Enjoy Your Staycation

Have you ever noticed that the city you live in is the one city you hardly know? In other words, when you go on a vacation to another place you find out what the main attractions are and plan sightseeing tours or trips to go see them. But in the own city you live in you often get caught up in your day-to-day agenda and neglect its own attractions and so-called "touristy" activities.

With a three-day weekend coming up, here's your chance to get re-acquainted with your city. For those of you who live in the Seattle area, here are the top six tourist attractions according to About.com to get out there and explore!

1. An afternoon on Broadway in Capitol Hill
Capitol Hill is the most densely and diversely populated neighborhood in Seattle. Broadway, the main thoroughfare, has the most active sidewalk scene, day or night, in the city. It is a bustling area that is home to the entire cross-section of Seattle’s population. A trip down Broadway will basically introduce you to everyone you share the city with. It also has many diverse shops and restaurants worth visiting. Spend an afternoon shopping on Broadway and grab an inexpensive lunch.

2. Starbucks at the Space Needle
When is the last time you took the 41-second ride to the top of the Space Needle? Do you even remember how beautiful Mt. Rainier looks from there? If not, its time to pull out the $17 (yeah its still a little pricey) and make the trip up the Seattle icon. Once you're at the top, make sure to enjoy a local favorite Starbuck's cup-a-joe.

3. Washington State Ferries (WSF)
WSF offers an inexpensive way to see Seattle from the water. You can catch the ferry to Bremerton at Pier 52 for $6.50 round-trip as a passenger. It will cost an extra $7.60 each way to take your car. The ride is 60 minutes each way with a 20-minute stop in Bremerton. It offers excellent views of Blake Island, the naval shipyard in Bremerton, and downtown Seattle from the water upon your return. Pack a lunch and enjoy a better time than you would have had on an expensive Elliott Bay Cruise. If you live in the northend, you could also try the Edmonds Ferry or the Mukilteo/Clinton Ferry. The rides are much shorter, but offer the same beautiful sights and fun places to explore on the other side.

4. Pike Place Public Market
You know we had to add it to the list. Pike Place Market is still one of the most famous Seattle hot-spots and for good reason. Adults love it. Kids love it. Dogs love it. What is not to love. Pick up a local bouquet of fresh flowers. Watch fish flying through the air. Shop around the local craft stands. Sit and people watch. The Pike Place Market is rite of passage for any true Seattle native or adoptee and is truly the place that defines the city.

5. Pioneer Square and Underground Tour
In 1853, Seattle was founded in the area now known as Pioneer Square. An area of about ten square blocks serves as both the center of Seattle's nightlife and history. You can see and learn a lot without covering much ground by taking a Walking Tour of Pioneer Square. Go on Bill Speidel's Underground Tour first. The 90-minute, $11 guided-tour will help you get your bearings and allow you to experience things in chronological order. It is the best activity in Seattle that nobody knows about.

6. Bumbershoot
Bumbershoot is of course not a permanent fixture in Seattle, but it is certainly one of the main attractions during Labor Day weekend. Venture to Seattle Center, the 74-acre park located in the heart of the Pacific Northwest to find a festival that has it all. Bumbershoot, as the name implies, umbrellas a number of artists from different genres representing the best in music, film, comedy, theater, spoken word, dance, visual, performance and literary arts.

Catering Trends

We read a recent article in the Business Journal featuring an interview with a catering director named Franck Mannechez out of San Antonio, Texas. Frank is also the president of NACE (National Association of Catering Executives) an organization that is very well known here in the Northwest. We found it to be interesting that the same trends happening in a different part of the country also seem to be showing up in the Northwest.

We have included snippets of the interview below.

Q. What is the latest food trend that catering customers are demanding today?

A. No more junk food! Consumers are looking for more locally grown foods and support a healthier environment and a healthier lifestyle. People want food that is convenient, fills them up, tastes good and is not fattening.

Q. For a long time, it was chicken, chicken, chicken. Now it's beef, beef, beef. What's up with that?

A. I think people have finally passed the stage of being afraid of beef. We don't hear anything anymore about Mad Cow.

Q. What is the latest decorating trend in catering today?

A. Lighting! It is amazing what a few spotlights can do to a room. You can match the color of the light either with your centerpieces or your linen, and it will accentuate the color -- making it look even more beautiful. Your room will suddenly have a new dimension.

Q. What is your favorite meal to serve for a business event?

A. Everybody has their own favorite meal that they like to serve at every event because it has a great flavor or it is easy to serve. My personal favorite is a mixed grille of tenderloin of beef medallion with forest mushroom sauce and quartet of gulf shrimp baked in pistachio butter. For a business event, though, it is a little different because you have to consider many factors in order to serve the "right food." Factors range from theme, nutritional preferences, allergies, to event length.

Q. How are caterers dealing with the increased food and transportation costs? Are they raising prices or tweaking other parts of their business?

