Field Trip

Mt. Rainier? Huh? Oh that mountain that I'm practically picking it out of my teeth every sunny day? That one? Yep! Well, again, true, never been there. UNTIL NOW! Another thing we checked off the list over the Holidays. Jumped in the car and drove right on up. It was delightful - well.... once we got there it was nice, and once we got down it was nice, the actual getting to was a little distressing for me.

The roads were sort of snow covered on the way up, naturally. It was December and it is a big mountain... so you would think I might have considered that when I said "yep, let's go!" - then right when the road turned to snow and ice I thought that maybe it wasn't such a good idea. Did you know that there are a really lot of steep cliff-like drop offs on the road to Mt. Rainier? Did you know that I'm terrified of heights and cliff-like drop offs? By the time we got to the top Kit had to peel my fingers off the arm rests. I was tense - to say the least. I might have said "Could you slow down?" about 850 times.

And by the way, the car did perfectly fine. We didn't slip at all - I was just way overly worried that we would, and then plunge to our deaths - ahhhhhhhh! We didn't. On the way down we saw a Land Cruiser in the ditch and thought "what a douchebag" because he was probably going too fast. Lucky for Kit I repeated "Could you slow down?" another 850 times on the way back down the hill, so we never ended up in any ditch.

The mountain is beautiful. I'd like to go back, but in a different season. That would be nice.

Field Trip

Until December 26th, 2014 - I had never been to Whidbey Island. EVER. I've heard so many great things about it, so finally we went!!!

Getting to Whidbey is easy. I-5 north, follow signs to Mukilteo, take the Mukilteo/Clinton ferry - about 15 minutes and boom! You're on the island. We did a bunch of driving around to check the place out on the 26th - then rounded our way back to Langley for the night.

We booked an overnight at the Inn at Langley, just on the main street of the cute cute downtown and had a fabulous time. They do a prepared dinner on Friday, Saturday and Sunday nights that can be reserved when you book your room. There is one seating at 7 and dinner lasts a few hours. You can add a wine pairing for all the courses or a "light" wine pairing if perhaps you drank yourself silly over the Holidays and couldn't possibly shove any more champagne and wine down your throat. The whole thing is really well done and the chef and staff are all fun to talk to and the food is good plus kind of fun little experiments, etc. Their dining area is really well designed and cozy and romantic - definitely worth going.

Breakfast is included in the room rate and it is also served in the main restaurant space. It is a really good selection of muffins, rolls, fruit, salmon (lox), eggs and meat and cheese options, toast, all the good stuff along with coffee and tea of course.

They also have a nice spa (or so I hear). We didn't make time to use the spa so we just walked by it with yearning. 

On Saturday the 27th, we meandered all over Langley and checked out all the shops and galleries, and had a lovely lunch at this cute little french restaurant called Prima Bistro! 

And then, it turns out, we bought a painting at this cute gallery called edit. It only just opened about 6 weeks ago and we had seen one of this guys paintings at the Inn and liked it so we stopped in and met him and looked at the rest of his work - which is fantastic. And now we own one of his pieces. Here is our painting which I am posting from his site because I haven't yet take a photo of it hung in our apartment. We are totally in love with it. If you get up to Whidbey, go see him.

I took some photo's of the Inn while we were walking around. It was a little rainy and cloudy but we had an excellent time. 

So - this is our room #12. Great room but if I were in charge of room decor, I would have selected
different furniture to make it feel more cozy. I think they were going for a light and airy approach, but
most of the year in the northwest is cloudy and rainy and the rooms would have been more suited to
a little more substantial furniture next to the bed, and softer more clubby chairs at the fireplace.
Just my opinion.

This is the bathroom from the sink area (double sinks) thru the toilet area with the shower and tub
beyond. The tub is a huge soaking tub so really nice to sit in and look over the water.

View from our deck

Inn from the water side. There is a walkway that meanders from the Inn to the town along the water.

Streetside entrance to the garden and dining room. Beautiful!
Must be fab in the summer.

Tightly trimmed hedge.

Another delightful little Seattle drinking spot

Last night I met my friend Kristie for a little dinner at Le Caviste! It's at 1919 7th Avenue, right up the street from where I live in downtown Seattle.  Here is what their website says:

Le Caviste is a bistrot-à-vins, a wine-bar, located in downtown Seattle offering a broad selection of wines from France, along with wine-based apéritifs. It is a warm and inviting refuge in the bustling heart of the city, where wines are chosen with care and priced to drink every day, accompanied by charcuterie, AOC fromages, and a few specialty plates from its tiny kitchen 

Le Caviste also offers wines to carry out & drink at home 

The wines are selected to faithfully represent their regional character and reflect the good practices of their makers. Whenever possible we prefer to source wines produced using monitored organic methods and sustainable farming techniques.

