Celebrating Winter Solstice

Our favorite local pub, Naked City, has finally started brewing its own beer and can now truly be called a Brewhouse. Since we hadn't tried them out yet, we decided to walk over and toast the Winter Solstice. We thought it would be a nice way to send off Winter, and welcome the longer days, no?

I started with the Naked City Drifter - very light, slightly sweet. Kinda watery even. Reminded me of Coors Light! Scott had the Naked City Hoptricity, which he said was only okay. It's an IPA, but because it's made from rye, it threw him off. After those, we moved on to schooners of the Black Raven Wisdom Seeker IPA (Scott's favorite of the night), Russian River Pliny the Elder (too piney for me!) and the Rogue Mogul Madness (a nice winter beer).

I think the best part of beer is all the funny names.

Bench project

After a few hints from May saying, "Wouldn't it be nice if we had a bench in the laundry room to sit on while putting on your shoes?" we finally acted.

This weekend we built a little bench to fit the small spot in the corner of the laundry room. First we trekked to Home Depot and bought some pine wood cut to size then over to Jo-Ann Fabric to get the foam and batting for the seat cushion. I had a ton of fun playing around with the dowel bit set that I got for the project. Each leg now has 2 dowels securing them. In no time the bench was glued and screwed together. Next we sanded all the corners in preparation for paint. After 3 coats of bright white pain we stapled the foam, batting and an old curtain that we used as the bench cloth.

I got flack for the 'architectural detail' I added to the bench legs (notches), and while they aren't 100% symmetrical they do add quite a bit of charm if I do say so myself. Very neuvo-Simpson.

All in all it cost about $25 make. Except now May has ideas for other furniture she wants to make for the bathrooms :)

Christmas Tree

We've been enjoying our fabulous Christmas Tree! We braved the cold weather last week to purchase a tree one evening after work and our poor little fingers were so cold, having to haul this up on top of the car and then drag it up the stairs and into the house. But, we de-thawed and spent a nice night of decorating the tree while Christmas tunes played in the background. The tree is all decked out with gold ornaments (purchased from Home Depot last year), and while it's pretty, I'm thinking it might need some more color. We'll have to do some after Xmas shopping to stock up on colored ornaments!

Holiday Wreath

I'm very proud of my home-made wreath! I got my inspiration from Martha Stewart. She mentioned how you can take a few trimmings from your tree and make a free-form wreath, and then pretty it up with some bows and what not. Here's my version. Fun, huh? Now I just wish our door faced the street so all the passerbys can see it!

Sedona!

Scott had a conference in Scottsdale earlier this week and since I had a few vacation days to burn before the end of the year, I decided to join him. I've been to Scottsdale only once before for work, so this time, with Way joining me, I was able to go explore a bit.

On Monday, we took off to Sedona for a day trip. Sedona is red-rock country, and had the weather been cooperating, I'm sure it would have been as beautiful as everyone says. But, there was a massive storm that day (blizzard conditions in Flagstaff to the north, and so much wind/rain in Phoenix/Scottsdale that four hospitals lost power) and most of the red rock formations were shrouded in mist. And, with the rain coming down steadily, it made everything red, muddy, and not very conducive to exploring and hiking around.

On Tuesday, we hung around Scottdale and explored old town a bit, and then met up with Scott in the afternoon for a small bite before heading to the airport. I was happy to have satisfied my Mexican food craving, hitting up several places for Mexican food. I found most of it pretty good, but a little smokier/sweeter than I am used to. I guess they have more of a tex-mex flavor?

Noodles on a cold day

After a brisk, frost covered morning spent "winterizing" our yard (yeah, we're a little late) we quickly changed and headed over to downtown Seattle's international district on our way to do a bunch of errands. Last month I made the unfortunate mistake of buying "extra sticky short sweet rice", apparently this is the type they make tasty chinese desserts out of. Oh well, we have a ton now. While we were out and about we decided to go to the Uwajimaya japanese mega supermarket and pick up rice and find some noodles. Both were a hit.

After some intense searching we finally found Samurai Noodle behind the grocery store. It was tiny, eight 2-top tables and a huge line. The ramen hit the spot - hot tasty, porky and fat noodles. It had green onions, soy sauce hard boiled eggs, pork and bamboo. May got "extra fat" added to her ramen bowl, boy was it lip-smackin' good. We'll definitely go back. We heard they are opening up another one even closer in UW area.

