BC Getaway

How do you make a 3-day weekend awesome? Go on a getaway. I love weekend getaways. You feel like you took a vacation, yet you didn't have to deal with all the stress of planning a long trip. And 3-day weekends are the perfect opportunities for getaways. So, since it was a 3-day holiday weekend, that what we did last weekend...we got away.

And who do you think were the lucky people to join us? The in-laws! They flew in Thursday evening from Indio to join the party. And the party got started Friday after work. And it started with our feet - a luxurious pedicure treatment at Be Polished. Is there a better way to start off a weekend than with clean, relaxed, stress-free feet? (Yes, I have stressed feet, deal with it).

We squeezed in a nice dinner at Ray's Cafe with the Brown family friends, Vince and Jonita. But the at dawn of the next day (aka Saturday morning, early), we were on the train headed to Vancouver, BC.

Vancouver, BC

We arrived in Vancouver around 11:30am. After a stop at the hotel to drop our bags, we were off exploring. Vancouver is such a beautiful city. And it's especially beautiful when the weather is beautiful. Clear skies, and 70 degrees...heaven. I mean, look at this:

We toured around Canada Place, Coal Harbor, and then down retail row on Robson Street. Whew, lots of walking. Then we walked some more on the Forbidden Vancouver Tour with Will, our tour guide. He took us all around town - Chinatown, Yaletown, Gastown - giving us the history of the city during Prohibition and all those other "dark" times. The tour was very fun and Will took the theme to heart. And Nada won the quiz at the end.

[The tour Guide & Josh raising, not just the roof, but the house]

We also enjoyed a delicious dinner at hit (and hip) restaurant, The Flying Pig. I also tried poutine for the first time and this version had pulled pork. I can see why a hot plate of poutine would be good on a cold, gray day.

Sunday was another wonderful day, and we started it with a yummy waffle breakfast at Medina. I found this place on Cooking Light's site, and it was a great find. The waffles were their specialty, so we all got two (they were small). And with them you got your choice in toppings. We each got a different one - milk chocolate lavender, fig orange marmalade, white chocolate pistachio rosewater, raspberry caramel. And on our way out of the restaurant, we saw the guy from Property Brothers. You know, the HGTV show? Still no. Well, watch HGTV Wednesday night, then you'll get it.

 

Tummies full of waffles, we aquabused (aka water taxi) over to Granville Island to roam the public market. There was fruit, fish, veggies, meat, sweets, tea, coffee - well you get the picture, there was a lot of stuff.

Then we aquabused it back, got a few things to picnic on the train for dinner, and headed home. And the train ride home wrapped the awesome weekend nicely with scenic site and a beautiful sunset.

Random Parting thought: Vancouver should be called the city of glass. All the buildings, condos, skyscrapers are beautiful glass.

See all my photos in my Flickr album. :)

Revisiting the Best Day. Ever.

This week Josh and I revisted the best day of our lives...through our new wedding album. Our album finally finished and we are very pleased with the result. It holds such precious memories for us and as we flip through each page we can revisit our wonderful wedding. Thanks Kristen Honeycutt!

Let me show you how it turned out!

Here's the cover. It's a sage green and a textured fabric (not sure what the fabric is to be honest. Taffeta?).

 

The inside page, also known as the title page, has a vellum (semi-transparent paper) page on top of our black and white photo with our names, the wedding date, and location.

There are a lot of pages of pictures. I didn't count, but I do know there are over 50 pictures. Josh and I picked out most - giving our "must haves" - then Kristen, our photographer, picked the rest and did the layout.

Then the last page, the closing page, is our Hitched pictures (which I love - did you know I made that banner?). Again, with a piece of vellum.

Whenever you visit, I can show you personally. So Happy. Yay wedding.

Honey Lavender

Balsamic Strawberry, Early Grey, Salted Caramel, Stumptown Coffee...

What do all these things have in common? They are all ice cream flavors at Molly Moon's Ice Cream.

Seriously, this place rocks. I would say it's THE place to get ice cream in Seattle. There are several stores thorughout the city, one of which is right in Queen Anne. Molly Moon's is always coming up with fun, delicious flavors like Flagship Cheddar (made from Beecher's Cheese here in Seattle), Stawberry Lemonade sorbet, etc. And did I mention they have the best waffle cones ever. Drool.

These pictures were take the Summer 2010, our first summer in Seattle.

Want to hear something evil? My office is in the same building as the Capitol Hill Molly Moons and every so often the waffle cone scent fills the office. Cruel if you ask me. Here I am working away and then this ever-so-delicious waffle smell fills the room. (That, and then the bakery or bacon smells from Odd Fellows come in too).

Anyway, Josh and I have loved this ice cream since we moved here, so when the cookbook was released, we decided to get one.