A. Every catering event is a negotiation and a relationship, and you have to find out what is important to the client first. If cost is not a factor, then it is easy; if it is, we will have to guide the client towards what would be the best for their budget and our costs. Here at the Dominion Country Club we are holding on raising prices. Instead we are trying to negotiate with our fellow NACE (National Association of Catering Executives) members, making deals to help cut some costs and at the same time give them more business. With increased pressure on our nation's food suppliers, though, eventually the rising costs will be passed on to the end user.

Click here for the entire article.

Also click here to visit the local chapter of NACE.

Do You Have What It Takes?

We were recently informed of this great idea for an upcoming event in Seattle by one of our clients, Foodz Catering. If you love to cook and think you have what it takes to join the chefs of Foodz Catering in a friendly cooking competition, join the "Iron Chef Acalia" competition. Just like the Food Network show, Iron Chef, a secret ingredient will be revealed and the two teams lead by Chef Shelby and Chef Sarah will decide what dishes to prepare on the spot.

After all the items have been created the food will be presented to the panel of judges including Seattle's Kathy Casey. Sign up online at www.foodzcatering.com or call (206) 297 - 9634 to learn more. Entrance fee is $ 75.00

Foodz Catering will also be on hand at the 2008 Northwest Event Show. Come check out their booth to see what is new for 2008 in catering like their newest outdoor concept: "The Satay Bar."

A New Kind Of Radio

Have you heard about Pandora? It's the best new way to listen to music while you work. All you do is go to www.pandora.com, enter your favorite artist and a playlist will begin starting with a song from the artist of your choice. Then the next songs that play will be customized to predict the kind of music you like to listen to. Once a song begins to play, you can give it the "thumbs up" or the "thumbs down" and the more you rate music, the more Pandora knows what you like. Think of Pandora as a TiVo for music.


Pandora came from the Music Genome Project. Since they started back in 2000, they have been hard at work on the Music Genome Project. It's the most comprehensive analysis of music ever undertaken. Together their team of fifty musician-analysts have been listening to music, one song at a time, studying and collecting literally hundreds of musical details on every song. It takes 20-30 minutes per song to capture all of the little details that give each recording its magical sound - melody, harmony, instrumentation, rhythm, vocals, lyrics ... and more - close to 400 attributes! Pandora continues this work every day to keep up with the incredible flow of great new music coming from studios, stadiums and garages around the country.

The best part about Pandora, is its all free and you can make as many playlists as you'd like.

You can also download Pandora to select phones available through AT&T and Sprint including the apple iPhone.

Tailgaters Paradise

Football season is just around the corner and you know what that means...Tailgating! If you are the king (or queen) of tailgating, we have just the thing for you.

Tailgating Innovations was born of necessity. People are tired of spending their time preparing and cleaning up at sporting events rather than enjoying themselves with friends and family. Tailgating Innovations went to work researching just what makes a great tailgating experience... the ultimate tailgating experience - now you can have that too!

Tailgating Innovations trailers are decked to the nines with a tongue mounted grill with a pivot arm, satellite dish, rear and side doors for easy internal access, rubberized coin flooring, cabinets for storage, electrical outlets, internal e-tracks for secure hauling, internal lighting, smooth aluminum exterior and wheels. The trailer also comes with a 1080p (FHDTV) flatscreen and a high-tech sound system to wow the socks right off your friends.

Prices start at $12,500 as everything is fully customizable.

Be Good To The Planet, Because She's Good To You

We've all seen them hanging on a rack at the local grocery store. Eco-friendly, reusable grocery bags are now a hot item when food shopping. But let's face it, now that these earth-saving bags are the way to reduce the use of paper and plastic bags, there is no reason why these new accessories can't be stylish.

From Dogeared, comes these "superheros" of the "supermarket" and they are pretty darn cute. Some of them even have funny phrases much like bumper stickers for those of you that truly want to make a statement.

The bags retail anywhere from $22 to $27. The bags are made of all natural cotton.



And if you are an advocate for greener-bags, you'll love our eco-friendly trade show bags that we'll be handing out for free to all of the attendees of the Northwest Event Show thanks to our sponsor Zippydogs. Have you registered for the show yet? Click here to do so now.

Sail Away To Honor Days

It is our pleasure to announce Tillicum Village’s participation in the Native American Honor Days 2008. Tillicum Village is offering a special sailing today, the 20th of August at 4:30 p.m. and the 24th of August at 11:30 a.m. to help celebrate this special occasion. Along with the traditional Tillicum Village salmon feast and dance ceremony, they are delighted to offer an Honor Circle Ceremony and the opportunity to sign a petition to make Native American Honor Day a national holiday. On these special days, there is an extraordinary rate offered of $59.00 per adult.

Tonight, there is a special performance by the TwoBirdz Singers drum group, and on the 24th Native American Flute Player Michelle Grace will be featured. In addition, there will be a special art exhibit for viewing on the island. Tillicum asks that you pass on this information to your friends, family, and coworkers; or anyone you know as we would love to have them celebrate this event with us. Please call ahead and make reservations as spots are filling up fast.

Contact Information: Tillicum Village & Tours Inc
2992 SW Avalon Way
Seattle, WA 98198
(206) 933-8600, (800) 426-1205
Fax: (206) 933-9377
www.tillicumvillage.com