Needless to say, we’re both very excited for the big day! For lunch we were in the mood for something unique so I went looking on Yelp and found an interesting place called Quickie Too’s. The reviews were pointing us towards the Crazy Jamaican Vegan Burger so we both decided to try it out, and wow it was delicious! Of course, vegan doesn’t mean fat free :-) But anyway, highly recommended.

Next we made our way to a Northwest landmark that I’ve been meaning to visit for like 10 years- Stadium High School. You might recognize it from the movie 10 Things I Hate About You. It is every bit as cool in real life as it was in the movie. And the weather was beautiful so we were treated to some spectacular views!

And here’s a panorama I made on a whim using the AutoStitch iPhone app. Very slick! (click for the full size image)

Just got word Shaya has been offered admission to the Southern California College of Optometry in Orange County, CA. SCCO was her first choice school so she’ll be accepting the offer and starting classes in August!

With the Vafaei’s just having bought a house in Encinitas, CA about 30 minutes north of San Diego, we were due for a visit to check out their new home. Since they needed their RL transported, we offered to drive it down for them with Sasha and Zeeba along for the ride. The drive was long and boring- 14 hours on the first day and another 7 on the second. To pass the time we listened to an audiobook of The Lost Symbol by Dan Brown until Shaya was too stressed to handle any more of it. With Yelp as our guide, we had delightfully greasy sandwiches at an empty diner in Roseburg, OR and fresh delicious soft tacos in Santa Monica. And between myself and Zeeba, we had to keep one of the car windows cracked pretty much the entire trip.

Neither of us had any idea what to expect of Encinitas. What we found was a beautiful Southern California town with nice homes, nice people and a spectacular beach. Shaya and I particularly enjoyed the charming downtown area along Highway 101, the Pacific Coast Highway. There were a bunch of cute shops and cozy restaurants, french bakeries and coffee shops. Over the course of the week, we had a delicious dinner at Trattoria I Trulli, great coffee at The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf and delectable pie at Pannikin Coffee & Tea. Of course with Katia’s fantastic home cooking we only had one chance to dine out!

All in all a pretty idyllic place to live and we can’t wait to return, home!

I don’t think it’s possible to be any more excited about our honeymoon… 16 days in lovely Greece and Spain.

And the best part- we’re flying in BA Club World (business) thanks to 240,000 Alaska Air miles. We have to take a stopover in Vancouver at the start of our outbound because we couldn’t get on BA out of Seattle but otherwise we got pretty much exactly what we wanted. So awesome..

We’re just now biting into the planning… so many decisions… At this point our itinerary looks like:

[updated]
Athens (2 nights)
Santorini (4 nights)
Madrid (3 nights)
Toledo (1 night)
Seville (2 nights)
Barcelona (4 nights)

If anyone has recommendations for great places to stay let us know!

Saturday morning Shaya and I took a short drive down past Tacoma to visit the historic Thornewood Castle Inn. It was beautiful and we loved it. The contract is in the mail for Saturday June 5, 2010.

(click the above image for more pictures)

I’m still not quite sure how but I managed to convince Shaya to accompany me to the 2009 Deming Logging Show on Saturday. The Deming Logging Show is an annual weekend festival to celebrate the history of Whatcom County’s logging industry and raise money to help families of injured (and sometimes killed) loggers. It was most definitely not our scene but we had fun and the experience was interesting!

My favorite part was probably the saw competition. And as Shaya can attest, I actually picked the winner before they even started! (That guy was built like an ox.) Shaya seemed to enjoy the kids log rolling tournament, it was cute. The 70-foot log climb was wildly impressive. Apparently one of the competitors was last year’s world champion. Watching him, I’m convinced he was a squirrel in a former life.

The other big highlight was the food. Though it was pricey at $12 per person I’m pleased to report that it was well worth it. We each got a huge pile of bbq’d beef, potato salad, cole slaw, baked beans and garlic bread. And it was delicious!

