Travel: Seattle Day 2 – Sushi Kashiba

On our second day in Seattle we had nothing planned except for eat, drink, and eat and drink, which is kind of exactly how I like to spend my time! We enjoyed a delicious and surprisingly filling brunch, after which we set off on our way to find some coffee.

We tried out Herkimer Coffee. I was impressed by the fluffy foam that they managed to achieve with my soy milk cappuccino, which is apparently a specialty of theirs. However, I found the flavour of the coffee itself a little too dark for my liking. I’m more of a medium-roast type of girl. Jacky enjoyed his regular latte though.

We did our Bible reading and rested while we drank our coffee, then leisurely wandered over to Pike Place to line up for what we were anticipating to be the highlight of our trip: Sushi Kashiba’s chef’s counter omakase. We had the most wonderful experience dining there last year so basically planned our entire trip around returning this year. Unfortunately, this year was… not the same.

We arrived around 3:30pm and there were already a number of people in line before us. Lining up this time was really frustrating and disappointing.

One person in front of us brought all of her friends into the line at a later hour, which caused us to be bumped to the 7pm seating. This would have been fine had the friends just jumped right in and not literally looked directly at me and asked for permission to jump in.

I’d responded, “Not really, if that means we get bumped to 7pm,” to which they responded that they’re “reasonable people” and insinuated they would totally bump themselves to the 7pm seating if Jacky and I wouldn’t be able to make the 5pm seating because of them. When the hostess came out to take names, they also turned to me multiple times to assure me that, “We counted, and you two are totally going to make it into the 5pm group.”

We did not make the 5pm seating. The friends took up the final spots.

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Travel: Seattle Day 1 – Pan Pacific Hotel

Um, yep. It’s been almost a month since we took our Seattle trip, but let’s be real: neither of us are surprised that it’s taken me this long to post about it. In fact, I think we’re both more impressed that this post has even come as soon as it has, no? :D

We arrived in Seattle on August 31st so that we could spend the entirety of our anniversary exploring Seattle rather than travelling. When we chose September 1st as our (legal) wedding day, we actually hadn’t considered the additional benefit of it being so close to labour day. Now we will always have the added benefit of a national holiday that doesn’t need personal PTO to take off.

We actually came to Seattle last year for our anniversary, but unfortunately were only able to stay for a few days during the week since the US government scheduled my biometrics for the Friday (USCIS also decided to schedule my green card interview on my actual birthday so they certainly have interesting timing).

(Also, hey Bobbie, where are the posts about your trip last year? Yeah, um, remember we agreed to just be impressed about me getting this post up, okay?)

During our short stay last year, we ended up enjoying one of the best sushi omakase meals we’ve ever had and vowed to return this year for more. So we did!

Last year we stayed at the Grand Hyatt and loved the service, amenities and walkability of the hotel. In particular, I loved their gorgeous marble bathtub because if I’m going on vacation, I’m going to take long, relaxing baths. Unfortunately when I tried to book it again this year, there were literally zero rooms available and calling their booking service made me want to smash my head against a wall.

Disappointed but not to be deterred, we went with the Pan Pacific Hotel instead. Based on our research, it would also be decently walkable, easy to get to from the airport and some of their rooms have a great view of the Space Needle. Guess which room I picked.

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Where have I been for half a month?

First things first: don’t ask about the Alchemy of Souls ep 19-20 review. It makes me ragey and I’m still not ready to talk about it.

Now that we’ve got that out of the way, let me tell you where I’ve been! We went to Seattle from 31 Aug – 5 Sept. Yes, I bought the new Holo Taco Dark Rainbow Collection while on vacation. I woke up early to join Cristine’s launch live stream to get a better idea of the colours before making a final decision to purchase. Now I’m waiting with bated breath for my new nail polish to arrive. I’ll probably write about it once it does.

I plan to go into greater detail about our lovely trip to Seattle but here are a few highlights:

Obviously I only ever post the most flattering photos of myself…

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A Beautiful Summer Wedding

Forest Row 1

Towards the very end of my 3-ish week trip back to England I took a day off to attend my friend Cindy’s wedding. We met at a Christian camp in Milton Keynes and became close as we shared stories about life and love, Jesus’ work in our lives and God’s guidance through it all. We would call each other every now and again for updates, and even before she was engaged I promised her that one day when she got married I’d attend her wedding.

The timing of everything worked out perfectly and I felt so thankful that I was able to keep my promise.

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Food, Glorious Food

At one point, the tagline for my site was “this is not a food blog, but most of it is about food”. I think at one point, I might give up on pretending it’s not a food blog and just turn it into one. Until then, I will continue to stubbornly insist it’s simply a personal blog because sometimes I buy expensive shoes and write about them.

Still, everyone’s talking about Halloween and here I am posting about food. Really, I haven’t changed, lol! Ah well, I can’t help it if I just so happen to eat a lot and thoroughly enjoy doing it.

“One cannot think well, love well, sleep well, if one has not dined well.” – Virginia Woolf. I guess I need some other excuse because lately I have dined embarrassingly well.

Back in July, I went back to the UK on a half-business, half-personal trip. The primary purpose was to spend time back at our London HQ office for a week, but I was able to extend my stay, giving me more time to get to know new colleagues but also visit my family and attend a friend’s wedding.

I spent about 2 weeks in London in total, during which time I more or less met up with different friends every day (night). When catching up after work, there is only one rightful place to do it: over dinner. Sorry for the terrible photo quality in some of these; I only had my iPhone 5S and was much more excited about the idea of stuffing food into my stomach than photographing it to perfection #glutton #fat #sorrynotsorry.

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