Of course, the first recipe I chose was a froyo recipe (would you expect anything else from the Froyo Queen?). I picked the Blueberry Goat Milk Frozen yogurt flavor. Unfortunately, I didn't purchase goat yogurt at the store earlier in the day, but regular yogurt. And I had fresh strawberries I thought I could use alongside the blueberries. In essence, I made my own flavor, Strawberry Blueberry frozen yogurt, but it was still very good (and still using the basic recipe/idea). The result:

 At the store, or at home, this is gooooood stuff. ;)

Soak up the Sun

At last, the sun arrived in Seattle.

Walking around town, you'll notice people are a bit red. The sun appeared here over the weekend (and is still here!). It's my belief that Seattlities go a bit nuts when the sun is out. It's like the gray skies seeps out all the sanity, and then the sun arrives and we get sun obsessed. We have whole conversations that center around the weather and the sun.

Josh and I partook in the sun craze this weekend. We spent a fair amount of our weekend outdoors. It was sooooo nice. On Saturday, we took a ferry over to Bainbridge. This is something we've been meaning to do since the wedding when some family went over there and said it was cute. Josh and I were holding out for good weather to make the day trip -- it's been 7-1/2 months. Enough said.

The sunshine made the ferry ride very pleasant, and it gave us some good views of downtown on the way in/out. It's only like a 30-40 minute ride, and Bainbridge is the first stop. From the ferry terminal, it's like a 5-10 minute walk to the cute downtown.

 

We meandered to town, and decided it was lunch time. We made a stop at a place called Nola's that got good reviews on Yelp. The wait was like 30 minutes though, and we were hungry. As we walked out, we noticed a sunny, little park. Then, as luck would have it, next door was a butcher/deli that looked pretty dang good. Why not enjoy our lunch outside?

And that's what we did. We ordered two sandwiches from the Hitchcock deli (and I got a lavendar latte - yum), and we headed to the perfect little picnic spot.

  

After a our tummies were full, we took a lovely stroll through the stores. Grabbed more food, this time a tasty milkshake from Moras (which totally rocked), and strolled some more. 

Then we headed back on the ferry. After which, we strolled some more in downtown Seattle. 

Sun shining. Good food. Cute shops. Could it get any better?

Wheels, Boats, and Family

Last weekend Josh and I were in Chicago for two reasons: (1) to have fun, and (2) to see family. As luck would have it, we got both! 

Let's talk about fun:

Architecture Boat Tour

Saturday was our fun day - not that family isn't fun, but what I mean is city fun, a totally different type of fun (you know what I mean). Unfortunately the weather wasn't the greatest. Chicago was living up to it's name as the windy city. Plus it was gray and cold (and some rain). But this didn't stop us, we had plan for fun, and who's to let weather get in the way.

Ever since I heard about the Architecture boat tour, I wanted to go. We asked the concierge if she thought it would be a bad day to go considering the weather. She said, "oh no, there is an inside that's heated and you can have drinks." That sounded good. Josh and I were picturing a glass covered, dome thing over the boat. Perfect.

When we arrived, we found this magical boat we imagined was not this boat. This boat had a inside, sure, but you couldn't SEE anything upwards. And might I add, this was a boat tour to look at buildings, and in skyscrapers, how the heck do they expect us to sit inside and see things (crazy concierge). So we decided to brave the cold because we actually wanted to see what the guide was going to point out and talk about.

Huddling on the top of the boat, with a Swiss Mix hot cocoa in hand, we endured the windy, cold weather. Luckily, it didn't rain. And as we cruised along, and turned off the main river, the wind calmed and it was more bearable. 

All that said, we enjoyed the tour very much. We learned a lot about Chicago and it's architecture. We got a great view of the buildings, and saw a lot of the city. We were glad that we went on the tour, but also glad to be done and in a tea shop warming up...

Ferris Wheel

After tea and some shopping on the loop, I had this strange desire to go on the Ferris Wheel at Navy Pier. So we trekked up to the pier (mind you, still windy and cold). We got in line, bought our tickets, and then hopped into the little compartment. Up we started.

 

I have to say, a little bubble of panic rose inside of me, and I looked at Josh and said, "oh my God, why did I ever say I wanted to go on this thing. Holy cow!!" (flattening my hands on the seat). Josh asked if he could come sit next to me, and I said, "no, you can NOT move, we need to keep the balance." At which, Josh started to laugh. Then I relaxed a bit and some-what enjoyed the rest of the ride (although, still nervous). 

Excited Josh. Panicked Heather.

