Monday, May 23, 2011
Winthrop Weekend
Spent the weekend at Lewisia Lodge (lewisialodge.com) in Winthrop. I am starting to like this Eastern Washington thing. Winthrop is a strange little town, many years ago, as a money making venture they re-did the town in an all out western theme. Hokey, but still cute. Lots of photos ahead....
Wednesday, May 18, 2011
ART!
I was going to stop for coffee on my way to work this morning. My local CS is, unfortunately, right next door to an elementary school. Every parking space for blocks around was taken up by parents dropping their kids off at school. I decided to just head to work and find some coffee up north. Monkey Grind Espresso Bar (http://www.monkeygrind.com/About_Us.html) is just around the corner from the house I was working at, so I took my travel mug there.
Rounding the corner I see that they have a little sign for Lighthouse Roasters, which in my opinion is the best coffee in Seattle, so I was already happy I waited to get my beverage. Inside there were several paintings by Dave Bloomfield (http://www.flickr.com/photos/starheadboy/) which are awesome! There was one in particular that really struck my fancy.
I got my coffee and headed back to work. I thought about that painting all day...
So, after a long day pulling weeds and planting pretty flowers I headed back to Monkey Grind to see a barista about a painting. $45 later and this cute little critter is all mine!
P.S. The barista at Monkey Grind was super nice, not that over caffeinated perkiness you so often get or the angry, too cool to talk to you guy.
Monday, May 9, 2011
CAKE!
Decided to try and bake a cake, from scratch, for Chris' birthday. This is my first attempt at baking a cake that didn't come from a box. I went with Martha's Versatile Vanilla Cake (http://www.marthastewart.com/315436/versatile-vanilla-cake)with a layer \
of raspberry jam in the middle instead of more frosting.
Making a cake is much easier than they have led us to believe. The frosting was another matter-don't try this,http://www.marthastewart.com/260911/whipped-frosting, it's not good. It's more of a meringue than frosting (as in butter cream frosting, which takes like 12 sticks of butter.)
The cake turned out well, it is more like a pound cake, dense and heavy, than a birthday cake type cake, but it tastes good and the raspberry in the middle is nice. By day two, the frosting has pretty much evaporated.
I think next time I will try a chocolate cake...
Two Cakes:
Two Cakes with Jam:
Weird Frosting:
Voila:
of raspberry jam in the middle instead of more frosting.
Making a cake is much easier than they have led us to believe. The frosting was another matter-don't try this,http://www.marthastewart.com/260911/whipped-frosting, it's not good. It's more of a meringue than frosting (as in butter cream frosting, which takes like 12 sticks of butter.)
The cake turned out well, it is more like a pound cake, dense and heavy, than a birthday cake type cake, but it tastes good and the raspberry in the middle is nice. By day two, the frosting has pretty much evaporated.
I think next time I will try a chocolate cake...
Two Cakes:
Two Cakes with Jam:
Weird Frosting:
Voila:
Sunday, May 1, 2011
Umtanum Creek to kick off the season
We kicked off our hiking season with a trip to Umtanum Creek in the Yakima River Canyon on Friday. This was supposed to be a two night camping trip, but the wind at the campground was so bad, we made a day trip out of it. I now know why everyone in Eastern Washington has an RV.
This was also our first hiking trip in Eastern Washington and Tim Tim's first potential camping trip. The canyon was great, it was so nice to get out of the rain and cold of Western Washington. I thought I would go crazy if I didn't get some sun soon.
We got to the campground (Big Pines, just south of Umtanum) at about 11:30, set up the tent and hoped that it wouldn't have blown away by the time we came back.
We then headed back to the Umtanum Creek Recreation Area (there is also a campground here but it is small and very exposed, fine if you are an RV'er.) We hit the trail at about 12:30. There were several cars in the lot, and we left just ahead of a large group of backpackers.
To get on the trail you cross a foot bridge over the river, the bridge sways a lot and is a little nerve wracking. You then cross the railroad tracks and the trail splits, one heading up a side canyon, one (to the right) heads along the creek. There used to be a homestead here, but all you can really see now are some old, scraggly apple trees and some fence posts.
We stopped here along the creek for some lunch-Cranberry Pecan Chicken Salad from trailcooking.com. Yum, a perfect, easy lunch, but then everything tastes better in the fresh air.
Tim Tim did great on his first real hike, I attached his leash to my waistbelt (which is pretty useless as far as waistbelts go) and he was able to walk ahead of me the whole way. He was a little reluctant on the bridge, but it does sway back and forth quite a bit.
We didn't see much for wildlife and there were very few wild flowers blooming (too late??) but the scenery was still gorgeous, it's amazing how different it is from Western Washington.
All in all, I think we hiked 4-5 miles up the canyon, not really sure how far the trail goes. We saw several groups of people, but in no way was it crowded. This is definitely a do-able day trip from Seattle, and well worth the drive, at least for a couple more weeks, until it gets too hot.
This was also our first hiking trip in Eastern Washington and Tim Tim's first potential camping trip. The canyon was great, it was so nice to get out of the rain and cold of Western Washington. I thought I would go crazy if I didn't get some sun soon.
We got to the campground (Big Pines, just south of Umtanum) at about 11:30, set up the tent and hoped that it wouldn't have blown away by the time we came back.
We then headed back to the Umtanum Creek Recreation Area (there is also a campground here but it is small and very exposed, fine if you are an RV'er.) We hit the trail at about 12:30. There were several cars in the lot, and we left just ahead of a large group of backpackers.
To get on the trail you cross a foot bridge over the river, the bridge sways a lot and is a little nerve wracking. You then cross the railroad tracks and the trail splits, one heading up a side canyon, one (to the right) heads along the creek. There used to be a homestead here, but all you can really see now are some old, scraggly apple trees and some fence posts.
We stopped here along the creek for some lunch-Cranberry Pecan Chicken Salad from trailcooking.com. Yum, a perfect, easy lunch, but then everything tastes better in the fresh air.
Tim Tim did great on his first real hike, I attached his leash to my waistbelt (which is pretty useless as far as waistbelts go) and he was able to walk ahead of me the whole way. He was a little reluctant on the bridge, but it does sway back and forth quite a bit.
We didn't see much for wildlife and there were very few wild flowers blooming (too late??) but the scenery was still gorgeous, it's amazing how different it is from Western Washington.
All in all, I think we hiked 4-5 miles up the canyon, not really sure how far the trail goes. We saw several groups of people, but in no way was it crowded. This is definitely a do-able day trip from Seattle, and well worth the drive, at least for a couple more weeks, until it gets too hot.
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