Cancún for Anti-Tourists
– “36 Hours: Cancún” (NYT)

India
– “Surfacing: Hyderabad, India” (NYT)

Kabul
– “The Mysteries of Kabul” (NYT)

Nepal
– “Nepal at peace” (LA Times)

Northwest Skiing
– “A whimsical, wintry world apart” (Houston Chronicle)

Sardinia
– “Italian dining and decadence in Sardinia” (Times of London)

Scotland
– “A wee dram on a Scottish whisky trail” (Times of London)

Bargain Shanghai
– “In Shanghai, Balancing the Past, the Future and a Budget” (NYT)

South Carolina Kayaking
– “ Heaven and High Water in South Carolina’s New Wilderness” (NYT)

Only in Seattle, America's top tech town would an institution as freakishly awesome as the McLeod Residence pop-up and somehow, resist pretension. Opened just last week, the Mcleod Residence is a high-tech gallery, cafe, museum, interactive art space all tucked into a historic Belltown house. Founded by an artist and the dude behind 43 Things, the McLeod Residence hosts weekly happy hours for its members (USD50.00/year) and art exhibits open for all. Right now, an interactive cello exhibit, "an installation of paintings and furniture from the late nineteenth - early twentieth century curated by renowned art dealer, Jay Franklin" and a digital photobooth that uploads your ugly mug straight to flickr share space. The only things the residence lacks are rooms to let but, hey, this is Seattle, anything is possible.

McLeod Residence

Previously: Most Readingest Cities in America, New Orleans in Seattle, Letting the Balls Hang Free

That’s right, in the week between Christmas and New Year’s Eve, 65 million americans will be in the air or on the road. That’s almost double the number who traveled over Thanksgiving weekend (aka – the busiest travel weekend of the year), and an increase of one million from last year. It’s also a new record for the highest number of people traveling during this period. With such an epic number of people flooding airports and highways, cue the bad weather: Denver International is in lockdown due to a blizzard, which in turn has snarled O’Hare. It snowed heavily around Seattle yesterday, with more storms expected over the weekend, and, on the international scene, it’s so foggy in London that hundreds are stuck at Heathrow, and thousands more caused British Airways’ website to crash trying to find out about their flights. If you’re traveling in the next few days, make sure to check the weather, traffic reports, and airport conditions before you set out.

– “65 million expected to travel over holidays” (MSNBC)
– “Some holiday travel delays at O’Hare” (Chicago Tribune)
– “Blizzard Blankets Colorado, Snarls Holiday Travel ” (Bloomberg)
– “Overnight storm mild, but mountain passes get lots of snow” (Seattle Times)
– “Anger and frustration at Heathrow” (BBC)

The New Orleans Creole Restaurant in Pioneer Square is in the first building rebuilt after the historic Seattle fire in 1889. The supper club offers not only jambalaya and Seattle's best Gumbo, but probably Seattle's best Dixie jazz. There's live music nightly in its comfortably crepuscular exposed-brick dining room. Of particular sonic note, is the New Orleans Jazz Quintet who play every Monday night.

New Orleans Creole Restaurant

[Text: Sean Moriva]

Previously: Sip Slowly and See: Seattle's Velvet Foam, Mr. Spots Tea House, Green Tortoise Hostel, 25 Under 25, Clock of the Walk, Seattle Falls For Miniscule Neologism

Belltown's Uptown Espresso claims to be the home of Velvet Foam which not only rhymes but does double duty skeeving us out and exerting a irresistible pull simultaneously. Drinking velvet makes us gag a little but drinking foam makes us want it, bad. In addition to cappuccino's topped with the illustrious velvet foam, the cafe offers free wifi, comfy chairs covered in...yeah velvet, and pastries. The decor is shabby Victorian and wholly unpretentious. One of the best coffee shops in Seattle but minus the pedantic air of many other serious coffee houses.

Uptown Espresso

Previously: Mr. Spots Tea House, Green Tortoise Hostel, 25 Under 25, Clock of the Walk, Seattle Falls For Miniscule Neologism

Most coffee and tea houses in Seattle try to fool you with hipster non chalance. As if the vintage sofas weren't torn according to exact calculations to make the place more homey. Mr. Spot's Chai house is exactly the opposite. In the working class district of Ballard it brews this fantastic Chai that you can buy anywhere in the city. The secret ingredient is love, an emotion many of the PoMo set find hard to show.
Mr. Spot's warm atmosphere is perhaps the ideal form of a tea house.The yellow walls are so soothing. The gorgeous hippie girls reading Love in the Time of Cholera or Cannery Row don't shy away from eye contact. The Chai itself is not that weak concentrated stuff you get in every other city in the world, this is the real deal. Open till midnight, they serve beer too, and food to pass muster on the most refined palette, but solid enough to wet the whistle of the hoi polloi.

