We didn't really have any major plans this weekend, but we did decide to go to Tacoma for a day on Saturday. We went to Noah's bagels for breakfast on Mercer Island. The three bagels we had were really fresh and tasty and the weather was great, so we ate them outside. Then we headed to Tacoma and had a clear view of Mount Rainier.

We had bought some Groupons for the Museum of Glass that we weren't able to use when we had visitors this summer, so we decided to use two of the four tickets we had bought. In the hot shop at the museum, they're usually making something. This time they were blowing glass elephants, which we watched for a little while before looking at the rest of the exhibits. There was an exhibit on glass objects that were made based on children's drawings, which was cute. There was also a piece made up of hundreds of pieces of glass all arranged together to depict a forest scene with a river and waterfall. It was really impressive. Unfortunately they say you can't take pictures in the gallery, so we didn't. Even though we've seen blown glass a few times the last couple years, the Museum of Glass was still pretty interesting and impressive.

After that we headed to eat some lunch at Tatanka Take-Out, which has bison meat burgers and vegetarian food too, believe it or not. It wasn't that great actually, so we probably won't be going back. At least it was on the way to Point Defiance Park. The weather was beautiful, completely clear and highs in the mid-70s. We parked inside the park and hiked a solid 3-5 miles around the perimeter of the park, stopping at a couple of scenic viewpoints. We could see the Tacoma Narrows Bridge, Gig Harbor, and Vashon Island.

I saw they had a rose garden on the park map, so we decided to check it out. We were very pleasantly surprised when we arrived and saw several dozen rose bushes all blooming! They must be blooming late since we had a cold spring. They were very beautiful, all the pinks, reds, yellows, and oranges. We spent almost an hour at the rose garden and then headed to dinner.

We stopped at a place called The Rock: Wood Fired Pizza and Spirits, where we got a 12" pepperoni and pineapple pizza. We also got the beer sampler and the apple crisp with ice cream dessert to share. I don't like beer much at all usually, but a couple were actually not too bad. The pizza was really good and the atmosphere was neat, with all kinds of rock and roll memorabilia around. After dinner we took the streetcar through downtown, which was pretty dead, so we went back to the car and drove home. Overall it was a good day.

Troy had to work on Monday, but I took the day off. I picked everyone up from the hotel and we went to the Seattle Aquarium for a couple of hours. I'd never been there, so it was nice to see what all they had. Near the entrance we saw a huge water tank with a suited diver inside feeding the fish, which was pretty cool. The aquarium focuses on the northern Pacific Ocean and Puget Sound, but they also had recently added some information about the Deep Water Horizon disaster in the Gulf of Mexico. That was probably the most interesting part for me. We also saw a tufted puffin going crazy flapping and splashing his wings in the water and some sea otters being fed.

We tried to go to Paseo for lunch, but apparently they're closed on Monday, which was unfortunate because they have the best sandwich I've ever had there and I wanted everyone to try it. Instead of went to Ezell's, which serves fried chicken that Oprah Winfrey says is her favorite. The chicken was moist and flavorful, the sides were decent, and the rolls were yummy.

After lunch we decided to walk off some calories at Seward Park. The weather was really nice and we all enjoyed walking a couple miles around the perimeter of the park.

Then we drove down to Pike Place market to pick up some souvenirs. Troy met us there after he got off work and we went to eat dinner at Laredos. Troy and I shared the fajitas and nachos. It's definitely the best Tex-Mex we've had so far in Seattle.

After dinner we took a ferry boat ride to Bainbridge and back. Mount Rainier was finally showing itself and we could see it pretty well from the boat. We went to Kerry Park as the sun was setting to end the last full day of the visit.

Both Troy and I had to work Tuesday, but I was able to take an early lunch and meet my parents and Uncle at the Westlake Center. I was able to chat with them a few more minutes and then showed them where to take the Link light rail to the airport. Unfortunately their flight out was delayed due to electrical problems on the plane. They eventually made it home at about 1:00 in the morning after a connecting flight in Denver.

