Seattle Part 1: The Seafood

I have taken an unintended hiatus from blogging lately, simply because I have not had much time to go adventuring with my camera in recent weeks. That all changed this weekend. We took a trip to Seattle, where there were many pictures to be taken. For starters, we toured around Seattle's world famous Pike Place market.


Needless to say, the massive farmer's market was photo heaven for me. I'll be posting a few photos from the trip over the next few days, but I'll start off with the sight that greeted us upon entering the market--seafood galore.


The massive salmon packed in ice were everywhere. Flying through the air sometimes, in fact; tossed by folks who had clearly invested years of practice to perfect their aim. It gave a whole new meaning to "catching fish."




All this seafood photography led to an irresistible craving, so although it was only 11:00 a.m. I dragged my husband to Emmet Watson's oyster bar for some "breakfast" oysters. Yum!


We did the tourist thing and tried to get a cappuccino from the very first Starbucks store ever, but their espresso machine was broken. Not so impressive.

NYC Half Marathon

This morning, very early, I made my way up to Central Park to cheer on some friends and mentees from my marathon training group in the New York City Half Marathon. Not only were there thousands and thousands of runners, all manner of New Yorkers were up and about early for this exciting event.


It was well worth tramping through the bushes in Central Park, and racing from one subway stop to the next to get pictures of the runners at different stages throughout the race.

Still in a crowded pack, coming up on Mile 3 at West drive and 80th Street in the park:


The road littered with cups after the water station at 57th Street and 6th Avenue:


Making the turn onto 42nd Street in Times Square:


Team in Training runners coming into the home stretch at 16th Street and the West Side Highway. This is the spot where I wore my throat hoarse from cheering.


Go runners!

Hard to Miss

Someone got creative painting this doorway in Cobble Hill.
Gotta love it.

Channeling my Inner Korean Chef

I am a great lover of international cuisine. But there are a few dishes that top the rest, and for me, one of those is a Korean noodle dish called jap chae. I am embarrassed to say that back in the day when I had a job that required me to work late (and allowed me to order in my dinner and expense the client for it) I had jap chae from my favorite Korean restaurant a few times every week.


I really like it that much. Since I left the world of long hours and expensed dinners, I have been missing the jap chae in my life--but no longer!

Last week I made a detour through Koreatown and, after much searching in the Korean grocery, finally found the sweet potato noodles I needed to make jap chae for myself at home. And last night I did it! And it was fantastic! And easy! This is a life-changing development, no question about it. Now I just need to learn to make kimchi, and I will be all set for an at-home Korean feast.

Vegetables and Voldemort

After a few months of using my new camera it has become clear to me that I actually do have a preferred subject for my photos: vegetables. Perhaps it's the summer season, or my love of farmers' markets, or the fact that the bright colors and textures virtually guarantee a nice photo, but there is no question that I gravitate to vegetable portraiture.


Today's veggies of choice came from the Union Square green market. I bought a bunch of the radishes below and munched on a particularly peppery one as I walked around admiring the other offerings.


The truly ubiquitous sight of the afternoon was the multitude of people sitting in Union Square Park reading the final Harry Potter book. I did not see any capes and broomsticks (in contrast to last night, when they were out in full force) but the Potter fans were everywhere. On the other hand I also saw someone holding up a sign saying "J.K. Rowling discriminates against dark wizards." Voldemort groupie or victim of a confundus charm? I couldn't be sure.