Fall is here!

Fall is here! After a few days of overcast skies and steady rain (uncharacteristic of Seattle), it cleared up enough for me to take a little walk around our neighborhood lake. Unfortunately, the clouds and sun weren't cooperating so it was hard to get good light to take a picture with my cell phone, so this was the best I could do.

I love summer, but I'm looking forward to soups and stews, wearing sweaters and evenings by the fire!

Oyster Fest in the Olympics

Way & Kevin came up for a visit two weekends ago so we decided to visit the Olympic Peninsula. We started the trip by taking the ferry across to Bainbridge island and ventured through the town of Poulsbo (apparently it translates into "Paul's Place" in viking tongue). After some tasty danishes and a stop by the bottle shop, May was giddy to get back on the road and explore the Oyster Fest in Shelton. We arrived towards the end of the fest so oysters were a little scarce. The oyster shooters were a little warm for me, but the BBQ oysters were surprisingly delicious.

We spent the night at Alderwood resort in the city of Union and I think we were all a little surprised how nice it was. It's set right on the Hood canal with fantastic views of the Olympic mountains and crystal clear water. Standing on the boat dock you could look down and see crabs, fish, starfish and tons of oysters all over. We had high hopes for one of the few restaurants in town, Robin Hood Restaurant. Although the painting of Mr. Hood was lovely the food left a little to be desired, but the local ale (Dick Danger's Ale) was brilliant.

This is some SERIOUS pie

I've said it before that Seattle is a pizza town. There are a ton of pizza joints in this city, and one of the more famous ones is called Serious Pie. It's a Tom Douglas outpost, but those have been hit-or-miss with us so we weren't expecting too much.

Since the restaurant was recently featured on a show on the food channel, after we picked Way and Kevin from the airport, we headed over for a late night dinner. Even though we got there at 9:30, the place was packed and we had to wait half an hour for a table. And by table, I mean we got 4 spots at one of the several communal tables. Cozying up next to our neighbors ended up being fun though. The guys to our right told us they were visiting from DC and thought this was the best pizza they have EVER had, and had already had lunch there this afternoon. The couple to our left ordered around the same time as us and we all compared tasting notes.

And the tasting notes were:
Roasted Chanterelle and Truffle Cheese: So yummy! Earthy but delicate, and swooning with truffle-ness. I might have to say that this is MY favorite pizza ever.
Penn Cove Clams, House Pancetta and Lemon Thyme: Nice clam flavor, with just a bit of salt from the pancetta to even out the seafood, but I think I'm not a fan of clam pizza.
Wild Boar Sausage, Walla Walla Onions, Sole de Sardegna: Good, but not great pizza. Of all the three we tried, this was the "safest" of the bunch.

Overall, I think the pizza was one of the best I've ever had! It's frou-frou pizza though, so not something that you'd have on a weeknight, watching a football game with your beer buds though. I think what makes it so good is the top notch ingredients and then really good pizza dough. The dough reminded me a bit of naan - really light and airy and crisped just right. Way thought it was a bit too sweet so we think they may brush on a bit of honey, but for me, that was alright and it rounded out some of the flavors.

Mt. Ranier Hike

Last weekend was an action-packed weekend, there was so much to blog about that we couldn't fit it all in. On Sunday May and I decided to take advantage of the last summer-sunny-day and hike Mt. Ranier... well not the actual mountain, but a mountain inside the national park that had a great view.

We left pretty early in the morning to beat the crowds, and boy was it cold on the drive up. The car said at one point that it was 40 degrees! And it was a long drive...not so much on the freeway, but on the 20 miles of dirt forest fire roads. What a bumpy terrible drive - mental note to buy an SUV.

When we arrived at the trail head there was a pretty cool little campsite, and it was already packed with cars from day-hikers. Our hike began at the campsite as we walked around the west side of Mowich lake. Let me tell you this lake was something else, with Mt. Rainier in the background, huge forests all around and bright blue crystal clear water it was a site to see. May looked frustrated in our pictures as I kept asking her to stop and be my subject for innumerable photos. Our hike continued over the mountains over a ridge to Eunice lake at the foot of a fire lookout station. The wildflowers were nearing there end, but there were still a few pretty meadows left. After resting at Eunice lake, we decided to make the 1,200 foot climb to the lookout station and we were rewarded with breathtaking views of Ranier and all the surrounding mountain ranges. Unfortunately we weren't alone, dozens of hikers also joined for a quick snack at the top. Next year I want to reserve one of the fire lookout forts and spend the night... I can't imagine how clear the sky would be.

All in all a great hike, if we had an SUV I'd do it again in a heart-beat. 4 miles round trip, only 1,500 feet of elevation gain.