Remember that disappointing crawfish boil attempt in April?* Soon after, I heard a new place called Marcela’s Cookery in Pioneer Square was flying in crawfish. The option to stay in town was much more attractive than schlepping north to a place that had already let us down. I still held back on my expectiations and I was hesitant at first, since I’d heard longstanding lackluster reviews of a Louisiana place in that neighborhood. But quick research assured me this was a new & different place to try.

I RSVP’d that Mr. T & I would attend. Despite his heritage, he’s never been to a crawfish boil. I figured it was high time to introduce him. We met with about 20 other mostly-Southerners for a private party in the afternoon. Since I had a big dinner to attend in the evening, I limited myself to what you see here. The crawfish was good, but gone far too quickly. Once I got to the corn and potatoes, I began to appreciate how good it all turned out. Another guy from Baton Rouge tipped me off to the idea of ordering extra potatoes to mix with olive salad for an amazing potato salad (it’d finally be spicy enough for me!). I’ll definitely be headed back soon for more authentic Louisiana food.

*To be fair, the other place has tried to make amends by offering to have us back sometime soon on their dime. Due to all of our travel, I haven’t been able to make it back up to Snohomish County. Mr. T’s parents enjoyed their visit so much that I’m sure we’ll be there soon.

We’re still recovering from jetlag, so pictures are light since we returned.

Tonight, we met up with sprizee, her Dude, and Toad at Assaggio for Italian food before Bourdain and Batali at the Paramount. I’ve looked forward to this for months, and those boys totally delivered.

May is traditionally a big travel month in our household. I knew after the last announcement that there might be more delays due to travel, but didn’t want to broadcast to the world.

We are officially back from Greece as of today. Tons of pictures — soon!

Turns out, going to Canada for a half-marathon + birthdays + parties + work product launches + Technical Communications homework = delays in picture uploading. Back very soon.

Mr. T and I are May babies. In honor, we had some friends over Saturday. There was cake!

I’m running the half-marathon on Sunday, so today we drove up to Vancouver BC. Our first stop after checking into the Moda Hotel was: Japadog! This was the Okonomi with kurobuta pork and bonito flakes. Mr. T and friends tried others. All good. For dinner, we hit up Legendary Noodle on Denman. Fabulous night-before dinner:

Other great coverage of Japadog over at Wright Eats: The Year of the Ox–note the priceless helpful comments by The Gastrognome. The Gastrognome tipped us off to Legendary Noodle — the perfect place for carbo-loading.

The Japadog we visited is at: 899 Burrard Street, Vancouver, BC Map Here

The Legendary Noodle we visited is at: 1074 Denman Street, Vancouver BC Map here

Today = crazy. Beautiful outside, but I spent most of it deep in work with the occasional glance at the ships going through the canal for tomorrow’s Opening Day Festivities.

I headed home around dusk and noticed off of Northlake, under the I-5 Ship Canal Bridge that the Toe Truck is in storage there. When I first moved to Seattle, it hadn’t yet been decommissioned. Now it lives in various storage yards. Every few years I get a glimpse in different parts of town. I love that silly thing.