Postcards From the Road – Seattle/Everett

It has been a fun few days around Everett and Seattle. Everett is about 30 miles north of Seattle. It made the most sense to stay here for the race on Sunday, but there has been a bunch of going back and forth between.

I drove from Kelowna to Everett on Friday afternoon, crossing the border in Abbotsford. The crossing was pretty easy, although the immigration officer was interested in exactly how long I’d trained for this race. The Seattle portion of the trip was for a little bit of sightseeing and lots of shopping. Oh, and delicious Washington microbrews.

Friday

Hit up the Lululemon outlet in Burlington, where the clothes are still overpriced, but not quite as overpriced as at the store. FYI Alberta shoppers, you are exempt from paying state sales tax in Washington. This little nugget of knowledge has saved my oodles on this trip!

Once my parents made it into town we went downtown for dinner at Assaggio, a restaurant idea I blatantly stole from Rainmaker. It…was…amazing… Best Italian food I have had in a very long time. And some delicious Red Hook ESB.
Yes, I am wearing a dress..! We used to go to a great little Italian restaurant when we lived in London back in the late 80s/early 90s. Assaggio definitely brought back memories of some of the terrific times at that restaurant.

Saturday

Went for a pre-race dinner at Ivar’s Salmon House. Beautiful views. Delicious seafood. We wound up ordering the sockeye salmon family platter – 2 lbs of sockeye, mashed potatoes and veggies all for $60. We finished probably less than half the fish so this meal is an incredible value. I also tried Georgetown Brewing Company’s Manny Pale Ale. It was yummy. Yes…I had beer the night before my race. I’m sure it had nothing to do with what happened to me on the race course.

Sunday

Time to celebrate after the race!!! We went to Pike Brewing Company at Pike Place Market for dinner. I figured I deserved a delicious Pike Pale Ale. And I washed it down with an amazing burger. A beef burger. I figured that if my stomach was rebelling that day, then I was going out in style!

Monday

Time to check out some local brew pubs!! We went to Diamond Knot Brewery in Mukilteo for lunch. A really fun place where you can cook your meal on a hot stone. I added fuel to the fire by ordering the beef dip. Their ESB (Extra Special Bitter) was probably my favourite of the trip so far.
In the afternoon we hit up the Seattle Running Company. I was keen to get fitted for new sneakers since it has been a long time since I’ve had my gait analysed. At the Seattle Running Company they have a treadmill with a camera set up so they can film you and analyse how you pronate. What did I find out? That I have major duck feet when I run!! (You can actually tell that in many of my race pictures, but it was so weird to see it on film). And I overpronate. I’ve been wearing the Asics Kayanos for awhile now and they are apparently still a great shoe for me. They didn’t have any in stock, but there was no pressure to buy a different shoe. The guy fitting me was of the opinion that if nothing was broken, then don’t fix it. For dinner we went to Elliott’s Oyster House in downtown Seattle. Oysters…yum! A beautiful location with great food. And the Mac and Jack’s African Amber was delicious… Probably my second favourite beer of the trip.

Tuesday

And…another brewpub! This one was Scutlebutt Brewing in Everett. The beer wasn’t quite as good as Diamond Knot, but the food was terrific. A round of fish and chips really hit the spot. After that we took a tour of the Boeing facility where we got to see where the 747, 777 and 787s are assembled. The shear size of the facility is mind boggling. For all of the air travel I have done I have never put much thought into the assembly of the aircraft. Amazing. There aren’t too many 747s being built for commercial flight anymore. Very cool to see the brand new 787s being put together!! (No test flight on those planes yet, still sorting things out after a stress test yielded less than optimum results…)
In the afternoon there was some running around trying to find a pair of Kayano 15s in my size. Luckily I snagged the last pair at a Sports Authority store, and I managed to pick up a Speedo Endurance suit for cheap! It is pretty ugly, but at least it won’t fall apart on me quite so quickly!

Wednesday I leave the Everett/Seattle area…so stay tuned to see what is next!

*Thanks so much for all of your AMAZING comments from my race report. You guys brought tears to my eyes. You have no idea how much your words mean to me!!!