I almost couldn't bring myself to write all this out. But I did. For you.

[sarea]

I just dropped ropo off at the airport. We went to one last HPB right before (in Tukwila), because we're nutty that way. Seattle is so sad she's leaving that it is crying copiously (aka, POURING RAIN). Goodbye, summer ... I hardly knew ye. /weepeth

During her stay, we:

* Went to Whidbey Island
* Gorged ourselves on lots of meals, many of which involved too much pasta
* Nearly got a speeding ticket
* Made 3 kinds of ice cream
* Almost had to spend the night at the Mukilteo lighthouse
* Went to West Seattle
* Finished jade_okelani's photo competition
* Got pictures of many out-of-state license plates that I didn't already have (we want to photograph all 50 states, but realize we'll probably never get Hawaii)
* Woke up a lot in the middle of the night when Talis would bark his head off hearing noises (aka Robbie getting up to use the bathroom)
* Made 2 homecooked meals
* Finished a 1,000-piece puzzle (with the help of romanticalgirl, who came over for dinner and was conscripted into puzzle slavery)
* Finished S1-3 of How I Met Your Mother (well okay, I did)
* Bought lots of books (me mostly of the cookbook variety plus Ursula le Guin's Earthsea quartet and George R.R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire series)
* Got bitten on the neck several places by bugs (well okay, I did)
* Had dinner with more lovely people - corianderstem, leiliaxf, breyer and the latter's brother and bro's friend
* Went to the Washington State Arboretum
* Saw Wicked


West Seattle

Here are the pics from the West Seattle farmer's market that we went to. It's probably one of the last I'll be going to this year. :(

We saw many, many dogs this day, both at the farmer's market area as well as the park. Here are two:

Mal's big brother (seriously, see the chew bone he has? It's enormous. That should give you an idea about the dog's size):


Talis's big brother:


We went to Lincoln Park and took a walk along the water, where TONS of people were fishing that day.


We had dinner at Circa, which serves my favorite fish & chips around, then went to an area of Alki Beach to take photos of the sunset. We took like a million of them, but here are two:





We also saw an ENORMOUS dog there. I forget the name of the breed, but Robbie knows it and can chime in. Here he is:



And to give you a better idea about size, here's the doggie with his owner:



Whidbey Island

This was really fun, if you like small towns and naturey stuff. We saw many deer, which was basically all the wildlife we came across, LOL. We took the ferry from Mukilteo, which got us to the southern tip of the island, then drove up to Deception Pass. Whidbey is where we saw our first "nododendron" garden. I also bought a dozen "fresh" brown eggs, but I had always heard that truly fresh eggs have orange yolks and these just have regular plain pale yellow yolks, so that was kind of disappointing.

Here's the first deer/fawn we saw. This pic was taken by Robbie, because she had the 200mm lens and actually got some decent shots. The fawn was with a sibling and its mother, and they were all deep in some undergrowth/branches and we couldn't get to them.


Where I got the eggs (you just go in, take a dozen eggs from the fridge inside, and leave them money):


This is the view from the car as we were driving up to the Admiralty Head Lighthouse in Fort Casey and got pulled over for going 37 in a 25 zone. The sheriff who stopped us was nice and didn't give us a ticket. He said he rarely did that kind of thing anymore, as he's near retirement. I blame getting pulled over on the Oregon mojo, because we were in a rental with Oregon plates. Damn that state will not leave me alone.


Here's the actual Admiralty Head Lighthouse, which is no longer functioning and is just there as a landmark.


Since the sheriff was a local and we were starving, Robbie decided to ask him if he had a recommendation for a place to eat. First he goes to me, "You're over 21, right?" As if he hadn't been holding my driver's license not 3 minutes ago. And Robbie goes, "Yes, we are BOTH over 21." :)) He said that on his "cheat days" he went to Toby's Tavern in Coupeville. According to him, Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman had a beer there once while filming a movie in the area, so it was semi-famous. As far as we could tell, no one else knew that story, but the food was good anyway. Our waitress was abandoned by the other waitress who was supposed to be working the same shift, so she was waiting all the tables in the (albeit small) place and was fairly harried, but nice. I had the plain cheeseburger.