 

(side note: even though I'm smiling in the above picture, deep down I was still panicked. I'm a master of disguise)

Now, let's talk about Family:

If you didn't know, about 3/4 of my family is in Chicago. My parents were born and raised there, but moved to Cali before I was born. When I was younger, we'd go to Chicago almost every summer, so it's almost like a home away from home. Now, the past few years, we've been going at the end of April. My Grandma Ruth's birthday is at the end of April, so it's nice to go for her birthday (and my Uncle Mike & cousin Scott's b-days too).

We had a big birthday celebration on Sunday at my Aunt Ann & Uncle Mike's house in Crystal Lake. All the kiddies, aunties, and family showed up to party. My grandma had a big 91 years to celebrate. Doesn't she look good?

 

We had some BBQ. Played with the little ones. And just had a good time catching up. Not to mention, cake was involved. All in all, good family times.

 

Culinary Chicago

Josh and I were in Chicago this past weekend. It was part of our annual trip to see all my family and to celebrate all the April birthdays including my Grandma Ruth's 91st birthday. More to come in another post about all the fun we had, but first to more important things: food. 

Usually when we go to Chicago, we eat at the same places. My parents grew up in Chicago, so we generally go to all their old favorites. This is what I call nostalgia food. These places include: Gale Street Inn (ribs), Hackney's (burgers), Lou Malnati's (pizza), Portillo's (Italian beef).

However, this means we don't get to taste all the other awesome restaurants I know Chicago has to offer. Seriously, Chicago is right next to New York in places to eat. And if you watch Top Chef like me, you see that a lot of the chefs are from Chicago. For instance, Steph, she's in Chicago. Anyway, there's good stuff.

This time, Josh and I broke away from the pack (aka the family), and tried something new. Friday night we headed to Blackbird. This is hard core good food, like 9 James Beard nominations hard core (including this year). Josh heard about it on the Food Network, and then we saw Anthony Bourdain visit there or something. Either way, this is the place we chose.

Here's what we had:

[Heather] Blood Orange Martini [Josh] Gin and Tonic

[Shared] confit of suckling pig with smoked date, stewed hazelnits, pickled shallot and dandilion

[Heather] roasted alaskan halibut with turnips, almond, pickled turmeric and smoked butter

[Josh] chickory glazed lamb belly with escarole, crunchy turnip, pine nut hollandaise and preserved meyer lemon

[Shared] frozen pear parfait with vanilla pudding, red wine and chocolate + housemade citrus-cello

    

Verdict: Happiness. It was delicious, every bite. Our favorite was actually dessert, the pear parfait...soooo goood.

Here's us, happy diners:

 

Drooling yet?

Well, there is more. Saturday, for lunch, we decided to head over to Rick Bayless's restaurant, Xoco. (side note: how the heck do you pronounce that?). The best part about this, besides the sparkle in Josh's eye while eating his torta, was that we saw Rick at the restaurant. How freakin' cool is that? I didn't think celebrity chef actually worked, so that was cool. See, there's Rick:

And we really enjoyed our lunch. I enjoyed it down to the delicious iced tea. 

[Heather] Wood-Roasted Chicken Pozole

[Josh] Goat Barbacoa (yes, goat)

 

Oh, friends, the culinary adventures don't stop there. We ate out at Wildfire with the family, which was also very tasty. And Argo Tea (remember me talking about that from my work visit?). 

Food is good. The end.

Be My Guest

Before I write any further, please listen to this post's theme music: Be My Guest from Beauty & the Beast

Ok, now start the blog:

In this case, I'm actually the guest. So I could be Belle! And instead of it being a guest for dinner in a creepy castle where a beast lives, I'm a guest on another blog. A little less awesome than being a cartoon character in a song with singing candlesticks, but still pretty awesome.

Yes, I'm featured on my father-in-law's very cool photography blog, The Next Best Photo. Seriously, he takes the most beautiful pictures, so you should really explore his blog. My guest post, Emerald Seattle, is about great places to take photos in Seattle. The photos are my photos too! 

I hope that my being a guest makes you a regular on his blog too. Psst! And sometimes Josh and I get included in his posts. So read it!

Can I be considered famous now? 

Deck the Walls

Josh and I decked our walls this weekend. It's been a work-in-progess, and still is, but we made some stellar headway over the weekend. 

It all started with my want for a subway sign. I first saw these subway blocks at a local store in Ballard called Jax Joon. Everytime we walked in the store I ohh and ahh'd over them. They had cute sayings on them like "A True Love Story Never Ends." Or "Live what you Love." How cute is that? 

Josh didn't like these cute little sayings as much as me. So I put my thinking cap on. First, the next time we went to the store, I looked on the back of the sign and found it was a Primitive. Then, I started investigating on Etsy searching for primatives. Next I found out that the style I liked was subway. I narrowed my search more, and I came across a site that lets you personalize a subway sign. However, this wasn't a wood block. Gosh darn it, I want a wood block. I want a wood block with subway letters. It's GOT to be out there. You know when you get an idea stuck in your head? This was one of those times. This was officially a quest.

