Food Tour: Seattle

If you have ever spent a substantial amount of time with me, you know I love food. Not just any food, but good, rich, fresh and delicious food. I love to cook, I love restaurants I love wine and I love good company. Though Anacortes has a fairly large selection of restaurants, coffee shops and wine bars, it's not quite on par with the innovative and fresh style that a big city like Seattle can bring. After an hour in the gym this morning and the 90 minute drive, we were ravenous by the time we reached the city.

1st stop: Serious Pie

No ranch and Tapatio necessary. Chef Tyler Florence from the Food Network claimed it was the best pizza he ever ate (and he is from New York!) and after today, I must agree. We got the local wild mushroom and truffle cheese pizza to share, and Kim (Wills sister) got the yukon gold potato (potato!!) pizza with rosemary and pecorino cheese. Oh my god. Totally worth the wait! They fire roast their pizza with a thin crust (thin in a good way... still a good amount of doughy-ness but with an added crispy-ness) SO GOOD!!!!! All forthcoming pizzas will be compared to this.

2nd stop: Piroshky Piroshky

pi·rozh·ki also pi·rosh·ki (p-rôshk, -rsh-)

pl.n.

Small Russian pastries filled with finely chopped meat or vegetables, baked or fried

Need I say more? In all honesty, this is Kim's "must-see" in Seattle, mainly because they fill those little pastries with 100% comfort food... and the smell wafting down Pike Street is intoxicating and lures you to the guaranteed long line outside of the tiny shop.

They have sweet piroshkys, like the chocolate hazelnut and savory ones like mushroom onion... all of which boast a heavenly, soft, flakey crust. But we did not eat our little pies, we took them home for later.

3rd Stop: Lola

Dessert. This place is famous for its doughnuts. Yes. Doughnuts. But not the typical kind you find in a coffee shop, these little pastries are reminiscent of the beignets (ben_yay) found in New Orleans. They look like little pillows doused in cinnamon sugar. Lola serves theirs hot and in white paper bags filled with sugar that they shake right before they plate them. On the side is a ramekin of marzipan and a ramekin of pear butter to compliment your amazing doughnuts. Interestingly enough, Lola is owned by the same guys who owns Serious Pie, Tom Douglas.

4th Stop: Top Pot

We have been on a mission to find coffee like Kean in Costa Mesa and Noble in Ashland... you would think they would be easier to find? But no. Originally made famous for their old-fashioned doughnuts, Top Pot is scattered all over Seattle and their doughnuts are served in Starbucks! They also make a pretty good, semi-sweet Ovaltine Mocha, but their latte is still not quite up to par with Kean, sadly. I think what makes this coffee shop worth the trip, though, is its two story floor to celling, wall to wall, fully stocked book shelf. It's like a library. It's impressive. Like Beauty and the Beast.

***

Every time we go to Seattle, we fall more and more in love with the place. The architecture is so beautiful and the rain only seems to enhance its allure. It's hip, clean and so charming! But after trekking around the city all day, rich foods and the 90 minute drive home, our food tour turned into a food coma. I passed out as soon as I got home and have been in recovery mode ever since.

Home Sick

Things I Miss About Costa Mesa:

1) Gypsy Den. You have no idea how badly I want a hobo bowl right now... or a plate of nachos... or a freakin' chai!!!!! But the thing I miss most about Gypsy is the friendship it promised. I knew that no matter what time of day I went there, someone's familiar face would be nestled in the corner, emerged in a book or good conversation. There is something so comforting about running into your favorite people at your favorite cafe.

2) Sunday Brunch: Good ol' apartment-style brunch with A.J., Jazz and Kelly. Btw, "apartment-style" means 1pm (Yes, 1pm. As long as you are in your pj's, it still counts!!) Nothing Compares to the Soyrizo and eggs, tortilla, Tapatio and not-quite-ripe avocados that made up most of our brunches. Oh, and don't forget the midday drinking... Mimosas, baby!! There is no better way to celebrate a Sunday.

3) Monday Night Pizza: I don't care where. Mondays always suck. Pizza and friends made it better.