We had a good time visiting with them and wish it could have been longer. Hopefully they'll be able to come back soon.

Sunday morning, Lesley's dad took the bus from their hotel to pick up the car he rented for our drive to Deception Pass. We all had a very good breakfast at 5 Spot on Queen Anne Hill. Lesley had some very sweet and very good cinnamon French toast as well as some fresh fruit. It was Father's Day so we gave Lesley's dad his present.

We headed north toward the Pass, and even though the weather was drizzly with low clouds, it was still quite scenic. At the Pass, we all walked part-way across the bridge and then down to the beach. Lesley and I continued for a longer walk along the beach and in the forest.

We all headed onward through Whidbey Island to Fort Casey. We stopped there for a picnic with several snacks we'd brought with us. While the weather didn't get much better, I really enjoyed exploring the remains of the military base that had been there. We also went inside the lighthouse and climbed to the top.

We continued through Whidbey Island and took the ferry back to Mukilteo. That evening, we ordered Pagliacci pizza and salad for dinner, played some games, and had some ice cream.

We slept in a little late Saturday, which was nice. We went to Top Pot for breakfast and it was really crowded, but thankfully we found a table in the upper level. Troy and I had our usual donuts - the chocolate bar and old fashioned glazed - which were both awesome. As we've said before, Top Pot donuts are our favorite.

Despite the cloudy, misty weather, we decided to go to Snoqualmie Falls in North Bend. Since my parents last visited, there have been some renovations to the viewpoints along the river that made it a lot nicer. The waterfall had the most water flowing over it we've ever seen there. We've had warmer temperatures lately which has melted a lot of the mountain snow and caused the river to swell. It was pretty impressive.

After that, we went to check out the Snoqualmie Casino just a few miles away. Troy and I had never been there, so it was interesting to see. We had actually never played the slot machines, even though we have been to Las Vegas before. I lost all the money I bet after about 30 minutes. Troy hesitantly played with $1 and lost it in about 15 minutes. Sometimes he only bet 1 cent at a time, so that's how it lasted so long. Thankfully we were able to play in a decent sized non-smoking section. It was a fun experience, but I don't think we will be going back any time soon.

We skipped lunch since we had donuts for a late breakfast, so we were pretty hungry for dinner. We went to my Dad's favorite restaurant, Palisade. We were able to get a table close to the glass and some of us had a nice view of the city and the bay. I had the salmon and Troy had the prime rib and both were delicious.

After dinner, we drove over to Fremont to show my Uncle the Troll and Gas Works Park. Then we went back to the apartment for more pie. My Uncle had mentioned playing some old video games like we used to play together when I was a kid, so we played Donkey Kong Country for a while. I also introduced him to Mario Kart Wii, which he actually played pretty decently.

Lesley and I both took Friday off from work. She went with her parents to Cafe Besalu for breakfast, where they had quiche, croissants, and hot tea, which was quite good, I'm told. After my morning doctor's appointment, we all met up at the Olympic Sculpture Park. People were setting up for an event, but we were able to walk through the park and enjoy the waterfront view. Afterward, we went to Discovery Park and went for a brief but very enjoyable walk through the forest.

On our way to lunch, we stopped at a western viewpoint in Magnolia to enjoy the view of the sunlit sound and Olympic Mountains. We went to the Space Needle for lunch, which everyone enjoyed.

After lunch, we came back to our apartment where Lesley and her uncle played more games and her dad and I walked to the grocery store to get some peanuts before the baseball game.

We left early and took a bus through the ride free area to the game. We were one of the first 20,000 fans so we received the Ichiro jersey that was being handed out beforehand. Our seats were along the first baseline fairly close to the action and far too many Phillies fans. It was a pretty good game and it was exciting to see the Mariners win and the Philadelphia team lose.

We took the light rail back downtown and then I drove Lesley's family back to their hotel.

