Josh & Megan

Josh and I just got back from a lovely long weekend celebrating our 5th anniversary and the end of Josh’s graduate studies. I wish it could have gone a few more days! We took The Victoria Clipper up Friday afternoon and stayed for 3 nights at The Empress. It was a beautiful hotel in a great location. Friday night we had a wonderful meal at Cafe Brio.

The Empress

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Posted Aug 25, 07:55 PM.
Taken Aug 22, 04:19 PM.

A room with a view(ish)

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Posted Aug 25, 07:54 PM.
Taken Aug 21, 04:24 PM.

our "courtyard view"

Cafe Brio

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Posted Aug 25, 07:53 PM.
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Cafe Brio was delicious. I loved their "Dirty Laundry" Gewurtztraminer

Saturday we shopped and walked all over Victoria, including a long hike up to the local “castle.” Castle Craigdarroch is an estate from early pioneers; it’s lovely but not what I was thinking when I pictured a castle. It did have an incredible view!

Castle Craigdarroch

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Posted Aug 25, 07:54 PM.
Taken Aug 22, 11:03 AM.

the "castle"...lets just say it was a long walk.

Victoria from above

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Posted Aug 25, 07:54 PM.
Taken Aug 22, 10:54 AM.

the view from the tower

We continued our awesome food adventures with breakfast at Mo:le and lunch at Blue Fox Cafe. We then explored the shopping district where I bought a new hat and a dress. After a break from walking at the hotel, we went to dinner at a local brewpub called Canoe. The beer was cold, as was the breeze coming off the marina (which we had a gorgeous view of from the patio).

The Blue Fox Cafe

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Posted Aug 25, 07:54 PM.
Taken Aug 22, 12:34 PM.

On Sunday we watched the water ballet of the local ferry boats – which was hilarious – and then went to the Royal BC Museum. The museum featured an exhibit called “Treasures” from the Royal Museum in London. It was full of great artifacts from ancient to modern cultures. I really liked the Egyptian, Japanese, and Roman collections. They also featured the Frazier Chess collection, which was used as the chess set in Harry Potter. We had lunch at the local fish and chips place on the wharf. It was pretty good, but not nearly as good as Ivar’s. After walking along the waterfront, checking out a street market and relaxing at the hotel, we went to a bar called Sticky Wickets. Monday we went to Willie’s bakery, the oldest bakery in Victoria. The croissants were excellent! Unfortunately it was time to head back home.
As you can see our trip was based around good food and shopping! Two of my favorite things!

The anniversary couple :)

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Posted Aug 25, 07:53 PM.
Taken Aug 24, 08:09 AM.

Hooray for hats!

Last weekend we took our annual group camping trip, this time to Manchester State Park. The park is outside of Port Orchard, so Meg and I had to catch a ferry over on Friday night. We thought we had it timed pretty well, but we actually just barely made it (last car on!). We got into camp right at sundown, but thankfully Bob and Katie had arrived quite a bit earlier. Not only did they have some hot dogs for us (foolishly we thought we’d have time to grab some fast food before the ferry), but Bob helped me get the tent up before we lost all daylight. That night we tested out a new s’more innovation of mine: the pre-chocolated graham cracker. Before we headed out on Friday I melted up some gourmet chocolate, spread it on the crackers, and tossed ‘em in the freezer. Delicious! I think the thinner layer of chocolate made for better melting, and they were far fancier than your standard Hershey’s s’more.

The next morning (my birthday) saw some not-quite-done doughnuts from our stove, and some delicious bacon and eggs from the Baker’s stove. After breakfast we decided to head into town to check out the sights; Port Orchard is a quaint coastal town after all, right? Wrong? I was probably more surprised than I should have been by the sheer abundance of pubs, and relative dearth of interesting shopping opportunities. The upshot was that the farmer’s market was in full swing, and while we didn’t buy anything, we did see some interesting characters.

Back at the campsite we had some pie irons for lunch and then a quick afternoon snooze before Dave and the boys showed up. The remainder of the afternoon was spent hanging around, and trying to keep the boys out of, the fire. For dinner I grilled some scrumptious kalbi short ribs over the fire, which we followed up with Megan’s mouth-watering mini birthday cheesecakes for dessert. To round out the night, what better than a rousing game of Settlers of Catan? (Bob and I fought for the lead most of the night, and then Katie came out of nowhere to take the win)

The next morning we woke up bright and early(ish) to clean up camp, eat some more delicious bacon and eggs, and head back to civilization. A pretty good camping trip I must say, I just wish we were able to get out more often.

Mmmm, honey puppet

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camping | manchester | weekend | birthday

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Posted Aug 7, 11:32 PM.
Taken Aug 2, 07:05 AM.

Meg and Katie ironing pies

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camping | manchester | weekend | birthday

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Posted Aug 7, 11:33 PM.
Taken Aug 2, 09:33 AM.

Hangin' at the campfire

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camping | manchester | weekend | birthday

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Posted Aug 7, 11:35 PM.
Taken Aug 2, 01:13 PM.

woodland gnomes?