So I kept going next, next, next on the Etsy pages. Finally, I came across Expressions Wall Art. This Etsy seller had my blocks + it had my subway letters. So, I wrote the seller a message and asked if she personalizes her wood blocks. YES! 

Then Valentines rolled around, and what do I ask for? My Sign! And Josh being the loving husband he is agreed to get it. So this is how we ended up with this awesome sign on our wall. As you can see, it lists all the places Josh and/or I have lived (some of them together, some of them on our own).

Also, we got a very cool Seattle print from our friends Jeff and Melissa. We framed that and hung it up as well. It's from another Etsy seller called Anagram Press. Isn't our wall cool?

We intended to hang even more photos - to make one of those wall collages (or like this). It was taking forever to just get three things up though. So, like I said at the start, this is an on-going project. Some of the other photos that will eventually make it onto the wall are sitting on the table (you can see them in the above photo). For now, it looks great to me!

Tiptoe Thru the Tulips

Or maybe not....

But tiptoeing through the tulips might actually ring a bell for a few of you. Josh let me know about this song, but I haven't heard of it before (you've got to listen a good 30 sec to hear the refrain). He said you'd know though, and like a trusting wife, I post it.

First, to set the scene, we had a beautiful day weather-wise on Saturday. The sun was shining, the birds were singing, and it was the weekend. . The temperature was great - not too hot, not too cold. And best yet, I got to sleep in. Can't beat that start.

No wait, it gets better. I decide to whip up some waffles with strawberries. This idea spawned from our Waffle Wednesday at work that week (yes, our lovely office manager makes everyone waffles - isn't that awesome?!). I topped my waffle off with some whip cream - voila!

Then, we decided to head north of Seattle to the infamous tulip festival. Every year in the month of April, the Skagit Vallyey (basically Mount Vernon and La Conner) opens its doors to crowds of tulip-seekers. There are fields and fields of colorful tulips - all within a few different farms. For today, we headed to just one field - the RoozenGaarde fields.

The drive took about half an hour to get there, and then it was tulip time. After navigating around some fields, we arrived to our destination. We knew it was our destination by the amount of cars and people. You would have thought it an amusement park. But we came this far, so no turning back now!

We walked around the gardens, and enjoyed the different colors and arrangements. They had little signs to tell us what type of tulip it was. For instance, there is a Seattle tulip.

Then we walked out to the fields and saw rows and rows of tulip -- most of them were yellow and red. In the distance where the billowing clouds and majestic mountains. Picture perfect. It was like our own Holland (I was thinking maybe we're on similar latitudes and maybe that's why Holland and Skagit have tulips - I should research if my idea is correct).

All this tulip looking, we worked up an appetite. A frield recommended the town of La Conner for lunch saying it was cute. So we headed there for some grub. But when we got there...even more people. Apparently there was some parade going on. The restaurants were all packed. It was two o'clock but we were still encountering one hour waits. I was starving. Finally, we got the the local brew pub and they squeezed up in there back patio. Couldn't beat that on a nice day, so we took it and enjoyed pizza, tacos, and beer.

With full bellies, we headed back home. What a beatuiful day for some beautiful flowers.

 

P.S. I dedicate this post to two friends. (1) My friend Irene who lives in Holland, and (2) My friend Lara who loves tulips.

A Trio

"What makes up this particular trio," says you? I say, "it's a trio of three." You return with, "Heather, that's ridiculous, a trio is 3 already." And I say, "yes, 3 trios, deal with it." Explanation:

Trio 1: The diners

1. Heather (me)
2. Josh (my husband)
3. Beth (my friend)

Trio 2: The courses

1. Appetizer (my choice= Savory Apple Soup)
2. Entree (my choice= Carnaroli Risotto
3. Dessert (my choice= Carrot Cake)

Trio 3: The dessert

1. Theo Chocolate Pudding (Beth)
2. Carrot Cake
3. Maple Crème Brulee

The three of us enjoyed a lovely dinner last night at Tilth as part of Seattle's Restaurant Week. I believe other cities have similar events, but mainly restaurants join together to offer 3-course menus to diners for a flat $28/person. For some restaurants, this is a great deal for the diner. You get to try out a new restaurant at a lower then normal price. To make it work for the restaurant, it's Monday through Thursday only; no weekends. But that didn't stop us!

This was the perfect opportunity to test out a restaurant that I've been wanting to try since I arrived here in Seattle. Their menu is seasonal and always looks delicious. And for all your Bravo Top Chef buffs, Maria Hines, the chef, was on Top Chef Masters.

