Posts from October 8th, 2012

The end of Summer 2012 has been a rather unusual one for me in that it involved a high number of outings. Especially weekend outings. I actually missed some Fools Play to do some of these. Here, very briefly, are all that I can remember:

Portland, about which I wrote extensively already.

“Mystery Day Trip,” about which I am going to write extensively soon (stay tuned).

Camping: Yes, I went camping. We went to Millersylvania State Park, which is just South of Olympia. We went there in large part so that I could sneak away Saturday night and perform Fools Play, then sneak back afterwards and continue the camping. I really enjoy the “sitting around the campfire” and “hanging out with 8 or 9 friends all day” parts of camping. Including some rather amusing obstacle-riddled croquet. I don’t so much enjoy the “sleeping in a tent” part of camping.

Marrow: For our 8th wedding anniverserary, Carrie & I went back to Marrow for the first time this year. They were offering a special three-course menu, so we opted for that and also threw in a couple extra courses. Here’s all what we had:

1. Wild mushroom and sorrel salad. Very tasty.
2. Salmon belly tartare covered with fish roe on an amazing dill cream cheese sauce, and served with crispy wonton shaped like a cornucopia, out of which the chunks of raw salmon were pouring. The play of all the textures was outstanding, and the flavors all really went well together.
3. Chicken fried sweetbreads, which were like smooth and buttery chicken nuggets.
4. Oxtail, which is rapidly becoming one of my favorite meats, especially the ways they prepare it at Marrow.
5. A boiling hot pear & gorgonzola tart. The pungent/sweet/salty combination worked really well, once the thing cooled down enough to actually touch it.

Marrow is good.

Birthdays: My sister and her stepdaughter both had birthdays within about a month of each other.

Apple Day: Carrie & I returned to the childhood home of Marvel’s X-men’s female clone of Wolverine (X-23) for our 6th annual Apple Day, wherein we crushed apples into fresh apple cider with the help of an apple press, and had a potluck dinner wherein we ate too much delicious food.

Cabin & Leavenworth: Carrie & I (& Suki) once again rented our favorite cabin up on the Skykomish river and introduced her parents to it. After we checked out we continued over the mountain to hang out in Leavenworth for a while. It was kinda hazy because of all the wildfires on that side of the mountain, and indeed we had to go back up and through Highway 2 to get home because the normal way we would have gotten home (down Highway 97 to Cle Elum then back via I-90) was so smoky that it was not a viable alternative.

Pancake Party: Just yesterday we went to an almost-all-day Pancake Party at the Skylark. More on that soon as well…

Um, I think that’s about it. There were also various trips to Pint Defiance and one to the Parkway Tavern. This post was meant more to help me remember everything than it was meant to be entertaining.