Shaya’s comments: “It was really hot and crowded. Not much else to say.” LOL! “Oh and I hated the guy sitting in front of us.” Regrettably :D I never saw it myself but according to Shaya the guy sitting in front of us with his wife and small children was wearing a t-shirt of very questionable taste…on the front was a photo of the ahem backsides of several thong bikini clad women!

(click the above image for more pictures)

First we drove out to the west side of the island to visit the Lime Kiln Lighthouse, named for the nearby kiln built in the 1860′s. Unfortunately we didn’t spot any whales while we were there but I’m told they are quite a common sight in the Haro Straight.

After checking out the lighthouse we trekked down to the kiln where I enjoyed the amazing views and Shaya poked around in the tide pools. On the way back to the car we spotted this sign that had been nearly consumed by a tree!

After a nice outdoor lunch in Friday Harbor we set off for the southern tip of the island, Cattle Point. As described on Lighthousefriends.com, “cattle appeared at the point in 1853 when the Hudson’s Bay Company established a ranch on the southern end of the island, populating it with sheep and cattle” and thus was born the name. Access to the lighthouse was via a quarter mile beach walk. We happened to be there during a lower tide so Shaya delighted in scouring the tide pools for small creatures.

The lighthouse itself wasn’t much to look at but the panoramic views were spectacular. While we were there we saw two whale-watching tours heading out to sea. We’ll be sure to try that next time!

Putting the finishing touch on an already great day, we saw a small red fox wandering along the road on our way back from Cattle Point and going above and beyond her duties as co-driver, Shaya got a 30-second video of it.

As part of our Memorial Day weekend, Andy took this lucky lady on a day trip to the beautiful city of Victoria, BC. After a long, lazy ferry ride that included machine-made beverages,

…a tour of a Scottish castle (at least, the owner who built it modeled it after one in the 1800′s)

…and the hunt for the best made latte in Victoria (side story: Andy did some research and found that an award-winning Canadian barista had opened his own cafe in the downtown area. With great expectations of a really good cup of coffee, we went in to find that although the super-barista himself was working, he was training two new, incredibly clueless employees who were the ones that made our drinks. And they weren’t very good unfortunately.),

…we finally made it to the ‘crown jewel’ of our little day trip, tea at the historic Empress Hotel!

After we were seated in the lavishly decorated dining room (and the host draped our napkins on our laps after holding out the chairs), a very well-trained and polite tea attendant came and took our order. Andy and I chose the signature Empress Blend for our tea, which happened to be a nice, mild, fragrant black tea much like an earl grey (don’t put your faith in me, though, because I really am not a tea expert).

First, a little goblet of mixed fruit was served to each of us as an appetizer. Soon, our food came out on it’s pretty silver tray. **Before I continue the review, I’d just like to say how disappointed I was not to be able to modify anything on the menu. What you see was what you got, and I really wish i could have had more of a choice in what was served, as entitled as that sounds. I was, of course, ready to let the supposed experts at the Empress impress me as they saw fit.

Anyway,

…looks good doesn’t it? Here’s the menu, and I’ll review as I list:

Bottom tray–

Sandwiches:
Smoked Salmon Pinwheel ~ moderately tasty, nothing special
Mango and Curried Chicken ~ andy doesn’t like curry, but they were good
Carrot and Ginger (cream cheese) ~ mmm actually good
Cucumber with light Horseradish Mayonnaise ~ love cucumber sandwiches!!
Multigrain Crostini topped with mixed Mushroom Pate, drizzled with Truffle Oil (open-faced) ~ the last thing I’d ever eat but andy was RAVING about these

Middle Tray–

Warm Raisin Scones served with Strawberry preserves and Devonshire Cream ~ thumbs down for the raisin scones, they were bland and I really don’t like the raisins, but the preserves and the cream were both fantastic!!

