Seattle

I love Seattle. Truly, it is an amazing city. There are several bars, restaurants and wineries to tempt people to visit. The restaurant scene is fantastic. I wish we had as many options in Denver.
I flew in to Seattle and believed that I would be taking a shuttle to downtown. Michaela was going to meet Jean and I downtown for drinks. I had tried to coordinate with them, but didn't have much success. I knew I had a ride to and from the airport, in Denver, but Seattle was a crap shoot.
My flight was on-time and when I landed, I checked my phone to see where Michaela was. She had called and texted me to say--DO NOT TAKE THE SHUTTLE..i AM PICKING YOU UP.
I have no idea how this happened, but I was happy to oblige. A shuttle is do-able, but I do not prefer this type of transportation. There are multiple stops to completely utilize the gas--which I understand, but it is not the most efficient way to travel.
Nevertheless, I met Michaela outside of the terminal. We hugged and I called Jean to ask how to get to where she was. Michaela has GPS and so I figured we would be able to make it to the city with few problems.
Of course, we were talking and not really paying attention to the annoying voice that would command--in .5 miles, turn left.
REPEAT--in .5 miles, turn left.
After hearing this for awhile, I tuned it out.
We ended up, in the city, but going the wrong way. We figured it out, thankfully, but I knew that I needed to familiarize myself with the area. I would not be able to rely only on GPS.
We agreed to meet Jean at Olive 8. Her brother, Mark, was also meeting us. I have known Jean since 96. She has a twin sister and 4 other older siblings. Until last year, I had not met one of them. Last year, I met her twin, which was a riot, and this time, I met Mark.
It's funny how you cannot disguise mannerisms between family members. They look alike, sound alike and have similar reactions. I laughed since I knew Michaela and I were doing the same thing. Only Michaela and I have been accused of having different parents before. I think you can tell we are sisters due to our laugh, our facial expressions and mannerisms.
Anyways, we met at Olive 8 for cocktails. I had a white wine sangria with St. Germain liquer. I think they thought the atmosphere would be better. We had one drink there and headed to Barolo. Ironically, Barolo was 2 blocks from my hotel.
We dined on tuna carpaccio, mussels and cheese. The conversation freely flowed and ended too soon. Mark had family obligations and we knew that we needed to get closer to Jean's neighborhood.
We needed wine. We stopped at her community wine shop to peruse the selection. They were offering a $10 tasting for Chapellet wine out of Napa. They convinced us that it was ten dollars due to the reserve cabernet.
It would have been worth the ten bucks had they been more generous with the samples. Seriously, I thought I was back in Argentina tasting minute amounts of malbec. I was frustrated with the situation and the wine was mediocre. Plus, the guy that was representing the tasting was more interested in doing a cross word puzzle than selling us on the wine. We were the last custommers and so I kept thinking---why doesn't he drain the bottle? Moron!
We drove to Jean's house and met Bob for dinner. Bob is very straightforward, honest, and an introvert. Jean is all over the place. Super entertaining and troublesome at times. They balance each other well.
At dinner, we ordered a bottle of wine and the waitress wanted to see Michaela's i.d. We all died laughing. Here are the photos from dinner the first night.
Afterwards, we returned to their house to drink more wine. I swear, it never ends. Although, somehow, I managed to be the first one to bed. Noramlly, I want to keep the conversation going.
More to follow....