I Love Saturday

So, Saturday goes down in the history books as one of the smoothest, most surprising, and most satisfying days in recent memory. On tap, drive to Seattle for the only erasure concert in the Pacific Northwest. We had Starbucks in hand and were on the road by 10:30. The weather was perfect, sunny but not too hot, not a lot of traffic and there was a lovely view of Trojan for almost the last time.

Arrived in Seattle by 1:30.We knew the hotel wouldn't check us in until 3:00 but we thought we'dcheck it out since Amanda found it on Expedia and we'd never been there. Surely they could suggest a nice sushi place for lunch. But better thanthat, they had a room ready for us on the top floor and they valeted my car. We brought up our stuff and were VERY impressed (Hotel Andra people...remember it!) They brought me a complimentary toiletry bag when I discovered I'd forgotten my toothbrush. Isn't that sweet.

Then we went off in search of sushi. I would like to see a map with the sushi places and our path as we must have walked right next to them, around them, and found every conceivable way to miss them. Wandered from Belltown to the waterfront and ended up at the classic Ivars for seafood of the cooked variety. Still, had a great walk. Perused Pike Place. Took in a bit of the cheese festival that was going on. Found a lovely wine shop and decided to pop in. We've been searching in vain since we returned from Argentina for our favorite Luigi Bosca Malbec. THEY HAD IT! We bought three bottles.

We're feeling most nostalgic on the way back to the hotel. So nostalgic that we took note of the Buenos Aires Grill near the hotel. After a bit of a siesta (ok, and a bottle of the wine) we dressed for the show. I found that I had left my coat in my car. When I called down to the front desk to get my car they said they would fetch me my jacket. Did I mention we love them? We decided the wine really needed a good steak with it so we decided totry the Grill we had seen. Heaven! A very authentic place indeed with atango show every Saturday evening. We knew we couldn't stay for the tango show but we had the most wonderful empanadas and steak with the yummy YUMMY chimichurri sauce. Topped it off with a couple Mojitos and somelovely conversations with the owner, bartenders, and a couple locals and we were happy campers.

Down the street we went to the Showbox for the show. It is a very nice intimate venue. In support of their latest album the concert was an accoustic restyling of some of their biggest hits. I'm sure those who cared about the setlist were at the show but I can tell you that the salsa inspired "I Love To Hate You" was worth the price of admission!

After a great show we found Gameworks located between us and the hotel. No nightshould be complete without air hockey and skee bal. Amanda opted for the basket ball free throw challenge and I dearly missed Julie's company as we usually reinact the WHMS batting cage scene when I visit there. Still, I made it to Triple A with 3 home runs. Then I took on the testosterone-ladden boys downstairs in the Indy 500 game (with announcer, video camera, the whole works) and pulled off a respectable 3rd place. Then we hobbled back to the hotel, our feet having given out long before we did.

Julie had left me a message and we got a bonus visit from her in time to catch some Paul Simon on SNL. What a great day!