Seattle - Part 2

As our circuitous route to the west side took much longer than anticipated, our room at the Plum Duff House was a welcome sight!  One of my former college teachers runs this lovely B&B with his wife.  Pete & Robin Stevens are wonderful friends, and they are amazing hosts.  If you ever need a place to stay in the Tacoma/Seattle area, I highly recommend this lovely place!

After a leisurely Saturday morning breakfast, Jenny & I drove up to Seattle, where our first stop was the always popular Pike Place Market.  Yes, it's home to the original Starbucks, but we had our eyes fixed on a tres magnifique establishment down the block.  Of course we'd just consumed a rather large meal, but one of life's most important lessons is that you should never pass up french food - EVER!  (Especially anything that even remotely resembles a pastry!)

I love Pike Place, even with its Saturday morning crowds.  The bustling masses were a bit overwhelming to this countrified city gal, but the amazing views of the bay with the Olympic Mountain range beyond were so very soothing!  The ethnic food, the wares, the aromatic flower stalls and the quirky street entertainment make this market one of the coolest places I've ever visited.

Vendors are prolific here, and the stalls have overflowed onto nearby streets and alleys.  We had a great day scouring antique shops and kitchen boutiques for fun things that we can't find in our lowly neck of the woods.  Alas, Seattle prices are a wee bit higher than those in Colville, so we settled on window shopping and came away with some inspirational ideas for gifts & goodies that we can make at home.  (Kind of like a live version of Pinterest).

Lunch consisted of a thai curry dish, followed by Italian gelato (I know, another weird combo, but at least they weren't crafted in the same place)!  By this time, I was beginning to feel young & free again.  Later, we had time for a quick walk along the water, where the line was much too long to ride the ferris wheel.  Bummer - that really would have made me feel like a kid again!

One of the highlights of our trip was the chance I had to visit with some of my dearest friends from my college days, Barry & Veronica Quirk (along with their beautiful daughter Kendel).  I haven't seen them in years, and it was great to visit, even if it was for only a few hours.  The Quirks are great people, and it's an incredible blessing to have friends with whom you can connect like you've never been apart.

The rest of our weekend sped by.  Saturday night found us frantically searching for bargains at the enormous IKEA store outside of Tacoma.  Talk about a workout!  On Sunday, we took the speedy highway route back to Colville, where we arrived in time to have dinner with our families.  It was so very nice to be away, but it was infinitely better to be home!

Seattle - Part 1

When my friend Jenny called me a couple months ago asking if I wanted to go on a weekend road trip, I started to get excited at the prospect of getting away.  When she mentioned Seattle, I had to resist the urge to pack my bags and gas up the Jeep right then and there!  The big weekend finally arrived, and last Friday morning I found myself kissing Jordan and the kids goodbye, trying to wipe the stupid grin off my face.  I love my family desperately and I sure did miss them, but for this girl who used to travel 1-2 times/month, a road trip seemed long overdue!

Jenny and I took the scenic route, just south of the northern Washington/southern British Columbia border.  Talk about spectacular views:  our journey took us through several quaint Western towns, such as Winthrop, a new favorite.  Cute shops, antique stores, delicious food and amazing scenery - Winthrop has it all.

Perhaps the most intriguing establishment in Winthrop was a little dive named Java Man, which specializes in Espresso and Burritos.  While I'm still a bit skeptical about this combo, I'm pretty darn sure that's a guaranteed way to clean out your pipes!

After Winthrop, we ambled our way through the gorgeous Cascade Mountain range.  What an astoundingly beautiful corner of the world this is with it's rugged peaks, pristine rivers and cascading waterfalls.

Our 6 hour journey to the coast stretched into 11.5 hours with all of our food and photo stops, but what a ride!  An amazing start to a great weekend.  Stay tuned...

Bliss

Confession time:  there's a third party in our marriage.   In fact, it's not even limited to one.  You see, Jordan and I were passionately smitten, long before we ever laid eyes on each other.  And as you may have heard, you never get over your first love.  We've tried to hide our true feelings, but we are tired of the fight and have ultimately decided to share our home.

We are talking, of course, about books.  (What were you thinking?)  For years, our beloved bibliophilic tomes have been ungraciously stuffed into boxes and plastic bins, hurtled from one storage shed to another, unceremoniously upheaved while being moved cross country, and then buried away in our attic, where they endured several seasons of blistering heat and bitter cold.

While we will eventually build a cozy library to house our books, that particular dream is several years away.  Our desire to re-incorporate reading into our lives, on the other hand, was something that wouldn't wait any longer.  So Jordan took some extra concrete blocks and lumber we had lying around, and he crafted some crude bookshelves in the room that will one day be our master bathroom.  The day we unpacked our literary treasures was one of the greatest of our lives.  (Pathetic, but true!)  It was like getting reacquainted with long lost friends.

Since then, you'll often find one of us missing.  Don't fret - you need not look far to find us, but woe to the one who intrudes on our reading idyll!  Nooks and Kindles serve their purpose, but there is NOTHING that will ever match the heft of a good book.  We read both new and familiar lines, absorb that earthy book scent and get lost in worlds far and near.  We feel that we're only an overstuffed chair and floor lamp away from heaven!

While our current reading lists are quite lengthy, we are always open to suggestion.  What are YOU reading this summer?