Birth Week 1976 Local Landmark # 7: George's Restaurant, Kirkland, WA Opened: August 15, 1976. Longest family-owned and operated restaurant in Kirkland.

Look at this fantastic picture of the three of us! (I could do with one or two fewer neck folds, but whatever.) Valerie is my dad's first cousin, which technically makes her my first cousin once removed. Her children would be my second cousins. I'm the only person I know who keeps these relational terms straight, and I'm very proud of that. Anyway! Valerie lives in Bellevue, and when I went looking for 1976 landmarks on the Eastside (for those of you not from the Seattle area: that just means on the other side of Lake Washington from Seattle), and that was how I found George's in Kirkland. We figured out while we were hanging out on Monday that George's is actually all of 3.6 miles from Valerie's house.

Valerie also told us that she used to come to George's regularly for a book club, and she commented on different ways the interior used to look different. After our lunch, and after Shobhit discovered he got a $35 parking ticket for exceeding the 2-hour time limit (Kirkland Parking Enforcement is on it—they have nothing better to do), we spent some time strolling around the suburb's little downtown, particularly along the lake shore.

Birth Week 1976 Local Landmark # 8: Starbucks at 1912 Pike Place First coffee shop opened at Pike Place Market in 1971, but has been at its current location as the oldest standing Starbucks since 1976.

Okay, now I have to talk briefly about a little pet peeve of mine: the claim that the Starbucks at 1912 Pike Place is "the first Starbucks store." It is not: that store, which did indeed open in 1971, was located at 2000 Western Avenue, which, according to Google Maps, is roughly 300 feet from where the current store at Pike Place Market stands—quite close, granted, but it was still literally a different store! It was in a building that was demolished, and so the store, which is still the oldest operating Starbucks on the planet, moved down the block. And that Starbucks opened in 1976, after the demolition of the original building, which was on the site that is now Victor Steinbrueck Park.

Nothing in the store at 1912 Pike Place references 1976, because they want to tell everyone it's the first Starbucks and therefore the year you see everywhere is 1971. But don't let them fool you!

Anyway. I have spent years judging and making fun of tourists for taking photos of this store and waiting in a line to go in, and today I became one of them! I bet no one else has ever done it for the same reason though. This is also the only Starbucks store that still retains the original logo designs, by the way. So if you want to see some mermaid tits, go to 1912 Pike Place!

Shobhit and I actually did stand in line to go in: there were about 10 people in line on the sidewalk ahead of us—this was at 6 p.m. on a chilly Monday; at busier times the line can be exponentially longer. I've actually gone in once or twice over the years when there was no line at all, but this was the first time I ever noticed this Pike Place Pig made out of coffee beans, which I thought was pretty great. And I don't even drink coffee—I bought a hot chocolate. (Shobhit bought a four-shot espresso,)

[posted 7:41am]