Memories of Last Weekend

South Lake Union Block Party

So during the summer time, my company does “summer hours”.  Which means if you make up 4 hours somewhere else in the week you get to leave at noon on Fridays.  Now, I don’t ever expect to leave at noon.  Because of my position I often have to stay longer due to projects, contractor oversight or just to get stuff done.  However, my boss is pretty bad-ass.  He often kicks me out sometime between 1 and 3.  So I got to leave at 1:30 and decided to head down to Downtown to pick up Tyler from work.  Tyler was able to scoot out at 3-ish and he agreed to go to the block party with me.  So we hit up a couple of places on the way to my car and enjoyed some vino and appetizers.  First we hit up Sazerac Restaurant.  And sadly we were too early for happy hour.  But, I had a nice glass of Prosecco and waited on some spicy sausage appetizer to arrive.  It never did… So we left hungry and were on the lookout for another place to stop, preferably a place with happy hour.  Low and behold we found Purple Cafe and Wine Bar.  They delivered with amazing unique wines, calamari and an artisan cured meat pizza.  My pizza was to die for, loaded with:  soppresata, coppa, spanish chorizo, mozzarella, fresh oregano and tomato sauce. 

Look at the unique menu; made out of old clip boards.  I had the Gruner Veltliner to drink, it was very crisp on the hot day that it was.

It was so freaking hot, but the block party was pretty neat.  We purchased 6 tickets each for taster’s from the various restaurants.  I wish the food trucks participated in the “taster” portion.  I wanted to try some food truck stuff, but it was all regular price and I was already full.  We sampled from the following restaurants:  Cactus, Mad Pizza, Paddy Coyne’s, Buca di Beppo, 13 coins, and Tutta Bella Neapolitan Pizzeria. Cactus took the cake.  I wanted to go back 3 times, but it caught on quickly and the line was packed.  They served a brisket tostada with homemade quacamole and queso fresco.  It was mouth-gasmic.  Paddy Coyne’s had some delectable ice cream that I’m sure had Guinness in it.  After the fest we needed to find a place with air conditioning to cool off before walking back to the car.  We ended up at Venik Lounge for a cocktail.  It was pretty classic, Tyler had the Champagne of Beers (Hi-Life) and I had actual champagne.  Their water was flavored with crisp cucumber; my favorite.  I want to carry cucumbers around with me just for this purpose.  I was definitely not hungry but I’ve always wanted to try Kale Chips and they were on special for $3.  To be honest, they’re too salty for me.  I could get ‘em down if I really bought into the idea that they will detox me from everything.  I probably need a little more convincing.

Taste of Edmonds

I decided to head on over to Taste of Edmonds by myself on Saturday.  It was a lot bigger than I remember from back when I went in high school.  I wandered around and finally settled on some Texas style fries, chili, cheese, jalapenos.  I really didn’t eat very many, probably because I was so hot.  I ended up in the wine garden for a sip of wine while I ate.  These men were playing a game that looked like the concrete-version of bocce ball.  This game was called Petanque, and upon further observation it really was just like bocce ball.  I’m intrigued but I think I’ll stick with bocce.  I like to roll the ball.  I left the fest after purchasing these slushy packs that you mix with wine to make a slushy: pomegranate, strawberry daiquiri and pina colada.  I decided to explore Edmonds a bit.  Edmonds is adorable!  I made a purchase and ended up at one more locale, Epulo Bistro, for a cocktail and snack.  I fell in love with roasted cauliflower!  I’ve always been hesitant, thinking it would be flavor-less, but the waitress talked me into it and I once again, mouth-gasmic.  It was accompanies by a couple of bellinis.  Yum.

Here are the average Texas fries and the view of the blue hairs throwing steel balls.

Happy hour cobb salad, roasted cauliflower with parmesan!!, and my bellini.

I bought a fair trade pot holder for $10.  It’s super unique and stylish.  And I always need pot holders.

PBR Rode0 @ Comcast Arena, Everett

My friend Daylon invited me to the rodeo.  I haven’t been to a rodeo since Texas and I was crossing my fingers for a monkey riding a dog.  The first surprise was that we had suite tickets, high rollers!  We grab a couple tall boy PBR’s from the beer cart and roll up.  We had a blast, but the rodeo was more just bull riding, unlike the rodeos I’ve been to where there are multiple events.  We had an amazing encounter on our way out.  We were talking about hipsters.  This older lady on the elevator asked us, “What are hipsters?”  We explained how they wear retro clothes, big geek glasses, chuck taylors, etc.  She responded, “I have those clothes in my closet too, I’m a hipster.”  We had the most amazing night, or in the words of Daylon, “Titsy”.  We bar hopped around E-Town, which is always a blast.

Mmm, nothing goes better with watching angry bulls than salty snacks and beer.

We had a frilly drink at the dive-iest bar ever, The Soundview.

Muckleshoot Casino

It was way too hot to do anything on Sunday; we changed our plans from going to the Puyallup Farmers Market to going to the well air conditioned casino.  And we won big, well for penny slots!  We each put it $20, and Tyler ended up with $125 and I ended up with $50.  I’ve never seen a $100 win on slots before; I was excited.  Go Tyler and your luck.

 

Can’t wait for next weekend!