Seattle Weekend with Mom

During our Mother-Daughter Weekend to Seattle, my mom and I ended up having a number of things we wanted to see and do. It didn’t start out that way. The original plan was to drive from Vancouver to Seattle on the Friday night, check in, do some shopping on the Saturday and then go see Itzhak Perlman on the Sunday afternoon before heading back home Sunday night. At least, that was the plan.

Sure enough, we left after a quick dinner on the Friday night. We arrived in Seattle and checked into the W Seattle Hotel at around 10pm (yipee for complimentary upgrades and corner suites overlooking the city !). We then headed out to Purple Wine Bar, which came as a recommendation from a good friend and her hubbie at CinCin in Vancouver. The place was bustling and noisy as was to be expected on a Friday night. We shared a couple nibbley plates of soft brie, fig jam and wonderful crusty bread.

After a sound and restful sleep in our luxury suite and a good breakfast, we ventured out to a glass blowing shop and studio. We then headed to Pike Place Market for a little shopping. This is the home of the famous thrown fish, where you tell the fish vendor what you want, he picks it out for you, then tosses it up to another guy who wraps and packs it for you. This is also where we found Chukar Cherries. But Pike Place Market is not simply the market building, it is all the stores on the surrounding streets as well, such as Penzey’s Spices, Beyond Threads, Thailand Junkie, Dragon's Toy Box and Maggie's Shoes. . . . . .

I had something in the back of my mind that told me there was an opera taking place that weekend and I was correct. Lawrence Brownlee was performing the lead role of Count Almaviva in The Barber of Seville. Now, I had seen him perform this role at the Gala Season Opening of the JFK Center for Performing Arts last September, so I wasn’t surprised to find that tickets were scarce to come by. Sad to say, we were not able to get tickets and had to settle for dining at Canlis.

Sunday morning we were back at the market, and afterwards we went to the beautiful Benaroya Hall to watch my mom’s lifetime idol perform the Mendelssohn Violin Concerto. It is an experience to sit quietly and watch brilliance being performed in front of you. The audience was on its feet before the final bow was off the strings.

After the performance, I managed to pull a gentleman in performance tuxedo aside and explained that we were visiting from Vancouver and asked if Mr. Perlman would be so kind as to sign my CD. He asked us to wait and then disappeared around the corner, then came back and asked us to come around to the side door. There we waiting a short while until he came back and told us that yes, Mr. Perlman would see us (it turns out my tuxedo’ed friend was actually the Artistic Director). I thought my mom was going to burst into tears! Turns out, we were the only guests he granted an audience to that day. He was warm and cordial and exactly as we expected him to be (his home videos on Youtube and Facebook are always so charming). My mother had a hard time getting her words out so I explained that she had actually seen him perform once before in Vancouver when she was a teenager, and that the Queen Elizabeth Theatre had suddenly gone on strike the day before and that the concert had been forced to move into a high school (and here Mr. Perlman and I said in unison) . . . “gymnasium with a basketball hoop”. Mr. Perlman completely remembered the experience and we all had a little laugh.

What an amazing experience, and the perfect ending to yet another Mother-Daughter weekend.