This weekend has been a fun-filled weekend made complete by a visit from my dear friend Theresa and her new boyfriend, Matt. Theresa lives in Spokane now, but was my first friend when we both moved to Seattle and worked at a coffee shop in the Pike Place Market. We’ve gone through a lot together–moves back and forth across the country, kids, weddings, divorces, school, new jobs, big dreaming and hard work to make those dreams a reality. She is a wonderful friend and I’m lucky to have her in my life (even if she does live all the way across the state). They drove into Seattle on Friday night and we went out for Ethiopian food—one of our absolute favorite meals these days. We took it easy on Friday night after dinner and watched some Doctor Who together. Saturday morning we woke up early and went to Cafe Flora for brunch. I wish I’d taken some pictures of it, but I just got right to eating instead. I had the vegan cornmeal waffle with blueberry jam, cardamom cream and walnuts (which is, in fact, the waffle that inspired the cornmeal waffle recipe). It was delicious. After that, we ran some errands. We went to Ikea (there is no Ikea in Spokane and Theresa and Matt needed a few things for their new place) and the Goodwill… because who wouldn’t want to go to the amazing Goodwill?! I found a couple of nice dishes at the Goodwill, which I’m sure you’ll see debuted in some photos in the near future.
After that, we stopped at home and picked up Eric (who skipped the Ikea/Goodwill trip) and Maizy and headed to Lincoln Park in West Seattle. Lincoln Park is a pretty big park in the city that has woods, trails and beach.
The woods are beautiful big pine and cedar trees…
The rhododendron are blooming…
And there is a steep trail/steps going down to the beach…
I thought this was a particularly neat tree…
The beach itself is rocky (as most Washington beaches are)…
Maizy loves going for hikes and walks on the beach…
It was an awesome weekend, with lots of laughs and fun Seattle activities.
On another note, I made the Basic Chocolate Cupcake recipe from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World with the Chocolate Mousse topping for Eric’s mom’s birthday last week. This is an awesome recipe and I highly recommend you make it. The mousse is over the top and rivals Julia Child’s chocolate mousse recipe that uses heavy cream, etc.
Have you done anything fun over the long weekend?
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I love your pictures! I can’t believe that I’ve actually never been to West Seattle! That park looks amazing! I’ll definitely make a point to check it out soon.
Also, what do you like to get when you go out for Ethiopian? There are a ton of Ethiopian restaurants in the neighborhood where I work, but all I’ve ever tried are lentil sambusas. Any other suggestions? 🙂
Thanks, Lindsay! It’s funny, we live really close to West Seattle and rarely go there, but there’s lots of awesome stuff to do over there. Alki beach is like being in California. Every time I’m in West Seattle, I think “Man, we really should come here more often!”
As far as Ethiopian goes, we always get the Large Veggie Combo, which includes a whole variety of small portions of different dishes. That way, you get to try lots of different flavors. The place we go (Saba) in the Central District of Seattle includes: 2 red lentil dishes, green lentils, yellow lentils, okra, green beans, collard greens (my favorite!), cabbage/potatoes, and a green salad in the middle. It’s $15 and it’s really enough food for 3-4 people. Eric and I usually eat our fill and then take the leftovers home and there is enough for two huge portions the next day.