To be honest, I was totally going to document the whole experience for you. But I was late at work and had to rush to make our reservation. In doing so, I forgot my camera. Then, I was so caught up in conversation (and food), that I forgot to use my iPhone. Finally, at dessert, I remembered and whipped up the above photos. Sorry the one of Beth and me didn't turn out (blame Josh - he'll blame the lighting and the window).

After eating our meal, I would definitely return to Tilth, even it if meant for the regular menu (maybe just for special occasions though). Restaurant week makes for a fun night out during the week and a delicious foodie experience.

Good News & Bunny Food

I've been MIA on my blog - sorry. I've been sick all week. I still have the sniffles, but that didn't stop me from enjoying Easter! 

Josh and I started out Easter at church. The music was great - especially the drummers that were out front and then marched in to start the service. I love our church's music; it really makes it fun. It's like our own Switchfoot at chruch. Another thing I enjoy about our church is their cool marketing. Seriously. It's cool. Below is an image they have for Easter celebrate. Okay, I won't go ultra religious on you, just wanted to give my church some props (not to mention, it's what Easter is really about). 

After a good service, we headed out for a nice Easter brunch at Tilikum Place Cafe. I enjoyed a decadent Dutch baby pancake. It had bananas and bittersweet chocolate to drizzle on top. Josh had their special lamb eggs benedict on crispy polenta. A delicious way to start our day.

Then, I had to get some regular Sunday chores in - groceries, laundry, a bit of cleaning - but after that we were off to celebrate the sunshine we recieved here today. We took a walk along Elliot Bay starting out at the Helix Bridge (you may remember this from another post last year). 

The part was great. People out strolling. Dogs running around. Sun shining down on us. A slight breeze to cool us down. What a great day?! We walked all the way down to the waterfront and art sculpture area. We took a few photos on the way.

 

By 5pm, we were back at our car and ready to head home. I whipped up a yummy spring soup with ricotta toasts. Then, to celebrate a lovely Easter-Spring day some more, I baked a tangerine olive oil cake using the special tangerine olive oil Don and Nada gave us for Easter (this olive oil could deserve it's own post...if I have time).

 

Speaking of desserts, I wanted to give a quick mention to our Pastiera cake at The Fat Hen on Friday. It's a traditional Neapolitan (Italian) cake make for Easter. I'll have to make this next year. Quite tasty.

Rat City, Flowers, Tribute

What does Rat City, Flowers, and Tributes have in common? Well, pretty much nothing except for the fact that I've enjoyed all three of them in the past week. Let me explain....

Rat City

Get ready for this...roller derby. Here in Seattle there is a roller derby league called Rat City Rollergirls. These girls are rough, and tough, and so unique, they are the badest girls around and you're so weak (<--I had to, it's an old cheer from, well, let's not get into that).

Josh and I decided to twist up our weekend movie night and insert a night out watching some roller derby. I was pretty doubtful about the whole idea, but thought it wouldn't hurt to go for a few hours. Neither of us had any idea how the game was played. Luckily we had our iPhones to look up the rules. After a quick look-up, we had the basic idea, and enjoyed watching girls beat each other up. Get a glimpse of the action...

Flowers

Ready for something sickenly sweet? Josh has gotten me flowers two times in the past 3 weeks. Isn't he the best husband? Today, while in training at work, the knock opens up and my co-worker walks in with a big box from ProFlowers. I immediately knew it was for me, but I just didn't know why. Inside was two dozen roses with a little note wishing me a happy half year anniversary. Okay ladies, say it, "awwww." Yes, I do have the best husband. And I can't believe we've been married half a year - time flies!!

Tribute

If you've read the book or seen the movie, you know what I'm talking about. If you don't know what I'm talking about, then I seriously need you to get with it or else we might not be friends. Tribute, District 12, President Snow...errr, okay, I guess I need to spell it out for you....Hunger Games. And I saw it opening weekend.

Sometimes when books are made into movies, I'm bitterly disappointed. But, this time, I can say with certainty that I was NOT disappointed. Sure, they switched a few things up, took a few things out, but they had to edit it or else it'd be too long - I get it. And they did a very good job. Highly recommend it. Go see it! It's awesome.

Tea for Two

Last Sunday, Josh and I did a "test run" for my first day at the Seattle office - the route, parking, timing. But why drive all the way to Capitol Hill without spending a bit of time.

We grabbed some lunch at a cute little restaurant called Plum Bistro. Afterwards, we decided to go check out a tea shop that Josh found out online. I was excited because I just spent the week prior in Chicago where every morning I enjoyed a tea latte from Argo Tea, a cool tea chain that I found (not on the West Coast yet, sad face).

