Say Cheese!

Since we love us all kinds of cheese, Scott and I headed down to Pike's Market today for the Seattle Cheese Festival. We had heard good things about it from coworkers and was warned it gets busy but we weren't prepared for the throngs of people that showed up. It was crazy crowded! They closed off the streets right around the market so cheese vendors could put up food stalls. With the "scorching" heat today (yay for 70s!), it felt a lot like walking down 3rd street Promenade in Santa Monica! Only thing was I was unprepared and was wearing jeans and no sun screen.

The cheese tastings were really fun and I think next year, we'd make a longer time out of the event by checking out the wine garden and maybe trying out some of the participating restaurants. That, and we'd go earlier in the day.

More Orcas!

Scott didn't pick the good pictures to put up for Orcas, so here's a few more! :)

Chillaxing on the lawn of the rental house.

View from Property2. Pretty isn't it?

Property 2. The view was great, but you have some yucky neighbors.

What a cutie!

Property 1 Beachfront. Nice, but it was a hike to get down here!

Out on the little island off of East Sound.

Island Time on Orcas Island

With airfare dropping recently, my folks decided to jump on the opportunity and head up to Seattle for a quick weekend trip to hang out and visit Orcas Island (part of the San Juan islands). We drove north an hour to Anacortes and took the ferry over to Orcas. It was a gorgeous day and we stopped in the little east bay town for a quick stroll over a wildflower covered island in the bay, lunch and then the local farmer's market. The real purpose of the trip was to look at a few pieces of property with my folks to see if we could find some vacation home potential properties. I think we were all surprised, the least likely prospect wound-up being the best candidate. Fingers-crossed, hopefully the owners lower the price just a little more... After getting our hopes up we went to the local (one of two) grocery store to stock up on food for the vacation rental we got for the night. The rental was awesome, very private and secluded home right on the water, even with its own private beach. The view was mesmerizing, who knew Mt Baker could look so big? After cooking up some salmon filets we went down to the beach snooping around for clams, oysters and other strange sea creatures. It was quite the show, we saw sea otters, seals and even a few deer! On Sunday morning (mother's day) I took my bike out for a ride near the rental but I quickly realized that Orcas Island is quite a work-out for cycling, a lot of really big hills. On our way back home we drove to the top of Mt Constitution (tallest mountain in the San Juan Islands) and took a few amazing pictures from the top of the lookout tower. May and I can't wait to go back!

Dodging the Po-Po's

May was driving home tonight on the back roads from downtown Bellevue to the 520 freeway (Microsoft alley). For some reason the traffic was abnormally bad and all the city roads were jam packed. Mind you, I distinctly remember on my driver's license exam question #10 ("...can't stop in the middle of an intersection if the car in front is blocking the way"), but the 19 year old Clyde Hill cop that pulled us over felt otherwise. After a fierce debate, the cop insisted that blocking the intersection isn't illegal but turning right from the left lane to enter the carpool lane around the blocked cars in the right lane is. Take me to see the majistrate, but I know we were in the right... I think that's why we got a warning. Question: aren't the Clyde Hill police just Bill Gates' rent-a-cops anyway?

Sunny summer days

If "May Day" (May 1st) is anything like ground-hog day, we may be in for a nice sunny warm summer. The weather on Friday was perfect, almost 80 degrees, perfectly clear. I kicked-off the afternoon leaving work a little early and going for a bike ride over to Puget Sound, down to Ballard locks, and then back up. The waterways were chalk-full of boats, prepping for Saturday's boating season opening preparation. Hundreds of boats were roped together in a long party line.

We started the evening by heading over to Maggie Bluff's Grill on the bay for happy hour. A bit windy, but it has a beautiful skyline of downtown Seattle and great buffalo wings. Next - Brauer's. They have one of the most impressive bottled beer lists I've ever seen (who stocks a $600 3 liter beer?). Atmosphere is fun, but pretty packed. We followed this up with a little pistacio gellato in Fremont. Hit the spot.

Joel Robuchon Extravaganza

For our 30th birthday dinner, Way and I decided to treat ourselves to the Tasting Menu at L'Atelier de Joel Robuchon. Joel Robuchon is a fancy-pants French chef that has has 25 Michelin-stars - the most of any chef in the world. His only US-based restaurant is in Vegas.

I haven't had many tasting menus, and none nearly as expensive as this one, and I have to be honest - I was a mite dissappointed with our meal here. The service was good, but not top notch. The decor was cool, but with the blaring music and all that darkness, it felt more trendy than posh. And, the food, while well-executed, wasn't all that creative. Nor, worth the expense. For example, my foie-gras stuffed quail included a tiny little portion of foie gras. I recall going to Restaurant Zoe in Seattle a few weeks ago with my aunt, and her foie gras appetizer was the size of a fist!

