Choose Your Own Adventure

You know you live somewhere wonderful when...

...on your walk home from work, you happen to hear live music coming from up the street. You're not in a hurry so you walk over to hear what's going on. It's kindof like living in one of those "Choose Your Own Adventure" books from 3rd grade. You decide to walk past the band and into a crowd, where you pass some angel handing you free oysters on the half-shell. Do you choose the Tobasco or the lemon? For lemon turn to page 13. (The angel was actually a man dressed in a freaky full-body oyster outfit - not sure where he got that one).

And then the man-dressed-as-an-oyster ushers you inside his shop and hands you a delicious fried oyster, and a boat of geoduck ceviche, which you actually decline in favor of the curried mussels. If you choose to decline the geoduck turn to page 78.

All I can say is, welcome to the neighborhood, Taylor Shellfish!

I decide to turn the page to go home, and upon arriving am charmed by bowls of fresh summer cherries.

Literally, cherries to top off free oysters. Oysters from my bay, and cherries from my terroir.

And this was all just on my walk home from work...the chapter 1 of my night.

Flagship Anniversary for Everyone

Here in Seattle, we like to consider ourselves the "flagship" - of business, culture, and goodness. I'm not biased or anything, but think about it:

We know how to do things in a BIG way : like Costco and Starbucks, Boeing and Bartell Drugs.
We know how to do things in a DIGITAL way: like Getty Images, Amazo, and of course Microsoft.
We know how to do things in a TASTY way: like Sur La Table, Theo Chocolates, Cinnabon, and Dick's Drive In.
We get outdoors with REI and Eddie Bauer, and indoors with Nintendo and Zillow.

And we get dressed at Nordstrom.

NORDSTROM.

One of our most prized possessions is located at 500 Pine Street, between 5th and 6th Avenue.
The Nordstrom headquarters and Flagship Nordstrom. Store 1, to be precise.

And so every July 15th we celebrate the fact that Nordstrom is ours by throwing an anniversary celebration for the whole country, where people - even those outside Seattle - can buy fall and winter clothes on sale before the season even arrives.

And wouldn't you know it, there's always one or two items that are so elusive, so coveted, only a few people get their hands on them. This year, there was one in particular.

The Tory Burch Riding Boot - a Nordstrom exclusive.

It was gone before I even knew it was coming to the sale. Gone. Anniversary celebration, boot-hunters, is over. So, I am here to tell you - if you see someone out there wearing that boot, it means that they built a relationship. It means they have a longheld connection with a Nordstrom salesperson that they have nurtured for years and years. It might mean they are were up in the wee hours of the morning the first day of the Anniversary Pre-Select Sale to procure that boot - braving traffic and escalators and Lord knows what else.

And whether they know it or not, it means they love Seattle just like us.

3-D Sidewalk Chalk

Last week my niece's and nephew introduced me to 3-D sidewalk chalk while we were in Whistler.

Painting in color, I started to notice their bright shoes (which are always three dimensional). And I began to wonder: Why is 3-D such a big deal, given the fact that we live, move, and breath in 3-D?

(All photos: Whistler, July 2011)