My parents visited us for the second time this past weekend. My Uncle Bob was able to come with them, which was really nice. They took an early flight and arrived in Seattle in the morning. They took the Light Rail to downtown from the airport and said it was a nice, cheap way to go. Once downtown they took a cab to their hotel in Lower Queen Anne and then rode the Monorail back downtown. I took a half day off work and was able to leave at 11 to meet them.

We had really good weather that first day and they were very happy that they were in our 65 degree weather instead of 100 degrees in Texas. The first thing we did was walk to Pike Place market to eat lunch at Beecher's. We each had grilled panini's and my parents shared some of the famous mac n' cheese. We saw the flying fish, the gum wall, and all the flowers and fruit for sale. My parents bought some white nectarines and some Taylor gold pears to eat for later. They also got a few piroshky pastries from Piroshky Piroshky.

Then we walked by my office building so I could show my Uncle where I work. After that we made the long trek to our apartment on foot. Everyone seemed to like our apartment, especially more living room space and the deck. After hanging out for a bit, we took them to their hotel so they could check in and get settled. We picked them up around 5:30 to go to Djan's Thai restaurant in Wallingford. My parents had been to Djan's on their first trip here and liked it. Unfortunately the traffic was very bad on Mercer and it took about 20 minutes to go maybe 3 blocks. Needless to say, we were all pretty hungry once we got to the restaurant.

I got the yellow curry and Troy got some kind of noodle dish. My Dad and Uncle both got the pineapple fried rice, which I had a bite of and it tasted awesome. My Mom got the cashew nut dish with chicken like she got last time. It was all very good food. Now I want to go back again soon and get my own pineapple fried rice.

We took a slight detour on the way to Alki Beach through the U District to show them the University of Washington and Husky Stadium. The view from Alki was really nice, so we walked around there for a little bit before heading back to the apartment. I made an apple pie and a blueberry pie for them, so we had a few pieces of pie before we called it a night. It was a fun first day and a great start to their trip.

We went to the annual cheese festival at Pike Place Market on Saturday. The weather was amazing all day with highs in the lower 60s and mostly sunny skies. We met some friends from church there and walked around sampling all the different cheeses. It seemed like there were fewer stands this year than prior years, but there were still plenty to choose from. I generally like milder softer cheeses and Troy likes the stronger harder cheeses. We each got a cheese we wanted and we also bought a wedge of Cougar Gold, which we buy every year. I got a cream cheese from Sierra Nevada Creamery that I also bought last year and Troy got a Fontina cheese from Oregon. There were so many different kinds I liked, but we knew we had to limit ourselves.

While at the market, we also bought some flowers and some really good Taylor's Gold pears. We also browsed through a Spanish store that had a huge selection of wines from Spain, Argentina, Portugal, and several other countries. After that we went to our friends' apartment, which is just down the street from the market and hung out for a while. We played Super Mario Brothers Wii for an hour or so. We also enjoyed looking out their windows at the amazing view of Elliott Bay and had a chance to see some of the tugboats out there for the Maritime Festival.

After a while we were a little hungry for lunch, so we decided to head down to the waterfront for a Chowder cookoff, which is part of the Maritime Festival. After trying clam chowder at 7 different restaurants, we all decided that Anthony's had the best. It wasn't too thick or thin, wasn't too buttery or peppery, it was just right. I think it will be a while before I want to have chowder again.

Once we got home, we took the car to get its annual washing and vacuuming in preparation for our visitors that are coming soon. Now it almost looks like a brand new car with a nice dark green paint job. Then we watched the Sounders-Timbers game, which ended in a tie unfortunately.

It was nice to hang out with some friends and have a chance to enjoy the nice weather on Saturday.

Not much has been going on that's been post worthy, but I thought I would mention a few things coming up over the next few months:

7th Annual Cheese Festival - We're going to the cheese festival today and might be meeting some friends there. It's free to get in and all the booths have free samples of their cheeses to taste. We're planning on buying two or three different kinds of cheese. I've been looking forward to this for months.