I don't mean to make it sound like the meal was bad though. It was all very good, just not mind-blowing good. I'm glad that I did the menu too. If I hadn't, I would always wonder about this place.

Anyway, pics of our dinner below. Enjoy!

Foie-Gras Parfait with Port Wine and Parmesan Foam: Way loved this one, but I thought the Parmesan Foam was too strong. I waxed on and on about the Truffle Cauliflower Flan at Tilth a few months ago, and this one couldn't compare. I know, truffle is not the same as foie gras, but the textures were very similar.

Smoked Salmon in Herb Gelee with Wasabi Cream: This was lovely! Nice and light, with just a hint of wasabi hot-ness.

Poached Baby Kusshi Oysters: SOOO delectable. Definitely one of the standouts!

Cripsy Langoustine Fritter: Tasted like a very well done Tempura shrimp.

Foie Gras Ravioli: My favorite of the night. The Ravioli was melt-in-your-mouth good, bursting with Foie-Gras flavor. Excellent!

Dover Sole with Warm Leek Salad: Excellently prepared, but a bit boring.

Foie Gras Stuffed Quail: I was really looking forward to this dish, but it fell flat for me. No foie-gras flavor, and the accompanying sauce was too sweet. The truffle mash potato had no truffle flavor either!

Savarin with Rum: Way too rum-y for me!

Strawberry Mergingue with Fennel Parfait: A very good end to the meal. Nice and light with tons of strawberry flavor.

Birthday Surprise! Very nice of them.

Tired but happy after our meal!

Vegas Baby!

I officially joined Scott in the over-30s-club last weekend. To celebrate, we hopped on a plane and headed to Las Vegas where we met up with Way, Kevin, Rebecca and Patrick. It was SO nice to feel the warmth of the sun on my skin. It made me really really miss the dry heat. And, I had a new appreciation for the desert landscape - it's so different from Seattle and very impressive in its own way.

The past few times I've gone to Vegas has been ... different ... and I used to pinpoint it on the fact that we were going with our husbands. But now, I think I might have to lay the blame on the fact that we're just all getting older and more boring. Gone are the nights where we dress to the nines and then stay up dancing until our feet hurt. Now, we seek out good food and then have a few drinks before tucking into bed at a relatively early hour (for Vegas anyway). While I like the good food part, I do really miss going dancing at the clubs. There's nothing quite like clubbing in Vegas!

Anyway, here's a few pics of the weekend. I'll do a separate post on our 30th bday dinner!

Tulip Time!

The Skagit Valley's claim to fame is their annual Tulip Festival in April. The past few weeks of April have been dreary but since it is finally warming up all the flowers are in bloom and we made it a priority to check out the tulip fields! The tulip fields were lovely and they really inspire you to want to plant your own tulips. After all that walking around, we decided that our favorite colors were the red with orange tips, red, and dark pink flowers.

First Mariner's Game!

One of the consulting companies we work with had four tickets to last night's Mariner's game and my coworker Annie snagged them for the MyTMO team! Unfortunately, our two other teammates couldn't make it so we ended up going with some of our friends on the Web team. For Julie and I, it was our first ever Mariner's game and we did it up in style!

First stop was the beer garden at Pyramid Brewery, right across the street from Safeco Field. We downed some beers (I got the Amber but didn't have a chance to try the "Curveball" ale), had some grub and then skipped over to the ballpark. Our seats were terrific - 3rd base, 2nd row! Easily the best seats I've ever had at a baseball game before (heh, I'm used to the $1 tix at Dodger games!). The gentlemen in front of us left the game early and generously offered for us to take their seats so we moved down to sit right on the field. The seats gave us great views but they were also super cold! The roof on the stadium was closed, but the wind was whipping the rain around and being in the first row meant no shield for that water or wind! Still, it felt very "Seattle", and it just gives me an excuse to go back to a game when it's nice and sunny out!

Checkout the new Sidekick!

I've been heads down on several projects at work and my first one launched tonight! I was working on the pre-sale of the new 3G Sidekick. This is only the second presale TMobile has done so there was a lot of internal coordination that was needed. It's been very interesting, and different, working for a company that sells a consumer product. I've been so used to working at a company where all of my "products" are online; now I have to take into consideration all the business and operational aspects of a tangible asset and it's been a fun learning experience!

Anyway, if you want to check out the new Sidekick, go to the sidekick.com site. You won't be able to purchase it right now unless you are a T-Mobile customer though. If you aren't a TMO customer, you will have to wait and try to get it when it launches on May 13th. See - being TMO customer has its perks!