Last few days as a Seattleite

It's hard to believe that my time in Seattle is finally coming to an end. After living here for three and a half years, I consider it to be another home like Portland, San Francisco, or New York. This post is meant to be somewhat of an homage to Seattle. I've been trying to enjoy as many Seattleish activities as possible before I leave tomorrow and this post is intended to recap some of that.

Ever since this past summer, when I knew I only had two quarters left at the University of Washington, I made a list of places to go and things that I wanted to do before I left. One of the things that has felt like a long time coming was a trip to Paseo. I had heard nothing but good things about their sandwiches and knew that I had to give it a try. I ordered the "Cuban," which was out of this world. Hands down, best sandwich ever.

Photo Courtesy of this lovely blog

The pork was slow roasted, tender and incredibly succulent. Each sandwich is served on a baguette with long slices of roasted onions, pickled jalapeños, lettuce, and their homemade aioli. The sandwiches are large, but it's entirely feasible to eat them in one sitting. We got the sandwiches to go, as there is not a lot of seating options in the Fremont location.

We needed something to wash down those delectable sandwiches, so we went a block down to Caffe Vita. I ordered an ice mocha and was surprised to find out that it wasn't actually sweet at all like mochas usually are. I'm not sure if they use a dark chocolate syrup, or if they just don't put a lot of chocolate in each serving. Either way, I actually liked that it wasn't sweet. Being able to enjoy the actual coffee flavor was quite complimentary to the smokey sandwich.

Later that night I went bowling at Kenmore Lanes. My friends and I like to bowl on occasion (usually about once a month.) I am what my friend Madeleine calls "the most inconsistent bowler ever." Last night I finally broke 100 for the first time ever. I even bowled two 99's. I guess all the practice is finally paying off? Going to Kenmore Lanes is always a hoot. It's just outside of Seattle, surrounded by strip clubs and other interesting venues (my personal favorite is the Schnitzelbank.) You never know what you're gonna get when you make the trip out there, but a fun time is always guaranteed! After 11pm you can bowl unlimited until closing time (2am) for just $10, plus another $3 for renting shoes.

Tonight I will finally experience Poquitos in Capitol Hill. I tried going there once before with some friends, but it was too crowded and the wait would have been over an hour, so we went to Via Tribunali instead. I'm excited to finally give Poquitos a try. Tomorrow morning will be my last trip to Portage Bay Cafe for my favorite brunch in this city.

Seattle, it's been real. Thanks for a great three and a half years.