I haven’t touched a camera in weeks. Whoops. So here’s a nice cameraphone post.

First off, ciao Florida. No more oranges and sunshine. Happy to be home, sad to go. Leaving contributed to non-posting… I was on the “use-all-the-weird-stuff-thats-been-siting-around-all-semester” diet. (aka pasta and frozen waffles… aka not the most thrilling blog material. Although we did have pumpkin pancakes with some of the pounds and gallons of pumpkin I’d apparently been hoarding since Thanksgiving season.) Then off to Seattle, where I did not go to Pike’s Place for the first time ever! I think that means my tourist status is wearing off. Much sushi and Trader Joes goodness and the traditional Asian lunches with Genia. First, Thai, in a cute little basement Thai spot off the Ave. Tofu pad thai and pork ramen. All good. We were in there for kind of a late-ish lunch, and after everyone but us left, the employees set up for their own family meal lunch…and my curiosity set in and I couldn’t resist asking all about the weird and amazingly tasty looking things they were devouring. Especially this fresh bright chopped salad… “That must be some lovely super authentic Thai spring salad,” I thought. “Oh, that’s Mexican!” they explained, and gave us each big flat tortillas topped with a sweet (and spicy, according to Genia) salsa of avocados and cabbage and mango and everything good. (And coconut water! Yum.)

Then Pho, on the Ave. Gigantic steaming bowls of rich broth chock-a-bloack full of noodles and topped with thinly sliced steak, cooked by the heat of the soup. A cool little joint with menus inside the tables, practically no decorations, and packed with people happily and completely ungracefully eating Pho. Plus…cream puffs.

Then wandering around Queen Anne with dear Logan and the boy she nannies, who happens to be the most adorable thing on earth, wistfully looking into cupcake shop windows but satisfying ourselves with bagels and lox. And many many samples of creamy herbed butter, swabbed onto bread like cheese at a cute little pasta shop.

Then home! Home to Idaho, to Moscow, for a big warm good meal at beloved ol’ Nectar. Honey and cheese (not surprisingly…turns out brie and honey are angelic together) then salads, then creamy spring pasta dotted with peas for Ma, clams for Pa, and meatballs and pizza for A. Then pizza with leftover meatball marinara on top… then bread with marinara… then practically an entire loaf of bread, dunked into the clam sauce. Then a very full walk home, to my own cozy house with my own cozy family!