Rare Book Monthly
Articles - December - 2009 Issue
A Fair Duet - Sacramento and Seattle Book Fairs 2009
Rob Roulon-Miller came all the way from St. Paul.
At the end of the day, I was thoroughly sated with looking at books and suffering from a huge case of "I wants". We bid the fair adieu, picked up Sassi at doggie day care, and headed out for dinner. You all know, if you've read my articles before, that we love to talk about and eat good food! We didn't find any spectacular restaurants in Seattle, we ran out of time, though I know there are lots of them. We were only there one night, so we went to a fun bar that advertised the "Second Best Martinis in Seattle" called Tini Bigs and then walked across the street to a bistro recommended by the bartender at Tini's called The Boat House. When you first walk in there is a wonderful, large charcoal drawing of "Jeffrey", the owner's dog, so I was endeared to the place immediately. The waitress said, "Did I know you were coming?" which I think is much classier than looking down one's nose and asking if we had reservations. We said, no, and were seated at the bar for a cocktail. We decided to stay there and have dinner. They had good wine and some really nice food including some sort of gratin thing made with kale and gruyere cheese that was to die for.
The next day we were off to Vashon Island to visit friends and then down to Portland, where I learned, much to my disgruntlement, that their Friends of the Library had just had their annual big sale the day we were at the fair. Oh well! The best thing that happened, bookwise, was in Newburg, Oregon when I found a seller of Western Americana books who wanted to sell his rather incredible collection of books on the California Trail and Donner Party, two subjects that sell very well in my area. He gave me a whopping discount and I may be in debt for a while until I get the books sold! All in all, I came home with only four boxes of books, but they were all good ones. Ta, ta until next time.
