Traveling From Seattle to San Antonio

Traveling is great and I'm usually the first to say yes to any proposition to leave town but I'm starting to feel like everything is the same everywhere you go. This week I went to Seattle and then to San Antonio, two places that couldn't be more different, and yet, as soon as I stepped into my room at the Hotel Contessa in San Antonio I had the feeling that I was in my room at the Hotel Vintage Park in Seattle that I had just checked out of that morning. At first it was little things, like the rings that hold up the shower curtain, and the lamp shades, all the same. And then as I explored some more I found even more obviously similar things.

I photographed this phone in the lobby of the Hotel Vintage Park in Seattle:
And I photographed this phone by the elevator bank at the Hotel Contessa in San Antonio:
Same phone, different color. The brand is even the same. And this got me wondering, is there one store where hotel decorators buy this stuff? I mean, one chain of stores that service hotels all over the country? Whatever the answer is, I'm still gonna keep searching out new places. And I'll keep writing about them.

Tulio at the Hotel Vintage Park

I just sat down at the restaurant in the Hotel Vintage Park, Tulio. My first impression of it: civilized, cozy, feminine, not modern (just like the hotel it is in). I was drawn here because I took a quick look at the room service menu and saw a single word that immediately caught my attention and with that, I decided that I would have to try the restaurant here before I checked out today. That word was burrata.

I have written about this sacred word before. Burrata is a traditional type of Italian cheese made from mozzarella and cream. Burrata is maybe the reason why I love Keste Pizza & Vino so much.

Here at Tulio, the menu offered a Beet Salad served with burrata, plums, frisse, and beet vinaigrette. I sat down, read the entire menu just to be thurough, and ordered the promising burrata salad.
What happened once the salad came, and I finished photographing it, can only be described with happy, mumbling, chewing sounds. So I'll leave it at that. And a strong recommendation to visit Tulio if you ever find yourself hungry in downtown Seattle.

Seattle So Far

So far Seattle has been great.

(But before I get into that, I have to preface this post with some bad news. I left my fancy new touch screen snap on smile camera at home. Boo-hoo! So instead of forgoing all photographic documentation of this lovely place I am making due with what I have: my iPhone camera. And as Jimmy has recently reminded me, the best camera is the one you have on you.)

Now, on to the Seattle part of the post. Tonight I went for a walk to find a treat to eat. I do this every time I come to Seattle and every time the result is the same: failure. But still I try. The problem is that everything closes here - at least in downtown Seattle where I'm staying - at eight or nine pm. I know, crazy. Makes no sense. I do most of my spending after dark, doesn't everyone? Well apparently not here. Anyway, while I was out I took in some of the sights and a bit of window shopping too.

Betsey Johnson on 5th Avenue stands out a bit between the Louis Vuitton monogram tennis shoes and the empty Hermes jewelry display, but in a good way.
Here's where the nice camera would have really made a difference. Look at this photo, but pretend that you can see every color between fuchsia and cerulean in the sky, that's what it really looked like.

Yes, I consider the flowers outside the Four Seasons Hotel a "sight."

And of course hand-made chocolate also falls under that category.

And this last one is of a decoration - I assume - in the lobby of my hotel, the Hotel Vintage Park. Good looking phone, right? Makes me wonder why we ever stopped using them. But then again, it can't double as a camera.

Oh, and I solved the sweet-tooth problem. Room service. Two very plain words that transform into one of the most fantastic terms in the English language. Room service. I will never tire of saying it or of partaking in it.