indulge

Pho Bac Sup Shop with a rib I can handle.

is this irresponsible?

 I know we're past the 2-4 week span where everyone's small talk involves talking about vaccine symptoms. But with the way things are going, maybe we'll have another half year of Covid related small talk. Oh man this Delta variant is crazy huh? Yeah so crazy.

Anyways, I was slightly terrified of vaccine side effects. I had only been hearing it was knocking everyone out. And yet...

I hopped on a plane to Seattle the morning after my second shot.

how to be asian

 

Found us a house that was giving Parasite vibes.

normal boat outings

We had one untouched, flawless, perfectly perfect day in Seattle. I mean, look at this sky. And all the boats and paddle boards on the water. And the pretty skyline.
And can't ignore this California club croissant sammich from Bakery Nouveau that was somehow still super refreshing and light.

We went for their twice baked chocolate and almond croissants though. The scone-like top crust... It was basically a hybrid of two of my favorite coffee accompaniments. Not the easiest thing to eat when you want to hypervigilant of hand cleanliness in a public park, but we managed. It's impressive enough we got a picture with my hands covered in croissant grease and sticky with chocolate.


It took us three tries to get some cocktails when we finally walked into The Gerald.
"Shine Like Little Angels" with mezcal, tomatillo shrub, ancho reyes verde, cilantro, and parsley. Really just wanted to document for the full parsley leaf garnish.

The neighborhood was so relaxed and quiet. People were so leisurely. The streets were not crowded. I almost felt guilty for enjoying it, knowing it was probably not normally this way pre-SIP.

another quarantine birthday

Remember when this all started in March and we thought we would be free by summer? Or at least I did.
Well here's to another small socially distanced birthday around a firepit.



This cake was a reprisal of matcha s'mores cake from last year. But hojicha s'mores cake this year.
Graham cracker cake rounds filled with chocolate ganache buttercream, layers of hojicha marshmallows, and decorated with buttercream Olympic park mountains that were also colored with cocoa and hojicha powder.
Topped with one little cluster of rhododendrons, the state flower of Washington.

a bit of summer

Assorted mochi donuts from Dochi have me dreaming about frying some donuts... finally.
Turns out I'm still a sucker for Fruity Pebbles on donuts (also evidently I used to not like donuts, hmmm) - it's like the only one I tried really. Well that and the ube one.

what is freedom

July 4 is just like any other holiday for me. A valid reason to not open up the work email, eat exorbitant amounts of themed food, and an excuse to leave town. I don't have any more attachment to this holiday than I do to any other holiday, but this one feels extra bleak this year. You know what I'm talking about.
We went off the grid for a couple days. And it felt like freedom.

I had a lot of thoughts about that. Acknowledging a lot of conflicting feelings about camping in the mountains of Washington, enshrouded in fog, surrounded by blooming wildflowers and Sound of Music-esque landscapes, hiking through already beaten trails (on stolen land probably), spit on by rain, the muddy ground too damp to start a fire on, distanced from civil unrest, still healthy enough to sleep restlessly and shivering during a pandemic, breathing in crisp mountain air with a small band of good friends made in adulthood.
In this so-called land of the free, not everyone can be this free.

with the band

And the award for second favorite city goes to...

Thanks for coming out of your deep dark MCAT hole, Frank.

Lounging from the rooftop "bar" aka Restoration Hardware. I never thought I could fall in love with an inanimate (non food) item... but then I plopped myself down on the cloud. Savings goal = $8k so I can own that.

omakase yes please

Saturday morning was for regrouping (aka nursing hangovers). And in my case, climbing too many stairs and eating one of the three leftover pho's. 

Sunday afternoon was for wandering around the International District and showing Frank what an annoying girlfriend/travel bud I'd actually be... unless of course, you'd like following me into those super cute well curated stores and listening to my heart melt and head explode on repeat. New room decor need = cartoon renderings of ramen.

But so eats.. well actually drinks...

Roasty toasty barley milk tea with mini tapioca pearls from Oasis. 

And then my obsession for window shopping paid off when we found the naked Trump statue in a vintage store... called Vintage, appropriately, I think.

back in the presence of dukies

games and housekeeping

I like to play this game when I'm driving that involves ETA, miles to go, miles left until next direction, miles left in tank, and current time. Between all the information Sunny offers me, I keep myself amused for hours. Specifically (a little less than) 8 hours today on my drive from Missoula to Seattle (with only one short stop for gas). It's incredibly satisfying when I do the slow mental math to realize I'm shaving off one minute, then two minutes, then three, and suddenly it's six, no ten, twelve whole minutes! By the way guys, this is where adopting military time makes sense. And because I love counting down, I'll start counting down miles or time, whichever is closet to a multiple of five. I'll drive until there are 160 miles left to go and then I'll stop for gas. Or I'll drive the remaining 86 miles until Sunny gives me my next move. Or I'll go for another 23 minutes until there'll be 2hr left. It's almost the same compulsion that makes me obsessed with checking my step count or sleep data (which stopped when I was sleeping on the floor for a period of time).

Also, shoutout to Rach who recently discovered cruise control because I had a moment of "oh...duh" with the workings on my car. Arguably not as common as cruise control, but Sunny has this green eco button that the car dealer said was for fuel efficiency. So naturally I had it on and left it on since the day I drove him off the lot. Well as I was cruising along the windy roads between Idaho and Washington, it occurred to me that maybe this green eco button was affecting how Sunny accelerates. My hunch was right. I no longer had to basically floor it to get up to 70 mph on slight inclines (which definitely pissed off everyone behind me). Oops.

Anyways, I booked it to Seattle (and to Frank's on Franklin, hehe). They said the drive would be 10hr. Ha. The best part of the drive was going across the Columbia River. Like what the actual fuck, is this real? No wonder US lawmakers or whatever had to have all this western land. And gotta love when you gain an hour in travel. I made it around 4pm ish. And the first matter of business was to.. go to the gym.

The second matter of business was to.. impulsively buy a corn dog on the walk back after the gym because I couldn't find a nearby bakery. It's because we talked about corn dogs for so long in Minny. And because we weren't going to eat until late night happy hour at Japonessa.

No food pictures were taken because it was dark, and I was starving, and sushi looks like sushi. And I guess I also didn't wanna hold up Frank and Niva.

calamari japonessa
takoyaki
garlic short ribs
tempura brie cheese - amazing and almost like a spin-off cousin of cheese curds
edamame
super bad boy roll
spicy spider roll

Also, is cream cheese in sushi really a Seattle thing?

obligatory Seattle pictures

lawls of the trip: "I have to take a picture of the 1912.  It's the hundred year anniversary of Starbucks." -Dad 

obligatory Pike Place picture