Seeing Portland In The Emerald City’s Full Length Mirror
Sister cities or kissing cousins?
It is a real honor to travel to another great American city—one you’ve never resided in—and enjoy a birthday dinner for eight. Thanks to six good friends who reside in Seattle, the honor was mine this April 4th.
Speaking of honors, when we got to The Walrus and the Carpenter, a tiny room for Seattle’s most popular oyster bar, we were told the wait would be two hours. Normally, two hours means one hour. On this night the hostess was a woman of her word. It took two hours and fifteen minutes to get a table for eight. Thankfully, an accommodating bar up the historic Ballard street hosted us while we waited to dine on local edibles from the sea.
I suppose writing about Seattle as a Portland resident is kind of like writing about your beautiful “Prom Queen” sister. You either come off as adoring, or bitter. And here I was adoring the Hamma Hamma oysters, raw and fried, while also not so secretly seething. 140 minutes for a table? In Ballard on a Thursday? Come on. Perhaps, this was “the Seattle freeze” I’ve heard about. If so, I can deal with it.
Seattle is an opulent city on seven hills. Fresh water lakes and the Puget Sound surround, with the Olympics to the west and the Cascades to the east. Seattle is one part…
