The Double D's and Julia the Mystical Traveling Unicorn take on Seattle

The Double D’s and Julia the Mystical Traveling Unicorn take on Seattle

Last week Derika had to go to Seattle for work and I decided that it would be a crime for me not to go with her.  So she went for work and I went for play! Derika and I lived in Seattle for 4 years so I knew that I would be able to get into some trouble while she was at work during the week, and then she and I would stay the weekend so that we would have some additional time to catch up with friends.

This is basically going to be the food I ate and drank recap of our trip, because what else can a girl do when she has so many restaurants and bars to hit with so little time!?

We landed around lunchtime on a Wednesday and we immediately headed to our favorite sandwich place in the city.  In a cute little town called Georgetown, there is an amazing place named Smarty Pants.  Seriously people run to this joint don’t walk!  They have a sandwich there called the Troublemaker…it is what dreams are made of. The most amazing thing about this sandwich is they make a vegetarian version with Field Roast.  I don’t know what the heck they do to this field roast, but whatever it is…IT IS MAGICAL!  Most of my meat-eating friends will order this sandwich with field roast instead of chicken, because it is that good.

Julia the Mystical Traveling Unicorn enjoying a Troublemaker.

Julia the Mystical Traveling Unicorn enjoying a Troublemaker.

Derika had to head to work after Smarty Pants so my roller derby friend Melissa aka Comet Atcha swooped by the hotel and picked me up for a day of fun and cocktails.

Comet and Dee

Dee Troit and Comet Atcha

We headed straight to a great roller derby store called Fast Girl Skates, to visit some of my favorite rollergirls and to try on a pair of skates.  I designed the blue streak box for the new Blue Streak Roller Skates and part of the perk is that I get a pair of new Blue Streak Skates.  This will be my first new pair of skates in 7 years….So Excited!

Me and the Blue Streak skate box :)

Me and the Blue Streak skate box 🙂

After a lot of drooling over all of the amazing skate gear they have in the store, we headed over to Ballard for a little shopping and cocktailing.  When Derika and I lived in Seattle, we lived in Ballard and I still miss it so much.  It has really exploded since we left, and I always like heading to Ballard when we are in town to see what has opened up since I was there last.

Comet was hungry and I always love a good cocktail, so we headed over to a new place called Bitterroot.  It is a Northwest BBQ place in Ballard that has a cute back bar, mac and cheese that was sent from the gods and awesome cocktails made with love….winning!

Magical Back Bar

Magical Back Bar

Epic Mac and Cheese

Epic Mac and Cheese

yummy cocktails

Yummy cocktails

Bitterroot was by far my favorite of all of the new places that I checked out in Ballard!  After  some eating, shopping, and cocktailing, we headed over to my friend Chloe’s house for a little rollergirl get together.  I got too excited and forgot to take photos. 🙁 But i can guarantee you that a merry time was had by all.

On Thursday morning I was on a mission to get to Pike’s Place Market to enjoy a little breakfast.  I met my friend Paris who works near the market for a little coffee and then she unfortunately had to head back to work.  So off to the market I went.

Julia the Mystical Traveling Unicorn enjoying Pike's Place Market for the first time.

Julia the Mystical Traveling Unicorn enjoying Pike’s Place Market for the first time.

I had to show Julia the ropes so I immediately took her to one of my favorite spots at Pike’s Place. The Beecher’s Handmade Cheese store…It was basically breakfast time at this point and who am I to pass up a little spicy Mac and Cheese for breakfast 🙂

Julia the Mystical Traveling Unicorn enjoying some Beecher's Spicy Mac and Cheese at 10am.

Julia the Mystical Traveling Unicorn enjoying some Beecher’s Spicy Mac and Cheese at 10am.

After that I walked around the rest of the market to walk off the mac and cheese, and then headed to downtown Seattle for a little shopping while I waited for Comet to join me.  Comet swooped me up around 1pm and we headed to the Facebook offices to check out where Ethan works, and to join him for lunch.

Ethan and Comet enjoying lunch at the Facebook office

Ethan and Comet enjoying lunch at the Facebook office.

We had so much fun and the offices were so so amazing.  It was exactly what you would expect from Facebook.  Amazing free food, a hot tub full or balls for staff to relax in, super friendly staff and amazing views.

Julia the Mystical Traveling Unicorn enjoying the views at her Facebook lunch.

Julia the Mystical Traveling Unicorn enjoying the views at her Facebook lunch.

