Sketchbooks, well, the reports say that there were queues to view them (with such short opening hours, is that a surprise?) so hopefully I wasn’t missed. I’ll see them in Brooklyn sometime.
USA in road trip, travelling
Reader Comments (2)
I didn't finish my sketchbook either Gill...... My excuse is the poor quality of the paper!!!!
Oh, exactly, Georgina! Can't believe that they take the trouble to schlep them all the way over to Seattle and then have such ridiculous opening hours that it makes it totally impractical for us to visit them. Ok, had we lived here, it's different. But to use up a whole, valuable day just wasn't on, sadly. Anyway, wine tasting v sketchbook viewing....hmmmm...... ;-)