Posts tagged “Parkway”

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.

(or “Snowpocalypse Stormageddon” if you prefer)

I feel I would be remiss if I didn’t somehow write a blog entry on this rather unusual bout of snow that we’ve gotten here in the Pacific Northwest over the past week. Therefore this blog entry is what you might call “obligatory.”

Yes: it snowed here much, much more than it usually snows, and it has stayed much, much longer than it usually stays. And therefore much of the Pacific Northwest has gone into a panic the likes of which must seem hilarious to the upper Midwest and Northeast parts of the country, where long-lasting snow is a common happening.

The fact is that Seattleites, Tacomans, and to a lesser extent Olympians have possibly the worst weather memory in the entire country. You see, it rains well over 100 days out of the year here, so you’d think we’d all be accustomed to driving whenever it rained, right? Well, just imagine that there are more than five consecutive days without rain. For some reason it seems like the entire population suddenly forgets how to drive in the rain when it starts pouring again! I’ve lived here my whole life and this phenomenon never ceases to amaze me.

So you can imagine what it must be like if it happens to snow, which it does very infrequently. Maybe two or three times a year, tops, and it generally sticks around less than two days if indeed it does last at all. Here’s an example of the hilarity: one day last week many Tacoma schools were canceled because it was snowing… even though it was much too warm to stick to the ground. Yes, Tacoma schools were canceled because there was snow in the air. There wasn’t even any ice on the roads!

So you can imagine how the whole area basically shut down when a couple of days later the snow really did begin to accumulate on the ground.

Carrie & I have a tradition of night-walking through the snow on the first evening that it accumulates. So late that evening after Carrie got home from work we decided to take Suki with us. We also live within easy walking distance of Alice and Rufus, two Boston Terrier friends of Suki’s (and their owners, who are friends of our). We thought it’d be fun to all go for a walk, which it was. But it was also rather embarrassing, because Suki got so extremely excited by the snow and the presence of the Bostons that she kept on spontaneously barking for joy. Loudly. At 11:00 at night outside people’s houses.

Another evening a bunch of us who live close by all trudged to the nearby Engine House 9 (“E-9” as it’s called around here) for a nommy din-dins.

On Saturday Laura came over and she, Carrie, and I all went down to the Parkway Tavern to meet with Steph, Jamie, and law-school Katie for lunch, ’cause we were excited she was back in town. Well, right before we arrived a group of about 20 overly-well-dressed professionals had spontaneously shown up demanding food and drink. And only two people were working that afternoon: one bartender and one cook. So we had to wait quite a while for our foodstuffs, but it was okay because there was good company and copious amounts of pear cider. That night Fools Play was canceled due to a rather large burst of afternoon/evening snow (the owner of Mud Bay Coffee couldn’t find anyone who was willing to keep the place open late enough for us). Instead we all played Animal Crossing and we baked cookies and stayed in. Laura even ended up crashing on our couch.

Carrie had to work all day Sunday. Laura & I walked down to Starbucks and had breakfast sammitches for breakfast. The snow was like crème brûlée: a thin, hard crust over a lot of soft stuff. It was crazy to walk through it. But for lunch we walked again, this time to Wild Orchid to meet with Carrie, Christine, & Lawrence. Here’s a tip: if you eat at Wild Orchid, try the Rama Noodles. Very tasty.

We were so inspired by Wild Orchid that we decided to make our own Thai chicken soup for dinner, so Laura, Lawrence & I stopped by the Neighborhood Market on the way back to the house and bought coconut milk and an onion while everyone else went back to work. Lawrence continued on to his house, and Laura decided to drive back to hers before it got dark. Carrie made the soup when she got off of work, and Christine, Lawrence, and the Bostons all came over and ate it (well, the Bostons didn’t eat it) while watching How the Grinch Stole Christmas (the animated version, not that live-action crap).

Let me just say: onion, chicken, garlic, curry paste, coconut milk, chicken stock, cilantro, basil, salt & pepper (in that order) FTW.

By Monday morning the snow had pretty much stopped falling, but it was still very much there. I managed to get my car out of it and got to work with little incident.

I think my car is under there somewhere

And that’s about it. There are still about six to nine inches of snow around here. According to weather people the snow is supposed to stick around for the rest of the week, so there might be some form of white Christmas (which would be an absolute shock to the people of the Pacific Northwest; I only recall one white Christmas here in my entire 31 years of existence). I would also just like to say that it is very nice to live within easy walking distance of so many good restaurants and bars.

I hope you have a safe and festive holiday season. Until next time… adiós.

And to all a good night.