We left Ethan and did a little bit more shopping. One of my favorite places to shop at when I am in Seattle is Laura Bee Designs in Ballard.  It is a little wonderland full of homemade bags and jewelry by Laura Bee herself and her pug Otis.  Definitely stop by this place on your next visit or simply order the bag or your dreams online.  After that we joined Comet’s friend Stephanie for dinner. We did a Dine Out event and enjoyed a bunch of tapas at a bunch of amazing Fremont and Ballard restaurants.  Once again I got too excited and forgot to take photos…but we had fun!

The next day I got to hang out with Paris, she picked me up in her amazing sky blue mini bus and we got to zoom around Seattle in style.

Julia the Mystical Traveling Unicorn riding around in style.

Julia the Mystical Traveling Unicorn riding around in style.

You should have seen the look on the valet’s faces when she pulled up to my hotel…priceless.  Paris and I spent the rest of the day catching up, shopping  and zipping around town.  We eventually joined her husband The Greg and Derika for dinner at our favorite Italian place in Seattle…Bizarro Italian Cafe.  This is a must whenever we are in Seattle, and I think that I can safely save this is one of the best Italian restaurants that I have ever been too.  The food is amazingly fresh and homemade, the staff is super nice, and the atmosphere is fantastic.  They have so much going on with the decor in this place that I see something new every time.  When I am there I always get their margarita pasta dish.

Margarita Pasta...sooo good!

Margarita Pasta…sooo good!

This pasta consists of delicious tubes of pasta tossed with fresh basil and their world-famous marinara then it is topped with mozzarella and baked to a golden brown.  Soooooo good!  Derika swears by the Elk Bolognese and Paris loves the Puttanesca…just go there and you won’t be disappointed.  We rolled ourselves home and had a nice evening with Paris, The Greg and their pups Wookie and Jo Jo.

Saturday consisted of an amazing brunch at Meanders with our friends Jenny and Ethan.  I got too excited and forgot to take photos, but Meanders has amazing home cooked brunchy things that are a must try.  Derika and I then headed to Ballard where I talked her into stopping into a brewery for an afternoon beverage.  In addition to a ton of new bars and restaurants popping up in Ballard, the breweries are popping up by the tons.  Our first stop was at Populuxe Brewing.

Julia enjoying some tasty beers at the Populuxe Brewery

Julia enjoying some tasty beers at the Populuxe Brewery

Populuxe is a cute small brewery in Ballard that has a great patio with tons of seating, yard games, and food trucks…how can you get any better!?  The beer was good and we really enjoyed sitting in the sunshine with our tasty beverages.  After we finished our beers, we were headed to downtown Ballard so that Derika could check it out, but I got sidetracked and made her stop into another new brewery called Peddlers Brewing Company.  This brewery went into the old location of the Jolly Roger Taproom and I just had to check it out. They had a great bike themed atmosphere with a small patio and a great beer selection.  We decided to try a sampler.

Julia the MTU enjoying a sampler at the Peddler Brewing Company

Julia the MTU enjoying a sampler at the Peddler Brewing Company

I was excited to see another brewery pop up into this location.  The beers were great and I will definitely be back.  We finally headed to downtown Ballard to grab a quick bite to eat before we met our rugby friends later that evening.  We headed over to La Carta de Oaxaca….this place had the best mexican food and margaritas in Seattle…so of course we had to get a margarita.

Best Margaritas in Seattle

Best Margaritas in Seattle

We enjoyed some amazing Mexican food that I forgot to take photos of….Fail. But I really love the Chili Relleno and Derika likes the Carnitas Tacos.  You are just going to have to go there for yourself…you won’t be disappointed.  After all of this amazing food, we then headed over to Kickin’ Boots so that Derika and I could meet up with her rugby friends.  Kickin’ Boots has one of the biggest whiskey selections that I have ever seen, if whiskey is your thing head there on your next visit.

Derika and her rugby ladies

Derika and her rugby ladies

We had a great evening and it was just so great to see everyone. 🙂

On Sunday, our last half day in Seattle we headed to the Ballard Farmer’s Market so that I could get some amazing wood-fired pizza from Veraci Pizza and stroll around the market.  I love love love the pizza here and the Ballard Farmer’s Market, just makes me so happy.  After I ogled all of the produce, we sadly headed to the Seattle airport for our planes, trains, and automobile ride home.  So much fun! I am going to try to come back to Seattle again next October, I think that it is becoming one of my favorite times to visit. 🙂

Hopefully you are able to make it to some of my recommendations on your next Seattle visit.  Enjoy!

3 thoughts on “The Double D’s Take on Seattle

  1. Alyson

    Just re-read this post since we are headed there on Thursday. I asked Kelly about Laura Bee’s and she said they live walking distance so I will for sure be checking it out. Looking forward to it! Thanks for all the great recommendation 🙂

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