Top Tray–

Pastries
Battenburg-Vanilla and Chocolate Sponge Checkerboard wrapped in marzipan ~ bleckh
Chocolate Cake-Chocolate Cake, Vanilla Butter cream, topped with Ganache ~ not bad
Lemon Tart- Lemon Curd with Berry Garnish ~ mediocre
Shortbread- Earl Grey Tea ~ I don’t think either of us tried these, they didn’t look too good
Marble Chocolate Tulip- a cherry hidden under milk and white
Chocolate in a Chocolate Tulip Cup ~ Andy liked but I HATE liquidy cherries stuck in the middle of chocolates, there is just no good way of spinning this

So that’s it. Overall, I wasn’t totally enthralled by the food that was served- especially for the price of about $45US per person. To tell the truth I felt like it was all somewhat underwhelming and a little disappointing. HOWEVER, the atmosphere, the setting, the service, the company, and the tea itself, with one lump or two, all contributed to us having a fantastic time and leaving feeling a lot like this:

The day started off with us heading up to Newcastle to dog-nap Zeeba, the Vafaei’s pug. Upon arrival we discovered that Shaya’s sister Sasha was in the process of getting ready to attend the same event! So we had a bit of cereal while we waited for her (too long, girls!) and set off around 10 for Seattle.

Seattle Pug Rescue’s 2009 Pug Gala was held in Hangar 30 at Magnuson Park, just a couple miles northeast of the University of Washington. According to their website, the Pug Gala is their one annual fundraiser with the proceeds going to fund medical care and other foster care expenses for rescued pugs that are searching for new homes.

Some of the main events of the gala included a pug parade, pug races, and a pug costume contest, which was absolutely adorable. We even managed to coax Zeeba through part of an agility course…. over jumps and through hoops and tunnels. There was also a bunch of vendors there peddling all sorts of leashes, treats, clothes, and food to treat your precious pug friend.

Having thoroughly enjoyed the gala, we set out to explore the surrounding area a little bit. As it turned out Magnuson Park was quite an interesting discovery in its own right. I had no idea it was so huge, 350 acres to be exact. The former Navy airplane hangars were a pretty cool sight. We also encountered a new climbing gym and a giant indoor sports arena. The arena had two indoor soccer fields and an indoor beach volleyball court!

Following our little adventure walk, our attention quickly turned to locating refreshment and nourishment. My first suggestion was Agua Verde but that wasn’t met with much enthusiasm. Unable to agree on a destination, we drove over anyway and discovered a line of about 15 people waiting outside. None of us craving tacos, we didn’t bother to stop. But within blocks it hit me…Paseo!

Do a little bit of googling and you’ll find that Paseo is one of Seattle’s greatest hidden treasures. Of course, referring to it as “hidden” is kind of a misnomer because though it has no visible signage it’s easily identifiable by the perpetually large crowd of customers waiting on the sidewalk in front of the restaurant. Pretty much everything on the menu is amazing but they are most famous for their Midnight Cuban Sandwich. Seattlest described it as “a delicious mess: marinated pork pieces…melted cheese, grilled onions, cilantro, garlicky mayo and more spilling out of the baguette.” I’m not much of a pork person but I always make an exception for Paseo.

As expected, when we arrived there were about 25 people waiting outside the very modest tin shed at 4225 Fremont Ave N. Though we were hungry, waiting in line at Paseo is hardly ever disappointing. With a few dogs to play with, a variety of interesting people to chat with and an intoxicating aroma the wait didn’t feel nearly as long as it could have.

About 30 minutes later it was our turn to order. Unfortunately we had forgotten to bring cash! Thankfully, the guy behind the register allowed Shaya to place her order and pay after she walked down to the ATM at a nearby tavern. While Sasha and I waited outside with Zeeba, we befriended some grizzly old biker guys that were having a pint out on the patio.

By the time our order was ready we were so focused on devouring it that we didn’t snap any pictures but I promise it was heavenly. It was indeed quite messy though so I’m glad I wasn’t wearing a nice shirt!