Visitors - Troy's parents are visiting us very soon and we're planning on going to Leavenworth, WA and Victoria, British Columbia. We've never been to Victoria, but I've heard a lot of good things about it, especially the Butchart Gardens. They'll also get to see our new apartment and neighborhood.

Seattle International Film Festival (SIFF) - Seattle has one of the best film festivals in the country. We've gone to a couple movies every year during the month-long event. Not sure what we'll see this year, but there's tons of options to choose from.

Northwest Folklife Festival - This happens on Memorial Day weekend at the Seattle Center. Lots of good food is available, as well as crafts, live music, and other things going on.

Mariners game - We'll be going to the Memorial Day game against the Orioles. We haven't been to a baseball game yet this season, so it should be fun. Hopefully the weather is much nicer by then.

Sounders-Whitecaps game - We'll be going to the first regular season match between the Sounders and the Whitecaps on June 11. The Sounders, Portland Timbers, and Vancouver Whitecaps will probably form a strong rivalry due to their close proximity to each other in the region.

More visitors - My parents and Uncle will be visiting us in mid-June for about 5 days. We're planning on going to a Mariners game and also scenic Deception Pass. I'm really looking forward to hanging out with them and showing them our apartment.

Bite of Seattle - This is probably my favorite Seattle festival. Last year we were able to go with our visiting friends and had a lot of fun. It's similar to Folklife, except even more restaurants and types of food to choose from. We'll be going to this in mid-July.

Hiking? - Hopefully we'll start hiking more as the weather gets better. We've had a really cold, wet spring so far, with high temperatures well below normal. My foot is also slowly improving, so it will be nice to hike again. Hopefully I won't have to wear my night splint forever.

So, we'll be pretty busy the next couple of months and it will be nice to have visitors. The summers are always the best time of the year in Seattle.

We posted recently about our favorite places for Latin American food and since then have been to another place called Laredo's. The ambiance in this place reminded me very much of Texas and the food was pretty good too. This was the closest to Tex-Mex that I've had here. The first important step to good Tex-Mex is good chips and salsa and Laredo's had that. We also had an avocado margarita, which is something I hadn't heard of before, but tasted pretty much like a regular margarita. I had some kind of taco dish and Lesley had enchiladas, both of which came with pinto beans and rice. Overall the food was pretty good and I'm looking forward to going back.

Our last day in San Francisco began with drizzly weather, very Seattle-like. Appropriately, Lesley and I started the day at Starbucks. We didn't really have any plans for the morning. We walked around Union Square and then took the streetcar down to the Ferry building. On the way back, we stopped at a cool toy store, and then went to the mall downtown.

Since we had to check out of our hotel, we dropped off our bags at our friend's apartment. Our friend wasn't feeling particularly well, so Lesley and I went to a sandwich shop in the Castro. It had apparently changed locations and the old address didn't show the new address, so it took us a little while to find it. We took our sandwiches to nearby Dolores Park and fortunately by this time the rain had stopped and the sky had started to clear up. It was still quite windy, so we had to keep our food from blowing away. Our sandwiches were pretty good.

After lunch, we walked to the Mission district. The weather by this time was beautifully sunny and the walk was very pleasant. We walked a ways down Mission St and our friend met up with us. We then took a bus over to the Noe Valley to walk around some more historic San Francisco homes. We had a very nice walk and then stopped for a drink before heading back in the direction of our friend's apartment. We had some frozen yogurt before getting our bags from our friend's apartment and saying goodbye. It was unfortunate that our friend had felt sick during the trip, but we still were able to have a good time together.

We took BART to the airport. Our plane was flying out of a new terminal, which had better food than typical airport fast food. We shared a tomato bisque soup, which was actually not bad, before heading back to Seattle.

One aspect of unfortunate timing was that both Lesley and our friend happened to be feeling a little sick during our visit. While we were still able to get out and do a lot of things, we had been taking things a little easy. Unfortunately, people wasn't feeling well enough to attend a Easter Sunday church service.

Later, Lesley and I did stroll through Chinatown as well as through North Beach. We found an Italian place for lunch in North Beach, though were hoping to be a little more impressed by the food.

