Friday
-began with a morning run. no sweat! wow! 4 miles. neighborhood loop.
-cleaned up, set off on bikes. rode to fairhaven, stopped for fairhaven fish and chips. wild fried salmon, homemade tartar. mmm. i'm not sure where this love affair with mayo began...but i'm on that train, for sure.
-back on bikes to get as close to larrabee park as possible. made it till the trail got rough, sat in the woods for a spell, gazing at the tall trees and stream.
-stopped at fairhaven park, overlooking splash walk & large hill w/ frisbee throwers. 75 degrees!
-rode back to boulevard park, sat in sun reading till i was sleepy, then laid in the sun and fell asleep. nose got sunburned...thought i was almost in canada!
-saw a guy "walking" 2 fat goats down the bike/walk path. not on leashes...they stood & watched us pick wild blackberries till he was 50 ft past and continually yelling for them. the larger one was named Neptune. had a stare-down with him robert goulet style. they finally trotted after him, their wide bellies swinging.
-got back, drank some white wine in the backyard lawn chairs in the sun. ad cooked up some very tasty zucchini fritters, with a simple tomato/cuke/onion greek salad. gin martinis, shaken not stirred, watched zack galifinakis stand up. sleep early after so much exercise.
Saturday
-up early, went to farmer's market close to noon. lots of hub-bub, vendors, musicians, great looking produce. ethiopian food! snagged lion's mane mushrooms, heirloom purple tomatoes, red peppers for stuffing, deep red plums, fresh goat chevre cheese. megan stayed back making wheat basil bread.
-bought hempler's sausage with kraut & grilled onions, sat and watched two marimba players & a trumpeter play some cyclical, call-and-response afro-beat stuff. hypnotizing. small child banged a cowbell that skittered after the beat perfectly.
-walked across the street for a pint at boundary bay & to watch the sounders game. had a sorachi ipa. tasty! sounders remained tied, rode back to the house.
-drove out to lake whatcom, hiked alongside 4 or so miles in along sheer cliffs and fresh water. couldn't take the water...peed on the side of the trail, looking both ways all paranoid.
-people own little strips of land next to the lake, where they come & barbecue and boat, or have a camper, & a shed, garden, etc. weird!
-happy hour at the fork. ninkasi maiden shade ipa, pork belly sliders, flatbread pizza with parm, green apple, homemade sausage, caramelized onion, and curried almonds (with honey or perhaps sugar glazed). reeeeeal good. arugula salad with balsamic, parm, cherries, plum. mmmmm. i was feeling a bit underdressed in a place with linen napkins, sitting at the bar next to a woman working (?) on a tablet pc. or maybe she was reading romance e-books. either way.
-home, clean up, try not to fall asleep. walked downtown, went to the grand (dive-y bar). had deschutes mirror pond ipa. went to copper hog for the firestone velvet merkin stout. twas smooth as one would expect a velvet merkin to be. !!!
-went to the beaver inn for fried sampler platter: dill pickles, onion rings, green beans, zucchini, mushrooms, mac n cheese bites, mozz stix, jalapeno poppers. whoa! who needs a state fair when a 10-spot will get you all that. with nary a drop of grease to be found. manny's pale & lucille ipa. desk chairs. free popcorn. terrible jukebox (candlebox, bobby brown). rough bathroom...trough-style reminiscent of the chug! kitchen closed before more green beans were had...
-russian dumpling joint, Pel' Meni: meat dumplings, potato dumplings. served with sour cream cup and brown bread. world's ideal beer sponge? mmmmmm. a little spicy. then walking home, lots of cops out and about, but we didn't raise a ruckus. didn't think i was drunk till i laid down. whoops!
Showing posts with label bay. Show all posts
Showing posts with label bay. Show all posts
Monday, August 15, 2011
Saturday, August 13, 2011
west, vol. 1
Wednesday
I flew out late Wednesday for my third trip out to the Pacific Northwest (although one of these was just passing through, on tour with EN!). After flights that rendered me as stiff as when I completed the half-marathon, my brother plucked me from the Seattle airport at close to midnight local time, in the midst of a three-lane rat-race that made the Indianapolis pick-up zone look like a machine. On the ride back to Bellingham...my desperately-empty stomach needed something warm. (I'd only managed to find a lemon-blueberry scone via Caribou Coffee in Minneapolis), and reluctantly turned to the McChicken. Glazed in mayo, of course, with hot-n-salty fries. I'm not sure when the last time I ate McDonald's, but I wasn't disappointed...except in myself. Desperate times call for pre-shaped particle-pressed chicken patties. Got back to the house past 2am, and immediately went to bed in the wooden loft of the guest room.
