May 2016 – Darkk Horse Travel

How To Staycation In Seattle

Published on May 31, 2016September 14, 2016 by EmileeLeave a comment

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It’s a pretty universal fact that Memorial Day Weekend is synonymous with taking camping trips and vacations in celebration. But this year we decided to stay put while everyone else travelled, which I know is shocking. But our weekend actually turned out to be such a great success, that I thought I would share our “staycation” details so that others looking to enjoy the beauty that is Seattle can, as well.

We started off our weekend with the greatest vacation of all: sleep. I think a lot of people underestimate how relaxing sleeping in really can be. So, rather than partying all night long on Friday we watched a quick episode of Vikings, and went to bed early. The best.

Breakfast/Brunch

If you’re ever looking for the perfect brunch, stop by Morsel on 15th in Ballard. Not only is this spot one of our new favorites, but all of the recipes are made on site, and you can taste the difference. I ate the “Fast Break” (without the cheddar) and it was so good, I literally couldn’t stop eating it. What makes it more than “just” a breakfast sandwich is the homemade tomato jam, which (to be honest) I was skeptical of. Shame on me. It was perfection.

Daytime Activities

Seattle is actually a great city to spend Memorial Day weekend in, because we host one hell of a party, known as “Folklife.” Not only is this a great place for food, fun and music but it also has a distinct hippy vibe that comes from our ‘cultural heritage.’ Oh, and lots of weed. LOTS. The best part is that it’s hosted right under the Space Needle and runs the entire weekend, which means FREE fun whenever it fits into your schedule.

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Our second activity for the evening was to seek out something that still had cultural significance, and was completely new for both of us. We found this at the 2016 Madaraka celebration at the Experience Music Project (EMP) downtown. We were pretty happy that this event was taking place and that it was right next to where Folklife was. After enjoying some Folklife funk, we headed over to the EMP. For those of you who don’t know, Madaraka is an Kenyan holiday that’s generally celebrated in June, but we were lucky for enough to be at this celebration, which was benefiting One Vibe Africa (which I would encourage all of you to check out!). We absolutely loved the musicians who represented all different parts of Africa and the African/African American communities in Seattle.

One of our favorite acts was Nik West, who is a brilliant funk goddess and was absolutely brilliant. She’s, perhaps, best known for her work with Prince, and she rocked the stage with a tower of purple hair, braided in mohawk. Check out her videos on YouTube for a taste of her amazing sound. I was so in love that after her first performance all I could say was, “That was perfection.”

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Morning

Sunday started out with a work meeting that I had to go to, but afterward we headed over to our local farmers market for some lunch. Then it was off to the movies! We walked over to our local movie theater for a matinee showing complete with popcorn and juice (because we’re old, yo – soda is so 5 years ago). We chose XMen: Apocalypse for our movie, because every weekend deserves a little bit of geek in it. The movie, we decided, gets a solid 6.5 stars. It was fun to go to, but overall nothing too exciting. I was pretty sad with the lack of character development for Storm, who is basically the reason I went to the movie. Such a loss.

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Dinner Time

After a little British Invasion via “The Great British Bake Off” our next stop was for a little taste of Italy, with a new restaurant called Pasta Bella. We’d never been to this restaurant before, but we were looking for something new and pasta sounded like perfection. The restaurant was amazing. Our starter was out of this world. And was an olive, tomato, onion, garlic dip with toasted butter bread. Amazing. I also had some yummy spaghetti and overall the restaurant will definitely be re-visited. And even better was that we snagged a Yelp $20 voucher!

Movie Night

To top off the night, it was my night to choose a movie and chose to watch Begin Again, which stars Keira Knightly and Mark Ruffalo and was a really fun watch. The story follows a the musical lives of a producer, guitarist, musician, Adam Levine and James Corbin (obv. under different names). It was a really fun movie, and I would definitely recommend watching it, if you guys have the opportunity.

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Relax. We slept in, I got a little bit of work done and that we topped it off with a BBQ with friends. Oh! And I finally finished reading my first Descender volume, which is an amazing comic you should all read. I’m such a firm believer in taking a day of rest, so I was just fine chillin’ out for this day. And there you have it. The end of a perfect weekend. Cheers!

Denver, CO: Day 2

Published on May 20, 2016September 14, 2016 by Emilee2 Comments

Well, it has been a bit of whirlwind since my second day in Denver, and I lost track of posting, but day 2 was filled with beautiful art and hipster coffee shops, so it is definitely something I still need to share. Denver wasn’t my cup of tea, as a whole, but I did love the art museum. Not only was it huge, but it also had one of the most extensive Native American exhibits I’ve ever seen.

Another happy little surprise was that I got in for free! I’ve been to most of the museums that it covers in Seattle, but if you haven’t checked it out, yet and you bank with Bank of America – look up your city for “Museum On Us.” Basically, the first weekend of every month you get in to museums (general admission, no special exhibits) for free. All you have to do is show your debit/credit card. Which is wicked awesome because I love museums like nobody’s business. On this round, it saved me +$20 dollars…which I then spent on books. But the point is, getting into museums is always a bonus.

