We had planned to do a hike about an hour and a half north of the city, but we scrapped it because it was a teeny bit drizzly and cloudy, so we would have had no views. Bob and his wife Eileen (Bob is Tom's brother Dan's good friend from home) came over for blueberry pancakes and they brought some DELICIOUS bacon (which we made in the oven...it was great that way). We ate those and Bob basically decided for us that it wasn't worth it to leave the city. I'm not sure if I actually agree...because I don't care as much about the views as just about getting out and walking around.
We ended up going to Carkeek Park. We tried walking one trail but it was very overgrown and there were spider webs everywhere!!! This place is over run with spiders and I hate them. So we went on a different trail and walked around. Harper had a ball and we ran into a very friendly golden who tried to join our pack, and a puppy that was adorable. We took a picture in a giant hollowed out tree....I'll post it when I upload it.
On our way back from the hike/walk we saw a place on the side of the road: http://www.jensenssmokehouse.com/
We did a U-turn and went inside. They were super super super friendly and let us try all the different smoked salmons. We bought two (Red King and White King..I think they were called). We also bought some smoke pepper jack cheese. Then we came back to our place and ate MORE! We also added some Mt. St. Helens Goat cheese from http://www.soundfood.org/sfcommunity/sflocalfoodblog/34-port-madison-goat-farm-and-dairy.html
and some sourdough bread from the farmer's market. Yummy lunch!
Tom and I fought off taking an afternoon nap. Instead we computered and did some errands and then read. Eventually we decided to venture to REI to use up our wonderful gift cards. We only got mildly lost on the way there. Maybe we added 10 minutes to our time because we drove by the baseball field when a game was about to begin (oops). We got a water filter, a suitcase for us to share for now..later we will add a second, a map of where we want to go hiking/camping next weekend, a book on hikes to do with dogs, a pair of running shorts for Tom, a National Forest Pass, and an REI membership. YEAH to people who bought us the gift cards because they helped us out a LOT!
We made it home somewhat tired, but instead of succumbing to eating out, we buckled down and made some yummy peanut noodles with chicken and mangos!