Robbie got the chili cheeseburger. Funny story, she was pointing out some antlers hanging across the room to me and noting how big they were. Meanwhile, right behind/above her were like, two giant moose/deer heads. I just kind of looked pointedly behind/above her, and when she turned and saw them, she cracked up. Also? I enjoyed Toby's a lot because it was a bar and no kids were allowed in. A family tried to come in and the waitress shooed them away, saying, "Sorry, absolutely no minors in here." Ahhh, my kind of place.


After lunch we strolled around a bit. Here's a pic of the Coupeville Wharf:


Here's a fawn that was much more gregarious than the one we saw before, kindly stopping and posing for us as we drove by, taking its picture.


We drove up to Deception Pass, where I took a picture for my photo assignment of the day (you'll see it futher down), and lots of pictures of the bridge. Here's one of them:


Mukilteo Lighthouse

Little did we know that the adventures were only just beginning. We took the ferry back to the mainland, and since the sun was about to set, decided to stay by the water to get some more sunset pictures (you east coasters may have the gorgeous sunrises, but us west coasters have the sunsets) by the lighthouse.

Here's one of the sunset shots I got:


This was also during the sunset, though not directly of the sun; I just liked the way the cloud looked:


I also wandered around taking pictures of birds; not very successfully since I only had my 50mm lens on. Anyway here are a couple; I'll explain their significance later.





So after the sun set, we headed back to the rental car. Except, I couldn't find the keys. They likely dropped out of my pocket when I was crouching to take my not-very-good photos of all the birds. Damn birds. Anyway, Robbie and I combed the areas of beach where I had spent any time, which wasn't a big area at all. We looked and looked but couldn't find the keys.

We went back to the car, fearing that someone had found them and perhaps had cleverly hunted around with the remote unlock function to steal the car; luckily that was not the case. At this point I was starting to panic -- it was late in the day, so Avis wouldn't be open. Even if we had a locksmith come and unlock the car for us, we still wouldn't be able to start the car. And on top of that, both of our purses -- and therefore phones -- were in the locked car.

Luckily, I have the habit of cracking open the windows (for when I take Talis with me anywhere). With Robbie pulling on the window and bending it back a bit, I was able to get my arm inside and unlock the door. Then at least we had our phones. While Robbie started calling whoever she could to help us, I went back to the beach to look for the keys some more. After half an hour, it was really starting to get dark and I knew I had to give up; even if I wanted to keep looking and even if the keys were still there, it'd be too dark to see anything soon. (Ironically, there was a sign posted on the chain-link fence next to the lighthouse that some guy was looking for his lost wedding ring. We both noted earlier how sad that was, not knowing we would be in a similar predicament quite soon.)

I was pretty frustrated. The rental keys were abnormally large, and they had a hard plastic identification tag. There was no way that someone hadn't picked them up, in my mind. They weren't something small that could get lost in the sand like a wedding ring. They were really big, and with how thoroughly we looked, there was just no way that someone hadn't picked them up. Still, the lighthouse was closed and the only other building was the restrooms; I didn't know of any beach that kept an office there or would have someone there that late. I looked by the bulletin board, thinking that maybe if someone found them, they'd put them there as it was a general community location. No luck.

Finally it was dark and I needed to pee, so I started walking toward the restrooms because the lights had come on there. As I got close, I noticed that there was a sanitation worker emptying the trash can. I had very little hope, but had to try anyway. I asked him if there was a lost and found. He asked what I was looking for. I told him my car keys. Then he smiled and asked if it was the model of the rental. I said YES! And then he went into some back area and came back out with the keys!!! I was delirious with joy (and annoyed with myself for not having come to the restrooms earlier). I started running back to the car, pressing on the remote unlock button to alert Robbie that I -- or at least someone -- had the keys and she should stop whatever she was doing or having people do.

Apparently Avis (which was, of course, still open at their airport location, which had never even occurred to me) was going to drive out another rental car to us, so that we could at least be on our way. Which was pretty cool of them. But after we found the keys, we had to stop all the proceedings that were already under way on our behalf, which we felt bad about, but also elated that we didn't need after all.

But, you know, if we hadn't stayed that late, I wouldn't have gotten this pretty shot of the Mukilteo Lighthouse:


Homemade Food

I cooked twice while Robbie was here, which was less than I wanted but more than my laziness wanted. :D Here's what I made one night...

"Robbie Salad" - What is Robbie Salad, you might ask? It's salad that has stuff she'll actually eat in it: red-leaf lettuce, hard-boiled eggs, shredded carrot, sliced cucumber, and balsamic vinaigrette dressing.


