Photo Phun

Randomness.

Super shiny silver tree

Eagle

Waterscape

Shoreline

Roasted cocoa beans

Misty Mountains 

Babbling brook

Super large tree

Fire bowl fun

Monster flower

Hi!

Seattle sunshine

mmmm....beeeeeerrrr

I don't even know what this is.

Snow Lake

Some friends came in for a visit/vacation and I took them on a hike.  Good lord, was it awesome.  We drove out to Snow Lake which is about 45 minutes or so east of Seattle near Snoqualmie Pass.  When you get there you park in the Alpental ski area and then find the trailhead.  Oh, and fyi, use the bathroom before you get out there.  Good god in heaven did it smell awful.  For some reason those holes in the earth smell a lot worse than port-o-potties (which are no cakewalk themselves).
So anyway, we found the bridge to Hogwarts when we got there so that was pretty cool.

Run Harry!  It's Voldemort!

The hike up to the lake was really pretty but you couldn't really spend a lot of time looking around.  It was incredibly rocky and there were a ton of loose little rocks just waiting to turn your ankle.  Actually, it's a miracle nobody busted their ass on this hike.  I almost fell on my face three different times from either having a rock turn under me or getting my toe stuck in roots.  Al fell on a rock, L kept stubbing her feet on them.  Not sure about Ethan, maybe he's less spastic than the rest of us.

The overall hike wasn't too hard though until the very end.  You have to go up nine switchbacks at the very top and the last two handed me my ass.  Oof, shouldn't have had that latte on the drive up there.  I think my body was working out all of the caffeine at once. 

Mountain stream

Awesome tree

Tricky rocks

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It was a bit hazy from a fire over on the peninsula

When you finally get to the top of the mountain you then have to hike down about .5 a mile to the lake.  It is so worth it.  They weren't kidding about the name, Snow Lake, either.  There was still snow all the way down to the water in some areas.  Which of course meant that the water was COLD.  I really wanted to go swimming too, after a dusty hike up it would have been awesome to get in the water.  However, decided to go the non-hypothermia route.  There were a ton of dogs swimming though and a few brave (psychotic) humans jumping in.

First glimpse of the lake.  The trails were super crowded since it was Labor Day

Amazing

Headed down the trail

Trying to get a pic of the snow around the lake

Decided I'd be building a house on the ruins of this old one.

At the Lake!  Check out the snow...

Some people were jumping in over in that area

Trying to figure out if it would be possible to bring an inflatable kayak out there.

Crystal clear water.

All in all I would highly recommend this hike.  Beautiful, not too hard, and has a great reward at the end.  It's about 8 miles round trip and the highest elevation you hit is about 4400 ft I think.

Lobsters and Brass Brands

There are few things in life that are better than four day weekends.  Very. Few.  There was enough awesomeness packed into this single weekend that I could probably write four blogs about it but I think I'm going to condense it down into two.  In case you were unable to decipher the title of this one it's going to cover food and music.  And drinks, because why not.
First!  Happy hour is the most fun ever when you didn't even work that day.  I was off on Friday and it was a full day of yogaing and dog walking.  Followed by drinking, hoorah!  L and I hit up Smash and the service was terrible this time.  Boooo.  Also, L was getting harassed by a bee most of the time which was fun for me but not so much for her.  Next we walked over to May http://maythaiseattle.com/ which has quite possibly the most entertaining building front I've ever seen.  They have great drinks though!  Really tasty and not overly sweet.  The little snackies were good too, we had some kind of short ribs and fried spring rolls.  We left there and walked down to Freemont for some happy hour hopping.  We stopped first at Revel http://www.revelseattle.com/ and sat out on their deck.  Again, really good drinks and the deck was adorable.

Tasty tasty beverages... 

Awesome firebowl

While we were sitting there I spotted an interesting place next door that L had been to and said was actually a great beer bar.  We were off!  I love this place, I've been in need of a good beer bar w/i walking distance of my house.  http://brouwerscafe.blogspot.com/  Yay for Belgian beer.

That was it that night.  

Saturday was LobsterFest.  YUM.  Since most of the food was being provided I grabbed some mini-pies from Pie http://sweetandsavorypie.com/ as my contribution.  So I get to L's coworker's house and we get to work.  We made: tuna poke, crab dip, homemade mayo, lobster rolls, and homemade french fries.

L's homemade mayo (for the lobster rolls)

My potato station

Big ol' pile o lobsters

Tuna Poke

View from the rooftop

Lobster roll filling

My fry station

Crab Dip:

Bechamel Sauce (melt 2 T butter, whisk in 2 T flour, cook for a couple of minutes, whisk in 2 C warm milk until thick)

1.5 C of cheese (we used colby jack b/c it was on hand).  Add cheese to béchamel sauce and stir until smooth. 

Season to taste with salt, pepper, tobasco (whatever you like)

fold in crab meat.  I think we ended up with about 3 cups of crab meat that we'd picked out of some dungeness crabs.  Eat with crackers/bread until sick.

Homemade Fries:

Slice potatoes (I used russets) about .25in x 3 inches long.  Soak in salted water for at least an hour.  Dry on paper towels and fry in 350ish degree oil for 5 minutes, remove and dry excess oil off.  Do this in batches w/ all fries.  Then refry them all for about 2-3 minutes.  Toss in a bowl with salt.  

Sunday!

Rebirth Brass Band!!!!

One of my new friends here found out that they were playing and sent out an open request on FB to see if anyone else wanted to go.  I jumped at the opportunity!  It was awesome, definitely a little taste of home.  The venue was awesome and odd.  It was at Jazz Alley http://www.jazzalley.com/ which was an amazing space.  We were seated at these elevated booths that were right next to the stage but there wasn't a dance floor.  And this was Rebirth.  So then the crowd started filtering in and they were a touch on the elderly side.  Not everyone but enough that it was noticeable.  The theme of the night was an Evening in Treme (capitalizing off of the show on HBO that they provide a lot of music for) and it was great.  Rebirth always puts on an amazing show.  And people danced!  granted not like I'm used to back home but it was better than nothing.

We were right next to the stage

Inside Jazz Alley

Awesome.

They put on a great show.