Travels

Megan and I hiked Bierstadt today, had a great time.

[...]

Well, this post is being written midway through our trip, partially so we don’t forget where we went and what we did, but also because Megan and Jackie take so long to get ready that I have some extra time!

We flew in to Seattle/Tacoma Friday night where Paul and Jackie picked us up. Despite the news from the London terrorist plot, our flight was on-time, we had no problems flying, etc…I think this was primarily due to the fact that no one had carry-ons and everyone was early! Not bad.

Either way, we went straight downtown to dinner to the Wild Ginger restaurant. We had the Seven Flavor Beef, the Panang Curry Beef, the Black Pepper Scallops, the Fragrant Duck, Vegie Spring Rolls, Papaya Salad…i also had two Ginger infused Skye Vodka martinis, Jackie and Megan had the Zentini and Paul had the Pommogranite Martini…One other cool thing about the restaurant, is that we ran into the actor Josh Lucas. After dinner we went to the Carmen Lundi jazz show at the Triple Door. I was able to get two personally signed CDs from Carmen…gave one to Paul and Jackie for memories. After the show we went back to their place in Wallingford which is just outside of the city and crashed. (The CD is pretty medicore).

Saturday morning, woke up and had the highly anticipated pancake cook-off. Of course i kicked the crap out of Paul! J/K…he’s still the #1 pancake maker in the country. We hung out and looked through Kauai pictures and all of their engagement cards! After breakfast we played golf at the the Green Lake Pitch and Putt. Paul and I sucked it up with a 40 on 9 pathetic holes, while Jackie and her broken ankle did well for never really playing golf before with a 47…the bad news is that we all lost to Megan at her 36! Good for her, she was psyched. Paul and I had a playoff to see who was the true second place…he dominated the 3rd hole and beat me out. I, however, won two skins.

After golf we drove up to Spud’s Fish and Chips across from Green Lake. We ordered 3 orders of the Halibut and 1 order of the Prawns…the Halibut was great…the Prawns, not so much….After lunch we hit up Green Lake Park and played Frisbee. Everyone was playing volleyball, running around the park, etc. I think all the grease from lunch started getting absorbed, Paul and I hit a wall after playing for just over 10 minutes. . We hung at the park for a while and drove up to the North side of the the lake and went to Mix-ins, a ColdStone like ice cream shop that mix-ins your typical ice cream toppings. We had the Home Sweet Home and the Carmel Rumble…mighty tasty.

We then drove up to the “Locks”…the canal that links Salmon Bay and Pudget Sound. We saw some boats head through the canal. It’s facinating from the engineering standpoint, each segment has a base where the boats float into, one in, they seal off the segment and the valves underneath base fill in and the whole base raises, causing virtually no splash or imbalance to the boats. I had no idea this place even existed…let alone was so famous for their 21 sections that enable the Salmon to swim from the salt waters of Puget Sound back to the fresh water to spawn. The female Salmon lay eggs and the males fertalize them…1 in 1000 eggs actually makes it out to the ocean and back to the fresh water to mate….also the Salmon change colors from silver to pink when they make the transition.

After the Locks we drove up to Rays beach house and decided that the hour-and-a-half wait was a bit much. Not more that a mile up the road was the Rollng Gardens beach. We played some frisbee and watched the sunset.

After all the activity we were pretty beat and needed to clean up and take a little rest. We headed back to Paul and Jackie’s to clean up for dinner. We wanted something kind of light and healthy after the day’s binge. We headed out about 9ish to Beltown. We read the Zagots review on the Sushit restaurants in the area, but decided on Wasabi Bistro. It was more of a scene that a sushi restaurant. The chef’s choice was pretty lame…tuna, salmon, blah, blah, blah…i thought we would at least get some Uni, Monk Fish, etc…I did learn though that Momakawa Sake comes in Infused Pear flavor.

In spirit of tradition, after dinner we headed back to the condo and made some fresh cookies and ice cream. Megan and Jackie passed out on the couch as we watched The Office and 40 Year old Virgin…

Sunday morning we woke about 9ish and headed over to Salty’s Restaurant, which is famous for it’s brunch buffet coupled with its amazing view of the Seattle skyline and harbor. We had a ton of great food including dungenous crab, chocolate covered strawberries, waffles, omlettes, creme brule, and on and on…We ate our hearts content and nearly three hours later headed up to Alki Beach. Paul and I threw the disc around and played some 2nd rate volleyball with some locals. Jackie and Megan bonded and chatted near the water.

After the beach we headed to Pioneer Square and hit up the galleries. We went to the D’Adamo / Woltz Gallery and a blown glass gallery. Both were contemporary and cool, the glass gallery had 4 furnaces in the studio and 3 artists sweating in the 130 degree heat…all the while making some pretty cool items for the gallery.

We headed up to the Pike Fish Market and saw the “show”…dudes throwing big fish across the counter back to get fileted and wrapped for the customers. We bought some Koomamoto Oysters, Halibut Cheak, Scallops, King Salmon, and stopped at Trader Joes for some wine and veges…ended up cooking a pretty amazing meal at Paul and Jackies.

Tuesday’s activities:

Top Pot Doughnuts 2124 5th Avenue Seattle, WA 98121 206-728-1966

Museum of Flight Opens at 10am I-5 South Exit 158 and go west (towards ocean) Right at first light (E Marginal Way S) Museum on right after 1/2 mile

Woodland Park Zoo 59th St. and Phinney Ave N.

2pm @ Red Mill Burgers 312 N 67th Street (67th and Phinney Ave N) 206-284-6362[…]

So this weekend Megan took me on a surprise vacation to Crested Butte. I had no idea where we were going, what to pack, or what to expect. We left after work on Friday and hit the typical Friday rush hour traffic, coupled with the weekend warriors making their way out of town and the typical road construction. We ended up arriving 228 miles and about 3 hours later at our destination. The rains around South Park, Colorado, were brutal– coming down faster than most any Colorado rain storms.

We had a nice egg role appetizer with a poppy passion salad, and linguini dinner at the Missing Spoon, in Buena Vista. The weather has been very rainy, atypical for this time of year. We are staying at the Crested Butte Retreat, which is an beautiful bed and breakfast overlooking the town. We are staying in the Red Lady room. The B&B has amazing rooms all of which were newly remodeled about a year ago. There are multiple hot tubs, great living and communal space, wonderful kitchen with a chef. The owner of the place is well traveled and a down to earth guy. He has decorated the place with artwork from his 13 month around the world trip. Including a tibetan chest, some bas reliefs, tankas, trinkets, masks, etc. We feel very much at home.

We were looking forward to the mountain biking and hiking, but as of now it’s not looking like were going to be able to do much because of the wet trails and the on-going rain. We may try to hit up the Wauinta Hot Springs on the way back to Denver tomorrow.

We had lunch on Saturday at Ginger Cafe, a great Thai restaurant. We split the spring rolls, miso soup, jasmain tea, and green chicken curry. The currey was our favorite…we had some chocolate caramel and marshmellows at the Chocolate Factory after lunch.

Before we left for the trip, Megan spoke with Melissa (our roommate) and got all of Melissa’s favorite spots. We took Melissa up on her recommendation for Dinner Saturday, and went to Le Bosquet. I had the twilight menu special, which included a three course dinner for $20. I had trout, served red like salmon, with the house salad, and the chocolate mousse. Megan had the gnocchi and the steak kabob special. All in all it was ok. It was kind of like grandma’s attic…older crowd and older decor. None the less it was a great dinner with Megan.[…]