Rhonda Bracey: At Random

TWELVE hours’ sleep!!! Wow! That was the best sleep I’ve had in a long time. Obviously I really needed it, and I’ve woken up fresh and ready to enjoy today, my one day off this trip.

First up, I’m meeting an Aussie friend who’s been living in Seattle the past 4 or so years. He’s got to be at the airport early in the afternoon, so we’ll just catch up for a short time. Then I might wander down to Pike Place Markets and visit a quilt shop close to there 😉 The weather today is sunny (a little cloud); currently 6C, with an expected maximum of 10C — quite a change from the 30+C weather we’ve had at home!

More later…

Later…

The weather stayed fine. Cold and a bit cloudy, but no rain. Quite a bit of sunshine, in fact. I caught up with my friend Craig for an hour or so (he had to pick up some people from the airport, so our time for catching up was limited). However, he did show me the house where he was housesitting. OMG. What a magnificent house overlooking Lake Washington! Other than the few minutes in the house and stopping into a Starbucks for a smoothie each, we also went up to a high point overlooking Seattle (Kerry Park?), and spent the rest of the time driving between those places. It was good to see him again. Can’t believe he’s been living here for 7 years already — his Aussie accent is as strong as ever.

View of Seattle from Kerry Park

View from Kerry Park, Seattle

The ‘OMG’ kitchen

After Craig dropped me back at the hotel, I walked down to Pike Place Markets. I tell you what — a bit of sunshine brings out EVERYBODY in Seattle! The walk was pretty packed with people, as were the markets. My first stop was a quilt shop in the market area. I can’t believe the normal (not sale) price of fabric in the US — batiks were $10.95 a yard (they’re about $25 a metre in Australia), and even Australian Aboriginal fabric was only $12 a yard (about $24 a metre in Australia). I bought some replacement rotary cutter blades and a pattern and that was all. It’s too early for me to consider buying fabric as I need to know how much room I have in my luggage and I won’t know that until later next week. That’s assuming I buy any fabric at all — I really do have a decent ‘stash’ 😉

At the pasta stand, I tried the chocolate pasta (linguine). MMMMmmmm. Then the habanero pasta curls. Wow! having the chilli after the chocolate made my mouth sing with wonderful taste harmonies. There’s nothing quite like chilli and chocolate together.

I stopped at the Chukar Cherries stand in the markets and tasted a milk chocolate cherry. It was also fabulous straight after the chilli pasta. I bought a packet of milk chocolate coated cherries. They *might* make it home… they might not too 😉 And I bought two ENORMOUS plums to have in the hotel room. They were called ‘OMG Plums’ and they were — OMG in size and in taste; they were just delicious.

The OMG plums, with a coffee container to show the size

One of the fruit and vege stands at Pike Place Markets

I had a late lunch (which was also my breakfast) at Lowells in the Pike Place Markets. And of course, I couldn’t go past the wild, fresh King Salmon sandwich! It was great.

King Salmon sandwich

View of Seattle from 3rd floor at Lowells, Pike Place Markets

The walk back to the hotel was still filled with people, even though it was well after 3:30pm. There were some strange costumes on the ComicCon people, and quite a lot of buskers (bagpipes, sax, clarinet, drums made from upturned buckets, steel drums, etc.). All sounded pretty good as I was walking by. There was also a human statue dressed like an admiral or sea captain from the 1700s all done up in an aged copper (green) patina. I thought it *was* a statue, but then I saw him wink at a homeless guy who was staring at him in fascination 😉

Back in the hotel now. We have a meet and greet function in the lobby bar in a couple of hours, so I’ll upload my photos from my camera and sort them all out, as well as write some reviews for TripAdvisor.

More later…

Meet and greet was good — met up with some old friends and made some new ones. Unfortunately, not many there, considering that 130 are registered for the conference. There were perhaps 10 or 15 at the meet and greet. And from all over — Australia, UK, Russia, South Carolina, Iowa, California, etc. Afterwards, 6 of us (4 oldies, 2 newbies) went for a meal at Dragonfish Asian restaurant. Great meals — full of flavour, and excellent cocktails. I had the Garlic Ginger Chili Chicken and Prawns (with rice noodles) ($9) and a plate of Vegetable Spring Rolls ($2.95 happy hour price after 9pm) and a to-die-for Kaffir Lime Chi-chi cocktail ($9), which was ‘lemongrass and kaffir-lime-leaf infused vodka, fresh lime and creamy coconut puree’. It was ALL delicious.

Back to hotel before 11 pm. We start the conference tomorrow with registration and breakfast at 8:30 and the first session at 9.