15 Minutes to Bulgogi!

After sorting out groceries this morning, Dan & I decided to brave the crowds and ride the brand new Light Rail from the Beacon Hill station (a 6 minute walk from our house) to the International District Station. We needed to pick up some rice noodles (couldn't find the right ones on Fresh), some fried bananas (for a BBQ tonight), and figured we might as well be part of history.



After a 15 minute wait in line to get on the elevator, we descended down to the underground station beneath Beacon Hill, and then waited for the next train. In the meantime, we snapped some photos of the station - including cool, glowing diatom sculptures hanging from the ceiling.



The train ran a little slower than intended, I think, but it was smooth and relaxing - as well as clean and well designed. Once running full speed, it should take less than 15 minutes to get from our front door to Uwajimaya... even less for us to get to Columbia City.

I particularly like that an audible, clear automated voice announced all the stops - because in my experience, most bus drivers don't speak loudly or clearly enough for folks in the back of the bus to hear stop announcements.



It all felt very metropolitan... like Seattle's finally a big city. It's still not quite running to SeaTac, but that's supposed to be open by end of year. The North end of the track ends at Westlake currently, so Dan won't be able to ride it to the UW for a few more years, at least - but he may find it quicker and/or more comfortable to ride it downtown, and then catch an Express to the UW. Anything to get away from the 48, methinks.



Once in the International District, we got some lunch at the Uwajimaya food court. My office mate, Jason, has been talking about bulgogi for awhile - so I had to finally give it a try at Shilla Korean BBQ.



I got something called Bulgogi Dupbap - which was rice topped with a mix of fried egg, bulgogi (barbequed beef), and veggies, while Dan went for the Chicken Dupbap. We both scarfed it down, and have officially added Korean BBQ to our 'likes' list.