The title of this post pretty much summarizes how I was feeling last Saturday.  Thanks to Mike losing the wheel to his car, I had no idea how or when we were going to get home.  If you know me at all, you probably know that I don’t do too well with this kind of spontaneity- in my old age, I find myself getting more and more anxious when plans suddenly change.  I’m not proud of the fact that I get grumpy when something as insignificant as dinner plans suddenly change, and it’s something I’ve put on my official “very long list of things I need to work on” list, but with no idea of the method or date of our departure, by Saturday I was starting to freak out a bit.  Or a lot.  Like, so much so that I woke up with a popped blood vessel in my eye.  This is the face of stress.

I don’t know if Mike was genuinely concerned for my mental well-being or just getting stir-crazy in Anaheim himself, but on Saturday morning we decided to ditch Orange County and head to LA.  Mike was in charge of choosing our activity, so our first destination was California Science Center in Exposition Park.

I’ve been to this place before for the BodyWorks exhibit (and once in the 4th grade when my mom sent me to Science Camp with my best friend Shannon, where we both wore flip-up sunglasses a la Dwayne Wayne from A Different World, snuck off to the gift shop and spent all of the money we had on astronaut ice cream, which we ate so much of that we both barfed on the bus ride back).  The actual museum isn’t really my thing- it’s a little too kid-centric- but a) it’s donation-based, and therefore cheap, and b) it also has this really cool place called The Annenberg Building that you can rent for private functions.  I’m kind of obsessed with it- I really wanted to have our wedding there before I found out how expensive it was.  Therefore, now I just really want SOMEBODY I know to have their wedding or some other awesome party there so I can live vicariously through you.

Seriously, somebody please get married there.

Anyway, we spent about an hour reveling in the wonders of science.

Then we got bored, walked around Exposition Park for a bit, and left to go meet Mary and wander around Venice Beach for a bit.  (With one small detour to three car dealerships in between.  Typical Saturday.)

Venice Beach is one of my favorite neighborhoods in LA- it’s a good mix of artists and hippies with a healthy sprinkle of shallow bourgeoisie thrown in for good measure.  It’s a mix that is both familiar and entertaining.

We walked down Abbot-Kinney toward the boardwalk, visiting whichever boutiques and bookstores caught our eyes.

Mary had never seen a T-Rex before.  Thankfully, Mike not only knew what it was, but also how awesome it would be to take a road trip in one.  (He can do that without me.)

We saw the Grilled Cheese Truck!  We didn’t eat there though since we already had dinner plans.

We made it to the beach just as the sun was setting.  I LOVE Venice Beach.  Growing up, my dad would take us there on weekend mornings just for people watching- the body builders, the protesters gathering signatures to legalize marijuana, the freaks walking on glass- nothing says “Sunday morning with the family” like mocking crazy people.

And then we saw it…  the drum circle.

There are no words to describe the 80 year old man, dressed in a full suit, dancing in the middle.

After the sun set we met our friend Noelle for lunch at my new favorite restaurant, Lemonade.

Seriously- it’s so good.  Their salads made my tummy sing with joy and Mike’s pot roast/macaroni and cheese sandwich won raves as well.  And they have parsnip soup- parsnips are basically my favorite vegetable in the entire world this week.

After dinner we bid adieu to Mary and Noelle and headed back to Anaheim.  I still had no idea how we were going to get home, but the combination of sunny skies, dancing hippies and parsnips had definitely improved my overall mental health.

One thing that I have gotten a lot better about since moving to Seattle is getting out and actually seeing some of the sights in the city.  When I think about all the stuff in California that I still haven’t seen, I get kind of sad.  But up here, I’ve at least made an effort to see SOME of the cool stuff Seattle has to offer.

I think that there are two main reasons that I’ve actually been seeing stuff around here.  First, I don’t entirely feel like Seattle is home, so I want to see as much as I can while we’re here.  Not that we have any plans to leave anytime soon, but when you ask me where I live, my first inclination is still to say “California.”  Eh, we’ll see how it turns out.

The second reason is my friend Barrie.  I have NEVER met anybody who does more stuff than Barrie.  Seriously, she is like a machine.  Not only is she a complete genius at knowing EVERYTHING that goes on within a 50-mile radius of Seattle, once she decides she wants to do something, she sets a date for it, puts it on her calendar and invites people to do said stuff with her.  For somebody as indecisive and lazy as myself, it’s all pretty damn impressive.

My knitting group has an ongoing list of stuff we want to do.  About a month ago, somebody mentioned that they wanted to ride the new Light Rail and visit the Japanese Gardens in Columbia City.  So Barrie worked her magic- she picked a date and we went.

