Up In Seattle Mount Rainier Comes Out For Fort Worth's Galtex's In Search Of Uwajimaya

In the picture, in the foreground, you are looking at the Seattle Seahawk Stadium, behind the Seahawk Stadium you are looking at Safeco Field, where the Seattle Mariner's play baseball, behind that you are looking at Mount Rainier, where a volcano erupts every once in awhile.

Fort Worth residents, the Galtex's, are currently up in Seattle.

This morning I purloined the Mount Rainier picture from Gail Galtex when I saw it on Facebook.

When the Galtex's first visited Seattle a March or two ago, I opined that they would be very very lucky if the Mountain, as in Rainier, made an appearance. Well, they were lucky, an appearance was made.

And now, with the Galtex's in Seattle in the middle of Winter, I opined that they would be very very very lucky if the Mountain, as in Rainier, made an appearance.

Well, yesterday, the Mountain came out.

I suspect this has something to do with the upbeat natures of Mr. and Mrs. Galtex spreading sunshine wherever they go.

The Galtex's have been getting 'what to do' suggestions from natives, or former natives, familiar with what to do in the Seattle zone. One suggestion was to drive over Stevens Pass to Leavenworth.

Unfortunately, I will not be able to make it to Seattle in time to provide taxi service.

I have two new suggestions.

One is ride the Super Ferry to Bremerton. It does not cost too much to walk on. Unless the fare schedule has changed since I was a Washingtonian, you pay only one way. A Washington Super Ferry is way bigger than the ferry you might be able to use to cross Fort Worth's Pond Granger if that lake ever floats anything.

Suggestion number two is to go to Uwajimaya. I saw on Facebook that the Galtex's have already been all over Pioneer Square, which is an actual square, unlike Fort Worth's Sundance Square.

Uwajimaya is in what is now known as Seattle's International District. When I was a kid this was known as Chinatown. Seattle's Chinatown was not nearly up to the par of the Chinatowns in San Francisco, Vancouver or Los Angeles. I don't know if that is why the name was changed to the International District. Or maybe it was some politically correct thing to be more inclusive with the other Asian cultures.

If the Galtex's have been watching Top Chef: Seattle they have seen Uwajimaya  a couple times when a couple chefs went food shopping there.

Mr. and Mrs. Galtex, if you are reading this, it is very easy to find Uwajimaya . You can take the transit tunnel to the last station, that being the International District Station. Or walk from Pioneer Square to the Seahawk Stadium. There you will see the Union Station train building. Near there you will see a pedestrian bridge across the train tracks. Cross the bridge, on the other side you will come to a plaza and should see Uwajimaya.

In Uwajimaya you will find the best food court I have ever been to. Nothing like this exists in the D/FW Metroplex. Nor does anything like Uwajimaya exist in the D/FW Metroplex. Not that I've seen, anyway.

Hope the Mountain comes out for you again today!

Visiting Veterans Park Before Visiting Arlington's International District

On my way to Arlington's International District, today, I stopped at Arlington's Veterans Park to visit the veteran who guards the Veterans Park Memorial.

As you can clearly see, this morning it was cloudy and windy in Arlington.

What you can not see is that both of the park's parking lots were almost full. There was not one large singular activity that accounted for the almost full parking lots, but a lot of individual activity of individuals and small groups of individuals.

After visiting Veterans Park I visited 3 stores in Arlington's International District. That being 2 stores that are Asian themed and one, Import Market, that is more Middle Eastern/Russian themed.

I got a jar of Ginger Paste at the Import Market. I have no idea what this is used for, but it was on sale for $3.99 and the description on the jar made it sound as if there are all sorts of uses for it. I also got Whole Wheat Pita Bread. I'd not seen Whole Wheat Pita Bread before.

I looked all over the Import Market for Hummus. I found cans of chickpeas, but no Hummus.

The customers in the Import Market appeared to be more multi-cultural than the Asian themed stores I went in, where I tend to be the only Anglo in the store.

I did see one other Anglo in one of the Asian stores. She was stunningly beautiful, exotically so.

Many of the Asians in the Asian stores are dressed very stylishly. The Asian stores are run very efficiently. The Middle Eastern/Russian store has some quirks in how it operates, with the quirks being part of what is interesting. For instance, many items have no indicator of the price. So, I bought the Whole Wheat Pita Bread not knowing what it cost til I saw it scan at $1.49.

If you live in the Arlington zone and have not shopped in Arlington's International District, you really should check it out.

I wonder why no one opens a Uwajimaya type complex in the D/FW zone? Uwajimaya is in Seattle's International District. Uwajimaya is an Asian store on steroids, with one of the best food courts I've ever had the pleasure of being pleased in.