Mr. Spot's Chai House

[Text: Sean Moriva Photo: Mr. Phelps/Flickr]

Previously: Green Tortoise Hostel, 25 Restaurants for $25, Cock of the Walk, Seattle Falls for the Miniscule Neologistic Slogan, World's Most Lesbian Friendly City, These Gay Bars Are Tops, Left Bank Books, Subversive Culture, The 411 on Seattle's 414 House

Normally we wouldn't recommend hostels: dorm beds, hippies and the company of trustafarian backpackers pale in comparison to a nicely designed thought out boutique hotel. But Seattle's Green Tortoise is exceptional. The Green Tortoise Hostel in Seattle above all boasts of immaculately clean bathrooms. I know of no other hostel in the world that can make that claim. You could eat off the floors. Aside from the lavatories, the Green Tortoise is just a right friendly place to lay your head. The common rooms are alcohol friendly, there is a breakfast every morning that consists of a waffle iron, a huge bowl full of pancake mix, coffee, a stove, dishes, and some eggs. Open mic night on Wednesdays and free dinners 2 nights a week, free wi-fi and computers all around the place to type your latest entry at your small potatoes travel writing gig. The Green Tortoise is exactly the kind of eclectic and homey atmosphere you would expect from a locally owned and independent hostel. I know nothing of it's sister hostel in San Francisco, but the bus line that takes you there seems like something I would want to take advantage of. They have bunk beds on the bus, and have a huge range of destinations, and, according to legend, a clothing optional policy. A bed in a many-bedded room runs around $24.

Seattle Green Tortoise
Green Tortoise Bus Line

[Text: Sean Moriva Photo: QuixoticPixel/Flickr]

Previously: 25 Restaurants for $25, Cock of the Walk, Seattle Falls for the Miniscule Neologistic Slogan, World's Most Lesbian Friendly City, These Gay Bars Are Tops, Left Bank Books, Subversive Culture, The 411 on Seattle's 414 House

25 top Seattle restaurants are offering three-course meals for the course of November for 25 dollars. Unlike some of the restaurant week shenanigans known in these parts (a tasting menu of mixed green salad, chicken breast or salmon and ice cream) these restaurants are not stingy dishing out their prime dishes for a reduced price. Ah, the good PacWest. Among the participating restos are Cascadia, offering a roast pumpkin bisque and lamb T-bone and Tulio, an Italian restaurant offering a lavender rack of pork. This being on the coast, a preponderance of the restaurants in general are fish oriented. The program runs til November 30th.

25 for $25 [NW Source]

Previously: Cock of the Walk, Seattle Falls for the Miniscule Neologistic Slogan, World's Most Lesbian Friendly City, These Gay Bars Are Tops, Left Bank Books, Subversive Culture, The 411 on Seattle's 414 House

Seattle's Rob Ketcherside's animosity toward wristwatches is understandable. Watches lead to watchtans (second only to Teva tans in unattractiveness) and ostentatious assertions of identity. Ketcherside however loved time, a dilemma he solved by recording the location and history of every single public clock in Seattle. A hard job but somebody had to do it, right? For the chronophile the result is a boon: a walking tour of Seattle's 27 magnificent timepieces. Ketcherside helpfully assembled a Google Map, and such clock blocking legislation surrounding timepieces, such as no clock can be within 100 feet of another.

Seattle Clock Walk [via Seattlest]

Previously: Seattle Falls for the Miniscule Neologistic Slogan, World's Most Lesbian Friendly City, These Gay Bars Are Tops, Left Bank Books, Subversive Culture, The 411 on Seattle's 414 House

Et tu, Seattle? Pacific Northwest nonchalance has lost another one of its urban centers to the trend of lowercase made-up words as Seattle unveils its new branding image: Seattle: metronatural. According to the press release, the campaign is meant to capitalize on Seattle's "vibrant urban center surrounded by pristine wilderness and outdoor recreation." Sadly, of the 171,476 words in current found in the OED, the tourism board couldn't find one that expressed the bifurcated nature of Seattle's "embarrasment of riches" so they've made up their own. Move over frequent liar and arm restle, the travel industry has a new stupid neologism on the block.

Seattle: metronatural

Previously: World's Most Lesbian Friendly City: Seattle, These Gay Bars are Tops, Left Bank Books, Subversive Culture, The 411 on Seattle's 414 House, Seattlerature