<p>EK-it’s Cajun, New Orleans, with some house specialties. I’t’s on the backside of the Key Area, so not too far from you. Lol, about licking the plates-I always want to! Glad you had a good time, OP.</p>
<p>Excuse me, but the Pack is THE team for my kin- even those relocated to Seattle.</p>
<p>Washington had free coffee at interstate rest areas our last visit.</p>
<p>They usually have snacks at the rest stops too.
At the one up north outside of Marysville, I’ve had homemade banana bread & coffee cake.</p>
<p>Today was a hiking day, went to the Ice Capped trail, too little time for the 22 lake. Also went to the Lock. Was a lot of fun. </p>
<p>One thing I cannot understand: why Seattle does not have Citibank?</p>
<p>They don’t even have one in WA! From a quick read, looks like they’ve been selling off their branches for several years now, but don’t appear to have ever had any in WA though they had several affiliates in CA, if I’m reading correctly. Started as a NY bank so mostly east coast. I remember them from back there. </p>
<p>Once upon a time we had two prolific banks . . . Washington Mutual (WAMU) and Seattle First National Bank (SeaFirst). WAMU went from being a stodgy, old school bank with an old guy as the spokesperson (I had my first passbook savings acct there!) to getting sucked into the GOGO, irrational exuberance, everyone needs a home loan 90s. They tanked in grand and tragic fashion. My neighbor had worked there. SeaFirst, which had been almost as prolific as Starbucks is now, was bought out by B of A so now we have a B of A every half block. Many people only recently got over calling B of A “SeaFirst”.</p>
<p>Are you still there? Take a bus down to pioneer square for the free pre-game concert or just to soak up the atmosphere!</p>
<p>Lol, saintfan. My checkbook cover still says Seafirst. :)</p>
<p>Looks like our OP really lucked out with the weather! </p>
<p>Overall impressions after visiting Seattle for a week.</p>
<ol>
<li>It is a city with young people, new buildings are all over the place.</li>
<li>Construction is fueled by Microsoft and Amazon money, which is prevalent through out.</li>
<li>Plenty of places to eat downtown for all size of pockets. We took advantages on those early bird/happy hours deal and had a lots of good food. Grocery in downtown is expensive.</li>
<li>More Sushi than you can handle.</li>
<li>The view on top of Queen Ann is probably better from the Space Needle.</li>
<li>Lots of places to hike and outdoors opportunity.</li>
</ol>
<p>These are what I can think of right now. </p>
<p>BTW, I wish the weather could stay the way like we were there. For the week, we had few drops of rain and one overcast afternoon, sun shine and warm otherwise. Reminds me the Bay Area.^^^^ </p>
<p>My brother moved to the Bay Area years ago and lamented that the teriyaki joints don’t seem to exist in CA. Yes they have Japanese food but not the quick dine-in/takeout places that only sell teriyaki. These places are as common in Seattle as Starbucks! Is this just a Seattle/WA phenomenon?</p>
<p>If you don’t like the weather, wait 5 minutes. The other option would be to drive 5 minutes to a different micro-climate.</p>