The Brooklyn Happy Hour

We met friends at The Brooklyn for Happy Hour.

The Brooklyn is located at 1212 2nd Avenue. Their Happy Hour is daily from 4-6pm.

There's a featured oyster for $2 each. These were Hood Gold Oysters and they were served with a green apple/tarragon granita, mignonette and horseradish cocktail sauce.

We also ordered Miyagi's for $3 each. I thought the Hood Gold oysters were better. Plumper and brinier.

Balsamic Glazed Steak Bites with Gorgonzola--$9. These were tender and tasty.

Artisanal Bread with 3 Olive Tapenade--$4.50. The tapenade was delicious.

2019 03 16

Amazon Go

Seattle is the home of Amazon.

At it's headquarter's campus, there are 3 glass globes. These spheres serve as an employee lounge and workspace and are not open to the public. It's located on Lenora  Street between 6th and 7th Avenue.

Nearby is an Amazon Go store. It's a convenience store without checkout lines. Download the app, enter the store and take what you want. The bill will be charged to your payment method.

2019 03 16

Olympic Sculpture Park

From the Seattle Center, we walked to the Olympic Sculpture Park. It's located at 2901 Western Avenue. It's free to visit and is open from 30 minutes before sunrise to 30 minutes after sunset. They offer free 60-minute tours but I couldn't find when the tours are offered.

There's a nice view of the Olympic Peninsula across Elliott Bay.

Alexander Calder's "Eagle."

"Love & Loss" by Roy McMakin.

"Echo" by Jaume Plensa.

"Father & Son" by Louise Bourgeois. The water level alternates revealing the father or the son.

2019 03 16

Monorail and the Seattle Center

There were free rides on the Monorail after the parade. You could take it from the Westlake Center (where the parade ended) down to the Seattle Center (where there were more festivities).

The Seattle Monorail ride is $2.50 and takes 2 minutes to cover the 1 mile route. Trains depart every 10 minutes. It was built for the World's Fair in 1962.

At the Seattle Center, you'll find the Museum of Pop Culture. Admission is $28.

You'll also find the Chihuly Garden and Glass Museum. Admission is $26.

The Space Needle admission is $35 ($5 discount if you go from 10am-noon).

As you can see, admission is steep. If you buy a Seattle City Pass for $99 (expires 9 days after you start using it), you get:

1) Space Needle

2) Seattle Aquarium

3) Argosy Cruise Harbor Tour

4) Museum of Pop Culture or Woodland Park Zoo

5) Chihuly Garden & Glass or Pacific Science Center

2019 03 16

St. Patrick's Day Parade

We happened to catch the St. Patrick's Day Parade on 3/16/2019. The parade went down 4th street.

The parade is reportedly ranked as one of the Top 10 St. Patrick's Day parades in the country. 

There were pirates in the parade

and of course bagpipers.

The parade was slow and I found it boring. We left after an hour.



2019 03 16

Beecher's

Next stop on our Pike Place Market tour was Beecher's. It's located at 1600 Pike Place. Beecher's makes cheese. You can watch it being made in the window, there are samples to try and they have a deli section selling not only their cheese but other handcrafted cheese as well.

Beecher's is known for their Mac & Cheese, as well as their Grilled Cheese Sandwich and Tomato Soup. The Mac & Cheese is $5.99 for 8 oz or $10.99 for 16 oz. It's supposedly on the list of Oprah's favorite things. It was good but it didn't knock my socks off. The sauce was creamy but there wasn't anything special about it.

There are a few seats inside but most people took their mac & cheese and stood outside the shop to eat it.

2019 03 16

Pike Place Chowder

Pike Place Chowder has won many awards for their chowder. It's located at 1530 Post Alley, just a few doors down from Rachel's Ginger Beer.

They open at 11 am and by 11:05, the line was out the door and down the alley. The line did move fast and we waited 30 minutes even though we started just outside the Rachel' Ginger Beer door.

They offer a sampler of four 5-oz chowders of your choice for $14.95 or eight for $27.95. It comes with sourdough bread. We chose:

1) New England Clam Chowder--"meaty clams flavored with bacon, cream and a secret blend of herbs and spices." This was my favorite. Thick, creamy, not pasty, potatoes diced perfectly and cooked all the way through and nice sherry flavor. I would've like a little more bacon flavor but overall, I liked it.

2) Smoked Salmon Chowder--"authentic Pacific Northwest flavors, with nova smoked salmon, capers and cream cheese." This was my husband's favorite but I thought they didn't have enough smoked salmon flavor.

3) Crab & Oyster Chowder--"perfect balance of crabmeat and oysters, with a hint of spicy, earthy chorizo sausage, flavored with leeks, potatoes, tomatoes and special seasonings." This is very oystery and not in a good way. The oyster and chorizo overpowered the crab and I couldn't even tell there was crab in it. I didn't think it was a "perfect balance." I't would've been better just as an oyster chowder.

4) Market Chowder--aka chowder of the day. It was a Cajun Shrimp and Corn Chowder on the day of our visit. I thought this was okay. The shrimp was spicy but I didn't find much corn in my bowl.

You order at the counter and your order is filled within a few minutes. Grab utensils, oyster crackers and extra bread (the scooped out inside of bread bowls) then find a seat. Don't grab a seat until you get your food. If everyone followed the rules, it worked out well. We didn't have trouble getting a seat.

You can also get an 8-oz bowl for $7.75, 12-oz bowl for $8.75, 16-oz bowl for $10.75 and 32-oz bowl for $19.25. Bread bowls are $12.95. They also have salads and seafood rolls--shrimp, crab or lobster at MP (market price).

Was it worth it? I would say it's worth a 30-minute wait but I wouldn't wait longer. Let me know what you think.

2019 03 16