Chicken Marsala - I used one of Martha Stewart's recipes, and was kind of disappointed. The sauce wasn't really right. And by "right," I mean, like Cheesecake Factory's, which I think has the best chicken marsala around. This sauce was too sour for my liking. This picture looks good though, because of the ambient light from Robbie's camera as she was taking a photo at the same time. Haha, awesome.


Zuni Cafe Buttermilk Mashed Potatoes - My favorite recipe for mashed potatoes evah.


I also made some "gourmet" corn out of a can (LOL), which Robbie seasoned. Here's the whole made-up plate:


I made sticky pecan buns too! They're made from brioche dough, which makes them extra buttery, rich, and sinful.

Here they've risen...




Here they've been baked, unmolded, and are ready to eat!




Then on another night, we had romanticalgirl over for dinner, and while we forced her to work on our puzzle, I made macaroni & cheese.

Here's all the shredded cheese. :D 1 quart's worth (shredded by food processor, thank goodness) of 3 different kinds of cheeses. I ended up using all but a handful. Shown here with a can of Pepsi so you can get some perspective of size.


The cheese being added to the onion/flour/milk roux:


In its baking dish and ready to pop into the oven:


Bubbly and super hot out of the oven. :D


We also made 3 kinds of ice cream: butterscotch pecan, tin roof (chocolate-covered peanuts, fudge swirl, vanilla ice cream), and one we devised ourselves, Flake-and-Peppermint-Bark. Robbie's dad had given her 3 Cadbury Flake bars to put into our ice creams to make "99"s (British thing). Instead we crumbled some along with chopped peppermint bark into vanilla recipe (taken from my new Ben & Jerry's ice cream recipes book). I think my favorite was the butterscotch pecan.



Chinook's

Here's all us Ex-Philes at Chinook's:


Arboretum

As there were barely any flowers, here are the highlights of the pics I took at the Arboretum.

A bench:


Cooper the Corgi:


Some really awesome-looking tree bark:


Jade's Photo Competition

Finally, we finished up Jade's photo competition. Here were my photos for the last two puzzles.

Assignment: Mountain (it was a cloudy day so sadly I couldn't take any pics of actual mountains)

Caption: Today I climbed my favorite kind of mountain.

Assignment: Hanky (I totally created this display whilst in Target. Yay for not getting in trouble.)


Puzzle answer: South Park (Robbie and I both got the answer after the second clue. Which was lucky for us, because the next say we went to Whidbey Island, where it would have been pretty difficult for us to get "Satan" and "Saddam Hussein," which Jade tells us were the third clues)

Assignment: iPod

Caption: For the stylish adventurer, there’s the leaf-colored iPod Shuffle, which blends in with jungle foliage so those pesky rainforest creatures won’t kill your buzz by stealing your iPod as you’re speed-walking to the dulcet tones of Britney Spears.

Assignment: Robbie

Caption: While on a trek through the rain forest of Kitchen (carrying her leaf-colored iPod, naturally), intrepid anthropologist Sarea discovers a true spectacled Robbie, native to Computer Den, far from its natural habitat. Approaching slowly and non-threateningly, Dr. Sarea was able to photograph this rare, notoriously camera shy, specimen in its unusual surroundings without frightening it into flight.

Assignment: movies


Puzzle answer: Things Jade couldn't live without. (Neither me nor Robbie got this answer right, though I think I was close with, "Things Jade loves.") All together now: Awwwwwwwww!!

And that is all for the pictorial of the last week or so. I was all sad about sending Robbie to the airport, but then we received a gift from on high: A HAWAII LICENSE PLATE!!! (I started writing the list above before sending her to the airport.) Robbie has been saying forever that she doesn't even know why we're bothering with the license plate game, because we'll never find anyone who's shipped their car from Hawaii to the mainland. And yet someone did, and they passed by us on the freeway. She'd just dug out my chapstick from the armrest compartment for me, and we both saw the plate at the same time. We both let out huge *GASPS* and then she was fumbling for her camera. So even though Robbie leaving was a sad thing, it was tempered by the most excellent license plate find. (In fact, right before that we got a North Dakota one, which we were pretty stoked about, but it was nothing compared to our joy over Hawaii. Yeah, yeah, we are total dorks.)