As it turned out, not a lot of us went.  It ended up just being Barrie, myself and a new addition to our group named Elizabeth.  Still, it was a successful trip- successful in the sense that I actually found the light rail station, was only 10 minutes late getting there, and we managed to avoid buying a ticket- SCORE!

The gardens were a short 20 minute ride away and totally gorgeous.

We wandered around the garden a little longer than we intended, and realized it was starting to get a little dark by the time we headed back to the light rail.  Then we got a little bit lost trying to find the trail back to the rail (haha, that rhymed).  Now, the gardens are beautiful, but they aren’t in the best neighborhood in the city.  Pretty soon, it was 8:15, pretty damn dark outside, and we were all starting to get a little on edge.

Thankfully, just as my tension peaked, Barrie and I saw an awesome little Mexican tienda and got distracted by the colors.  We went inside and I took more pictures there than I did at the gardens.

They sold yarn!  Sure, it was super crappy acrylic shit yarn, but it was yarn none the less.

They also sold these extremely colorful cowboy boots.

Barrie pondered the refrigerated offerings and debated the differences between cotija and queso fresco.

I had to seriously talk myself out of buying this pig.  Now I kind of regret NOT getting it.  I really think that if I positioned this little darlin’ where it was the first thing I saw every morning, it would be at least as affective in combating Seasonal Affective Disorder as one of those expensive UV light therapy devices.

Once we had our fill of the tienda, we tore ourselves away and successfully made it back to the light rail unharmed.  It was an extremely entertaining way to spend a Thursday evening.

Rarely does an activity come along that unites Mike and I.  We occasionally bike together, but he spends half his time chiding me for being too slow.  He won’t run with me because he thinks running is inefficient and kind of insulting to whoever invented the wheel.  And he’s not the only guilty party- you don’t see me exactly jumping up and down to spend a Saturday at a car meet-up or begging to spend the afternoon window-shopping for Ducatis.  But yesterday, we finally found something that we could do together.

Well, kind of.

Yesterday we competed in the Great Urban Race, a giant scavenger hunt where teams traverse the entire city, only using foot and bus transportation, to complete 12 tasks as quickly as possible.  Of course, as you can see by our bibs (and our not-so-identical outfits), we competed on opposite teams.

Barrie and I teamed up and set out to wear matching retro aerobics outfits, but because we’re cheap, just ended up wearing really bright, semi-slutty outfits instead.  Eh, you could still tell we were a team.

Mike teamed up with our friend Miles.  They eschewed the matching outfits and just wore the race T-shirts instead.  But, as Mike pointed out, they still matched better than us.  Bite me.

Our friend Rita came and hung out with us before the race started and took good pictures.

One day, Rita will have a photo blog and make me happy because she’s so freaking talented.

While we were waiting around, Rita noticed that Mike had stolen a pair of my socks and quickly became enthralled.

Occasionally I am reminded of why I love my husband.

As soon as there were hints of looming physical activity, Rita took off and the race began.

While we had talked a lot of trash pre-race, the four of us decided to primarily work together once we set off.  Barrie immediately started running, and Mike immediately started regretting that decision.

Several of the clues required photo evidence.  Here are some of my favorites.

We had to take a picture with a street performer where everybody was flashing a peace sign.  This guy was a TOTAL crackhead, but we did have to give him props for being smart enough to stand right at a bus stop that lots of racers were using.  Yay smart crackhead!

We were running toward another landmark when we saw a bunch of other teams taking pictures in front of this sculpture.  We had no idea what clue it related to, but we figured we should stop and take a picture anyway.  2 hours later I figured out a clue that was in cryptogram form and it turned out that it was talking about this sculpture.  Score!

One of the clues required you to find a cookie store and take a picture feeding each other a cookie.  Mike called this “the most uncomfortable experience of [his] life.”  I think that is obvious in the picture.

Another clue made you find the Maximus/Minimus truck (a pig-shaped trailer that travels the city selling pulled pork sandwiches) and take a picture with both team members jumping in front of it.  I really don’t know what part of this picture I like the best- Mike’s face, the fact that he is using the sign to help him up, or the guy in the background.  All in all, it’s a total WIN in a the sense that it’s a total FAIL.

So who won?  Well, at the heart of the matter, it was a tie.  The four of us worked together to solve clues and help each other along the way- we finished in 2 hours, 25 minutes.  TECHNICALLY, the boys won because they were total bastards and sprinted ahead at the very last moment.  I had pictured that the four of us would finish together, holding hands in unison, but obviously not everybody is as good a person as me.  Oh well, when they are both sizzling in hell and I’m looking down on them playing the harp and looking smug, they’ll be sorry.

