Two weekends ago, Mary and I took our last vacation before we have Baby in tow.  Mary's parents were going to be in Seattle visiting family, so we decided we'd tag along.

We made it a long weekend, arriving late Thursday night and staying until Monday. Friday, we got to spend the afternoon hanging out with Mary's cousins who live in Seattle. We drove around West Seattle a bit to catch a great view of the skyline.  Afterwards, we walked around Capitol Hill just checking stuff out. There was no shortage of coffee houses, pizza places, and an interesting assortment of shops and bars. All in all, a very cool place.

That night, we all met up for dinner with Mary's parents and aunt and uncle, who came in from outside Seattle to visit as well, at Salty's. I had grilled Alaskan salmon and Mary had king crab legs. After a nice long relaxing dinner, we called it a night.

Saturday, we decided we'd peruse the Pike Place Market.  We spent a few hours just walking around, sampling pastries, baked goods and smoked salmon, and just generally checking things out.  Mary's mom treated us to a few nice little treats.  One of the more interesting things to see was the fish throwers.  Not a lot of people were buying the enormous fish, but the few that did provided a great show for us tourists.  We also discovered what I consider to be the best cupcakes ever.  They were mini cupcakes from a Swedish bakery.  Mary and I split a chai cupcake and a pumpkin cupcake.  They were perfectly moist and delicious! 

That evening we went to a restaurant called Von's Roast House.  Again, the food was great.  Sunday, after Mass, we made a stop at Bakery Nouveau and were fortunate enough to get a table while we sampled some fabulous pastries (twice baked chocolate croissants, parisian macaroons, passion fruit tarts).  Then it was on to some wine tasting!  I felt bad that Mary couldn't participate, but I guess that just means we'll have to go back after the baby is born.  We only made it to one winery, but it was a good one: Chateau Ste. Michelle.  Despite the fact that it was raining, the grounds were beautiful, and the wine was great

After the wine tasting, we said goodbye to Mary's family from Washington, and had one final dinner with Mary's parents at the Pike Brewing Company.  I don't think I had very high expectations for the menu, it being a pub, but the food was actually really good.  I also had one of their beers, and it was great as well.  I definitely recommend stopping there if you're in downtown Seattle.

The next day, Mary and I had breakfast at the hotel, made a quick stop at the market for another pumpkin cookie, and went straight to the airport.  Althought it was only a long weekend, the trip was so relaxing and easy-going, it was just what Mary and I needed!

...take some ibuprofen and make chicken fajitas anyway!

So, I left work a little late last night and was stopped at the light to turn onto 22nd Street, which for those not in the area, is a pretty busy street.  I was in the far right turn lane and someone behind me honked for me to go.  I pulled forward ever so slightly (because the person to my left didn't leave me any room to see the oncoming traffic) and I saw more cars coming.  I stopped, but the person behind me didn't and hit the back of my car.  UGH!  Thankfully, she wasn't going 20mph or anything so it wasn't too bad, but she bumped it hard enough that my head flew forward and back again against my headrest.  My head immediately started to hurt and I had QUITE the headache for the rest of the night.  I got out right away and checked my car; thankfully, there was no damage.  We exchanged information anyway, and as I got back into my car nad put my seatbelt on, a car pulled around us to turn, clearly very irritated that we were there and gave me the most evil glare!  Talking outloud to myself in the car said, "So sorry for stopping since someone hit me!"  The rest of the drive was rather uneventful and rather quick because of the holiday.

Once at home, I got a hug from my husband, took some ibuprofen for my headache, and proceeded to make chicken fajitas.  We had invited Steve and Kati over for dinner since Steve and Jack had spent the afternoon together, as they were lucky enough to have the day off.  Jack was a great husband and helped me cut up the fruit for our pre-bottled Sangria and then made dessert while I focused on dinner.  The ibuprofen thankfully started to work and we had a great time with friends.

I forgot to take a picture of this meal.  So many blogs I follow include pictures of the food someone prepares, I have to try to remember to do that more often.

Although this was a couple weeks ago, it still deserves mention.  For Mary's 28th birthday, we went out to dinner with several of our friends.  There were 12 of us in total, and we went to Scoozi! after having a great meal there with Mary's Dad a few weeks earlier.  It was also fun because some people stopped by our place beforehand for a drink, and the rest stopped by our place afterwards.  All in all, a great evening with good food and good friends!

On a side note, Mary and I both had the exact same food and wine as our previous trip to Scoozi, tagliatelle bolognese and the gnocchi trio.  Maybe we'll try something different next time!

One of the hobbies that Mary and I have picked up over the last couple of years is drinking and trying different kinds of wine.  Are we sommeliers?  Not by a long shot.  Do we have advanced palates?  Nope.  But we like wine!

One of my favorites lately has been the Zarafa Pinotage.  The particular vintage is 2008 and Mary picked it up from Trader Joe's.  Lately I've been drinking more reds, so I'm not surprised I take to this one.  It's full-bodied, has a little spice to it, not too dry, but a good solid finish.  That's about as good as I can do as far as a description goes!  It may be one of the best $5 bottles of wine I've ever had :)

Cheers!

Ever since Mary and I started drinking wine, I feel as if we've accumlated quite a bit.  Not enough to fill a wine cellar by any means, however, definitely more than enough to fill a small wine rack!  We had been trying to decide if we wanted to buy a piece of furniture like a cabinet or buffet.  After looking all over for a nice piece of furniture at a good price, we didn't find anything we loved enough to justify the money.  So we decided we'd try a wine cooler or refrigerator.  Nothing seemed to fit just right either accept for one.  We bought it and brought it home, only to discover it just didn't work out the way we wanted.  So it will get returned.

Once we came to that decision, we figured we may not find anything for now, so we bought an inexpensive stand-alone wine rack from World Market (along with 6 more bottles of wine!).  After getting it home and filling it with wine, we found that we liked it much better than we thought!  Not only does it fit right where we wanted it, but it goes with much of the rest of our furniture, and it holds most of our wine!  Now I just wonder if we'll ever be able to drink it all :)