Tapas in Boulder.

I'm in Boulder, CO, this evening at a restaurant downtown called The Mediterranean. It's a tapas styles restaurant where they serve small plates of high quality food. The picture here, is starring a bacon-wrapped date in an amazing sauce. I don't recall the name of the sauce, but it was some kind of deliciousness for sure.

Stop! Helmet time.

Me and pro cyclist Whitey DeBroux.

Under the Bridge.

Found it! Just over the Aurora Bridge, you find a pedestrian underpass. This makes the troll really more accessible by foot/bike than by car for sure. Down the stairs and you run right into the thing. I was hoping that a piece like this wouldn't be subjected to local graffiti, but everybody in Fremont that owns a box of crayons and a set of fingerpaints thinks they're an artist. Unfortunately, somebody felt they could improve upon the troll by using colored chalk to paint its eyes and fingernails. I don't know, should art be a privilege?

Across Lake Union.

Today I decided to go hunt down the Troll under the Aurora Bridge in Fremont. This shot was taken on the bridge. It was a gorgeous day and with just a bit of wind, the sailboats were out. You can see the mountain range faded out in the background.

Februberry.

For you folks who've spent your whole lives having access to fresh food markets, it's time to check in and make sure you're not taking it for granted. There's nothing like being able to go down to the local market and get fresh fruits and vegetables in the middle of February. Here is a shot taken at the Pike Street Market of some fresh wares.

Lamplights and Bourbon.

This is the promenade heading North into Pioneer Square. This shot was taken just North of the Qwest Field parking lot. You can see the Seattle skyline rising up in the background, and the first floor of the building on the left is a Seattle sports fan's favorite: F.X. McRory's Steak Chop and Oyster House. McRory's whisky bar boasts the U.S.'s largest collection of bourbon.

Between a Foot and a Base Ball.

The above pic was taken right in between Qwest field (where the Seahawks play football) and Safeco Field (where the Mariners play baseball). The curvy circular building toward the top of the photo is the actual football arena. To the right is WaMu theatre and the Qwest convention center.

The ID and the Hungry Ego.

One of my favorite places to poke around is "The ID," the International District. Filled with cool little shops selling everything from fine art to anime, cheap (but delicious) eats, books in every Asian language, and groceries from around the globe. There are shrines and temples intermingled with shops and miniature gardens. It is a place of cultural diversity; a thousand nations with almost imperceivable borders, where the English language skillfully butchered, mixed with a cornacopia of other sliced and diced native tongues, and filled into a translucent skin of American attitude, creating a delightfully tangy, soy sauced, and stir-fried linguistical sausage.

The photo is taken on 5th St S, and shows the shops outside the Uwajimaya Village shopping center.

Brazillian Meatfest.

Yes, I am still vegetarian, but on occasion I will indulge a craving for animal parts. After all, I'm primarily vegetarian for health reasons. It's not that I love the cow, it's just that the cow is trying to kill me. I do, however, believe that if you're going to have a bit of meat, it ought to be of high quality, and still in moderation. Enter the Ipanema Grill on 1st St downtown. The Ipanema is a Brazillian grill and their specialty is Rodizio.

For the uninitiated, Rodizio is a continuously served multi-meat extravaganza. They grill fresh meats, slowly, over large chunks of charcoal in large open grilling pits. Servers walk throughout the restaurant with oversized skewers carrying quantities of such items as garlic steak, pepper steak, tri-tip, bacon-wrapped turkey, spiced sausages, parmesan pork, and grilled pineapple. You take small servings each time (about 2 or three bites worth), and can stay for hours if you're partnered with a decent conversationalist. And there's where moderation goes out the window... They have a fully stocked bar, and a single-item menu that includes a FANTASTIC vegetarian sandwhich that you must try at some point. Could be a good dinner date place, but dinner is the same show at a little more than twice the price, so I suggest lunch at $14.95.

Now, back to veggies...

Fresh Food.

An evening stop off at the famous Pikes Market to pick up a bit of fresh fish. The gist of the stop here is that you can get fish that have not been previously frozen. They also have a wide variety of seafood options that are fresh including various species of shrimp, crab, oysters, etc. There are a lot of shops and independent farm cooperatives who also sell vegetables, fruits, and flowers out of here. It'd be nice to have a place downtown so you could shop for the fresh organic stuff everyday...

W(h)ining...

