Our only wine tasting for the day was EFESTĒ to pick up our semi-annual allotment and try out some additional wines. Since it was Monday, we were the only people in the tasting room which meant a relaxed and casual tasting experience.

Working our way south, we stopped at the Bellevue Botanical Gardens which is a lovely (& free!) garden just east of downtown Bellevue. Volunteers were setting up the lights for the holiday festival so we got a sneak peek at what that is going to look like. There is a good mix of garden space and natural trail here and we will definitely be back during a different time of year.

Finally hungry again, we stopped at Din Tai Fung and stuffed ourselves with xiaolongbao soup dumplings! We ordered 2 10-piece trays to start and then a third. So good.

With our parking validated for three hours, we had time to walk down the street to check out the Purple Cafe & Wine Bar for a glass of wine. We were hoping to meet another friend of mine from high school but he was swamped at work, so we stuck with one glass each and then entered rush hour traffic to get to our friend’s place in Burien.

We hung out with Jake and the dogs for a bit before grabbing a light dinner at The Point. I had the ahi sashimi appetizer and Eric went straight for dessert with the skillet cookie; we both had a local dark cider.