Passing back through Uwajimaya we picked up the correct rice and a bunch of a little mochie squishie treats for fun. I love that place, too many funny looking little expensive treats to throw in the cart.

After some intense Christmas shopping we walked over to the Sheraton hotel in downtown so that May could see the Gingerbread house exhibit. It was impressive and surprisingly cool. Made me hungry too.

here comes winter!

It's been c-o-l-d these past few days! In the mornings, the temps are below freezing and we see many a lawn frosted over on our drive into work. It almost looks like it snowed at night because everything is frosty white. It makes us super excited for the snow to start coming in soon! It's been sunny and clear these past few days (probably why it is so cold!) but we're crossing our fingers that this year will be snowy enough that we can sled down our street again. Who knew that I would like the cold weather so much?

Whistler Pre-Olympics

Instead of the standard American staple of turkey for thanksgiving, May and I decided to pack our bags and head north for the long weekend in Whistler B.C. The border website that May mentioned in her last post was a lifesaver. We left at around 7am and completely avoided all the border back-up. Brilliant!

We missed all the good snow by a week...54 inches to be exact. By the time we arrived the weather had been relatively warm (40's) all week so much of the snow at the base had melted. We stayed at a hotel right in the heart of Whistler village, walking distance to everything. Instead of a fancy hotel using the Expedia travel agent rate we decided to book a room with a fireplace, living room and kitchenette. We really enjoyed it, much more room to spread out and it was super convenient to just make breakfast in the room instead of dining out for every meal. And with the 1:1 exchange rate, it made a big difference.

On Friday morning I went snowboarding while May researched spa treatment options. It was an unexpectedly beautiful day, crystal clear blue skys, not too cold. The skiing on the top of Whistler was perfect, no complaints, but the bottom of the hill was dreadfully icy. I had a blast but the last run of the day proved fateful, I sprained my wrist on a fall and walked down the last bit of the mountain... the bottom had very little snow, just ice patches here and there. After a quick visit to the doc I got a bandage and a clean bill of health.

May and I walked over to a nearby trail that circled Lost Lake and did a little snowshoeing on Thursday and Saturday. Not a ton of snow, but just enough that without the gear your feet would sink a ways into the snow. It's a blast, particularly the downhill sections. Talk about a super cheap sport. We were so excited to get our first snowfall on Saturday morning, but due to the warm weather it melted by the end of the day. I recommend visiting Whistler on Thanksgiving weekend, there really were not many folks in town...hopefully it stays that way for January too!

After scoping the border crossing website we decided to kill some time in Vancouver. What a great city, I keep forgetting how many shops there are there. In fact one might say it's a smaller version of Hong Kong... and colder too. The terrible exchange rate didn't get us excited to buy anything so we turned our attention back to our stomachs and visited a friendly looking steak and fish grill before hitting the road.

What's the next winter moutain trip? Mt. Baker? Crystal Mountain? Steven's Pass?

The internet saves the day!

It's really amazing the type of information you can now access through the internet. Scott and I were discussing this a while back when we were getting ready for our Deception Pass camping trip. We marveled that the Washington state parks site not only lets you view (and choose) available campsites, but also shows you pictures of each individual site so you can gauge shade, the level of the ground, etc.

Tonight, I'm impressed I was able to pull up archived data of the average wait times at the Washington/Canada border. The Cascade Gateway Data site can chart the average delay time down to the hour of a specific day. So cool! Based on the data for last year's Thanksgiving weekend, we've decided we'll try to cross the border back into the States this Sunday around 9-10pm. If history is our gauge, the average wait times by then should be down to less than 45 minutes. We'll let you know how it goes!

Symphony!

We have been very bad about posting lately! Sorry about that, we will try to be better. Especially with all the winter activities coming up, we should have a lot to report on.

Last night we ventured out to test the cultural side of Seattle and went to the Symphony. We catch the bus to work underneath the Hall, so it was fun to actually be able to go INTO the building this time. The hall itself is quite nice and far smaller than I imagined. It looks like pretty much any seat would be a good seat in this auditorium.

The headliner was Tchaikovsky's Pathétique, but the standout for the night actually ended up being Mozart's Piano Concert No 21 in C Major, featuring guest pianist Gabriela Montero. It was hauntingly beautiful and, since it's a pretty recognizable piece, we even found ourselves humming it after the show. Montero is known for her improvisations and she wowed us with her encore - she asked an audience member to pick any song and someone volunteered Sleeping Beauty. With that, she improvised a 10 minute piano piece incorporating the famous melody. It was dazzling to see someone riff like that on a piano - she started off playing it classic and then ended it on a jazz note. It makes me wish that I practiced piano more when I was a kid!

