Memorial Day - Ballard and Fremont

So this is the last of my posts about my Mom visiting for Memorial Day Weekend. Even though we had two whirlwind days in Western Washington, there were no breaks for us. As soon as we drove the two hours back to Federal Way on Sunday, we picked up Robb and immediately headed for dinner in Seattle. My Mom recently decided to become a vegetarian, and Robb did some research to find the best vegetarian restaurant in Seattle. Cafe Flora was incredible. There was an adorable indoor garden where most diners were seated. If it had been any other day, we probably would have waited for a table in that section, but because we were tired, we decided just to eat in the main restaurant. We started with the quesadilla verde: Roasted yams, pumpkin seed-cilantro-scallion spread and Pepper Jack cheese in corn tortillas with salsa verde and lime crème fraîche. Deliciousness. Everything continued to be delicious, from the Caesar salad, to my Oaxaca tacos, to Robb's portobella wellington, to Mom's polenta concoction. We even tried desserts that were not the highlight of our evening, but not bad either. This is definitely the place to take vegetarians and even meat-lovers for something a little different and decadent.

On Monday Mom and I headed to Seattle. I wanted to show her some of my favorite neighborhoods: Ballard and Fremont. We went to the Locks in Ballard, walked around the semi-desolate main drag (because of Memorial Day, a lot of places were closed), and had lunch in La Isla on NW Market Street. This Puerto Rican restaurant was really wonderful. Mom had a plantains variety plate and I tried the pork empanadas. In addition to the main dishes being wonderful, the rice side-dish was incredible too. Sometimes it's hard to find good rice side-dishes. After our successful lunch, we headed to Fremont so I could show Mom some of my favorite stores, as well as the Fremont Troll. We headed home, with a slight detour to the flagship REI store. Visiting REI is always a requirement, even if we can't afford to buy from there often. We ordered in pizza that evening from our favorite Federal Way pizza place, Mom and Pop's, and called it a night so that we could get up early the next day for Mom's flight.

It was an exhausting long-weekend. But so worth the sleep deprivation I felt the rest of the week! I already miss my Mommy again!

Hiram M. Chittenden Locks: boats waiting to get into Puget Sound from Lake Union.

The Before: Boats waiting for the water to rise so they can head into Puget Sound. Depending on how busy the locks are that day, they could be waiting for hours in this cramped space!

The After: The picture is taken from the exact same place (notice the yellow line). The water has been added and now the boaters are preparing to go into Puget Sound. It's quite complicated to get going because of all the connections. Big boats are on the outside, and are tied to the docks, while smaller boats are in the middle and tie to the bigger boats.