Buena Vista Beach House

I'm sure by now you've heard as much as you wanted to about our birthday beach week with family. But after looking at our photos I realized the Buena Vista Beach house needed a post of its own. You can see the specifics about the beach house here.

The Rockaway beach house had many of the criteria we wanted: enough rooms that no one had to share, a fenced yard for the dogs, an open kitchen/dining/tv area with a dining table that comfortably sat 10, a game room with a ping pong table, a block from the beach, a deck the length of the top floor looking towards the ocean, and plenty of space for us all.

Seattle Weekend Wrap-Up

Those of you who know us, know we love happy hours. That wonderful hour (or two) where cocktails and food are served at reduced prices. So it's no surprise we treated ourselves to a happy hour at cozy local bar Frank's in Seattle's Revenna neighborhood. What makes Frank's so great? It's a local neighborhood oyster house and champagne parlor. Wait...what? Yes, oysters and champagne at happy hour prices! Sorry the dim cozy lighting wasn't suitable for photos of the 3 different varieties of beautifully iced oysters or Frank's fantastic cheddar biscuits with shaved ham, gruyere and apple butter.

We had some time to kill before heading downtown for some late night grub, so we occupied our time with some indoor doggie fetch. Her name is Saffy and eventually she did manage to squeeze her square shaped body underneath the record console to get her ball and then couldn't figure out how to get out. Silly. Adorable. Frenchie.

We stayed close to the Ravenna neighborhood at the art deco inspired Hotel Deca. Centrally located close to University Way (strangely known as "The Ave") and I-5, we loved the industrial art deco facade and decor of the hotel.

After checking into the hotel we headed down to the Ave to get some thai food. After painfully deciding not to eat our thai noodles in the wonderfully smelling restaurant we headed back to the hotel, eventually succumbing to all the yummy looking restaurants. We decided some soup would be good power boost and stopped off for some udon noodles. U:Don (get it udon in the U-district?) is a cafeteria style udon noodle restaurant with a pay by the piece tempura bar. Yum. It was a nice warm pick-me-up.

Later that night we cruised down to Tacoma to the Museum of Glass. What a beautiful museum! We were there at night and didn't get a chance to see the museum's outdoor pieces in its full glory.

But we did manage to see all the galleries and the Hot Shop domed workspace, which was fascinating. We watched in theater-style seating as a group of people work on huge glass flowers. The surprising part, how quiet and zen it was. The artists moved seamlessly without saying a word to each other, working in unison. Very tranquil.

We weren't allow to photograph the main exhibit, but we did snap a few photos of the children and art series where glass artist replicated a grade schooler's drawing into glass. Those were hilarious! Kids have crazy imaginations.

There were numerous large glass pieces and an exhibit dedicated to large glass sculptures, but the large glass panels were the most impressive in our opinion.

We enjoyed a lovely dinner and high tailed it back to Seattle for a sweet late night martini and some dessert at Dilettante Mocha Cafe. The chocolate maker is known for delicious chocolate truffle martinis. Between us we tried the Mint Kiss (Effemere Truffle Sauce and a generous portion of Vodka), Mocha Martini (Ephemere Truffle Sauce, Coffee Liquer and generous portion of Vodka) and a Sea Salt Carmel Martini (Ephemere Truffle Sauce, fresh Cream Caramel Sauce, Vodka & Caramel Bailey's with a Salted Coco Rim). We also shared a Mocha Silk cake (flourless, all chocolate gateau fortified with espresso) and a chocolate moussee. We went to bed that night happy and a bit buzzed.

The next morning we trekked across Lake Washington to enjoy some dumplings, but found ourselves unmotivated for the drive home afterwards, so we stopped off for some donuts and coffee at Seattle's famous Top Pot Hand-Forged Doughnuts. We got their famous maple bar, bavarian cream and shots of espresso for the road.

We had such a great time in Seattle, we're already thinking which Seattle neighborhoods are up next for a food tour!

Astoria, Oregon Wedding Weekend

We headed out of town for a very special wedding in Astoria, Oregon. All these years if we needed a little beach/Pacific Ocean fix we would head south, not north to where the mighty Columbia River dumps into the Pacific Ocean. We were pleasantly surprised at how quaint, hip and interesting Astoria, Oregon is.

We arrived and checked into the centrally located and cute Commodore Hotel before heading down the street to the pier to take in the sunset over the Columbia River bay dotted with large freight ships.

After a lovely rehearsal dinner we headed out to lounge at one of the many divey bars in the main town area. We were surprised at how young the residence of Astoria are - what do you all do in this town and in the winter no less. Maybe hang out at the VooDoo Lounge?

The day of the wedding we started with a fantastic espresso from the 14th Street Coffee Shop conveniently connected to the hotel lobby.

We needed to make sure we had plenty of food in our system so we walked up one Astoria's steep streets to Blue Scorcher Bakery for some breakfast, another great local business tucked conveniently in the main part of town. We got a terrific breakfast burrito and watched them frost the wedding cake.

They also had one of the best magazine selections we have ever seen in a bakery/cafe.

As we walked back to the hotel to get ready for the big day, the City of Astoria was up and roaring in celebration of Veteran's Day.

The wedding was short and sweet; the reception was fun meeting friends and family we had only heard stories of and reconnecting with friends we've known, but not seen in years. Before ending the night at the VooDoo Lounge with a personalized tour of the theater connected to the bar.