We spent the morning communicating with my cousin about the cover design for Storyteller, and running ideas by my friends as well. I finally reached the conclusion that we needed to start over – the cover wasn’t screaming YA Fantasy, and we needed a fresh start. It was hard to make that call, but it was the right call!
We have a friend from Rochester that moved to Seattle about a year ago, and we had planned to meet up with him tonight. We had a delightful evening! We drove down to Capitol Hill and parked, and then walked through the neighborhood to Nathan’s favorite poke bowl spot. None of us had ever had poke bowls, so it was exciting to try it out! I ordered jasmine rice with green tea and a bunch of other flavors, chicken and shrimp, sesame sauce, jicama, mango… so many toppings and man was it amazing! Still thinking about it a few days later. Lover ordered ahi tuna, shrimp, spicy crab, seaweed, ginger, garlic, cucumber… The kids were a little hesitant, but in the end they ate it all up and enjoyed it.
While we ate at the park, a small protest walked by. We were only about a block from CHOP, and ironically, there were police escorting the protest. Afterwards we walked down to the water, and took a stroll through Pike Place Market. Very little was open, but it was a neat opportunity to go somewhere that is usually so crowded and basically have the place to ourselves. We picked up a baguette and ate that fresh, which was delicious.
We had to check out the gum wall too, and a kind stranger gave everyone gum since I had forgotten to bring some. The boys shaped their gum and left it on the wall, the girls chose to keep chewing theirs. Then we walked back up through downtown towards the Starbucks Roastery where Nathan works. It was strange to walk through typically thriving parts of the city – most places were boarded up, with graffiti or murals, and just a generally deserted air. Kind of unsettling.
At the Roastery, Nathan treated us to pastries and an espresso tasting. We learned all about espresso – things we never knew we never knew! We tried three different espressos and ate a delicious strawberry tart. The kids ate a chocolate bun and tiramisu (Keilana loves tiramisu). Nathan also explained the roasting process to us, which was super cool! The Roastery is not a kid kind of place, so once we finished we headed out to a park and spent the rest of the evening chatting. We had great conversation and the kids played so well – they even found jump ropes which they were super excited about!
We drove home in a roundabout route to take in some more of the street art/grafitti/boarded up windows. Such a strange sight, but the art is a cool addition.