After lunch, we took a couple buses to get to the upscale neighborhood of Nob Hill. San Francisco has a very good public transportation system and maps are posted at many of the bus stops, which helped us find our way around. Also, unlike Seattle, buses come very frequently, it seems like our average wait time for a bus was under 5 minutes.

We walked around Nob Hill, enjoying the upscale atmosphere. We ran across a classic car show near the Fairmont hotel. After that, we found the nearby Cable Car Museum, which was actually pretty interesting. The cable car system is operated by the motors in that building, which keep the cables moving at around 10 mph throughout the city. The museum also showed how the cable cars work and told the history of the cable cars. There used to be a lot more cable car lines operated by different companies, but the great fire of 1906 destroyed most of them. Later, the whole system was in danger of being scrapped in the name of progress, but was saved due to the work of citizen activists.

After this, we met up with our friend and his girlfriend at the grocery store to buy food for Easter dinner. Our friend's girlfriend made most of the food and we had a nice dinner with green beans, carrots, potatoes, and chicken.

We hung out at our friend's apartment the rest of the day and played some Mario Kart, then played Ticket to Ride again, as well as a game of Uno. This day was probably my favorite day of the trip thanks to the good weather and fun Lesley and I had, as well as the friendly Easter dinner we had.

Saturday morning we had a small bite to eat from the hotel continental breakfast and headed out to Golden Gate Park to see the Conservatory of Flowers. The current exhibit was called "Wicked Plants: Botanical Rogues and Assassins" and they had all kinds of poisonous or otherwise deadly plants such as poison ivy, the tobacco plant, and others. It was very interesting reading all the stories about each of the plants and how they killed people over the past 150 years. The rest of the conservatory was pretty cool too, with all kinds of weird looking leaves and flowers. We saw some lily pads that were probably 2 feet wide that were pretty cool.

We continued walking through Golden Gate Park and enjoyed the great weather. It was mostly sunny and in the 60s. After the park, we took the bus to the Golden Gate Bridge. It was really crowded, but once we got out onto the bridge the people thinned out. We walked about halfway across and were able to see pretty far in every direction. Last time we were here, it was foggy all around us and we couldn't hardly see anything. Going to the Golden Gate Bridge is probably my favorite thing to do in San Francisco.

It was about time for lunch, so we headed to Fisherman's Wharf by bus and ate at Boudin. Their sourdough bread bowls with clam chowder and tomato bisque soup were excellent. Not too far from there was a place called Musée Mécanique where they had all kinds of old arcade and carnival games. Some looked to be almost 100 years old. We played a few of them, including an Indiana Jones pinball machine.

We walked over to Ghirardelli Square next and ate an ice cream sundae called "The Cable Car" while sitting on a bench looking out to the bay. It had three scoops of ice cream - rocky road, vanilla chocolate chip, and chocolate - topped with whipped cream, nuts, hot fudge, a cherry, and a milk chocolate square bar. It was really good.

After that we walked along the pier and eventually made our way to the Embarcadero via a historic streetcar. AT&T Park where the Giants play wasn't too far away, so we decided to go check it out to see if there was anything new on or near the stadium about them being World Series champs. We actually showed up just after a game had ended, so the place was swarming with orange and black. We didn't hang around too long because of the crowds, so we headed on back to the hotel to rest a bit.

We wanted to go to an A's game since we'd already been to a Giants game the last time we came here. Unfortunately the A's were out of town - oddly enough playing in Seattle, so we didn't see any baseball games.

We ate dinner at a place our friend recommended that was really close to our hotel called Bangkok Noodles & Thai. After dinner we went to hang out with our friends and played a few games of Mario Kart. We also played two new games called Carcassonne and Quiddler.

The first thing we did Friday morning was ride the cable car, which picked us up at the end of the Powell-Hyde/Powell-Mason line, less than 2 blocks from our hotel. It was pretty full and we were stuck inside the car, so we didn't have much of a chance to look out of the car. We were trying to get to Mama's, a breakfast cafe I'd heard about located in North Beach. We accidentally took the cable car that went farther west, so we got off at the top of Nob Hill and walked down to Washington Square to the east. The Powell-Mason cable car would have taken us almost straight there.

