as we prepare to visit my family for christmas, ted either just wanted to sleep on top of something, or didn’t want us to go:
whereas falcon is just surprised to see the camera.
it’s okay, we’ve got a cat-sitter coming over to take care of the whole bunch (and the dog and the fish) while we’re away.
carrie & i went up to the Big 4 meadow today. that’s one of our favorite destinations, and this time didn’t disappoint. snow snow snow!
a weekend trip to the Portland area.
a stop at Dick’s Brewing in centralia, WA for lunch on the way down. the adjacent Northwest Sausage & Deli had absolutely amazing food, and the beer couldn’t possibly be fresher. we were very disappointed that they were closed on our trip back (sunday), or we would have been obliged to fill the trunk of the focus up with beer & meat.
dinner at old chicago, a chain who claims to posess “110 taps.” on their website they maintain a laundry list of brews, nearly all of which were not available. (apparently that is the aggregate list for all their locations, not representative of any individual location). the beer menu we were presented with had about a dozen options on tap (and sorely missing the leinenkugel’s that we went there for in the first place!). food was somewhat unique chain-pub fare, with an italian-ish twist on everything. i say, skip it and go someplace more local (see ‘portland brewing’ below).
an afternoon road trip to one of our favorite brewpubs.
LaConner Brewing Company (site is ‘offline’ seemingly forever), LaConner, WA. drove out for lunch to see what was left of the Tulip Festival and have some good food and good beer. we weren’t disappointed. apparently everyone was drowning their sorrows that the Tulip season came (and went) early this year, in a pint of Tulip Festival ale. i can’t say i blamed them.
a jaunt through the mountains to a nice touristy town.
we’ve been to leavenworth before. this time, we went to find out if the Leavenworth Pub & Brewery still existed.
turns out, it doesn’t. the space that formerly housed it has been taken over by a respectable italian establishment called Visconti’s who happens to serve Leavenworth Brewery Beer. how’s that possible? well, apparently Leavenworth Brewery Beers are still being produced–in Olympia, Washington, at a brewery called Fish Brewing Co.
a trip back east to see family & attend a wedding.
flew to Pittsburgh (as it was conveniently located between major waypoints for our trip, and closer to the last one). arrived at 6:30 EDT (that’s 3:30am PDT) and proceeded to drive to Fredericksburg, VA for the next stop of the leg. thankfully, breakfast at Eat & Park got us fueled up for the day in style. (well, okay, not in style, but in… a timely fashion).
all GPS navigation as we made our way south, too bad Washington DC was such a mess; big construction happening on the 495 beltway around the city. we thought that squeaking thru in the mid-late afternoon would spare us from the major traffic woes, but alas, we were wrong. oh well.
a trip to portland to see the roses.
on this trip to Portland, we revisited the Portland Internation Rose Test Garden (PIRTG) and there were a lot more roses than our trip in february (when there were none whatsoever). we also visited the Peninsula Park Rose Garden which i read somewhere was larger in area than the other, but it’s not maintained as well and most of the flowers were in drought mode or past their prime. the PIRTG was definitely the best bet – so it was swamped with tourists on Sunday, and only slightly less swamped on Monday. show up early or prepare to walk from the car.
an afternoon north of the border.
a daytrip to Vancouver, B.C. on the second leg of our “thank goodness mike didn’t have to work” weekend, we drove up to Vancouver. we knew we wouldn’t have a lot of time to spend there, but this was impacted even more by an accident that closed down I-5 northbound (although we did
enjoy the twisty/rocky SR 11 ride into bellingham to avoid the congestion on the interstate).
in Vancouver, we ate brunch at the elbow room cafe. a restaurant famous for it’s lively atmosphere, large portions, and abusive staff. and when they say ‘abuse’ they mean ‘abuse.’ i don’t blush very often, but i did several times on sunday. leave your thin skin at home. thankfully, the abuse was served up with a delicious pancake the size of a frisbee® flying disc.
a long day hiking.
the going is easy, it’s an old gravel roadbed, 4 miles back to the site of the former mining town. there are still some relatively modern (or semi-modernized) structures on the site, and a few vestiges of old equipment. the last of the original 19th-century structures burned down in 1983, apparently.
a nice walk, a bit long though. 8 miles round trip, an elevation difference of only about 400ft. next time we’ll opt for something that works the muscles harder, but doesn’t abuse the joints for quite so long.
the beautiful tulips!
we went up to Mount Vernon, WA for the Skagit Valley Tulip Festival.
It’s a series of events and activities geographically separated around a few square miles. the centerpieces being several farms who let you pay a nominal fee to wander through their fields. and a lot of people like to ride bicycles in the area, so if you go, keep an eye out for two-wheelers.
we parked at RoozenGaarde and walked around their display grounds, and out into their vast fields of flowers. it was pretty amazing.