It so happens that the buddies from Grad School I'm staying with are into wine, so we've spent some time shopping and tasting quite a variety of wines. Me: not really a wine snob. I mean, I like wine, but wine doesn't stand on its own for me; I've always seen it as a culinary item meant to be paired with the right foods (or vice versa, I guess). What does fascinate me, is the marketing of wine. The critics once said that any label bearing an animal on it was a good wine. It wasn't long before there were a bajillion labels featuring an animal. (A bajillion is a bit of an exaggeration; I believe the actual count was closer to a gazillion).
Another study noted how increasing the price of a wine increases the perceived enjoyment of the wine by the drinker. In other words, give the average wine drinker two glasses of the same wine and tell them that the second glass is a more expensive brand and they will enjoy it more. This is why, for the most part, I stick to Merlot. Besides its taste qualities, you can find a $30 bottle that tastes like crap, and an $8 bottle that is amazing. Perhaps I only enjoy Merlot because this price/enjoyment theory is wrecked by this style of wine. Perhaps my enjoyment is linked to how much I perceive my wine's are "sticking it to the man."
Anyways, here is my current vote for the coolest local wine label.

Chinese-American or American Chinese?

The International District is definitely one of my more favored hang outs. To start with, tons of good (and inexpensive) eats. On a street corner near the Tunnel (the downtown transit depots use underground tunnels), I noticed some graffiti on a street lamp. It's not unusual to see graffiti on public property, but this one made me think for a moment. Carving a heart on a tree and putting the lover's initials inside of it is an American cultural icon. Here in Chinatown, this lover's heart was scratched into a street lamp, and the lover's names were distinctly Asian. What a fantastic juxtaposition of culture...

I Think the Weather's Lovely.

A view from 1st street, looking out over the piers to the loading docks. You can see the machines in the background that lift the cargo containers onto the ship. Above you can see the Seattle weather that is this time of year. That's what everyone says anyways, that "This is the winter months. January is our worst weather. It'll be much better by the end of February." Can't complain, myself. It's the first half of February and I've already seen temps into the upper half of the +50s. And I'm getting to ride every day. Can't complain about that, even if it is a little wet sometimes.

Vultures.

Not even the poor department store Huffy is safe from the vultures in SoDo. Locked to a bike rack, in plain view of a downtown street, and just long enough for somebody to flip the quick releases and take off with the goods. The bike looks practically brand new, but what are they going to do with a set of crap wheels and a seat? I could see using junker wheels to make a trailer or something, but really, what? Fixing up a frame they stole earlier? Look at the way this thing is locked up; why didn't they just cut the links, or the little lock and take the whole thing. My guess: jerks just took them because they could. This kind of crap makes me mad. (S)he couldn't have hid it well, did everybody just watch some thug carrying around a couple of tires and a seat post downtown? The cops are all over this area, too. I hope there's a cyclist among them that stops folks walking around with a seat post and tires and calls them on it. Bike theft should be seriously bad karma. For those not in the know, they make skewers and seat bolts that lock on now, and they're reasonably inexpensive. Most use proprietary tool shapes to unlock them; nothing is foolproof, but at least make them earn it. The skilled thief is going to get what (s)he wants, but at least getting rid of your quick releases will keep these jokers from knicking your stuff...

Green under grey...

I know, it's a picture of grass, but it's been green the whole time I've been here and it's supposed to be Winter. The newspaper back in Fairbanks (AK) is reporting temps as low as -70F. I guess the grass in Fairbanks is technically "green" right now, but it certainly isn't alive. Here, the "Emerald" of the city sparkles all year long.

Fashionably dry?

Welcome to January in the Pacific Northwest. As you can see, I'm sporting the official wardrobe (in this case, a Grenden's of Sweden raincoat). They say Seattlites are divided into two camps on the staying dry issue: umbrella vs. raincoat. Although typically a fan of the umbrella, the wind rushing through downtown makes it a pain to use effectively, so I have opted for the raincoat until I have the wisdom to answer the local Sphinx's riddle. (No, the umbrella hat is not the answer to the riddle. I know. I asked.)

It's settled...

Here in the Emerald City, they ask the big questions, the ones that really matter, the ones that really effect us in our day to day lives. The caucuses? The war? Peak oil? No, dude. (Taken from the Seattle Weekly.)

Welcome to the New Blog

Welcome to my new blog, Eye Spy Seattle. What you'll find here are photo posts made from my LG Env mobile phone, accompanied by an "up to" 1000 character text entry. The photos are untouched, cropped or formatted.

When they are initially posted, you will see a bunch of text tacked on by Verizon; this is because I post via e-mail over the phone. I will edit the junk out as I get access to a computer. The photos are, for the most part, shot in the Greater Seattle area, but I will not stop posting when I am out of the area, so you may get a few shots of Boulder, Portland, Phoenix, LA, Tulsa, Honolulu, or wherever.

Feel free to comment, and I hope you check in once in a while.