From Olympic to Seattle

After Olympic National Park we headed back to Seattle for a bunch of eating at some of our favorite places.

We actually stopped by Salumi and Paseo before we left for Olympic since they were not open the days we were back in Seattle. The first time we went to Salumi, we got there towards the end of the day and there were no hot sandwiches left. Plus when I originally booked the trip, their website showed that the Oxtail was going to be available during the week we were there. Sadly it wasn't.



The special that day was Pancetta with lettuce and tomato, pretty much a BLT. We ended up getting 2 hot sandwiches; Porchetta - pork butt stuffed with the meatball mix and spices, and the Leonetta's meatball sandwich with smoked mozzarella.



Both were amazing, one of the best meatball sandwiches we have had, and the pork was flavorful and tender with a hint of fennel. We only ate half of each because we drove straight to Paseo, which was suppose to have an amazing Cuban pork sandwich.



Their popular sandwich is the #2 Caribbean Roast - pork shoulder coated in their special marinade. It was pretty good, a bit too much mayo and not as good as Salumi.

While in Seattle, we also hit up the Pike Place Market twice to eat and get some gifts.



We tried a beef and cheese Piroshky at the popular Russian bakery.



We had an empanada and some chicharones at some random market.



We also stopped by Beecher's for some of their famous mac n' cheese and flagship tomato soup.



Dinner plans were already set as J wanted to go to Serious Pie both nights we were in Seattle. We wanted to try the ones we didn't get to try the first time around.

The first night we had our favorite; the margherita. We also had the pizza with egg, smoked prosciutto, pecorino, and arugula. Both were very good, and as always Serious Pie did not disappoint.



The next night we had ones that we haven't tried before. We got the sweet fennel sausage, roasted peppers and provolone pizza, and the guanciale, zucchini, walla walla onions and ricotta pizza. It was also nearing happy hour so we got a mini-sized pizza with penn cove clams, pancetta, and lemon thyme.



The margherita is still our favorite, but we both loved the sausage one and the guanciale one. The egg and prosciutto pizza was pretty good and the clam one was decent. We still smashed on all of it haha.

On one of the days, we visited the Seattle center to go up the space needle and visit the glass and garden exhibit by Dale Chihuly.



View of the sound was fogged over so the only real view was of the skyline. We only stayed up for about half an hour and headed off to the glass and garden exhibit. I saw some pics and wasn't expecting too much, but seeing the sculptures up close is amazing.



J loved the one with the turtle.



The garden is setup with these glass balls that reflect views of the needle which is pretty cool.



They were having some sort of concert at the center too so had a bunch of booths setup, so we hung around and ate lunch. We had pork and steak tacos, and a chicken mole tamale.



We also took the ferry across to Bainbridge to visit some shops and go to Mora for some homemade ice cream.



On the last day we went downtown to the flagship Nordstrom's and some other stores around the area. We also headed off to the Westfield Southcenter near the airport and hung around until it was time to go home.

J is already asking when we can go back! Not sure if there are any other national parks around the area. Only other place I want to check out (that I know of) is crater lake. I have a feeling we will be back in the PNW soon.

Brandon Yoshizawa
B.A.Y | photography
Landscape and Wildlife photography
www.bay-photography.com