Thanksgiving in Seattle--Budapest Bistro, Family Portraits, and Kirsten at the Temple

Kirsten leaves for an LDS mission in Missouri in early February.  On November 23, 2018, we accompanied her for her first visit to the LDS temple in Seattle. 

Rebecca and Michael came along.

Afterwards, we celebrated at Seattle's only Hungarian restaurant, "Budapest Bistro and Schnitzel House."  I want to host my own Hungarian dinner, and I needed to know how authentic Hungarian goulash tastes.

I love privately-owned specialty restaurants.  The waitress told us that Hungarian people gather here to taste food from "the old country."  We made reservations, and the ten of us took up half the restaurant!

Lisa likes to cook as much as I do, and is always up for a new food adventure.

We don't get to see Rebecca and Michael, who go to BYU-Idaho, as often as Grant, Spencer, and Naomi, who go to nearby BYU-Provo.  It was a treat to spend time with Rebecca and Michael.

I recognized the designs from Transylvania, one of the provinces that has moved back and forth between Hungary and Romania.

The goulash was really good--rich and beefy, with just the right amount of paprika and onions.  And I always love spaetzli, the tiny dumplings which go by many different names across Central and Eastern Europe.

The waitress was dressed in a Hungarian peasant dress.

Dave and I knew that Lisa would spend all morning getting Kirsten ready to go to the temple for the first time.  We helped out by disappearing to Pike Market.  "Do we have to go to Pike Market every time we visit Seattle?" Dave asked plaintively.  Of course.  It is one of my favorite places anywhere.

I stopped for a Ukrainian "piroshky," a pastry with any number of fillings.  I chose a cheese piroshky.  I have heard that fast food restaurants in central Canada sell piroshkys, since that area was settled by Ukrainians.  Piroshkys are, to a Ukrainian, the equivalent of hamburgers or burritos here.

I also stopped at the Pike Market news kiosk, selling magazines and newspapers in dozens of languages.

I picked up an issue of my favorite French magazine, "L'Histoire," which publishes special issues on different aspects of French and world history. I have one issue at home on Brittany and another on the Meiji era in Japan.

And finally, I stopped by MarketSpice, where I sniffed three or four different varieties of garam masala, before buying two ounces of one of them.

I chose Pike Market to visit, and Dave chose Snoqualmie Falls.   The Falls represent green, outdoorsy Seattle at its best.  

After watching the falls crash into the river below for a while, Dave and I wandered through Salish Lodge, at the top of the falls.  At $300 to $500 per night, we could never afford to stay there, but we could afford to wander through the lobby, with huge picture windows looking out at the falls, and we could afford to window shop at the lodge gift store, with its stylishly wrapped jars of honey and berry jam.