On Wednesday, I drove over to SeaTac to get some Thai food. The husband and I are both food sensitive to various random edibles around town: for example, I once ate some of Uli’s famous sausages and had hives for three days. The husband’s particular downfall is Thai food, and our one reliable haven happens to be Bai Tong. So every month or two, we make the pilgrimage south to have some really good Thai food, and since the husband has been pulling some wicked hours at work, I’ve been driving twenty miles out of my way, buying lots of food, and stinking up my car on the way home.

On this particular Wednesday, I managed to avoid a short burst of heavy rain, and an even shorter burst of hail. As usual, the dreaded Renton S-Curves were solidly packed. There was even a couple of fire engines carefully parking themselves by the roadside around another parked vehicle. On the way home, the fragrant smells of lemongrass and spices and freshly steamed rice almost made me drive off the road.

Total travel time? About 80 minutes — quite a way to go for takeout. So let’s hear it, folks: what places around town will make you really brave the elements to get out there, and what is it you love about them?