Here's the concert list that we heard:
Ludwig Irgens Jensen: Partita Sinfonica, “The Drover”
Mozart: Piano Concerto No. 21 in C major, K. 467
Tchaikovsky: Symphony No. 6 in B minor, Op. 74, “Pathétique”

Autumn in Yosemite

Last Saturday morning we set off from Way & Kevin's home in SF to nearby Berkeley to get our indian food fix in before the trek to Yosemite. Vic's Chaat Corner is one-of-a-kind. I normally would beg May to order chicken-tika-massala but this place doesn't serve the normal dishes, they serve "chaat" or street food. No idea what any of the items on the menu are, but the food is tasty... a helpful addition to the menu would be pictures (even better, scratch and sniff).

The drive from Berkeley to Yosemite was only about 3.5 hours with lead-foot-larry (aka Way) at the wheel (jk!). We got there in plenty of time to enjoy the last few hours of sunlight in the valley floor where we stopped to snap some pics of the fall colors and friendly Mule deer. Night #1 we spent in Curry Village (no connection to our lunch) - these are heated and insulated "tents" (more like cabins than tents really). Despite the near freezing temperatures at night we were toasty warm with the heater. I'm not sure why, but I don't think any of us slept that night. The beds were a little stiff and I think all of us were too scared to go outside and brave the bears to use the restroom. Alas, no bears to be found in the morning... good thing Kevin took the threat so seriously, jettisoning all non-essential food, chapstick or anything else that could possibly attract a bear or squirrel.

Day two was a beautiful crystal clear fall day. We decided to all rent single-speed bikes and ride the trail around Yosemite valley. I would highly recommend it despite the $25 per person cost. It was about 12 miles round-trip along flat ground with breathtaking views of the waterfalls, meadows and rocky walls. May enjoyed that the bike trail was pretty far removed from the main roads. Night #2 we spent at the Yosemite lodge which had much nicer accomodations on the valley floor than the cabin... but the bathroom was arguably on-par with the Curry village camp ground. We decided to get a drink at the old and famous Ahwahnee hotel. Beautiful location below the cliffs, but quite a bit outdated throughout... not worth the $400 per night. When we returned to the lodge we decided to eat-in and visit the ol' caffeteria next door. More pizza and burgers for the weekend... the nature was healthy for the sole, but the food in Yosemite not-so-much.

Day three we decided to drive up to Glacier point (7K foot elevation) to take advantage of the beautiful weather and snap some pictures of Half Dome. Unfortunately we spent a good chunk of the morning parked - waiting to drive up the mountain in-between road working crews. But the wait was worth it, picture-perfect views and amazing vistas overlooking the Sierra Nevadas. I can't wait to go back when there is snow on the ground!

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.

Greek and SAM

We're a bit surprised by how many greek restaurants we have within walking distance to our house. We can think of at least 4, and that doesn't count Pete's Eggnest, which is a breakfast joint owned by a Greek family. In any case, they all have flyers in their windows advertising the annual Greek Festival so, of course, we head over to check it out.

First of all, we were taken aback by the size of the event. It's held at a Greek Church, but I guess the grounds of it are huge because they had an outdoor food tent set up that was as big as a gymansium. Merry greek tunes were being played onstage while we walked around and got a gyro, dolmas, and some greek pastries - baklava (yum!), pastelli (a sesame honey candy that was terrific) and Melomakarona (an orange-flavored biscuit that was ok). It was fun walking around, and made us want to go back to visit the Greek islands!

After stuffing ourselves, we headed downtown to the Seattle Art Museum since Saturday was nationwide free museum day (put on by the Smithsonian). We shouldn't have been shocked to see how long the line to get in was since everyone loves a free entrance fee, but still, we were impressed with how busy the museum was.

Sad to say though, the museum was really not very good. It is 2 big floors of all different kinds of art (paintings, photography, porcelain, scultpures, installation etc) and it covered the gamut of art history (ancient greek, european, modern, native american). But, I think because it tries to cover so much, it didn't really do any particular segment all that well. Oh well, at least we can say been there, done that... for free!

Wurst Festival!

You just have to say "Bratwurst" to see Scott's eyes light up. Add "Festival" to that and he gets giddy. So, he didn't need much prompting when I said I wanted to check out the Wallingford Wurst Festival.