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camping | manchester | weekend | birthday

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Posted Aug 7, 11:35 PM.
Taken Aug 2, 12:10 PM.

Mmmm, ribs

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camping | manchester | weekend | birthday

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Posted Aug 7, 11:43 PM.
Taken Aug 2, 02:42 PM.

Stealth Megan packing up in her tent camo

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camping | manchester | weekend | birthday

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Posted Aug 7, 11:43 PM.
Taken Aug 3, 06:23 AM.

Well, it’s been a while since I last blogged, but it’s not for want of topics. I started this blog well before I was to start school in the hope that by mid July I would have my updates down to a science so that whole school thing wouldn’t grind me to a halt. Unfortunately school starts in a week, and I clearly haven’t perfected the mechanically systematic update schedule of my dreams. But fear not, I’m not suggesting that I give up. To make up for my recent blog silence I’m going to condense my unwritten posts to a series of bullet points.

• Working at Boeing
  Despite my self declared “temporary retirement” I’ve found myself working more than I ever expected. Since early May I’ve been consulting for an aerospace company called TechSAT, working mostly with Boeing on their behalf. I’ve found myself doing everything from software development (light lifting only) to small hardware projects, to phone support to PDX to get a 747’s data loading network properly configured. Kinda crazy…

• Death Cab for Cutie & Decemberists Concert
  Meg and I roadtripped down to Bend to catch a couple of my favorite bands at the Les Schwab Amphitheater. On the way down we stayed with my grandparents Caldwell in Kalama. In Bend we stayed with my aunt and uncle and celebrated my Grandma McCormick’s birthday with some of the family. The concert was fantastic, despite some serious thunderstorms just before. Sat in the beer garden, drank local wine, rocked out. On the way back up we stayed with some friends in Vancouver and had a delicious home cooked meal (mmmm, four cheese macaroni).
  

• Student Teaching at Timbercrest
  At the end of May I went to Timbercrest Junior High in Woodinville to interview with a potential teacher mentor for my student teaching. Turned out great (despite the school being in the middle of nowhere) and I’ll be teaching 9th grade English and AP English for the forseeable future. Downside – school is too far for a 50cc scooter, so I’ve had to put that plan on the back burner.

• Beerfest
  Went to the Washington Brewers Festival and had a beer-fueled blast. Visited my pal and client Joel from Two Beers Brewery and tasted some fantastic Washington microbrews. This is definitely going to become a father’s day tradition for us (may even take my dad some time).

• Avenue Q
  Went to see Avenue Q at the Paramount with Meg. It was ridiculously awesome, like Sesame Street for the post college crowd. Bert and Ernie would be proud (or Ernie, at least).
  

• Fremont Solstice Festival
  Naked bicyclists, insane crowds, muggy weather, scrumptious foods, cool crafts, and a creepy clown in a van…
  

• Redhook Brewery Tour
  Headed down to Woodinville to do some wine and beer tasting, but after a pint of beer with lunch at the Redhook pub and 2.5 more pints during the tour there was no room for wine, but plenty of room for a good nap. For anyone who hasn’t done it I would highly suggest the Redhook tour, $1 gets over 2 pints of beer and a souvenir glass. A great way to kill an afternoon (or a weekend).

• July 5th BBQ
  Had some friends and neighbors over for a great 5th of July BBQ. Finger-lickin’ kalbi short ribs and chicken satay on the grill, followed up by Meg’s homemade shortcake and whipped cream topped with fresh berries (our neighbors Kevin & Amanda brought over the best fresh picked strawberries EVAR!)

Megan and I visited our favorite Indan restaurant Cedar’s on Brooklyn last night, and from the first step in the door I could tell that something was off. At 7:00 on a Friday night I expected Cedar’s to be brimming with energy with people waiting in every corner of the small entryway, but instead I found myself seated immediately (pleased, but confused). Throughout our meal Meg and I agreed that the place felt a bit different, from the extra puffy naan to the silence where once there was vibrant Indian music (though the chai was still spot-on). Don’t get me wrong, the food was still good, but it wasn’t the experience we’ve come to know and love. As we left Megan noticed the one change that I had silently feared, Muhammed was missing, as we’re the pictures of his family that once adorned the walls.

For those of you who have never been to Cedar’s Muhammed is(was) the ever present proprietor, and for many the face of Cedar’s. Muhammed could be seen nightly taking reservations, answering phones, and generally running the restaurant every day. As a frequenter in my college and post-college days Muhammed knew me by name, often I was greeted as “Mr Josh” and given a free desert at the end of my meal. Unfortunately it appears that that time has come to an end. I found confirmation on Taste of India’s website that Cedar’s as we knew it is no more.

after 19 years, Mr. Mohammed Bhatti has sold his Cedars Restaurant to new management effective April

I hope that the new owners will find a way to bring back some of the vibrancy that the Cedar’s from my college days held, but this may be a sign that we need to start branching out and give some other Indian restaurants another try (suggestions?)