Tsunamis and Space Needles

Thursday and Friday, we spent our time in the Pacific Northwest.

Gorgeous.

We chose to take a longer route up highway 101 in order to enjoy the Oregon coast.

Boy, was the extra hour worth it.

No joke.

From your car, you're able to appreciate an impressive mountain range on your direct right juxtaposed to the roaring Pacific on your left.

Portland, OR

Oregon was quite a journey from Santa Cruz; so, we stopped for the night in a lovely town called Lincoln City which sits just on the shores of the Pacific and under the watchful eye of the mountains.

Notice the sign to the left.  Tsunami?!?!  

Yikes.

It was a great choice for respite.

Early the next morning, we grabbed some delicious coffee from one of the many, many coffee-to-go booths in rural Oregon then headed north towards Seattle.

Seattle is home to many of our favorite people -both fictional and nonfictional- including folks like Frasier Crane, The Shins, and, of course, my cousin Jon and his lovely wife Laurel.

We arrived in Seattle Friday morning and, while Jon was finishing up at work, we yelped the best restaurants in Seattle to quiet our grumbling bellies.

Little did we know that one of "the top ten best restaurants in the world," according to the New York Times, is in Seattle.

Din Tai Fung

We had to be there.

Immediately.

Din Tai Fung is based in Taiwan with locations in only two US cities:  Los Angeles and Seattle.

They specialize in miniature dumplings filled with your veggies or meats of choice.

You order your food by marking on a slip your decided apps and entrees.

Will and I started off with an appetizer of seaweed and bean curd in a vinegar dressing.  

It was, dare I say, the best item we consumed during that lunch.

So good.

For our main course, we ordered one set of chicken dumplings and one set of fish dumplings.  

To accompany our meal, I ordered a jasmine tea and what did my husband order to satisfy his thirst from one of the best restaurants in the world?

A lemon-lime slushy.

Following lunch, we drove around Seattle for a bit and took in some of the city's many fantastic sites.

Including, of course, the iconic space needle:

It was a beautifully clear day and Mount Rainier was remarkably visible.  It's amazing that it's over 60 miles from the city.  You can see it on the right side of this picture.

We even took Mac to a dog park.

Cyclists love Seattle (probably because few people who live there know how to drive.  Just sayin...).

That afternoon, we headed over to Jon and Laurel's apartment and enjoyed catching up for a few hours.

For dinner, we walked a few blocks up and settled on a great Greek restaurant which was featured on tv.

Jon and Laurel

Jon enlightening us on some factoids about the neighborhood.

This morning, we said our goodbyes to Jon and Laurel then headed to one of the coffee shops in their neighborhood for some authentically awesome black Seattle coffee.

It was the perfect start to a long ride back east.

Farewell, west coast.

We hardly knew ye.