Black Friday

My mom and sister met me at my apartment early in the morning. We first headed to Target, but decided it was way too crowded. After that we hit Kohl's and Old Navy and made some purchases. We ate breakfast at Panera and then had to grab some coffee at Starbucks.

After our shopping we met up with the boys at the rental house, they ate breakfast at Beth's Cafe. We all headed into Seattle, but had to stop on Alki Beach for a photo op. Check out my sister's blog to see a photo were more of us actually got some air.

In Seattle we wandered around Pike's Market, ate lunch (and if you know my family you can guess it, tried some beer) at Pike's Brewery, placed gum in Post Alley and got more Starbucks at the original store.

After Pike's we went on the Underground Tour, this has great insight into the "whys" that occur after you are in Seattle for more than a day plus is fairly entertaining.

We had planned on doing dinner at Salty's, but didn't call ahead for reservations. We ended up eating at the rental house, playing more games and drinking some wine. Eventually we decided we should go out, so my dad dropped us off at the Celtic Swell. The atmosphere was great and the boys especially had a good time.

On the walk home Big B and my brother brushed up on their Parkour.

The day everyone remembers to give thanks, hopefully.

We played lots of games and enjoyed some great food! It was great having family in town and I was so thankful for the chance to spend time with them.

We also had to check out the Black Friday ads and come up a plan for the following day.

My Brother joins us - Wednesday

Wednesday was supposed to be the "nice" day so we decided to do the outside stuff we had wanted to do. The plan was to visit the falls and to hike around the area, but only my sister and brother-in-law were ambitious enough to follow through with the hiking thought.

After the falls we visited the Snoqualmie Brewery. Their beer was more along our taste (a favorite was the Harvest Moon) and the food hit the spot!

After the brewery the plan was to visit a few wineries. We ended up spending a lot more time getting there and ran out of time, so we decided to visit the Novelty Hill/Januik winery so we could "kill 2 birds with 1 stone." The wine was pretty good, but nothing spectacular. The design was very modern, but warmed up a bit inside.

After the winery we went by Big B and I's apartment to have more wine and play a few card games. Later we picked up my brother from the airport and then had dinner at Duke's Chowder House (one of Big B and I's favorites for clam chowder and seafood).

My Family Visited Me for Thanksgiving - Tuesday

My family rented a house in West Seattle for Thanksgiving and everyone came to visit! My parents arrived during the day on Monday. After work I met them and Big B at their rented house, talked and then later picked up my sister and her husband from the airport.

Tuesday we visited Pioneer Square. We looked around a bit, spent a good chunk of time at Elliott Bay Book Company. After that we visited Pyramid Brewery, including a bunch of beer tasting...there were a bunch of good ones to chose a beer from.

After lunch we went to the Locks (this is a popular place to visit with visitors because the scenery is always changing). After some boat watching and flower viewing we headed back towards the city center. On the way out of the Ballard area we visited Hale's Ales. There beers tasted pretty good, but weren't quite our family's style (as you can tell from my sister's face).

We ended the day with a visit to the Husky stadium and dinner from Metropolitan Market.

Portland in November

The first weekend in November Big B and I drove down to Portland to visit with Big B's aunt and uncle. The drive down and home were not very fun because it was pouring, but Big B did a great job driving.

Both times we have visited Portland I have really enjoyed the city and and would encourage anyone to visit it!

While we were there we ate some Chipotle, watched the Portland Winterhawks play the Seattle Thunderbirds. Normally I would cheer for Seattle, but since Big B's uncle works on putting the game on television for Portland, and got us great seats, we cheered for them instead. The Oregon Humane Society was there and received numerous donations and recognition, what a creative idea (more information is available about this if you click on the humane society name). Also during one of the breaks there was a game called Dash for the Cash, individuals won money they collected off the ice. It was pretty funny watching people try to pry frozen coins off the ice and stuff as many as possible down their shirts. The Winterhawks ended up squeeking out a win after overtime and a shootout. After the game we had an opportunity to look behind the scenes for the taping of the game.

The next morning we had breakfast at The Industrial Cafe, which was delicious and had too many good options...it was a hard choice on what to order. We then visited Voodoo Doughnut, YUMM! The line was too long at the original so we actually bought our donuts at their new branch. Later the men watched some football while the women went on a walk with their basset hound before it was time to head home.

My Friend's Visit

Okay, in the last few minutes I decided to post some highlights in the last 3 months.

My friend  came to visit us at the end of October beginning of November. She had a conference in Portland, but flew out early to see me. Yay!

She flew in during the late afternoon on Halloween. We tossed around various ideas of things to do to celebrate the holiday, but ultimately decided to go low key. We ate dinner at the Whistle Stop Ale House and then ended up carving pumpkins. My friend had never actually carved one, so we decided that would be a fun first. Here our pumpkins and Big B's "scary" face.

On Sunday we visited the Hiriam M. Chittenden Locks, the Fremont Troll, toured Chateau Ste. Michelle and did a tour at Redhook Brewery, which was really us standing in the room listening to the "tour guide" talk and drinking beer.  My friend isn't a big fan of beer and Big B was driving so I ended up drinking a lot more than everybody else.

A peacock at Chateau Ste. Michelle

Our beer samples at Redhook.

On Monday we went to Snoqualmie Falls and then hiked around Cougar Mountain.

The view of the falls from the bottom.

Coal Creek Falls at Cougar Mountain

On Tuesday we visited the Woodland Park Zoo. This is probably one of the better zoos that I have visited. There is lot of natural exhibits and most of the animals didn't appear to be going cage crazy. Here are some photos of a view of my favorite animals.

After the zoo we went to Pike's Market to pick up some halibut for dinner. Here is a view of the sound from up above.

My friend had to go to Portland on Wednesday, but it is always great to have visitors!

Way Behind

I just realized how far behind I am on blogging. I might try to post some stuff that has happened since my run in the rain, or I might just start from today. We will see....