Playing hooky

On Friday, Justin and I pulled the kids out of school, dumped them on my sister-in-law, and went into the city to play. We drove to Pike Place Market, gave myself a slight panic attack trying to park (I hate driving downtown), and did all the fun stuff we always planned on doing but would be hard with the kids. First we stopped by Beecher Cheese to pick up Christmas presents for family, then visited this weird store called Quintessential Gourmet, which is a place that specializes in flavoured olive oils and balsamic vinegars. We bought some for my sister's-in-law birthday and me. We then walked about a half mile down the road and did the Underground Tour of Seattle which was actually pretty interesting. I learned a lot about the history of Seattle, and it was cool to see a little bit of the old buildings's original store fronts. We were the only locals there that didn't have out of town guests, so I guess we're still acting like tourists.

After we finished the tour, we walked back to Pike Place Market, stopped the gum wall (ewwww, by the way) and got lunch at the Michou Deli on the recommendation of my brother. Unfortunately, the didn't have the sandwiches that Justin and I wanted, so we got the crispy chicken sandwiches which were still pretty good. The deli also had approximately four chairs, so we walked down the block to eat. Then we walked back into the market and stopped by a French bakery that was next to Michou called Le Panier. I think I've discovered heaven. We spent waaaaaay too much money getting pain au chocolat, tartelette, and macarons. We bought 8 macarons, and I ate 7 of them by myself. Oops. We also stopped at this amazing spice shop, World Merchants, where I bought a half lb of madras curry. They mix it up and grind it there for you and don't add any fillers and it ends up being cheaper than the store. Win.

We then drove into West Seattle to pick up a Christmas tree that I found on craigslist that ended up being disappointing, but that's a different story. Back to my brother's to pick up the kids and home where we collapsed. It was fun, we spent way too money, and I want to do it again.

Saturday was my niece's birthday party at the Seattle Children's Museum. It was hard to try to convince Liam to go and I gave myself a slight panic attack trying to park (again). But once we got there and Liam got over his crippling shyness around the other kids, the kids had a ball. Alana literally ran from exhibit to exhibit and Liam spent half his time in the art room. So, success even if Liam didn't talk to another kid.

Over the weekend I got nothing done. So it goes.