On an early Saturday morning I caught an early Southwest flight from Sacramento to Seattle. I had never experienced the Southwest boarding procedure and as it stated I thought it to be crazy and a bit convoluted, but I have to give them props, it worked and our full flight boarded quickly and we left a few minutes early! The flight actually arrived early into Seattle, so early in fact that we had to wait for staff in Seattle to park us and pull the Jetway up to the plane.
I called Kim to tell her I was settled in and she and her friend Jeanelle came to my hotel to pick me up and we headed south to Tacoma to have lunch at "Southern Kitchen". This place is very unusual for the Pacific Northwest more at home in Alabama or Georgia. It is a 'soul food joint', serving southern classics; mac and cheese, black eye peas, okra, greens, etc. Kim, Jeanelle and I had an enjoyable lunch and the staff was taken aback by my request to get the book signed, but they obliged and told me a little about the days of filming their episode. From Tacoma we headed back towards Seattle and went for desert at a place in the country with an awesome view of Mt. Rainier. I can't recall the name but Kim insisted that we try a slice of pie and get a fresh baked cookie, I couldn't resist the Key Lime Pis, as it is a favorite! After an all but too brief visit with Kim and Jeanelle, we departed as they had other things to attend to and I went on my adventures. I headed north to the town of Everett. Seattle is a company town and that company is Boeing! Boeing has plants and buildings all over the area, but none is larger than Everett. This is whee the main wide body aircraft are built and the factory is probably one of the largest buildings in the world, producing Boeing 747's, 777's and now the 787. In Everett is a really cool place called "Bobby's Hawaiian Style Restaurant". The owner is from Molokai and makes authentic Hawaiian cuisine. In his episode, he held a mock luau for Guy with music played by Bobby himself. One of the unique things about food is Hawaii is their embrace of Spam! I had to try the spam sushi dish and along with it I got the traditional Kahlua pig. the spam dish looks like a rice and spam sandwich and is very tasty. The pig was succulent. I met Bobby and he told me about the filming and that he likes to try the places on the show, but he hasn't been able to travel too much. He also said that he thought that Guy was trying alot of really spicy dishes and he didn't care for that and as he said that I had to agree, I am not a spicy eater and it does seem that his meals are increasingly spicy.
The next morning was a Sunday and it was the opening day for the NFL and the hometown Seahawks had a game at Qwest Field so I needed to try and plan my travel so to stay out of as much stadium traffic as possible. I headed north of the city to try a Greek diner called "Georges Greek Restaurant". Georges is a converted car repair facility that specializes in all things Greek. I can't remember what I got because the most embarrassing moment of my life happened here. After getting and eating my meal, which came out to a little under 10 bucks, I went to grab my wallet and IT WAS NOT THERE! I was in panic mode, I had George sign my book and now what to do. I explained to him that I must have left it at the hotel and would bring it ASAP, all this with thoughts of hours of dish washing rolling around in my head! George was gracious and let me go, so I very gently drove the 45 minutes back to the hotel grabbed my wallet and headed back. As I arrived I gave them double the amount than thanked them so much for their hospitality and service, never had I been so embarrassed. For dinner I headed to an area in the middle of the area that houses the University of Washington to a unusual place called "Pam's Trinidadian Caribbean Kitchen". It was really busy for a September Sunday night and they put me in a single window seat. It was amazing to watch the guy seating people as he knew exactly how to get everyone in with minimal waiting. I had a traditional dish called Roti and the floppy flat bread that is native to Trinidad and although spicy, very enjoyable. As I explained to my waiter why I had found Pam's and that I wanted to get Pam to sign the book, he went back into the kitchen and got Pam, herself! She was surprised and told me that I was the first to make that request. I really enjoyed her place and the love she puts into her food! The next day would be my last full day on the trip and there were three places I wanted to try. The first was small diner on the waterfront called "Voula's Offshore Cafe". Voula's is another of those classic Greek-run diners. With the exception of Voula herself, I saw the whole cast of characters from the DDD episode. From there I went onto "Mike's Chili Parlor" a long time Seattle landmark restaurant. From the show this looks like a stand alone buildiong but that is just a testament to good shooting. It is in the middle of a busy industrial area and suits the area well. The chili was good and the staff great. For dinner I was planning to go to a Magic themed places called "Bizzaro's" but for the life of me I could not find it driving around 4 or 5 times and the GPS sent me to an apartment complex and no Bizzaro in site so I headed back and stopped at another chili house near Boeing Field called "Slim's Last Chance". Slim's is the biker bar of chili houses. Wood and leather abounds here and good chili, too. I think they were somewhat suspicious of my intentions but they signed and I was happy!
After a week I flew home from Seattle via LAX and got my first real glimpse of an Airbus A380 and my DDD count was now at 51!
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