I just love tea lattes. The love for them began when my friend Heather Richardson took me to Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf in LA many years ago. That is when I was introducted to the English Breakfast tea latte and the idea that you can have tea lattes other than a Chai tea latte from Starbucks. My favorite now is the Winter Dream tea latte...whoops, drooling.

Anyway, I digress. So, Josh and I took a nice stroll, in the rain (this is Seattle for crying out loud - deal with it), to a new place with high hopes of it being awesome tea especially since our favorite little tea shop in Queen Anne, TeaCup, closed it's storefront (you can still order online).

To our delight, we walked into Remedy Tea, a cute, cozy tea shop. I really enjoyed the way they decorated the store and had the teas organized. They labeled the teas with numbers and then had rows of the jars labeled with the tea's corresponding number. So hipster, Capitol Hill.

 

They had a few options for tea lattes, but back at Argo I had an Early Grey Creme tea latte that I really loved. They had an Early Grey Creme tea so I asked if they could make a tea latte (note: this would be called a London Fog tea latte). They said they could totally whip that up - hurrah. Josh ordered off the regular tea latte menu and got a chai tea latte. We were both very impressed with our drinks. 

 

(I guess with all this tea talk, I'm a tea freak)

We got our teas to go, and walked happy back to our car with a warm cup in our hands.

New Beginnings

Last week was my first week with my new position as Program Manager, Customer Success at Responsys. For the first week, I was out in Chicago for training. It was a week long with information coming at me everyday, and by the end of the week information was flowing out of my ears. But, it was a great week - fun people, great weather, awesome city, and lots of good learning..

Although we were in training all day and lunch was provided, I did manage to get out and have some fun in the evenings. Monday and Thursday night, the company treated us to dinner. Tuesday and Wednesday nights I got to meet up with family.

Monday we had a welcome dinner at Rivers. It was good, but mainly it was close to the office and had decent food. I had some grouper (fish) and veggies. Afterwards, a few of us went out for a drink at a cool bar along the river called South Branch - very posh, trendy stuff.

Tuesday night my Uncle Terry picked me up at the hotel and then we met up with Beth at a very cute restaurant called Janes. Beth and I usually both like the same food and again we both saw two dishes that sounded good. So, naturally, we each got one and split. We had a fig pork chop and goat-cheese chicken with marsala pasilla. I'd definitely go back here. Not to mention, good company and good conversation.

Wednesday night Beth picked me up and this time meet up with Uncle Chris. We headed to the West Loop area (I think - I'm not the greatest with the neighborhoods - I just looked it up on Yelp though) and ate at a place called Vivo's. We enjoyed the awesome, warm weather with a table outside. Who'da thought we'd be sitting outside, without jackets, in Chicago during March. Crazy. So we enjoyed our meals al fresco. Good times with the family as always.

Thursday was graduation dinner. Yay - I graduated! (or, whew, I made it - j/k). We all headed over to Rock Bottom to celebrate. We had a great last night together and let loose. A great evening. Here's all of us:

My last day, Friday, was short. We finished up training by 11:30am. I hopped on call for client, then I went and got lunch on my own. It was another great day (have I mentioned the great Chicago weather? Like 80F, crazy awesome). I picked up lunch at Med Kitchen, then found a nice spot in a park in the sun and soaked up some rays. Then I roamed around a bit, saw a green fountain, and then headed to the airport.

That was my first week of training in Chicago. Now, I'm starting up my first day at the Seattle office. Wish we luck!

Green, Guinness, Shamrocks

Green, Guinness, Shamrocks --> Happy St Patrick's Day

No need to pinch me, I definitely wore my green today. And, I even though my last name has changed, I'm still an O'Neill on St Paddy's Day. That, and, it will always be in my blood. 

Josh and I are having  a low key St Patricks Day. I had a long week (which I'll write more about soon), so we thought we'd keep it easy. We started off getting crumpets downtown at The Crumpet Shop. Now, you might think, those are English treats, not Irish. Well, did you know St Patrick was actually born in England. Read up.

Then we got some coffee at Fonte, and cheese at Beechers cheese (yum). Why not, we were downtown?

After relaxing and doing this & that at home, we got some Guinness steak pot pie at Hilltop Ale House. It seemed Irish enough. Josh ordered some Guinness too. I just pretended to drink it. I really don't like beer, so a photo with it will do it for me.

 

This afternoon, I baked up some delicious Chocolate Mint Oreo Cookies. I searched at three stores for the mint green chips, but no luck. ( I guess my Irish luck was faulty). Instead, I bought some Easter M&Ms and picked out all the green M&Ms and placed them on top of the cookies before baking. And there was my touch of green.

Lastly, we are about to get a pizza delivered (mine half will have spinach, so it'll be green too). Then we're off to see John Carter - note: that's a Josh movie pick. 

Go Irish!