4) Trash TV: Teen Mom, Bad Girls Club, Jersey Shore... I miss the love-hate relationship I used to have for these shows and they're really not as entertaining when you watch them alone. I find myself being more disgusted with each passing episode. It's really not the same without Jazz, A.J. and J.P. :(

5) Dance Parties: It didn't matter if it was a Saturday night at Memphis or a Tuesday night at the Birdhouse, dance parties were a part of my weekly regimen. Here in Anacortes, it's hard to find the youngin's. I know they're somewhere... I just can't figure out where they're hiding out. Where is the indie music?! Where are the Miley remixes? Come on, WA!!! Where are you?!

6) Boxed Wine Fetish: When you live in an apartment with 5 people, one bottle of wine just isn't going to cut it. Or five bottles, for that matter. Thus, the boxed wine fetish was born. 5 liters of wine for only 8 dollars?? How can this be?! And that 5 liters would get us all sufficiently intoxicated for at least 3 days... which was awesome.

Things I Love About Anacortes

1) Weather: (Oh, the weather outside is weather...) Yes it's freezing most of the time but the sun continues to shine all day long. For a California girl like me, anything below 45 degrees is craaayyyzeee!! But I love it. My teeth chatter on the way to the market and a heavy jacket is necessary at all times. Not to mention, the air is as clear as you'll ever see it. Ever notice that the smog in Costa Mesa hides the surrounding mountain ranges 90% of the time? Did you even know that Orange County lies between the mountain and the beach?? I always forget about them. But here in Anacortes, the blinding white peaks of Mt. Baker refuse to be overlooked in the landscape.

2) Brewing: Home beer brewing, that is. I feel like everyone here does it. It's an underground community... like swing dancing in the 30's. There is a love affair with the art, but no one talks about it. It's a secret. In our kitchen, a giant 5 gallon jug of honey lager bubbles and stews. I can't wait for it to be done.

3)The Brown Lantern: Probably the coolest bar in town... but we have no one to go with :( I think my favorite part about the place is the "Wall of Fire" which boasts an extensive assortment or hot sauces - a Southern Californians dream. I feel like most restaurants and pubs just don't understand the romance a good bottle of hot sauce can bring to a meal. The Brown Lantern does! Also, they host a trivia night, open mike night and live bands... Fun fun fun.

4) Orcas: Resident orcas are extremely uncommon... and here in Anacortes, about a hundred of them live all year long in the North Puget Sound. Killer Whales typically prefer colder water and coastal regions, making Fidalgo Island an ideal nesting spot.

5) Tulips: driving down Highway 20 during the spring will give you the most breathtaking view of tulips and daffodils... probably ever. Skagit County is the largest tulip grower in the world. But the interesting thing about Skagit County? They don't harvest the flowers. They let them die, then dig up the bulbs and sell them. Also, hundreds of swans gather in the tulip fields to forage for food in the late winter. It's really unique.

6) Vivid Wake-Up Calls: I wake up at about 6:30 every morning because my white walls turn a dusty shade of pink. When I look out my window, I see Mt. Baker's rosy glow shining like the sun and the pale waters of the bay mimic the colors of the flirtatious sunrise creeping over the mountain ranges. It makes me giggle a little before I pull the covers over my head and fall back asleep for another hour or so.

The Room With the View

Our bedroom is small. Just enough room for our bed and a dresser. We're trying our best to turn it into a sanctuary, but it's coming along much slower than we hoped. Yellow is the theme. We have a glorious white quilt with golden embroidery and a duvet underneath that with yellow, bursting flowers. An antique dresser with a butter finish sits opposite the bed and sunburst mirrors hover an illuminate the room. It could be perfect. But there are these bold, red curtains that are determined to mock me in my attempt to redecorate. They know that the sun rises far too early in Washington (3am during the summer) and until we can afford new ones, they will have to stay. I hate them. There is another window in the room, however, that has remained uncovered. We plan to fix this in the future. The sun shines through in the early mornings but I don't mind. The 6am glow reminds me to sit up and admire the sun as it creeps over the mountains in a shade of pink. But the real view happens after the sun sets.