Turns out, it wasn't so much of a festival as it was a school fundraising fair. In it's 26th year, the festival is put on by this Catholic school in Wallingford and when we got there, it was like the PTC picnic gone wild. The playground had bouncy castles galore, a stage with a band set up, a handful of booths selling food, and then a carnival games area.

Inside the main school building, one of the classrooms was cleared out to hold the used-book sale. We browsed for a while and came away with a bunch of books. At $0.50 for paperback and $1.00 for hardback, we couldn't pass up buying a Northwest Hiking Guide and a SPY book that Scott had wanted to get at Costco. Down the hall in the upstairs auditorium/gym area was the biergarten and dinner area. $4 for brews from Maritime and $12 for a Wurst dinner. We shared a meal (it was ok) and hung out for a bit.

Downstairs, the cafeteria was turned into the mother of all bake-sales. A table ran the length of two walls selling home-made treats like pie, cupcakes, cookies and every other baked goodie you can think of. I opted for a ginormous spice cupcake with cream cheese frosting and a molasses cookie while Scott got a lemon bar. All for $2.50!

In the end, we didn't have as much Wurst as we would have liked, but we had fun feeling like a part of the community. It was neat that there were a TON of children there and you could tell that it's the big event the school puts on and alumni come back for it.

Camp'n in Washington

Earlier this week my dad came up to visit us while mom hung out in Oregon with her high school girl friends. We decided to make it a boys camping trip so we took off on Monday afternoon and drove about an hour north to Deception Pass State Park (right at the tip of Whidbey Island).

Talk about perfect weather, it was a crystal clear gorgeous day. After pitching our tent and unpacking we build a fire and grilled our steak and vegi dinner. The steak turned out a little tough, but the steamed-in-foil veggies turned out perfect. I forgot to mention that we found out pretty quick about the nearby Navy air base. At first the jets were cool, then it got old after a few hours...these suckers are LOUD screaming over the tree tops. Apparently the jets practice a lot. The dense woods and beautiful bay certainly made up for it though. Quite possibly one of the prettiest places on the west coast. Perfect spot for kayaks, crabbing on the pier, and tons of hiking trails. Must go back again, maybe next time we can reserve the park's cabin on a nearby island.

On our way back we drove through Whidbey island and took the ferry across to Everett. We took a slight detour so that I could check out Scuttlebutt Brewery in Everett which was fun to experience, but not a lot of personality inside - right on the waterfront in the marina, but no view!

For dinner we swung by home to pick up May and then went to Elliot's Oyster House on the Seattle waterfront. Of course we had to get a sample platter of the raw oysters and boy were they slurpy-good! All Washington variety, but only one was native to the region. I have to say, May ate one that was almost the size of her hand. It was huge! Kudos May for tackling it.

West Seattle exploration

After a lazy day of sleeping-in and reading, May and I decided to venture outdoors on this beautiful-sunny-brisk-day. We went over to the Fremont Octoberfest event, but after hunting for parking for 20 minutes we decided to bail after seeing the relatively small turn out and annoyingly high entrance price ($40 for 1 beer drinker and 1 DD).

May hadn't seen West Seattle yet so we decided to take advantage of the weather and head over. Along the coast it reminded us both of Southern California beach towns - flat terrain, limited parking, and tons of people walking along the boardwalk. The Seattle skyline was awesome from Alki beach. We decided to have an appetizer at Salty's restaurant (right on the water). The view was awesome, but the food, music and chilly temperature were all miserable. I'd go back to show out-of-towners the view, but not worth another visit otherwise.

Makes me want a boat on such a nicy lazy day. Commence operation boat planning.

Tigerbait Tigerbait!

I am happy to report that Scott and I are Husky Stadium virgins no more! Kin and Meredith flew up this weekend and treated us to the first college football game of the season, UW vs LSU's Tigers. Since Meredith is a LSU alum, we decked ourselves out in purple and gold and then took the bus (free ride when you show your game ticket!) over to campus for some tailgating with the LSU Alumni Association. We settled onto the lawn with some oyster shooters, jambalaya and beers and watched as everyone around us chanted "tigerbait! tigerbait!" whenever Husky fans walked by. Then we headed over to the stadium where, thankfully, we were seated in a mostly LSU section. There were some Husky fans among us though and they embarrassed themselves (and Seattle really) by being really crude - within five minutes of the game, 2 fans got into a fight right next to us and got thrown out, and the big dude behind us was obnoxious as heck, yelling obscenities left and right while spitting tobacco onto the floor. We ended up leaving the game early because LSU was winning and because we couldn't stand the guy behind us anymore. The tobacco spitter aside, the weather stayed good the entire night and we had a really great time cheering for the Tigers. Geaux Tigers!