All in all, it was a very good day.

Mike left on Tuesday morning for his testosterone-fueled west coast pilgrimige, meaning I after 4 solid weeks of visitors, I got the WHOLE freaking house to myself.

Well, for two days at least.

Being part of the Bach family is like being part of a very special, very time-consuming club.  Once you get in, you’re in for life.  Everywhere you turn, there are Bachs.  Even if you move out of state, Bachs sneak up and surprise you- they are literally around every corner.  So, after 58 hours of blissful solitude, I traded one Bach (Mike, the one I married) for another (Amy, his sister).

Thankfully, I really like Amy, so having her come up and visit while Mike was gone was actually a really good thing.  First of all, she is definitely the easiest guest we’ve had in a while.  Having been here before, she knows her way around Seattle and doesn’t need to be given the grand tour.  Instead, we get to do things that are far more awesome and don’t require much in the way of planning.

At this point I should note that all pictures in this post are stolen from Amy, because she is an awesome photographer and I am the world’s crappiest taker of pictures.  Thanks sis!

Amy flew in Thursday night.  I picked her up, we came home, I gave her a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, we talked for a bit, and then I was in bed before midnight because I am an old fogey and had to work the next day.  While I spent the day at work, Amy wandered around downtown and spent some quality time with the SAM.

Once I got home, we set out for dinner, with a short detour at the new apartment so I could water the plants.

Um, yeah, Amy photographs everything.  Thankfully, she also got some pictures of how awesome our new house is:

Don’t worry, we’ll have you over for some barbeques soon.  We just have to actually move first.

The original dinner plan revolved around eating something fabulous at END, the supposedly more subdued a la cart version of the multi-course behemoth that is Elemental at Gasworks.  They had a really cool sign in the entrance:

Unfortunately, that was the coolest thing about our experience at END because after hanging out at the door for 5 minutes we were kind of gruffly told that they were full until 9:30 that night and basically dismissed.  Um, yeah, thanks.  I am still curious about their food- I’ve heard great things and I loved the look of the place- but even if you are full for the night (which is weird because they specifically don’t take reservations)- can’t you at least say it nicely?  Boo.

Thankfully, we were only half a mile from another place I’ve been dying to try, Cantinetta.  So we went there.  When we put our name in with the host, he apologized for their having a 20 minute wait and pointed us toward the bar, where we enjoyed some much-needed Prosecco.  And dinner was fabulous.

The gnocchi with creme fresh and garlic shoots made my heart sing.  So freaking delicious.  Roasty little pillows of yum.

Salmon.  With asparagus.  On some green puree of deliciousness.  Mmmmm.

We also had an appetizer of pancetta wrapped dates, which we failed to photograph mostly because we scarfed them down in mere seconds.  But I mean, they were pancetta wrapped dates- sweet and salty and just about perfect.

We decided to prep for dessert by walking a mile to Molly Moon’s, where Amy learned that sometimes it is worth it to wait in line for 30 minutes for ice cream, like these people:

The next day we switched gears a bit and picked up my friend Barrie to get in some appreciation for the outdoors via a 6 mile hike to Snow Lake.  Nothing quite says “July in Washington” like sliding around in the snow in 85 degree weather wearing shorts.

Post-hike, we napped like champions and then headed out to Ballard to check out their monthly Art Walk, where we sipped on free wine (yay) in galleries, clothing boutiques and even in one speaker store.  Weird, but good and free.  Plus, we got to take pictures like this:

We finished off the night with some sushi at Moshi Moshi, which not only features a great selection of sushi that is NOT drowned in nasty mayonnaise-based sauces, but also has a really pretty lit-up cherry tree on top of the bar:

I am a fan of all things sparkly and this definitely caught my attention.

On the way home, we had to make one final stop at 7-11 so Amy could properly celebrate the fact that it was Free Slurpee Day:

Coming soon: getting rained on, discovering giant Pocky and celebrating the boys’ return with crab.

The start of many motorbike adventures to come officially begins – July 8th at 6AM. Me and my fellow journey men (An and Jaime) will be setting off on an adventure from Southern California to Seattle Washington in search of the best roads on left coast. The ride will take us through some of the most beautiful landmarks this side of California, Oregon and Washington including, the the depths of the Redwood forest, the Golden Gate bridge in San Francisco, the sand dunes of Pismo Beach and the scenic coast line of Oregon. It’s amazing how little we’ve seen of our own backyard.

We’ll be riding wonderful roads such as this.

