Every once in a while we step away from our every day routine to explore, renew and gain a new perspective, for it is often when our minds are at rest the best ideas come … you know, like the ones that hit in the shower (that’s seriously where I get my best inspirations y’all!) We stepped a little further away than the shower though, as we trekked across the country to Seattle this week for a learning vacation. Steve was fortunate enough to be chosen for one of the coveted in-studio audience member spots on CreativeLIVE when NY Times food columnist Andrew Scrivani was in the house, sharing his wealth of knowledge about all things food photography related. The experience was nothing short of amazing for both of us, but especially for Steve who was on set and hands on with Andrew for three full days. I hung out in the green room and observed and tried my hardest to stay hands-off when Steve had to shoot his assignments! I felt a little like an expectant father waiting for the results of his critique, and by all accounts, I do believe he nailed it! Hello, can you say PROUD! When the whole event wrapped, Andrew surprised us all by inviting local oyster purveyor, Taylor Shellfish Farms, onto the set to shuck some local treats, which were enjoyed while the wrap-up and group photos were being shot … oh, by yours truly!
One of the things we always hear from anyone who interacts with the CreativeLIVE crew is how nice they all are, and we can tell you from personal experience now that that is no joke. They are an amazingly talented, hard-working, group of professionals and every single person on set and in the building is so unbelievably nice. It was great to unwind with the whole cast and crew at wrap party No. 1, at a local pizzeria in downtown Seattle, but the real treat was when we got to see an amazing sunset view of downtown Seattle from the rooftop patio of fellow studio member, Paola, when she invited us over for wrap party No. 2.
With our CreativeLIVE experience behind us, we still had a few more days of exploring to do before heading back home. In true Sabrier fashion, we packed about a week of adventure into the next two days, because if you know Steve, you know that one of his favorite expressions is “you can sleep when you’re dead!” Soooo … we made our way down to Pike’s Market for an eye-popping view of the fares of the local farmers and fishermen and helped ourselves to some of it for lunch, took a walk down the riverfront to the Olympic sculpture garden, visited the very first Starbucks then sipped our coffee and some fab French pastries while we sat along the bank of Puget Sound, took a trip to the top of the Space Needle … twice (had to catch a daytime and a nighttime view), spent an inordinately wonderful amount of time oohing and ahhing and photographing the works of Dale Chihuly, visited two wineries, Chateau St. Michelle and Columbia, drove up to view the Snoqualmie Falls and had cocktails at the Salish Lodge, then came back downtown and shopped like locals for cheese and crackers at the local Whole Foods until they put us out. OK, that was the whirlwind version of our whirlwind adventure and I’ll skip all of the minutiae and just post the pictures.
However, I will slow down to detail our Monday evening adventure of being invited to the home of Linda and Stein Kruse, family friends of my parents for as long as I can remember, thus giving me the honorable title in the Kruse home of being known as “Miss Evelyn’s daughter!” Not only did the Kruse’s welcome us into their beautiful home and cook us a wonderful and relaxing dinner, they were gracious enough to pick us up from the dock in front of our hotel in their boat and give us a pre-dinner tour of Lakes Union and Washington. Stein is an excellent tour guide, and showed us a wonderful side of Seattle that we would have never seen from the road, including the houseboats where Sleepless in Seattle was filmed, and the private homes of some of Seattle’s wealthiest residents. We are just so grateful for the experience and feel so blessed to be welcomed in to share a meal with them and their children!
We’re back in the office today, completely recharged, and brainstorming what’s next …. so stay tuned! We are sure to be cooking up some greatness in the days to come, but today, we are just thankful and grateful for all of the kindness, and teaching, and sharing and learning we have experienced over the last week. Today, as we do most days, we just look at each other and say, “Life is good!”