allrecipes.com Allstar Trip Day 5

 July 28th, 2012

This was our last day in Seattle, and we lounged in bed a little longer than we had planned.  Once we rolled out of bed, we checked out of the hotel and left our luggage with the bellhop so we could do some more sightseeing. We flagged down a cab and headed to the Freemont district of Seattle (that was our first cab ride ever!! and probably our last!!)  So what is in Freemont you ask??  Well, a Caribbean restaurant of course!  It's all about the food!  Paseo Caribbean restaurant is a hole in the wall type of place that always has a line down the street! We seem to gravitate to these types of places! 

The cab took us right up to the restaurant and when I say "up" I mean it. There was a big hill I was happy we didn't have to climb on foot!!  So I guess paying that taxi fare wasn't so bad after all!  I think I would have paid $100 to NOT have to climb UP that hill!!

We got in the long line and waited with everyone else on the sidewalk - I think we got there just in time for the lunch rush! The place was packed. When we got close enough to be inside the building, we noticed they had a couple of tables inside - all were full though.  We did get lucky and snatched up a table! As soon as someone left, I went and sat down while Madison continued to hold our spot in line and place our order - we make a great team!!

I ordered the Caribbean Roast which is marked as the "Most Popular" on the menu - I thought that might be a good choice and boy was I right - it was tasty, but so big I couldn't finish it all.  The fresh cilantro, yummy aioli, jalapenos, and those marvelous caramelized onions paired perfectly with the succulent morsels of pork marinated in Paseo's special sauce.  All of this on a freshly made toasted baquette - yummmmmmmmmm  I wish we had thought to take a picture!

Madison ordered the Paseo Press minus the banana peppers - which caused the order taker to let out a gasp! and ask her "are you sure?" haha  She was sure! and she loved it!  In addition to pork, her sandwich had ham AND cheese on it!!  It sure looked yummy.  We were happy to have found such a unique and tasty place to enjoy our lunch!

After lunch we needed to work off some of those calories, so we decided to walk around the Freemont area. Freemont is a funky, creative neighborhood with, seemingly, something interesting around every corner!  We headed down the steep hill and made our way to the Aurora Bridge. Under the bridge lives the Freemont Troll! 

The Freemont Troll is a humongous sculpture as you can see from the picture! Notice the VW Bug the troll is crushing under his massive left hand - the artist  used a REAL car!!  This was a great spot for a Mads on Things photo!!

Walking down another hill under the Aurora bridge we made a right at the end of the road and made our way in the direction of the Freemont Bridge.  Along the way we came across a statue of a clown - it had lots of flowers at the base of the statue and signs of love.  The statue was of the beloved J.P. Patches - a legendary clown who had just passed away the week before.  Patches was well loved and known by all in the Puget Sound area.  What a special memorial they have to remember someone who brought joy to so many folks over the years!

Just past the Patches statue, we came upon the Interurban Statue - This is an interactive piece of artwork that commemorates the light rail that used to connect the city of Seattle with all of its surrounding neighborhoods.  The statue depicts 5 people and a dog under a shelter. The statue is frequently dressed up and has attracted the imagination, mischief and creativity of  hundreds of neighbors each year.

At this time we saw the bus going back to downtown, so we made our way across the street to the bus stop and hopped on a city bus (another first for us).  We weren't quite sure how to go about paying for the bus, but the bus driver was so sweet and helped us figure it out. It sure was a lot cheaper than taking a cab back to the city!  On our way back, we went over the Freemont Bridge and saw the neon Rapunzel in the window of the bridge's tender tower.

Back in downtown we made our way to the new City Target to buy me some flip flops! My feet were hurting!! After getting me into something more comfortable, we made our way back to Pike Place Market to do some more exploring.  

Giant Squid in Pike Place Market

We ended up at Steinbrueck Park where we saw a man with a chainsaw! Of course we were intrigued and went to check it out!

Turns out this was a street performer - The Chainsaw Juggler! and he was just getting ready to start his show.  We have never seen a street performer quite like this before, so we stayed to watch the show. He was hilarious and amassed quite a nice sized crowd!

