A fabulous farewell feast

Nicola heard through her Mum that Hamish was a good cook, and very very good at cooking curries, something he must have inherited from his Mum, Pam. I agree - both Pam and Hamish cook fabulous curries, which reflects the Pryce family's long and strong association with India, the place of Hamish's grandfather Ernest and father Peter's birth, Peter and Pam's wedding, and Hamish's birth.

Nicola wanted Hamish to show her how to cook a proper India curry from scratch using real spices, so Hamish drew on an old family favourite, Madhur Jaffrey's Rogan Josh, and he and Nicola spent a couple of hours in the kitchen when we got home preparing the curry feast. My contribution to the meal was my always popular lentil dahl.

Nicola studying Indian recipes, the night before the feast

Nicola's lovely apartment

Hamish searching for the infamous Rogan Josh recipe online

The chefs in action

All under control - time for a beer!

We had a great home cooked meal and a lovely last night in Seattle. Thank you Nicola for your wonderful hospitality and for planning our long weekend so well. We will be back one day, and will look forward to seeing you next year when you come to New Zealand at some stage over summer.

Sunday in Seattle

It was Sunday so we had a lazy start to the day before going to a suburb called Ballard, where we met Nicola's friend Solange (sp?), who is from Montreal originally, for brunch. We had the most enormous meals and it was interesting talking to Solange. She and her husband Eddie are about to move to Portland for Eddie's job, so Nicola was a little sad about that.

After brunch Nicola, Hamish and I went for a wander around the Ballard Farmers Market, which had lots of organic food and veges, and some really beautiful hand made jewellery. I bought Mum some pretty glass earings and Nicola bought a pair almost the same for herself. It was a good way to walk off some of our huge breakfast.

Ballard Farmers Market

Hamish and I  -  I am holding the flowers I bought for Nicola at the market

After the market we drove to the Chittenden Locks ship canal, where we watched the boats wait for their turn to be let up or down the lock. Quite fascinating to see how it all worked and there were some beautiful boats there.

Some cool sculptures at the Locks - they looked a bit like the New Zealand koru shape

Another attraction at the Locks was the salmon ladder. It was the time of year when the adult salmon were heading back to their breeding grounds to spawn, and they had to swim upstream against the current.

The salmon ladder

We saw these salmon jump up through the fish ladder, which was pretty cool to watch

Nicola and Hamish watching the activity at the Locks

On the way out of the Locks I spotted a (yet another!) squirrel. I quickly went into squirrel photo shoot mode - they are so damn fast it is difficult to get a good shot of one. Nicola called them 'rats with tails'! Hmmm.

Another great day in Seattle. We then headed back to Nicola's apartment, via Costco - what a massive store - to buy some supplies so that we could cook up a curry feast for dinner. We didn't bother about lunch today as were all still so full from our big brunch.

A lovely evening in Seattle

After the visit to the Space Needle Nicola took us to a restaurant that overlooked a lovely large bay. I think it was called Shilshole Bay, but I may have that wrong. The restaurant was called Rays and was famous for its seafood. We sat outside, despite the cool temperature, so we could watch the sun set. The waiter kindly bought us some blankets to keep us warm.

Nicola with her clam chowder (and blue blanket)

There was a wedding at the restaurant next door

After dinner Nicola took us to a suburb called Queen Anne Hill, where there was a lookout point at the top of the hill. We braved the cold and went and had a look at the great views of the Seattle city night lights. It was a very posh area and I am sure the locals didn't like all the people driving up and down the hill to look at the lights.

Nicola and I

The Space Needle at night

Hamish and Nicola

Seattle - The Space Needle

When we got back into down town Seattle, after picking Hamish up from the Museum of Flight, we all took the Seattle Center Monorail to the Space Needle. The monorail was okay, until it turned a sharp corner and felt like we were going to fall right off the track. There was entertainment on board in the form of a wedding party.

Unfortunately, I seem to have inherited my Mum's wobbly legs and concern about heights! So I left it to Nicola and Hamish to go up the Space Needle and take these photographs of Seattle.

The Space Needle

The Museum of Flight, Seattle, Washington, US

On the Saturday when we were in Seattle, Nicola had planned to drive Hamish to the Museum of Flight, which was south of downtown Seattle. We went on the I5 again, and Nicola was able to safely navigate us through crazy drivers in huge vehicles, traffic jams and queues, and past the massive Boeing testing airfield to the museum.

Hamish was very excited about being let loose on his own in a flight museum for a few hours. Mr Plane and Train we call him. Not so much of the Automobile (Ref: Steve Martin: Actor).

We arranged for Hamish to text me when he was done, while Nicola and I went back into down town Seattle for a girls catch up, lunch, and some shopping time. I thought Hamish would be at the flight museum for two-three hours max.

Here are some pics from Hamish's visit to the Museum of Flight. He said he took a lunch break between WWI and WWII. As you do.

Fighter planes at the front of the museum - Hawker Harrier on the left

A bomber!

The 'Blackbird' - the fastest plane ever!

The main exhibit hall

A mock version of the Wright brothers plane

A Corsair - the NZ Airforce had these in WWII

A Corsair - side on - Hamish liked its wings

A cool moon buggy

Freaky and frightening!
Each green light represents one aircraft flying over the US
Hamish was able to zoom in on an Air New Zealand aircraft flying into LA

A Concorde

Air Force One - the President's plane - from John Fitzgerald Kennedy (JFK) to Ronald Reagan
President Hamish J Pryce stepped aboard for 10 minutes, to make sure that all was well

Not two, or three, but some five hours later I got a text from Hamish to say he was done and could we go back and pick him up!  No problem, Nicola and I had enjoyed our lunch, we'd had mini facials in the mad Nordstrum department store product demo day and did some price checking in the Macy's sale. All good girly fun. :-)