Sunday Supper: Across the Water

We decided at the last minute to hop a ferry to Bainbridge Islandlast night for dinner. Bainbridge is technically one of the San Juan Islands, but is about a 30 minute ride from Downtown Seattle, a quaint little island town, and boasts some beautiful views of the Puget Sound as well as Seattle.

We ended up eating at San Carlos, a little mexican restaurant. When we sat down on the back patio, we noticed some familiar music playing in the background. Robert Earl Keen is apparently well loved by the staff at San Carlos. It brought us back a little bit, we reminisced about Texas, and then realized it would be too hot to sit on a porch eating dinner in Texas tonight, so brought ourselves right back to Washington.

Here is a (not so great) cell phone picture of the city from the back of the ferry on the ride out of town…

Sunday Supper: Porter Ice Cream

Yeah, not so healthy, but hey!

We left on an adventure early this afternoon to see if we could drive the farm roads outside Seattle and find a good smoker. We found many great farms that sell produce to the public, rose farms, tulip farms, and a great antique district…oh and Red Hook Brewery.

We didn’t find a smoker and on our last attempt, came across the area’s Red Hook Brewery (shares the grounds with Willows Lodge, Barking Frog, and The Legendary Herb Farm). We decided to stop since Scott had never been. We shared a cheese plate, shared a Copper Hook (the spring seasonal) and Scott had a Porter Ice Cream Float. Oh my! Never seen anything like it, but he loved it for sure. Here’s a (cell phone) pic:

Sunday Supper: Vij’s

On our way home from Whistler, we decided to make a stop in Vancouver for dinner. Some friends of ours have suggested on more than one occasion that we stop in the South Granville neighborhood at an Indian fusion restaurant called Vij’s.

We got to Vancouver a few hours before they opened, so we wandered through Robson street (unfortunately no shopping was done, the US $ is weaker than the Loonie and those credit card companies charge exorbitant fees to process a foreign currency transaction – it no longer makes sense to go on a shopping spree) and then through South Granville.

We showed up at the restaurant at 5:20 to a long line out front. We thought we’d be waiting for an hour for a table, but this restaurant is so efficient that we were seated immediately, served with warm chai and a few samples of potato nibbles. Yum!

Team service is very interesting. Each person in the restaurant has one job and they focus on that one task, so your water is never empty, your food is promptly delivered, the whole process is extremely efficient! The food is amazing. Our selections:

Lamb, beef, and paneer (paneer is a cheese) samosas over lime and coconut chutney
Paneer and brussel sprouts in a yogurt curry sauce
Lamb lollipops in a fenu greek yogurt curry
Chicken breast in a red bell pepper curry

We brought home leftovers and an extra order of the samosas to savor for lunch this week. Thanks for the restaurant recommendation, friends…so delicious!

Twenty Dollar Tuesdays

My new favorite thing! A local pizzeria does $20 Tuesdays. One large pizza with two toppings and a bucket of 4 bottles of beer for $20. Can’t really beat that!

We went this week and got a pizza with pesto base topped with fresh mozzarella and ricotta. It was delightful.

After finishing our pizza and opening the last two beers, we played “Rock Paper Scissors” with the bottle caps. I lost.

My Kind of Commute

After a really long week of work, we took off for a weekend getaway for my company’s annual retreat on Hood Canal. We decided to take the ferry and relax instead of fighting I-5 traffic on a Friday evening. We had a little time before our ferry disembarked so we walked over to Steamers on the Waterfront and grabbed a fish taco and a beer. My kind of pre-commute relaxation!

I’ll take this gridlock over 520 every day of the week (and twice on Sunday )

The view from the back of the ferry…bye bye busy city!

We had a great time at the retreat this weekend and had the opportunity to visit with some friends, learn how to play craps with fake money, and take the obligatory 3 hour nap on Saturday afternoon. We feel refreshed and ready to take on the upcoming week of work!