To The Summit

Thursday was a beautiful day, and what better way to enjoy it than go outside into it. And we really went outdoors....we went snowshoeing.

You know it's a clear day, when you can see Mount Rainier. So that's exactly where we decided to go showshoeing, at Mt Rainier. Not to mention, that the guy from REI went on about 45 minutes on how great Mt Rainier was for snowshoeing than Snoqualamie, the other place we were considering.

Our friend Aaron joined us in the morning to partake in the snowshow adventure. So, the three of us hopped in the car and headed for the mountain. Before we headed onto the open road, we made a quick pit-stop at Wholefoods for some sandwiches to pack along.

The drive took about 2-something hours, with us arriving at the Paradise parking lot around noon. We slapped on our snowshoes and headed into the snow wonderland. And the sun was still shining bright as beautiful as ever. In fact, it was so warm, that we hardly had to wear any layers. I was even rolling up my sleeves it was that sunny & warm.

We're not entirely sure what trail we took. Maybe Alta Vista or maybe Mazama Ridge. We just picked a direction and went. We saw another snowshoeing couple ahead of us that were blazing the trail for us. We walked through a valley and started upward. We we got to the top and had a little lunch.

We continued on, doubting the ridge that lay ahead. It was quite steep, but Aaron trudged ahead - the trail blazer. And after some huffing and puffing, we made it to the peek of the ridge (or, as I like to say, the summit). It was a dazzling site, with views of the surrounding mountain ranges - we saw Mt Adams and Mt Saint Helens. Here's a little video I took from the top:

2012 March Snowshoeing from Heather Brown (O'Neill) on Vimeo.

Lastly, we headed back down the other side of the ridge, making a nice little loop with us ending back at the Paradise parking lot.

But that wasn't the end of the day. Not sir ye. We also got two beautiful views of Mt Rainier on the road home. One from inside the park at Kautz Creek and another from a small town near at Clear Lake. Can't beat these views....

And was one fine day of beautiful weather and showshoeing.

Friday Harbor

Josh and I had this week off. No work. No stress. Just fun. To celebrate the changes (see Ch-Ch-Changes), and to enjoy our "free" time together, we decided to have a mini-trip.

Our destination: Friday Harbor in the San Juan Islands. The San Juan Islands are nestled just north of Seattle right inbetween the US and Canada. It's actually several islands clumped together with the biggest being Orcas Island. Apparently, this is prime whale watching waters (unfortuntely just not right now - another time...). 

Tuesday we woke up a bit early (and for me, early is anytime before 8am) to get on the road so we could be sure to catch the 10:20 ferry. Before we headed out, Josh made us some french toast for breakfast. I decided he should be the official Brown household french toast maker....hm, hm good. So with fully bellies, we headed out. 

The car ride up was mostly just me falling in and out of sleep while Josh listend to his favorite radio talk show. We arrived at the Anacortez Ferry Terminal in perfect timing. Then it was an hour something ferry ride to our destination.

 

We arrived at Friday Harbor just around noon and we were more than ready for lunch. I had done some Yelp searches the night before and was equipped with some options. We opted for the Bakery San Juan. Boy, did we enjoy the pizza. The crust was perfect - crispy even on the botton. Yum! 

 

Next, it was time for island adventure. We headed out on the open road with just our iphones for directions (my dang nav system apparently doesn't know the San Juan Islands). Our first stop was at the San Juan Islands National Historic Park, the English Camp. [Quick history note: Apparently the English & Americans were in a little tiff about property and it all started with the killing of a pig hence it was called the Pig War.] There were some placards with the history of the camp, but mainly it was a nice view. 

 

Then we headed a bit more north to Roche Harbor. We found out that this area use to be the largest supplier of lime west of the Mississippi. There used to be lime kilns and a little village. Now, they have converted it into a little resort village with a hotel, harbor, and little shops. We noted this place in our memory banks for a future summer visit.

 

Lastly we continued down the island. We made a stop at Lime Kiln Point (hmm, I wonder why it was called that, hmm). Here there was a lighthouse and more good views (and "the spot" to whale watch from land). There were a few more stops along the way to ohh and ahh at the views. Not to mention, we were enjoying the beautiful sunny weather (finally, sun).

 

We ended our day at our cute hotel on the bluff, Friday Harbor House. Lucky us, we got an awesome room with a view straight at the harbor. There was a nice fireplace, and just a cozy room. We enjoyed dinner across the street at a place called Vinny's. Just a lovely evening.

 

Wednesday was the day of our departure. We had a leisurely morning with a nice continental breakfast at the hotel. All the while, we looked out the window at our view. While I slept, Josh said it was a gorgeous sunrise, but he didn't take any photos. Sheesh.