Anyhoo, I thought I would share some of my favorite pics from wandering around the Denver Art Museum and Denver itself. One thing that I will say, is that being at some crazy elevation kept me from taking long days of exploring because I could not breathe. It was the worst. But, I did manage to visit a few spots before feeling like I was going to collapse from my faux smokers lung.

These were all made out of tree bark. Which makes me feel like I do absolutely nothing with the basic resources I have accessible to me.

One of my favorite paintings, which I bought a postcard for. I never thought of Denver as the “Wild West” but I guess it is. And that makes sense. Shame on me.

I wish you could see how big these cows really were. Something about cows, but there were statues of them all over the city. (*I know, I know, the city’s history or whatever)

Beaded purses that probably took a lifetime to make. It’s crazy to think that artifacts like this lasted hundreds of years. Talk about making something that will last a lifetime.

I love Native American designs so much. Maybe it’s my own heritage coming out, but I’ve always been so attracted to the beauty of intricate and geometric patterns.

Yeah yeah. A real chief’s feather headdress. As in not from an culturally appropriating ad. That’s right Free People/Urban Outfitters: I’m talking to you.

This pic does a good, but still not completely extensive job of showing how huge this space was. There was so much to see!

Be still my heart. I’ll take one of each.

This picture looks super cool and high-up like I’m one of those awesome photographers who climbs things in the name of their art form. Lies. It was taken out of a museum window. But looooook – mountains!

Somebody painted this by hand. Appreciate that for a moment.

So there were a couple of Samurai exhibits. The other one was an additional $20 to go see, so I chose to look at the main exhibit armor instead of the fancy shmancy ones. I don’t regret this decision. It was still pretty cool.

This picture has no significance except that I love beautiful rooms. And just outside there were two Monet paintings that made my heart soar.

Denver, Colorado: Day 1

Published on May 8, 2016September 14, 2016 by EmileeLeave a comment

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Buying a plane ticket to Denver, CO for no reason is probably not something normal people do. But I made a promise when I lived in France, that I would make an active effort to explore more of the U.S. once I got back and I was back on my feet again. Cheap tickets to Denver seemed to be the shining opportunity to get back to that promise. So, I bought a plane ticket – and here I am!

To shoot down any misconceptions:

I am not meeting anyone here, I really did just buy a plane ticket to a random city I wanted to visit.
I’m staying in an Airbnb with a lovely lady and really did come ALL BY MYSELF.
I have no agenda (work etc.) in coming to Denver, I just wanted to see another beautiful part of the U.S.

Phew, now that we’ve cleared that up, here’s what I’ve been up to:

I left Seattle yesterday morning and hopped on a flight to Denver, arriving at a little before 4pm…a whole hour later than we were scheduled. I then made the mistake of asking for directions in the airport, and ended up wandering around for an hour. But finally I found my way to the train, and made my way into the city. I met a super neat girl who had just moved to Denver and we talked all about travel and Denver. I was definitely thrown off by how close the mountains were. That and the fact that I walked off the plane to a tornado warning.

If there are two things I didn’t associate with Denver, it was definitely tornadoes and how intense the wild west culture is, here. Somehow I didn’t ever pin Colorado as the true “west” but I’ve definitely had that misconception corrected. Colorado is the wild west. And the history that is here is incredible.

Yesterday, after I got to my Airbnb, I met two other girls who were staying at another room in the house, who were awesome x100 (both from Ohio) and we hung out and went to this awesome kind of indoor food truck spot, called Avanti where we got the best custom pizza EVER.

Afterward we went to this awesome underground speakeasy called Green Russell, which was opened the day after prohibition in the U.S. ended (or so they say). Named after one of Denver’s founders, this spot had some of the best pie I’ve ever tasted, and the bar tenders were awesome and dressed to the nines.

Another unexpected thing that happened yesterday was that there were parties all day long, celebrating the Kentucky Derby (which I think happened Sunday). Never in my life have I seen so many hideous and oversized hats. I’m not sure what the history with Denver is, but there were a LOT of southerners here to celebrate the derby and I think it will be kind of nice to have a little bit more calm during the week.

Review: Feierabend

Published on May 1, 2016December 28, 2016 by EmileeLeave a comment

Germany will always be one of my favorite places to visit, and I definitely hope that I will be able to return one day. But, while I’m anchored in Seattle, I’ve been trying to get out and find some new places to visit that are along the same lines of what I miss from Europe. Earlier this month, I was lucky enough to be invited to share a pint (of water, in my case) and eat some fantastic food in this little pub located in South Lake Union. It was amazing.

While half of the pub is built to reflect a true “antiqued” look, the other half is a modern twist on the classic German pub. The good news is, the food is as fantastic as it ever could be, and I would highly recommend jumping over for a little taste of Germany.

Ordered: Roten Rübensalat mit Käse und Nüssen: Maranated Red beets, topped with Feta cheese (except without the cheese), Schweinshaxen: Slow roasted ham hock with rotkohl and käsespätzel