Jennifer's West Coast Trip: Seattle, Part 1

I got back from a trip with Alexis last month. We crammed a lot of stuff into about a week, so I thought I'd break it up into several posts like I did for last year's California trip. We spent a few days in Seattle, Washington; took a day trip to Vancouver, British Columbia; and then spent a couple of days in San Francisco, California.

But first: Seattle, Washington. I flew into Seattle direct from Chicago on a Saturday. The weather was great!

We each got a CityPass, since we wanted to see the main attractions. We started at Seattle Center. We saw the International Fountain, which is 10 feet tall by 27 feet wide and shoots water up to 120 feet high.

International Fountain

There were some lovely flower beds in the park as well.

We walked by Chihuly Garden and Glass, which looked interesting, but we didn't actually go in (tickets weren't part of the CityPass). Maybe next time. We thought the huge outdoor glass sculptures were pretty neat.

Outdoor glass sculpture at Chihuly Garden and Glass

Of course, we could see the Space Needle from the park.

Space Needle from below

The first attraction we visited was the Experience Music Project Museum. Some highlights included a guitar gallery, the world's largest indoor video screen, a sculpture made of more than 700 instruments, and a sound lab, where you can play different instruments and sing. We were surprised to find a bunch of horror and sci-fi movie/show artifacts on display as well.

"IF VI WAS IX: Roots and Branches" instrument sculpture

Star Trek's Captain Kirk's chair surrounded by tribbles!

Next, we went on a one-hour Argosy cruise of Seattle Harbor. Our tour guide told us some interesting historical tidbits and had a good sense of humor. Some of the highlights included views of the waterfront, city skyline, and Olympic and Cascade mountains.

Seattle waterfront

Seattle city skyline with Cascade Mountains in the background

View of Olympic mountain range

After the cruise, we went on the Seattle Great Wheel, the ferris wheel shown in the waterfront photo above, which was a pretty new attraction. It wasn't part of the CityPass, but we thought it would be fun. There were some nice views from the wheel. We could even see Mt. Rainier!



Jennifer and Alexis on the Seattle Great Wheel ferris wheel



 

See Mt. Rainier peeking out from the clouds?

View facing west from the ferris wheel

We ended the day by going up to the 360-degree observation deck of the 605-foot tall Space Needle as the sun was setting. This year is the Space Needle's 50th anniversary!

More from Seattle in the next post!

More Washcloths

Are you getting tired of washcloth posts? Sorry, I guess washcloths are my favorite thing to knit right now. I think it's because:

1. Each one takes less than one ball of yarn.
2. They don't take very long (unless you procrastinate or get sidetracked, like me).
3. You can try a bunch of different patterns and colors.
4. They're useful. 
5. They're easy to take along and work on when you know you have some time to kill.

Anyway, I diverted for a little while from the book of dishcloths I'm working through so I could make the washcloths in the Chicks with Sticks Guide to Knitting.

(image source)

That's the book I used to make my dad's scarf last Christmas. The book calls these "Dirty Girl Washcloths". They were quick and easy for me; no new techniques to figure out. I used Lily Sugar'n Cream cotton yarn for all three.

One of them is just knit (garter) stitch, which I surpirisingly hadn't done a washcloth in yet. I used US size 7 needles for this one.

Garter stitch washcloth closeup

Another was stockinette stitch with a garter stitch border (to keep its shape). I used US size 6 needles, which is what the book called for (actually it called for size 6 for all three), but it ended up really wide and not long enough when I followed the pattern, so I added about 10 rows to make it longer.

Stockinette stitch washcloth closeup

The last one was a basket weave pattern (pretty much the same pattern I used on my dad's scarf). I used US size 5 needles for this one, and it came out about the right size (10" square).

 

Basket weave washcloth closeup

I'm working on some vacation posts, so those should be coming shortly.

Watercolor Gifts

Alexis recently celebrated her 30th birthday, so I wanted to do something different/special/unique to her. First, I did a gradated watercolor of the Seattle skyline (she currently lives in the Seattle area). The idea was inspired by some stuff I saw on Pinterest and my recent obsession with watercolor art.

I found the skyline silhouette online, printed, and copied it with pencil. Then I put pieces of painter's tape around the outline so I could paint the gradient of colors. The tape part was pretty time-consuming, but worth it.

Then I thought some watercolors of the states she has lived in would be a good idea, so I did those and decided to combine them into a set. I found some silhouettes of each state online, printed, copied onto the watercolor paper with pen, and then painted them in. I had to include a Clemson tiger paw for SC!

SC Watercolor. Go Tigers!

NC Watercolor

WA Watercolor

She said she liked them, and she actually needed some wall art in her apartment, so I guess it was the right choice. (I signed the state paintings after the photos were taken.)

Strawberry Sorbet

I mentioned that we made some strawberry sorbet in my post about the kiwi sorbet, and here it is.

I used a recipe from the booklet that came with our Cuisinart ice cream maker. Below is an edited version. I didn't bother removing the seeds.

Fresh Strawberry Sorbet
Makes about 10 1/2-cup servings
1 cup sugar
1 cup water
1/4 cup corn syrup
1 qt. fresh strawberries, hulled and quartered
4 Tbsp. lemon or lime juice

1. Bring the sugar and water to a boil in a medium saucepan. Reduce heat and simmer until sugar is fully dissolved. Let cool completely.
2. Combine strawberries and lemon (or lime) juice in food processor and pulse to chop, about 15-20 times. Process until completely pureed. (Optional: strain to remove seeds.)
3. Combine puree, cooled sugar syrup, and corn syrup. Chill for 1 hour.
4. Process in ice cream maker for about 25-30 min. and transfer to freezer container.

Kiwi Sorbet

Lots of fruit has been on sale recently, so we've been consuming it in various forms. We got some kiwi on sale (8/$1), so I made some kiwi sorbet. I used this recipe, except I didn't bother straining out the seeds. It looks more like kiwi with them in there. The best part is that it only took three ingredients: kiwi, sugar, and water. We actually made this a few times last year, but for some reason, we never took photos until now.

I also made some strawberry sorbet around the same time, which I'll post about soon. We have been stretching both batches by putting scoops of both together for a strawberry-kiwi combination. We think it tastes good. We decided against making a batch of strawberry-kiwi sorbet (instead of two separate batches), because we figured it would probably turn out some shade of unappetizing brown and wouldn't make for the best photos.