Day 4....

No trip would be complete without a walking segment. While in Costa Rica, we walked to the beach in Manual Antonio. The sun, humidity and winding hills made for a challenging walk. We cabbed it back to the hotel.
San Francisco, well, is full of hills. We walked from the Tenderloin to the Buena Vista--a famous restaurant, located at the end of the trolley line, for its irish coffees. We took a cab to Golden Gate Bridge, walked halfway across it, toasted life and cabbed it back to the hotel. Yes, it was a full day of walking. I think Shari bought a pair of shoes to combat the blisters.
We tackled the walk factor in Seattle on Monday.
Shari took the AmTrak from Minneapolis to Seattle. Upon arriving, they went to the Space Needle, had lunch, and familiarized themselves with the city. They did an underground tour and dined at some fantastic restaurants.
We began with breakfast at Lola. It is a Tom Douglas restaurant. He is well known chef in Seattle and owns a few other establishments. We had to try the "big breakfast". It consists of yams, grilled octopus, cilantro, yogurt and a sunny side up egg. Sounded intriguing and we enjoyed it. We shared that and lox and bread. The waiter was extremely knowledgeable. He suggested other restaurants for us to check out and knew his menu inside and out.
From breakfast, we returned to the hotel and asked the concierge about the way to Ballard. He said, it is a 15 minute cab ride.
We insisted that we were walking.
He gave us a map and said--no one walks to the Locks.
We began this adventure and stopped at a Peet's coffee shop for a bathroom break and more caffeine to fuel the journey. As we walked through Ballard, we saw cute boutiques, shops and restaurants. We made it to the Locks and chose to walk back to the more populated area. We decided to stop for an appetizer at an inconvenient time. I believe we stopped at the Ale House at 2:30. I wanted to check out Hattie's Hat, but it wasn't open yet.
The Ale House was fine. We shared hummus and chips and salsa. I can always be satisfied with chips and salsa.
In true fashion, we thought we could take the bus back to the downtown area. First, we walked by the water and somehow ended up taking the Ballard Bridge instead of the Freemont Bridge. We followed a sign leading to downtown, or so I thought. We saw a bus stop and a sign that said--WELCOME TO MAGNOLIA.
I have no idea where we went wrong, but I knew, that we had definitely made a mistake.
We called a cab and waited, patiently, to be returned to downtown Seattle. Our cabbie, Carl, was super friendly and pointed out landmarks and other pertinent history to Seattle. He told us that we had seen the best part of Seattle and was surprised that we walked to the Locks. His response---no one does that...
For dinner, I wanted to go to Poppy. I had heard a lot about it and really wanted to dine there. Plus, they had a walnut carrot cake--the selling point. I have been on a carrot cake kick.
I called to confirm the cross road of the restuarant. I despise when people call the Bull and act surprised when I answer. Instead of asking a logical question, typicaly, I get---are you open?
No, moron, I just stand here and answer the phone, for fun, is what I would like to say. However, I don't, and since I feel this way about answering the phone, I try to be prepared with a normal question when the person answers the phone.
No answer.
Of course, they weren't open on Monday.
We ate at Restaurant Zoe. It was close to our hotel and offered several dishes we were interested in. The bartender was pleasant and we had dessert at Dahlia's Lounge--a Tom Douglas place.
Seattle pleased us with adventure, wine and food. Truly, it was the ideal place to celebrate the 4 year anniversary.
Next year, we are going scuba diving. We just need to choose the destination. The qualifications are--it must be abroad and preferably, somewhere, that I have not been. Any suggestions?