I tried to get 7 different people to come with me. Granted, I was calling only the night before. The excuses were pretty good, going on a cruise to Alaska, helping set up a nephew’s wedding, and Vacation Bible School. It turned out going alone with Sara was delightful.
The event: 25th anniversary of Bite of Seattle at the Seattle Center (i.e. lots of food)
The intention: Arrive at 11am (opening), stay for maybe 2 hrs
Reality: Arrival at 11:30 and stayed till almost 4pm
The food: Delightful
The play: Topnotch
The dilemma: Heat. hot, hot, hot for Seattle.
It’s fun to go to a festival that is just about food instead of a festival that includes food. If I were to name my hobbies, they would be reading, walking, photography, hiking, but high up there is food. I enjoy eating out. I read restaurant reviews. I like cooking. I like reading cook books. The only magazines I get are about cooking.
We started with lemonade at Dish D’lish. Sara thought that sitting on the grass in shade listening to music drinking lemonade was the end. She protested when I wanted to get more food. She got her plastic dogs and played with them in the grass.
I finally convince Sara to wander over to the crepe stand for a nutella crepe. Chocolate, crepe, and powdered sugar; no brainer as a kid food. My child just wanted the powdered sugar and would not even take a bite. With initial hunger abated, we sat and listened to music.
Next we went for a Sara favorite, curly fries. She finished them up. Sara guided us to the steps by Key Arena. There was an area of shade. Sara played with her dogs for 45 minutes. I just sat and enjoyed the day. I made some phone calls on cell phone. Sara found a stone that rolled very well. Her dogs would run away from me and then back.
Eventually, I mobilized us again. We had cherry lemonade from the Dahlia Lounge. I was tempted to get their doughnuts, but resisted. I was pursuing Hawaiian shaved ice. Eventually, I found it and we had cherry flavor. Sara ran around the grass more. I lay in the grass and just looked up at the sky. Turning into a lazy summer day.
We went to the restrooms and Sara discovered a bronze slug statue the size of a small sheep dog. Sara then proceeded to “ride” the slug for the next 20 minutes. I sat in a ‘hand’ shaped seat and waited. Sara looked like she was ready for a nap at this point.
But then we discovered “the ramp”. It was a handicap ramp about 200 yards down near the Key Arena stairs (original play area). Sara ran up and down. She was so good. She would get to the bottom and then turn around and run back to me (reassuring to a mother who is slowing down w/ pregnancy). This continued for another 20 minutes. So much for the nap…I got to stare at Tom Douglas’s feast. For $10 you could get crab cake, hanger steak w/ syrah sauce, pork shoulder w/ tomatillo salsa, snap peas w/ mint and ginger, corn salad w/ blueberries, and chocolate cherry cupcakes. I realized I hadn’t had a substantial food yet, just sugar.
So we ate more. Guess what Sara wanted? Cupcake. We got two. Unusually, Sara ate the whole thing. Guess what she wanted next? Mommy’s cupcake. I made her wait until I was done with my food. They she turned her attention to my snap peas. She only wanted the peas inside. She ignored the core (normally her favorite). As reward, she got to share my cupcake. We both decided it was time to go home. Sara proceeded to conk out and I followed suit when we got home.
Now we’re vegging in our basement because it’s the coolest level of the house and watching Nemo.