We gradually made our way to the restaurant and the line of people out the door was almost too intimidating. We decided to stick it out and waited almost an hour in line, which seemed really long despite getting there around 9am on a weekday. While I waited in line, Troy explored the neighborhood a little bit and even went up to the steps of Coit Tower. Our friend met us there for breakfast, which turned out to be pretty good and not too expensive. I had an omlette and Troy had the french toast sampler with fruit. It was a neat little restaurant, but I can't say I'd go out of my way to eat there again.

After breakfast, we continued exploring North Beach, which is a neighborhood we didn't visit at all on our last trip. It was probably my favorite neighborhood we visited. There was so much to look at and all the cafes looked cool. Several of them had outdoor sidewalk seating. We stopped briefly at a bookstore and a couple ornate cathedrals.

The next stop was Lombard Street, the crookedest street in the world. We went to it on the last trip, but only at night, so we couldn't really see it that well. Troy and I walked all the way to the top and took some pictures of the nice view. It was pretty crowded with tourists, so we didn't stay too long.

We were all pretty tired after all that walking, so we decided to head back to our friend's apartment. After visiting a little, we decided to play a board game called Ticket to Ride. Basically it's a game where you try to claim different train routes displayed on a US and Canada map. Major cities are linked by anywhere from 1 to 6 car-length trains of different colors. You get extra points for the longest train and for completing routes that you receive randomly at the start of the game. For example, I got a route card for New York City to Atlanta (with stops along the way) and it took me 3 yellow cars, 2 black cars, and 2 red cars. You can only draw two train car cards per turn and you have to wait until you have enough cards of the same color car before you can turn them in and claim a route. It took me a while to figure out a strategy. Troy eventually won after playing about an hour.

We waited a while for our friend's girlfriend to get home and ordered pizza for dinner from a place nearby. We took it easy the rest of the night and went back to our hotel a little early to rest up for the next day.

I really like carrot cake, it's probably my favorite kind of cake after chocolate. I decided to make one from scratch last Saturday and used a recipe from AllRecipes.com. It said it would make two 10" round layers, and I only have 9" pans, so I modified the recipe and cut it to 12 servings instead of 16. It was quite a lot of work, especially shredding the carrots. That part alone took over an hour. My cousin said I need to invest in a food processor, which is definitely true.

After shredding the carrots, the rest was pretty easy. I beat the eggs, added sugar and oil, mixed in the flour/spice mixture and added the walnuts. I was pouring it in the pans when Troy realized I hadn't added the raisins, which would have been disastrous. Not really, but it would have been irritating to do all that work and forget an ingredient. So I mixed them in as best I could once the batter was in the pans.

I baked it for the original amount of time, not realizing that I should reduce the cook time because I reduced the recipe size. It came out a little overcooked and crusty, which was disappointing at the time.

I made my own cream cheese frosting, which was much easier than I thought. It only requires butter, cream cheese, powdered sugar, and a little vanilla. I went ahead and iced the cake and we both had a piece. It was ok, but not as good as I was hoping for.

So I covered it and put it in the fridge. Then on Sunday we had some more of it and it was actually a lot better. I guess the icing helped soften it and keep some moisture in it. It's actually pretty good. Perhaps I'll go to all the trouble again and reduce the cook time next time. It wasn't the best carrot cake I've had, but it was comparable.

Our diet back in Texas was made up of a lot of Latin flavors, especially Tex-Mex. Here, Mexican food is a little harder to come by, but we've gotten around to a few places. Lesley's parents are visiting us soon and are interested in trying Mexican food, so we're trying to figure out where to take them. Here are the places Lesley and I have tried that serve food from Spanish-speaking countries, ordered basically from our favorite to least favorite:

• Paseo - Caribbean sandwich shop that was worth the 45 minute wait. The last time I went, I had possibly the second best sandwich in my life, having had the best one on my previous visit.