Thursday
My body and brain were so confused, I failed to sleep in. Woke up around 8, showered, started reading one of my vacation books (all food/culture this time): Spice: The History of a Temptation, by Jack Turner. After showering and considering cooking in, we took advantage of the sun & newfound warmth to walk downtown to a Belgian-styled breakfast joint, the Mount Bakery. Having never consumed Eggs Benedict before, this seemed like a ripe (and recommended opportunity) for which i was richly rewarded with two poached eggs laying seductively atop half a belgian waffle topped in thin-sliced ham, all on a bed of roasted potatoes. This was, naturally, blanketed with a golden blanket of Hollandaise. Combined with great coffee and a sunny patio...this blew my jet-lagged mind.
Post-food coma, Ad and I headed out on bikes to gather in more of the sun, riding streets and paths down to Boulevard Park, which is on the bay and was crowded with sun-seekers. Rode a little farther to Marine Park, off the beaten path and much smaller and quieter, with some nice stones to sit and look out at sailboats, the port, even Lummi Island. He had an outdoor soccer game to play in the early evening, so we booked back through town, and I worked on some LP art (the 2-color center of the record) for this fall's EN! release.
Early draft for Do It On the Moon record centers.
He returned in time to respond to gnawing hunger pangs from Megan and I, and then they treated me with a gift certificate he'd been hoarding (or...hadn't had time to use while jetsetting across the midwest and east coast) to a local "gastropub" (something about that word just rubs me the wrong way...I blame Indiana), the Copper Hog. I needed little encouragement to try one of the best burgers I've ever had, excessively topped with fried egg, bacon, and cheese, of course. The featured brewery that night was Seattle's Two Beers Brewery, which provided a smooth & tasty blonde, and an IPA that was distinctly hoppy, but not overly so. Both I thought were more than adequate representations of each style. By this point, it was close to midnight, and my sleep-addled brain had been feeling like mush since 8pm, so I was out immediately upon returning.
I flew out late Wednesday for my third trip out to the Pacific Northwest (although one of these was just passing through, on tour with EN!). After flights that rendered me as stiff as when I completed the half-marathon, my brother plucked me from the Seattle airport at close to midnight local time, in the midst of a three-lane rat-race that made the Indianapolis pick-up zone look like a machine. On the ride back to Bellingham...my desperately-empty stomach needed something warm. (I'd only managed to find a lemon-blueberry scone via Caribou Coffee in Minneapolis), and reluctantly turned to the McChicken. Glazed in mayo, of course, with hot-n-salty fries. I'm not sure when the last time I ate McDonald's, but I wasn't disappointed...except in myself. Desperate times call for pre-shaped particle-pressed chicken patties. Got back to the house past 2am, and immediately went to bed in the wooden loft of the guest room.
Thursday
My body and brain were so confused, I failed to sleep in. Woke up around 8, showered, started reading one of my vacation books (all food/culture this time): Spice: The History of a Temptation, by Jack Turner. After showering and considering cooking in, we took advantage of the sun & newfound warmth to walk downtown to a Belgian-styled breakfast joint, the Mount Bakery. Having never consumed Eggs Benedict before, this seemed like a ripe (and recommended opportunity) for which i was richly rewarded with two poached eggs laying seductively atop half a belgian waffle topped in thin-sliced ham, all on a bed of roasted potatoes. This was, naturally, blanketed with a golden blanket of Hollandaise. Combined with great coffee and a sunny patio...this blew my jet-lagged mind.
Post-food coma, Ad and I headed out on bikes to gather in more of the sun, riding streets and paths down to Boulevard Park, which is on the bay and was crowded with sun-seekers. Rode a little farther to Marine Park, off the beaten path and much smaller and quieter, with some nice stones to sit and look out at sailboats, the port, even Lummi Island. He had an outdoor soccer game to play in the early evening, so we booked back through town, and I worked on some LP art (the 2-color center of the record) for this fall's EN! release.
Early draft for Do It On the Moon record centers.
He returned in time to respond to gnawing hunger pangs from Megan and I, and then they treated me with a gift certificate he'd been hoarding (or...hadn't had time to use while jetsetting across the midwest and east coast) to a local "gastropub" (something about that word just rubs me the wrong way...I blame Indiana), the Copper Hog. I needed little encouragement to try one of the best burgers I've ever had, excessively topped with fried egg, bacon, and cheese, of course. The featured brewery that night was Seattle's Two Beers Brewery, which provided a smooth & tasty blonde, and an IPA that was distinctly hoppy, but not overly so. Both I thought were more than adequate representations of each style. By this point, it was close to midnight, and my sleep-addled brain had been feeling like mush since 8pm, so I was out immediately upon returning.
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