There is an old oil refinery that sits in the bay off Anacortes. Typical in it's structure, tall towers that emit large billowing clouds of steam and rusty patches of steel spread over its entire surface. Nothing much to notice during the day. I have passed it by on many occasions, noting that it looks like something more out of a science fiction novel than anything else... It's out of place in any light to say the least. Mostly because it's harsh outline and obtrusive colors that fail to blend with the green backdrop of the Northwest. But as soon as the sun sinks into the ocean and the sky turns black, a thousand tiny lights come alive and cover every inch of the dingy refinery transforming it into a magical and distant castle. It seems to float on the water as the lights reflect off the bay and glisten in the moonlight. Or maybe it looks like a city made of gold? Or maybe it's how Atlantis would look if it were set ablaze or if a hundred thousand twinkling fireflies perched on it's smoke columns. Whatever its secret, it brings a sense of mystery and wonder to our cramped bedroom. I like to turn off all the lights and admire it's beauty, knowing full well that the rising sun will turn it back into a dingy, industrious monster. I suppose that's what makes it so amazing in the first place. It's doomed to turn back into a pumpkin.

From our bedroom window, the faint glow of Oz itself shines meekly on our faces as we sleep transmitting good vibes and better dreams. There really is no better view in Anacortes than from our bedroom window.

Homecoming

We have finally arrived!!! After 24 torturous hours of driving, Anacortes welcomed us home with it's gloomy skies and friendly rain. We were ecstatic to be free from the cramped cab of the moving van but the feeling was brief... we still have a TON of unpacking to do. But we tried to enjoy the moment with some heart-shaped pizza and a "Welcome Home" cake ordered especially for us.

We arrived yesterday (to be exact) on Valentines Day. February 14th holds so much weight when you're a couple especially a new couple. You expect gestures of grandeur and you hold each other to a higher standard. Even if you're one who claims you don't care about red roses and shiney jewelry, you're a liar and you would be dissapointed if your lover let the day pass without a word. I am no exception... though I expect only a thoughtful heart and a gesture that says "this is what you want, right?" since most guys are only aiming to please. Valentines day this year was not the special, romantic shinding in the literal sense... we woke up at 4am, drove all day, exchanged small gifts at a gas station (purchased elsewhere) and unloaded a packed U-Haul 12 hours later. But exhausted as he was, he never made me drive a single minute of our gruesome trip he let me sleep without complaint and he insisted that I relax while he and his dad shoveled dirt out of the driveway and made room for all our things in the garage. Best. Present. Ever. We have a thousand years (or so) to have a standardized and typical Valentines Day, but this one will go down in the books as one of those, rare, true acts of love that probably would have occurred had it not been Valentines Day, but holds so much more meaning simply because it was simple. And real.

Anyway... we are already a whole day into our 365! It seems that our first week or so will consist of redecorating, re-organizing and purging!! Fresh starts call for fresh paint, freshly cleaned sheets and a whole lot of vacumming. Today we spent the majority of our time trying to repaint our "sitting room", as Jolyn like to call it, from a lime green color back to a normal color. Yes... LIME GREEN people. It took about 2 GALLONS of paint just to get it white again... and still there are patches of a murkey, sneaky green trying to poke through. But I am determined to hide it for all eternity! Tomorrow we will finish painting our accent wall (a normal, sage green) and then proceed to move in all our furniture. The problem we are running into here, though, is that nothing fits like we hoped :( the room is much smaller than we imagined it to be. Even though we had seen the room many times before and even stood inside it, we still had high hopes for our furniture... all unrealistic we have discovered.

The pace at which we are setteling in might run us srtaight into the ground but I refuse to call this place my home untill it feels like my home. I need my books and my pictures, my throw pillows and my colors. It needs to be mine. Otherwise I'm just floating. I am visiting. I get anxious when I feel out of place and I can't afford to be uncomfortable when there is so much I need to accomplish is such a short amount of time.

I decided that I am going to treat Anacortes as a "New Year" of sorts. like this is my chance to reinvent myself. I can do anything here. I can learn to play tennis, golf on sundays, be a true baseball fan (the kind who knows, at the very least, who plays on her team) and take an art class. I can be in a folk rock band, brew my own beer and buy a pair of sturdy hiking boots and actually use them. This is why I must pay particular attention to how I start off here... I must lay down the right foundation to prepare for our epic journey. I am setting up my house (which is really just 2 bedrooms) but in actuality I am setting up the stepping stones for something bigger and more exciting. You watch, one week from now a whole new me will be brewing. Just wait. A whole new us is in the making.