• La Carta de Oaxaca - Mexican food that was at one time my favorite restaurant in Seattle. No longer impresses me, but serves good food with the flavors of southern Mexico.


• La Isla - Puerto Rican food. Like most places to eat in Seattle, it's not a bargain. Still it has good food.


• Cactus - Northwest-inspired Tex-Mex style food, with dishes like butternut squash enchiladas. I wasn't particularly impressed, but the food was pretty good and I would try it again.


• Mexico - Lesley has been here and says it's "decent, but kind of overpriced, and the service is kind of slow." That describes pretty much every other place on the list, but Mexico's claim to fame is that they give you free chips and salsa. In Texas, that's normal. In Seattle, that's remarkable.


• El Mestizo - We walked here a few weeks ago. We weren't thrilled with Lesley's mole enchiladas, but that's probably because neither of us is a big fan of mole. The service was slow, but I thought the food had pretty good flavor and would probably give it another try.


• Taqueria El Rinconsito - Outside the city limits where more people of Mexican and Central American origin live. An inexpensive fast-food style place that serves dishes covered with cheese and, unlike everything else on this list, accompanied them with fried rice and refried pinto beans on the side, something that is the standard of Tex-Mex. I liked it and would go back.


• Dos Amigos - Lesley went there once and doesn't remember being impressed. It's similar to Rosa's Cafe in DFW, so fairly inexpensive and nothing too special.


• Agua Verde - One of the first Mexican places I tried in Seattle on the lake near UW. Perhaps I went in with unfair expectations, but their margaritas were too lime-flavored and the food was mediocre. Next time I'll skip the food and just rent a kayak, which is what they're better known for.

Anyway, we hope to try a few more places over the next few weeks, but aren't expecting any of them to blow us away. Still, it's nice that we've found at least a few places we like.

I mentioned a few weeks ago that the Noah's we went to all the time is temporarily closed while the building is redone. Last weekend we decided to try Eltana based on a few recommendations. It was actually pouring down rain, which would normally be abnormal for Seattle if we hadn't been having torrential rain the past few weeks. Anyway, we walked there in about 15 minutes. It was insanely crowded with tons of people and a lot of families, which was surprising. Of course we didn't get there until after 10 and there was also an article recently published in the Seattle Times about it, which might have drawn even more people than normal. Along with Noah's being closed, everyone who wanted bagels was going to try Eltana.

So, we waited in line for 10 minutes and ordered 4 bagels to go. We got sesame, salt, everything, and wheat and carried them home in the rain since there was no way we were going to eat them in that crowded place. We could have ordered cream cheese to go with it, but the cream cheese there is twice as expensive as Noah's, so we passed.

First impressions were average at best. The bagels were smaller than Noah's, which is why we got 4. They were also a little bland, especially the wheat and sesame ones. The salt and everything tasted a little better, but couldn't hold a candle to Noah's asiago cheese or super onion.

I'd probably go back since we don't plan on driving to another Noah's location every weekend, but it's just not going to be the same...

I don't think I had Indian food until we moved to Seattle. I didn't realize what I was missing out on. Granted I've only had maybe two types of Indian dishes, but I'd have to say it's one of my favorite types of food. I really like chicken tikka masala and usually get that whenever we go to an Indian restaurant. I've had tikka masala from Taste of India, Laadla, and Chutney's. They've all been very good. Naan is also excellent when it's hot and fresh. We've gotten it plain and also with something in it, like potato or cheese. Maybe we can find an Indian restaurant that's close to our new apartment.

We've had a tradition the last several years of going to eat bagels almost every Saturday. Usually we get three bagels and split them. Depending on what looks good we get a combination of asiago, sesame, and super onion. We've been going to the Noah's Bagels on Capitol Hill, which was pretty convenient by the #8 bus or just walking up the hill from our old South Lake Union apartment.