Pok Pok is my version of heaven

Portland is a great eating town because it has lots of restaurants that aren't too hard on the wallet. As we were driving back from the Ranch last week, it was such a coincidence (heh) that we passed through Portland right around dinner time...! I directed us to Pok Pok Whisky Soda Lounge, a cozy Thai restaurant in the SE section of Portland that holds the honor of having their Fish Sauce Wings named as one of Food & Wine magazine's Top 10 Dishes of 2007. Normally, I am skeptical of any asian restaurant that has a full bar, but since Way recommended it, I tried not to let my prejudice get the best of me.

And oh boy! This stuff was g-o-o-d. We ordered the famous wings, which Scott tore into like a little kid in a candy store. They were salty (a little too much I think), but tempered with some sticky sweetness and a little smokiness from being on a grill. We also got the Boar Collar Meat - the meat was a bit chewy, but was intense with chili-lime-garlic flavor. Lastly, we got a Pork Belly salad since we are suckers for pork belly and I love most any Thai salad. This one didn't disappoint - it was fiery hot and limey.

We left with happy tummies and a vow to return. The restaurant reminded me a lot of Lotus of Siam, the Vegas Thai place that I rate all Thai restaurants against. The menu was different and interesting and it certainly didn't dumb down the heat and flavors of the food. The bar, I thought, actually added to menu with interesting drinks (Thai bloody mary using Thai chilis anyone?) and atmosphere to boot. This place, along with those delectable oysters we had at Jake's and the killer tapas at Toro Bravo, cements my opinion that Portland is a chowhound's dream!

Day 1 of our Oregon Road Trip!

And we're off!

On our way to the Ranch this year, we decided to take a few extra days to drive through Oregon and visit some places that we've wanted to see. The first day of our trip consisted of making a pit stop in Portland for Powell's and lunch, and then meandering down to the Willamette Valley for some wine tasting.

Powell's was, as always, a treat! We love browsing the bookshelves and left with 12 books! Technically, 3 of them are for Way though. But still, the prices at Powell's can't be beat and we are happy with our loot!

For lunch, we tried out Rogue Brewery in the Pearl District. Lunch was standard brewery fare (I just got a large salad while Scott got a French Dip) so the fun was in trying the beer. I had the Juniper Pale Ale (nice and light) and Scott tried the Captain Sig's Northwestern Ale and the 200 Metre IPA (both very hoppy).

After a short drive, we found ourselves in the Willamette Valley - home of some of Oregon's best wine! Since it was so late, we only had time for 2 wineries: Duck Pond and Rex Hill. Both had lovely tasting rooms; it was a far far cry from Yakima!

Adventure weekend in Seattle

After a lousy week of rain and cold (first rain for the whole summer mind you!) we got a little break, chalk-full of good ol' vitamin-D, sun to the lay person. On Saturday May and I decided to get a little exercise and kayak around the Seattle Arboretum. We rented a two-seater kayak with a fancy little rudder and headed over to the Lilly pad jungle at the arboretum. It was a lot of fun, but heading back into the wind on the way back was a little greweling - complete with hand blisters. From now on, spray-skirts all the way, makes a BIG difference keeping the water out.

On Sunday we decided to give our lower legs a work out so we drove to nearby Lynnwood and went to Myrtle Edwards State Park. Who knew that something so wooded and pretty was close to the city? It was a 2.5 mile loop to the beach where we had a little picnic. Aside from the flys, it was exactly what the doctor ordered. The puget sound was a little chilly, but it felt good on a warm day.

The best part of the weekend was trekking over to the new "H-Mart" in Lynnwood. A very fancy, huge, up-scale Korean supermarket - with a village of little Korean shops around it. It was like visiting a different planet, I had a hard time recognizing half of the fish, vegtables and canned goods. For the noodle lovers there was an entire isle dedicated to noodles, and multiple isles dedicated to frozen fish - the most exciting were the live fish tanks. I like the idea of staring my dinner down. As a treat May and I stopped by the pastery shop on the way out and picked up a Red bean honey bun. Yum!