Ballard and the Beach

When I told everyone I was moving to Seattle, one of my co-workers said he had a cousin there whose wife worked at a Biotech company.  He put me in touch with her (also named Amanda) in hopes that she might be able to help with my job hunt.  Unfortunately her company contracts out all there lab work somewhere else, but all was not lost.  She was super nice and invited me out to lunch!  So, yesterday we had plans to meet in the Ballard neighborhood which I hadn't explored yet.

First of all, when deciding on where to go she sent me the yelp.com links to several of her favorites.  I think we must be kindred spirits.  I'm sure many of you have received similar emails from me so I thought that was a great sign.  I picked La Carta de Oaxaca from her list since I hadn't been to that area of town.  The place was super cute and they had fresh homemade chips and some really tasty guac.  I order the chicken mole, which was delicious but a little difficult to eat.  It was served on the bone with a spoon and a fork, but it was way too messy to pick up and eat.  Don't worry though, I managed.

The other Amanda has been living in Seattle for seven years so she had a lot of good advice and suggestions for things to do.  We had a great time chit-chatting over lunch and she even invited me to go bowling with her and some of her friends in a couple weeks.  Yeah for meeting new people!  If anyone else has Seattle friends for me to get in touch with, let me know :)

After lunch, Amanda had to go back to work and I walked around the neighborhood.  As with a lot of Seattle neighborhoods they have all sorts of cutesy shops and restaurants, but here they also have locks... like for boats. 

My aunt had also told me they have a "fish ladder" but I just smiled and nodded when she told me because I had no idea what that meant.  Now, the really thing wasn't quite as cool as what I was picturing in my mind, but it was still neat.  Apparently during their migratory season (May-Sep) the ladder is just filled with fish!  So plan your visits now everyone :)

After puttering around for awhile I decided to head home.  I was about to turn of the main road to head towards the house, when I thought, "Have I driven down this road very far yet?  I wonder where it goes?"  So, instead of making my turn I just kept on driving.  I saw I neat little airport with a museum that maybe I'll go back and check out later.  As I kept driving I saw lots of signs for riding the ferry.  I was a little worried that I would somehow get sucked into driving onto a ferry if there was no place for me to turn around, but thankfully there was no real danger in that.  Instead, when I got to the water there was a beautiful rocky beach complete with a light house.  Lucky me!