Big Dig - Seattle Style

Photo credit: King TV

Today is the big day! Big Bertha starts chewing her way through the underground of downtown Seattle - and eventually we will have a car tunnel along the waterfront and we'll finally be able to take down the eyesore that is known as the Alaskan Way Viaduct. We've been watching the preparation for this for a while now, Big Bertha has been parked down near Pioneer Square for the past months getting assembled and ready to go. Here's to a great success, and here's hoping it's nothing like Boston's Big Dig. Yikes.

This marks the beginning of what will eventually be an incredible and well deserved waterfront renovation in Seattle. We have lived for so long with a "working" waterfront and waited patiently while idiotic Seattle government types have spent endless amounts of money on consultants to FINALLY after 40 years get moving and get something going. 

I've mentioned before that the plans for the new waterfront are fantastic, and as a Seattle downtowner, I'm super super excited to see it all come together. Check out Friends of Waterfront Seattle for more information about the plans. Take a look at the core projects in this brochure, there is an excellent explanation of what the segments of the plan are and why. A lot of really involved Seattleites have worked really long and hard on this plan, and I have to say it feels like they have thought of all the things that are important to make Seatte a great waterfront city to live in and a great waterfront city for people to visit. 

Good luck Big Bertha - and Buon Appetito!

Field Trip - West Seattle

Last night we took a field trip to West Seattle. For a while now we've been thinking that it would be fun to jump on the water taxi to West Seattle and go to dinner at Marination and last night the weather was again PERFECT, so we did it. We walked down from the condo, met friends at the dock, hopped on and in 10 beautifully picturesque minutes, we were in West Seattle drinking Sangria and stuffing our faces. We liked Marination, the food was good, super casual vibe, and only a few steps from the water taxi dock. We sat on the patio, had fish tacos, pork sliders, fries - yum!

You should do it too, but keep in mind that the water taxi doesn't run late every night, just Friday nights and weeknights only if there is a sporting event. So, check the schedule to make sure it's running. We got lucky, there was a Mariners game last night, so it worked out for us. Also, there is a Vashon water taxi too, so that will be a future field trip - how fun would that be!!

Here are some pics from our adventure. Good times with good friends - 

Why We Love Seattle

This was our view on the way home from the farm on Sunday. Yes, rest of the country, it always rains in Seattle, always!

Seattle Neighborhood Tour - South Lake Union

Last night we walked down through South Lake Union from our condo. What a spectacular Seattle summer night it was – and for those of you who don’t know Seattle, we don’t get nights like this often. It was warm! WARM!

We cruised east on Virginia past the construction site for the new Amazon buildings at 6^th, then we headed North up Westlake toward Lake Union. There are so many new buildings going up, so many new restaurants, shops and businesses – it’s pretty fun to see all the changes in so few years. If you haven’t been down there, you should make time to go. There is still a LOT of construction going on (road and building), but it’s nice to see so many people walking around, eating in the restaurants, shopping, running and riding bikes. We passed by Mistral Kitchen, Barolo, Whole Foods, Flying Fish, Re:public, Serious Pie, Serious Biscuit, and other little cute spots to eat and drink.  

 We walked up to the park at the end of Lake Union, where the new Mohai (old) building is, and where the new park area has been developed. Getting across Mercer is a little bit of a mess – but it’s pretty well marked and there are pedestrian traffic guards set up to get you across without getting run over by heavy equipment. We went down to the new natural beach that’s now there, watched a gal and her dog set out paddle boarding, then watched a bunch of kids jumping off the pedestrian bridge into the lake. So fun.  Then we walked around Mohai, past the old historic boats, and then across to the Center for Wooden Boats, and back up Terry toward town. 

Terry has loads of little restaurants that are good. We passed by Shanik, Cactus, Cuoco, Bravehorse and then crossed back over to Westlake to stop at Flying Fish for dinner. We sat at the bar for a glass of wine and some apps for a nice little birthday dinner – and walked home as it was getting dark. Perfect way to spend the first day of 50!

 For more info about South Lake Union and everything that is going on there, check out http://www.discoverslu.com/# and http://www.slucommunitycouncil.org/.