Fall is here

We had a beautiful weekend, and I think it might be the last bit of sunshine and warmth we see for quite a bit.
It was in the 60's and sunny and just wonderful.

We went for an awesome hike (ok I'm not sure if I thought it was awesome at the time....I mostly just complained about how I hated going straight UP the whole time. I might have even said that I like jogging more than this hike - and for those that know me, that is saying a LOT.) We ate smoked salmon, amazing goat cheese, drank wine, and had homemade cookies. It was a gourmet hike.

After the hike we headed to Columbia City and ate amazing chicken teriyaki at Bob's house. We also picked some of his and Aileen's sungold tomatoes (yum).

Sunday we saw a bunch of somewhat gross apartments for rent. Then we went to an open house of a house for sale and fell in love. We seriously considered putting an offer in, but then after lots of talking, decided that we will rent. We are crossing our fingers that the house we like with the wood burning stove will be rented to US and not someone else. If it's gone we have to start from scratch again, because we didn't see anything else that was just quite right enough for us.

Oh wait, and on Sunday we had amazing sourdough bread from Le Panier near Pike Place Market. DELISH!!!

And on a random note...did anyone see that Gourmet Magazine is going to stop being printed!! WOW and I've only just begun feeling comfortable making things from it. Darn!

Discovery Park

I met up with my freshman roommate from college Alicia in Magnolia this afternoon. What a wonderful way to spend my last "free" day before heading back to the grind.

It was a quick and easy drive south and over the Ballard Bridge. I missed the turn off, but I made my way anyway. I went up some hills and down some hills. I found the park without a hitch despite my wrong turn along the way.

Alicia looked great. Just as good if not better than at 18 when I met her. We walked with Harper down to the beach area. It says NO DOGS ALLOWED on beaches, but there weren't many people - and no cop looking people, so we let him on. He swam a bit and dug in the sand and explored and we gossiped and caught up. It was a hike up stairs back to the top, but we made it. Slightly sweaty, but alive. It was really nice to catch up and fill each other in on the many years since Wes.

I checked out Tom's office on my way home. It's got a nice conference type room and three nice offices. Bathroom down the hall. Very simple and cool views of the water. Great location in Ballard. It will be hard for him to take lunches to work with all of those places to eat! The traffic gets super busy down there though. Jeese!

And now I'm safely back home and ready to make some halibut meuniere for dinner. Then we head out to check out houses for sale. Full day before heading to work tomorrow.

Trip Cross Country - Day five

We awoke around 7:30am or so and went for a 1 mile nature loop at the campground.

With Tom and Harper in the lead we saw a snake on the walkway. Tom wanted to poke it with a stick and when he was about to do so the snake started RATTLING. I nearly ran the other way, but Tom convinced me to bushwhack around the snake. We kept walking and fortunately saw no more prairie rattlesnakes along the way. This walk started and ended with a suspension bridge. It was a very wiggly bridge that was mildly frightening to cross even for me. For Harper I think this might now be the scariest moment in his life. He refused to move and had his legs splayed out and GLUED to the bridge. I ran ahead and kept calling him until he finally made it across. When we finished the loop and came to the bridge again he was NOT happy. I got him across feeding him almonds as treats. After leaving the park we saw a BIG bighorn sheep on the side of the road munching on grass. That was a great wildlife sighting for us.

After this wonderful nature hike (sarcasm), we drove into Lander, WY for some breakfast. We ate at a Thai/American restaurant (random mix of foods). They had normal breakfast. For 25 cents more you could add sausage to your eggs. I figured it would be 1 sausage, but for 25 cents you got 4 sausages. I couldn't eat them all so I brought a sausage back for Harper who was very happy to eat it.

Now began our drive to Jackson. We drove and drove. As soon as I took over the driving, there was MAJOR road construction. We drove about 5 miles an hour on a muddy dirt road in a train of cars. Eventually that ended and we drove downhill into Jackson.

Emily's house was sort of at the edge of town right next to the Elk Refuge. Tom has been calling it a ref---uuuuge like a hoity-toity British person. It still makes me laugh. We hung out on her lawn briefly and then she returned. We got slightly more bundled up (it was COLD) and then grabbed the dog and headed for a hike at Ski Lake (in Wilson, WY).

The hike was very pretty and dotted with wildflowers. We made it to the top to the lake. Harper swam briefly and we hung out a little. Then we headed back down.

Back at the house we drank some tea and decompressed a little. We showered and got ready for a night on the town.

We ate dinner and drank flaming volcano bowls at Chinatown. The food was delish and the drinks were seemingly potent. We met a bunch of Emily's friends and had a great time. After dinner we went to the Virginian to mix with the local bunch. There were ranchers and locals and southern boys in plaid shirts. It was quite a mix. Emily ran into a guy she had recently translated for, and we took some pictures in the photo booth. We left there and went to The Wort to see the not to locals. There was a really intense girl dancing and she was all legs and elbows and was bumping people all over the place. It was fun to people watch.

We headed home around 11:30pm with a cab driver who LOVED telling us jokes about Irish people. He had a great accent. We found Harper on the couch of course and he howled briefly. To sleep we went.