Today, Walking in the Washington Arboretum

I think I'm finally caught up! We had it all planned this Sunday, meet Ryan and Krista for lunch at Djan's while it rained pretty heavily. After lunch, rain stopped, Kyle and I headed over to the Washington Arboretum to check out the fall colours. Great timing as usual, no more rain and the sun came out. We had a nice long walk on the trails, over bridges, under the highway, over the water and into Marsh Island. Very pretty, but I'm missing the fall season in Canada :(




That is the University of Washington's Husky Stadium in the background behind Kyle.

Testing, testing....Caviar!!

This weekend Astra and Brian invited us to Dim Sum, then we all headed over the bridge into Seattle for some caviar tasting. The tasting is free if you make a purchase after, or else it's 10 bucks per person. Definately worth it! as we had five samples each of caviar ranging from the American whitefish, Salmon Ikura and the piece de resistance! the Iranian Osetra at $212 for 1 ounce!! or $1,720 for 8 ounces. Anyhoo, thanks Astra for inviting us along on this delectable treat :)

Bark, bark, bark!!

Some bark pics of the Big Leaf Maple tree and some other interesting ones at the arboretum.

Tilicum Village for the Salmon Bake!

Just sit right back and you'll hear a tale,
A tale of a fateful trip
That started from this Seattle port
Aboard this tiny ship.

The mate was a mighty sailing man,
The skipper brave and sure.
Eight passengers set sail that day
For a four hour tour, a four hour tour.

We arrive at Blake Island to Tilicum village (yeah, the song's over!) where you're greeted with clam soup, then ushered into an Indian Longhouse where there's a salmon buffet waiting. After eating, the stage comes alive with a show about NW Indian culture and stories of a "wild beast" that got blamed for everything including eating children!! Then, we took a short walk around the island before catching the cruise back to port. The Chinook salmon was pretty good baked in traditional Indian style over an open flame. Another honorable mention is the warm whole grain bread. Not something we would do again, but it was fun to get together with some of Kyle's friends from work to an island away from the city with a great view of the Seattle skyline.

Soap Lake

The last weekend in September, we decided to take a trip to Soap Lake, about a 2.5 hour drive SE from Seattle, WA. We tagged along with Astra, Brian and Eric who've been there before (o.k, it's Brian's first time too) and sang its praises. This lake is suppose to contain minerals that promote skin healing/mineralization. We stayed at the "Inn at Soap Lake", appropriately named since its back door sits pretty much right at the lake. The thing to do is wade out into the middle of the lake where it's much deeper until your feet feels like it's stepping in jelly. Collect the mud in buckets to bring back to shore, apply on skin and bake until dry. The black mud at the bottom of the lake feels creamy and cold, and smells like sulfur Phew!! So we slap the stuff on everywhere, even in my hair! and the after effects is smooth skin and shiny hair. It was a great experience and we would definately do it again! Here's the mud people:

Yikes! Where did October go???

Don't know if anyone noticed (hmfph!) but I haven't written in over a month! I didn't even realize that until now. So what's new? we've been enjoying the really nice weather here, don't know what everyone is complaining about. When it rains, it just kinda sprinkles, then gets nice again..."Ohhh, just you wait till winter when it's cold and rainy ALL the time!" so they tell me. But I laugh in their face (no, I don't really), no shoveling snow for us this winter!! Woo-Hoo! So, here's a pic of the view from our condo.