What's Up With the Cases?: Seattle -- Around Town

During our last trip to Seattle, the twins were at an age where they would be happy no matter where we went. They could easily sleep in the car or stroller allowing us to do all sorts of cool Seattle stuff. This year, the kids were much more opinionated on what we did so we chose more kid friendly activities. We went to a ton of parks, the zoo, and spent a lot of time at the Baker house. We still had a lot of fun but it was a very different trip.

The twins loved hanging out with their cousins, aunt, and uncle. Ella was especially good and helpful with the kids. The entire time we were in Seattle, Ella was by our twins sides. She played with them sooo much. You will see a lot of pictures of Ella with her cousins. Will was the silly one that would make the twins laugh. He taught them funny words like "ouch-ie-wah-wah." Cal was more of a loner but our kids did enjoy a lot of side by side playing with Cal.

The first park we visited was their neighborhood park. It had a pair of giant slides which lead to Will naming the park the "Mamma Mia Park" (after something the Mario Bros say). You can see Caden, the cousins, and I at the top. Caroline was home taking a nap.

Caden got halfway down the slide and then got a little stuck. His shoes and legs slowed him down. He would have made it down eventually but I went down the slide head first to expedite the process.

One thing I really wanted to do this trip was go to Pike Place Market with the intent of eating. Last year, we walked around but had lunch planned afterwards. This year, anytime something looked good, we got it.

Caroline was in a foul mood when we first arrived. We decided to let her pick out a piece of fruit from one of the vendors. She selected a large apple. While this apple was expensive at $1.50, it might have been the best dollar fifty I've ever spent. Caroline ate the entire thing (all the way down to the core) over the next couple hours. She was happy the entire time she had that apple.

One place I wanted to try made some good mac 'n cheese. Another place made something called a piroshky which is kinda like a Russian kolache.

Both Amy and I thought the savory piroshkies were awesome while the sweet ones were just okay. Next time, we'll get several of the savory ones.

We walked around for a couple hours eating random stuff. We got a bag of sweet nuts to take home that ended up being addicting. Also, on the way out, Caden had a peach sample and loved it. He would never eat them at home but decided he loved them in Seattle. We stopped and bought several peaches to take home.

One day, we went to a park that had a small lake and beach. The kids enjoyed playing in the sand.

The lake park had a gigantic wood playscape.

Michael told us about a place called Mod Pizza. They are a small chain in Seattle where all pizzas, no matter the toppings, cost the same--about $7. They are also made fresh and delivered to you in less than five minutes.

Of course, mine was covered in meat.

I used Yelp to find a small bakery/donut shop close to the Baker house.

Most of the donuts were okay. However, they did have maple covered cinnamon rolls that were delicious! As you can see, they were covered in a ton of maple frosting. I wish I had found these earlier in the trip. I would have gone more than just my last two days in Seattle.

One night, the Bakers told Amy and I to go out on a date. Seattle was a little too far away so we decided to go to Famous Dave's BBQ. We had recently seen Famous Dave on a Food Network competition and we thought it would be fun to try it out.

One thing I liked it they have five different kinds of BBQ sauce at the table. I tried all of them other than the mustard based one (which I would not call BBQ sauce). None were awesome, but they were all decent. For the most part, I combined a few to make my own sauce.

When you see the next picture, you might think I went a little overboard ordering...but I think I ordered perfectly. I had a half slab of ribs, sausage, brisket, fries, corn, mac 'n cheese, and cornbread. It is no Texas BBQ (even though they call it "Texas brisket" and have a Texas sauce) but it is better than I was expecting in Seattle.

The next night, Amy and I watched all the kids while Michael and Amy went to a work dinner. We decided to take the kids to Dairy Queen on our night alone with them.

We told the kids about their special treat during dinner. I asked them what they would get and each of them knew exactly what they wanted. During this dinner conversation, Caroline chimed in with, "own ice cream. Caroline, own ice cream. Caroline, own ice cream." Normally, when we get ice cream, she shares it with someone whether it be Caden, Mommy, Daddy, or a grandparent. (Typically, there is a fight over which adult gets to share with Caden and who has to "share" with Caroline.) I thought it was hilarious she was paying enough attention at dinner and knew she didn't want to share with anyone. I asked her if she wanted a cup or a cone and she said, "cone. Caroline, own ice cream cone."

When we walked into DQ, all five kids were very excited and very loud. I'm sure we annoyed all the customers and staff inside the fine establishment. Amy joked saying people must have wondered why we had five kids. It was obvious we couldn't handle it so I didn't we stop after two or three kids.

Here are our the loud cousins enjoying their ice cream.

Here is Caroline with her own ice cream cone.

Caden got his own as well.

Here is another park close to the Baker's house. Caden loves hanging and climbing on things.

Ella was hanging out with us while Michael was at work and Amy took her boys to speech class. Ella was very helpful. The kids loved following her around.

Here are a couple pictures from yet another park. Big Cal wanted to go down every single slide (about a dozen) at this park.

Caden loved being pushed by Ella...though it might not appear so in this picture. :)

Last year, we ate at a cool pizza place called The Rock. It was pretty good pizza with a lot of random flavors. This year, we found out they had a buffet during the week at lunch. So, on one of our last days in Seattle, we went to the rock for a ton of fancy pizza. I was too busy stuffing my face with pizza making the buffet worth while (for the entire table) to remember to take any pictures.

When driving around the suburbs of Seattle, I noticed a lot of restaurants with the word "Pho" in their name. I think maybe half of all restaurants served pho. I knew what pho was but had never had it before. Michael was not interested so the rest of us went while he was at work.

Amy got a Banh Mi sandwich that looked really good.

I got pho. Pho is basically a soup with meat and noodles served with bean sprouts, basil, and a few other things on the side (which I added to the soup). They had a ton of pho choices. I ordered a normal sounding one with steak, brisket, and meatballs. However, I actually got brisket and tripe (cow stomach).

I thought the pho was pretty good, but I am not dieing to get it again. The tripe was a little too weird for me but I ate it. Amy was mad at me later when I told her what tripe was. She was upset that I let her and Caroline taste my soup.

Here is Caroline enjoying some fried rice. I thought the fried rice was awesome. All the kids shared one order.

Caroline and her Aunt Amy after our dinner at House of Pho.

Here is one of the last parks we went to. This one was one of the closest and might have been my favorite. The kids favorite part of this park was running up and down a hill.