We grabbed a coffee at a cute coffeeshop called Churchill as we waited for the ferry to arrive. Then off we were back home. P.S. We made friends with Big Foot and a lady Gnome.

 

Check out all photos here.

Ch-Ch-Changes

Got David Bowie in your head now? 

Josh and I have been experiencing some changes. Yesterday we both had our last day of work. It was totally coincidental; definitely didn't plan it this way. I think it's pretty lucky though. We have a week off together with no work to stress us out. How nice is that?

We both finished around 1:30pm yesterday, after 2 weeks of "got to get this done" mentality. We didn't want to leave our companies off in a bad place, so we've been working hard. Now, that the work is done, we can relax. 

I get a week off before I begin my new job. I'm transitioning from a working at home position to being in an office again. I was starting to get lonely working from home, and felt like I really need to get outside and be more social. So I took up a job very similar to what I did at Acxom - both in what the company does and what I'll do. In case you can't remember, I worked at Acxiom as an Account Manager. Now, I'm going to Responsys as a Program Manager, Customer Success. The titles sound different but my responsiblities will be very similar. I think this will be a good transition to getting me going in the Seattle business world. 

Josh, on the other hand, will begin his job search next week. His work-life balance was totally off, so we just felt he needed to leave and take quality time to find out a position he'll enjoy and have more balance.

What are we doing now?

1. First & foremost, Josh got a burrito. This was immediately after. Careful, he'll bite if you try to go near the burrito.

2. We watched trash TV (Millionaire Matchmaker) for a bit. Wow, watching TV during the workday afternoon sounds so rebellious. 

3. Went to Friday Happy Hour with friends. 

4. Got Haircuts (on Saturday).

 

5. Baked Cookies.

Ahh, look what you can do when you have free time on your hands! 

Breakfast Biscuit

This morning, Josh and I headed to Tom Douglas' restaurant cornucopia. It's a corner restaurant that houses both Serious Pie and Serious Biscuits. In the morning, it's all about the biscuits.

Now, you may have guessed, but I have a serious sweet tooth. That goes to say, I prefer my breakfast on the sweeter side. Muffins, pancakes, french toast; you know, sweet things. I was doubtful of going to a biscuit place because I register the word savory with biscuits. But, Josh loves biscuits. And he especially loves it if you can make a sandwich or pour gravy all over them, or both. So I decided to give it a try.

I opted for jam on my biscuit, to stay on the sweeter side. Josh got gravy. I have to say, these were pretty darn good. Crispy on the outside, soft on the inside. The jam, for me, added that sweetness that I love. Yum! And, of course, Josh loved his.

What makes this place too is the atmosphere. There is this big guy, the biscuit guy, and he's in the kitchen laughing and talking. He calls out the biscuits in a jolly voice. I guess if you work around biscuits all day, you're happy. And I liked the atmosphere. The used mason-like jars for your water, high, loft ceilings, yet still had a warmth to the place.

Maybe I'm a biscuit girl yet. Oh, and we enjoyed our coffee too. What's morning without a cup of joe?

Weekend Visitors

This past weekend, Josh and I had some visitors. My parents! Of all the weekends we've had recently, they picked the one with the most rain. Sad face. But that's okay, there is plenty to do indoors.

Saturday - Wine Tasting

We jumped in the car and headed over to Woodinville, WA. There are about 85 wineries in this area (at least, that's what one of the winery people said). Sha-right, like we could visit all 85, get a grip...we did manage to visit 6 of them.

1. Chateau Ste. Michelle


2. Challenger Ridge


3. Patit Creek Cellars


4. Trust Cellars


5. Delille Cellars


6. Novelty Hills Winery *

*Bet you didn't know our visit last weekend was to preview the wineries and ensure it would be a good place to bring my parents.

We had a jolly good time. I got introduced to ice wines which I found awesomely sweet and yummy. My dad got a taste for Washington wines. And Josh and my mom just had a good time.

Sunday - Theo Chocolate Tour

What better way to follow up a day of wine, a day with chocolate. Theo is a local chocolate maker (just 1 of 10 in the US) just across the bridge from us in Fremont. This place is so popular, you have to have to make reservations to get on the tour. Since we didn't really plan ahead on this one, we go there early, got on the waiting list, and then prayer we got on the tour. And we did!

We all enjoyed the tour, especially the tour guide who made many Willy Wonka references. We got to taste some chocolate along the tour, and learned quite a few new things about chocolate and Theo.

Some of you who were at our reception may recall the little chocolate bars on your place settings. Those were Theo! My parents bought got the limited edition scotch chocolates which he is enjoying this week.

After a quick bite to eat at Fonte, my parents had to head down to Portland for a Burger King convention my dad was attending for work. See, even rainy day weekends can be fun weekends.