Since we moved a few weeks ago, we've been too busy to go get bagels on the weekend. But yesterday we finally made it a point to walk slightly less than a mile to Noah's from our new apartment.

When we got there, we saw a big sign on the door that said that location was closed. I was pretty disappointed. We knew it would be closing for a little while at some point because the building it was in is being torn down and rebuilt with condos on the upper floors.

We weren't sure what to do yesterday. We were really hungry and I still wanted bagels. We ended up going to the Mercer Island location and it was after 10:30 by the time we got there. It was packed with people and we had to wait in line for 15 minutes. There were no two-person tables available, so we had to sit at a big, awkward table with other customers. At least they were some of the freshest bagels we've had in a while. The Mercer Island location is pretty far away, but most of the drive is on the freeway.

The only other locations we could go to are ones in Queen Anne and the U-District. I don't care for the Queen Anne location because it's hard to get to from where we live now and it's always swamped with tons of people, including families with screaming kids. Parking there is also a hassle.

The U-District location would probably be the best one to go to since it's not too far away. Unfortunately there aren't any convenient buses that would take us there, so we would have to drive every Saturday morning just to get bagels. We've tried a few other bagel places in the city, but have not really cared much for any of them. I guess we'll have to figure out something for a year or two until the Capitol Hill location is open again.

We've lived in Seattle for three years now and have eaten at many restaurants here. We don't eat out very much and when we do, we prefer to eat at places we know are going to be good. It's hard to spend money going to new places all the time and take the risk that we might not like it. Nevertheless, our favorite restaurant list for this year includes two new places. Both Djan's Thai and Noah's Bagels dropped off the list after two straight years. Red Mill and Pagliacci are the only ones that have made the cut all three years.

1. 
   Top Pot Doughnuts - We've mentioned Top Pot several times before, so we thought it deserved its own spot in our top 5. These donuts aren't just any regular donuts, they're "hand-forged" sugary goodness. My favorites are the apple fritter, chocolate bar, and cinnamon sugar rings. Troy loves the old fashioned glazed and the old fashioned devils food.


2. 
   Paseo Caribbean - Wow, what a sandwich! We tried this place about six months ago and need to go back. The sandwiches were very filling and had a lot of meat. The sandwich I got had roast pork with sweet banana peppers, smoked ham & Swiss cheese melted between a hot press. It was really good!


3. 
   Red Mill Burgers (Interbay) - yummy burgers and onion rings. This is a classic place that everyone should go to at least once if they like burgers. The onion rings are awesome and the shakes are good too.


4. 
   Café Besalu - Best croissants and quiche in the city. We tried this place about six months ago as well and I was blown away by the food. On a cold morning, these quiches and croissants will warm you up fast. It's definitely worth waiting in the long line for this breakfast.


5. 
   Pagliacci Pizza - totally awesome pizza. I've had a lot of different pizzas in my life and this has everything beat. My favorites are the pepperoni and Hawaiian. They also make really good vegetarian-style pizzas with special toppings like artichoke and goat cheese. It may be a little expensive, but it's worth it. Troy and I can usually eat off of a large pizza twice.

Here are our restaurant rankings the past two years:
Year 1
Year 2

Last Friday we decided to celebrate being done with apartment searching and went out to eat at Daniel's Broiler, a very nice steak restaurant right on the south end of Lake Union. It's just a 10 minute walk from where we live, though we've never been there. It was a really nice place and still seemed fairly casual. The view of the lake and Queen Anne hill was amazing at night.

We started with the bacon wrapped scallops as an appetizer and they gave us fresh warm bread with butter. I had the 8 oz petite filet mignon with a baked potato and Troy had the prime rib with a baked potato. The steak was cooked perfectly and had a good flavor. It was a lot of food, but somehow we still had room for dessert. We got the creme brulee with fresh berries and drizzled caramel.

All the food was excellent. The service was a little slow, but I suppose nice steak places tend to be a relaxed experience. Since we're moving out of the area, going out to dinner on the lake was kind of our way of saying goodbye to our neighborhood.