He utilized some of the folks from the audience to help him out

and he made fun of his volunteers mercilessly! It was a lot of fun and a great show - I am glad we hung around to watch it, even though we missed going on the ferry to Bainbridge. 

another volunteer - he had no idea what he was getting into! haha

By this time we had to head back to the hotel to pick up our luggage and get on over to the allrecipes.com office for the BBQ.  We met up with our buddy from Tampa, Angela, and walked over to the bbq together.

It was quite a nice spread with pulled pork, vege patties, potato salad, coleslaw, chips, you name it!  We didn't go hungry that is for sure.  Sadly we only had about an hour at the bbq and could not stay for the SeaFair Parade.  Madison kept me in line and advised me I had to start saying my goodbyes so we could catch the train and make it to the airport in time to get our boarding passes and still make it to the gate on time.  Thank goodness she was there to keep us on schedule!  We made it to the gate and our plane started boarding about 15 minutes later! We settled into our seats for the long flight back to Atlanta, and I have to say I was a bit sad leaving Seattle. We had a great time with so many wonderful folks, and it was all thanks to the wonderful generosity of the allrecipes.com website!!

Thank you, allrecipes.com

I can't say it nearly enough

allrecipes.com Allstar Trip - Day 2

July 25th, 2012

Day 2 of the Allstars trip started in Paradise! We stayed at the Paradise Inn in Mt. Rainier National Park. It truly was a beautiful setting with Mt. Rainier just outside our window!

The rooms are very small and not the type of accommodations we would normally choose.  The bathroom was down the hall and shared by all, as were the showers.  The Inn was built in 1916 by a German carpenter. I wish I had taken more pictures of the Inn - it is beautiful! 

Upon checking into our room we were given instructions to keep all food contained and off the floor! They say they do their best to keep the critters away, but sometimes you will find an unwanted guest in your room! They were clearly referring to mice, so I was a little freaked out at that point!

The room was so cozy and the beds very comfy! They gave us robes and shower shoes, and we slept with the window open all night! It was wonderful!

In the morning, we were so very tired and ended up lounging in bed for much longer than we had planned. When we finally rolled our lazy butts out of bed, we decided to only do one hike and a very family friendly one at that!

The Nisqually Vista Trail was a 1.2 mile loop with only 200' of elevation gain. The paved trail wandered through forests and meadows and offered stunning views of the Nisqually Glacier and Mt. Rainier. We were surprised to find the trail covered in SNOW!!  Yep, thick snow at the end of July!!  We almost built a snowman, but we didn't have gloves and that stuff was COLD!!

This was our last day in the mountains. After the hike, we started making our way down the mountain through the Nisqually exit. Again, I did not have any directions. Seeing as the gps was not working on the mountain we were hoping to see signs for Seattle!  

After leaving the park area, we stopped at the Copper Creek Inn Restaurant. We had not eaten anything other than trail mix since Monday in Atlanta, so I was craving something more substantial. I was also a little queasy from being in the high elevations, so I needed a light meal and LOTS of caffeine! 

We ordered the grilled cheese and french fries and shared. It was so goooood! The bread was freshly made and the grilled cheese was cooked just right!  The Copper Creek Inn Restaurant is World Famous for their blackberry pie, so we HAD to try it.  It surely was delicious! Of course, I have never had a blackberry pie before, so i really just have to take their word for it that it is the best! I wish we had gotten some pictures of our food, but I think we were just so exhausted from jet lag and hiking, because we didn't get ANY food pictures on this trip!  Shocking!

With full bellies we started back on the road towards Seattle. We did want to make a side trip to Snoqualmie Falls, but not having directions we had to wait and see if the gps was going to work. Thankfully, it did! Especially thankful because the road we were on ended up being CLOSED, so we had to take a detour! Never a good sight when in a strange place!

Thanks to Madison's phone, we made it to the Snoqualmie Falls and what a beautiful site. The trail to the bottom of the falls is closed until 2013, so we could just view it from the platform near the Salish Lodge.  Just as well though - my feet were sore from all that hiking, and I just don't think I would have been able to make it back up if we went down!!

After getting some great shots, we got back on the road again for the short trip to Seattle. It was only about 30 minutes away, and we were so excited to get to the city and begin all the festivities for allrecipes.com 15th birthday celebration!