Ashland

It's day three of our journey and Will and I are exhausted, to say the least. Thursday and Friday we woke up at 3:30am to attempt to get on the road by 4... and miss all the rush hour traffic. But our moving truck has been giving us so much trouble! Not only does it get like... 9 miles to the gallon but the car hitch makes it impossible to back up... so if you drive down a street, hoping there is an outlet but then find out its a very small cul-de-sac, you have to take the car off the hitch, then take the hitch off the truck, then turn the truck around and put everything back on. And doing this at 4am is dreadful. And, 4am seems to be the time when all the truckers of America like to get on the road as well. Sharing the road with a thousand angry truckers, possibly sleep-deprived and hopped up on speed is so stressful that my blood pressure has likely spiked about 10 points.

Despite the horrendous driving and waking up at un-godly hours of the morning, we made it safely to Ashland, OR where sleeping in feels like 7:30 and apple pie sounds like a fantastic breakfast. So, after a brief tour of the quaint town on Friday (complete with AMAZING sandwiches from Big Town Hero for lunch, and homemade soup and Netflix for dinner) we are ready for another lazy day before we take on the 5 freeway tomorrow.

Ashland really is everything they say it is. Its old, adorable and FULL of yummy restaurants, book stores, novelty shops and they have a huge Shakespeare Theater which made them famous. It feels really nice to relax for a while but I can't wait until we finally reach Washington. Keep us in your prayers!

Closing

Today is my last day of work. I cannot express how joyous this makes me. I leave at 2pm and have the rest of the day to hang out with Will, get a hair cut... whatever I want, basically. It feels good. And for once in my life, I don't mind sitting at my desk, in my dark office, tapping away at the keyboard in a mindless manor. Today is a very good day :) That said, this weekend was glorious. Sad, but glorious. Our going away party was on Saturday and everyone came. I didn't expect such a big turnout but I guess we are more popular than I thought. And I didn't expect to get so choked up... I didn't expect EVERYONE to get so emotional but everyone who came, cried a little. But I left with a warm feeling inside because our friends are truly amazing and their love is genuine.

watch the video and see for yourself :)

Pre Amble

It's official. My last day at work is on the 9th, a mere 4 days away, thus concluding the OC chapter. I don't know what I expect from Anacortes. I don't know that it can live up to my romanticized, idealistic fairytale of what it means to start over. Chances are, Anacortes will fail miserably on all accounts, leaving me with an empty cup and a heavy heart. It may fill my soul with bricks. It may leave me more broken hearted than when I came. But I will continue to be optimistic, hoping that I will learn to appreciate life and friendship, hoping that the crust that Orange County caked onto my skin will slowly wash off. Maybe I will learn to open up, maybe I will learn to be thankful for what I have and maybe all my rough edges will finally be smoothed out.

Will finally started packing up our room today. It's sad to walk in and see half-full boxes strewn about. They seem to taunt us, and remind us that everything is going to change. Maybe for the best but maybe not. It does feel good to make some progress, though. After all, there is no stopping us at this point so we might as well get a move on. I was walking through the apartment, trying to decide which items should be packed up first and which items we need till the very end. We've been living on so little these past months that everything seems important and vital. I have no idea where to start. There is a few things in the kitchen that made their way into boxes, a few decorative items... what next? How do you know what you are going to need over the next few days? All that's left is clothes... our bed... the bathroom stuff. Ugh. It's all so frustrating.

I have a feeling that this mental block is stemming from some sort of sub-conscience stubbornness. An unwillingness to focus and face reality for fear it might cause my eyes to well up and my legs to collapse. Besides, there are more exciting things to be worrying about right now. Like Thursday movie night, a relaxing Friday with friends and wine, our "Going Away Party" on Saturday and Super Bowl Sunday with the Chavez boys. I am glad our last weekend here is going to be so jam packed that we'll have no time to feel sad. No time to think about grown-up stuff. No time to worry. Just time enough to relax and enjoy the best of company.