And here is what the Stranger says:Le Caviste is Paris in the Spring

This is the kind of neighborhood wine bar that I love, and the article in the Stranger pretty much says it all. It's just a cozy little spot with a great wine and food menu, simple, french, not overly done. And the decor is sparse, lots of wine boxes around, perfect for drinking wine and having a good catch up! Love this place - so glad it's nearby, can't wait to take Kit over there. The photo's below are from the internet - I didn't take a single one so no credit to me. If you haven't stopped in here - get over there asap! 

interior

Photo credit: The Stranger
David Butler - we met him last night - very nice fellow!

We ate this - best thing ever - mushrooms, egg, bread crumbs! Yum!
Photo from Bin Notes.

We ate this pate and meat extravaganza too - excellent! Photo from Yelp.

Field Trip - Storyville Coffee

Yesterday we walked down to the market and had a little breakfast date at Storyville Coffee in downtown Seattle.  It officially opens tomorrow and while I did take a few pics, you should really go straight to their website to look at theirs. Much better.

I don't know anything about the company or the owners, but I really like the vibe at Storyville and the invitation we got to come check it out was printed on the nicest prettiest paper I've seen come through the mail in a long time. If you are in the neighborhood, hanging around the market and you need a cozy little nook to get coffee, this place is awesome! Excellent lighting and warm industrial design, delicious coffee, pastries and little foods - perfect morning, afternoon or evening cute spot.

Storyville is located on the same floor as Matt's in the Market, just across and above the pig and the market sign - really nice place to hide from the bad weather. It's a teeny bit expensive, but worth it for a treat or a date, and brings you right back to how nice it is to have a coffee date with real cups! And the bonus: we met really nice new strangers there - it's the kind of place where it's really easy to make new friends! Yipee! Shout- out to the gal from Bainbridge who knows my friend Lisa, and the Microsoft guy who's developing an app called Infinite Good. Check that out too! People are doing interesting things out there!

Field Trip - Port Ludlow

We have been spending a lot of time on golf courses this summer. I can't say it's helping my game very much (because it's not!), but the scenery has been awesome. I thought I would start including some of our favorite courses as potential field trips for you.

This weeks field trip post is lovely Port Ludlow, Washington. It's just a short ferry and drive from Seattle, and from the farm it's only about a 20 minute drive - so pretty convenient for us. We played golf at 11 - on the Tides and Timber courses. Originally, there were 3 nines at the course; the Tides, Timber and Trail courses. They closed the Trail course for the time being  - I don't think they are getting enough activity to keep all three open now. The Tide and Timber courses are completely gorgeous though, and well maintained... oh, and don't let the score card fool you. This course might seem like it would be easy because it's shorter than most - ha, this course will beat your ass! Seriously! Especially the greens - they are deadly! Oh, and the narrow fairways and the enormous trees all over the place! 

 After the beating on the course, we drove down to the Resort at Port Ludlow, (right at the Marina), and had lunch and cocktails and enjoyed the view. The weather was perfect as you can see from the pics. Next nice weekend, get out there - play a round of golf, stay at the resort - walk around the Marina. So much fun. I actually think we'll go back in the winter too, I think the Inn and the beach would be really cozy that time of year. Port Ludlow is a little gem!

Field Trip - West Seattle

Last night we took a field trip to West Seattle. For a while now we've been thinking that it would be fun to jump on the water taxi to West Seattle and go to dinner at Marination and last night the weather was again PERFECT, so we did it. We walked down from the condo, met friends at the dock, hopped on and in 10 beautifully picturesque minutes, we were in West Seattle drinking Sangria and stuffing our faces. We liked Marination, the food was good, super casual vibe, and only a few steps from the water taxi dock. We sat on the patio, had fish tacos, pork sliders, fries - yum!

You should do it too, but keep in mind that the water taxi doesn't run late every night, just Friday nights and weeknights only if there is a sporting event. So, check the schedule to make sure it's running. We got lucky, there was a Mariners game last night, so it worked out for us. Also, there is a Vashon water taxi too, so that will be a future field trip - how fun would that be!!

Here are some pics from our adventure. Good times with good friends -