I’ll be trying my best to document the trip for everyone to enjoy and will try to actively post live updates here and on our tumblr journal when I can. (Mostly to let Aubrey know we are alive and well). In the mean time you can see our tenative route and virtually make the drive using Google Maps.

Follow along with on our Tumblr journal
Live photo updates available on our Flickr channel

I’d also like to thank Jaime for making this ride a reality by lending a hand and solving my bike situation.  Though I won’t be joining the Ducati family of riders per my originl plan, a 2006 Yamaha FZ6 will make do. Not quite as sexy, but it’ll get the job done. Onwards we go!

Live, Love, Ride – Michael

Ok, so the main reason I’m being timely with this post is because I thought of the title yesterday and have been absolutely giddy with excitement at the mere thought of using it.  Yes, I’m that easily amused by word play.

Anyway, day 2 of our adventure started with the best meal we found within the city limits of Port Angeles at First Street Haven, a tiny little neighborhood breakfast joint that is so small they don’t even have their own bathroom- you have to walk into the boutique next door that sells formalwear to pee.  I am still sad that we didn’t take pictures of the food, because it was freaking delicious- my Roasted Vegetable Scramble with Marscapone Cheese was probably the only evidence of non-grocery store generic cheese within the city limits and my berry bran muffin was a magic mouthful of delicious goodness. (For the record, i go apeshit over a good bran muffin- boring old blueberry muffins just sit there wishing they were awesome bran muffins.  Maybe it’s because they trigger something in my brain because bran muffins were the only kind of muffin we were ever allowed to have in our house growing up- gotta love my mom’s genuis semi-hippie parent logic of “if it has something healthy in the name, it’s gotta be good for you” logic.  We blissfully ignored the fact that the muffins had so much honey in them that they barely stayed together when they were warm while we smeared them with glorious amounts of butter…  ::sigh::)

So um, yeah, now that my bran muffin diatribe is over, I will summarize by saying that breakfast was good.

After eating, we jumped in the car and headed out for the next leg of the adventure- the drive to the Hoh Rainforest.  In case you were wondering why Mike agreed to put up with a trip full of kayaking (he gets seasick), Italian food (he thinks he hates Italian food, but he’s wrong- I’ll write more about that subject some other day) and hiking (he calls walking “inefficient” and thinks it is disrespectful to the inventors of the wheel), it’s because he got to drive.  A lot.  On some very windy roads.  And because I am totally immune to motion sickness (obviously a sign of a higher level of evolution), he can go as fast as he wants while I fall asleep or happily knit.

The road along Lake Crescent is blissfully windy.  Mike called it the best road he may have ever driven on.  I’ll upload some video of his death-defying rally later this week.

We drove 88 miles to the Hoh Rainforest in about an hour and a half- pretty good time considering the windy roads and occasional slow driver in front of us.  We stopped to get some picnic goods at this little “last stop before nature” camping store.  For such a little place, they had a lot of signs.

This was my favorite:

Unfortunately, Mike found a favorite sign too.  Well, he found two:

And he bought them.  Which made me sad:

Seriously not cool.

With peanut butter sandwiches, plenty of water and some Theo’s chocolate bars in hand, we made it to the Hoh and set out for a hike.

I showed off my mad log crossing skills and only almost fell 4 times.

Club moss growing on old trees makes for surroundings that are both eerie and beautiful.

As if I could resist taking one of these pictures again.

We saw these rocks and had to take a picture for my mom.  She loves rocks.

A rare find- a picture of Mike and I where neither of us are holding the camera ourselves.

Mike is very passionate about finding awesome walking sticks and then pretending he’s a ninja.

Awww. Sweaty love.

We covered a total of about 8 miles on the Hoh River trail.  The trail itself actually goes on to the foot of Mt. Olympus, but that is almost 18 miles and we do not have the gear or the stamina for that.  Mike did admit that he kind of liked the hike though, and we even talked about buying backpacking gear.  Because that’s what you do when you do something once and like it- go buy accessories!

The drive and the hike took up most of our day, so dinner consisted of grabbing a quick bite at a local hamburger stand called Frugals.  Mike actually raved about the burger- if you’re ever driving through Port Angeles, try it!  Even though my chicken sandwich was only okay, the meal was redeemed when I popped into Wendy’s down the street to get an iced tea (Frugals only had sweetened Raspberry crap- vomit) and the cashier gave me the drink for free because I had a pretty smile.  Random, and slightly creepy, but I really really love getting stuff for free, even if it is just iced tea.

So in summary- First Street Haven = good, driving fast = good, signs that are blatantly anti-dog=  bad, hiking in the only temperate rainforest in the world = super good, burgers at Frugals = good, free iced tea = bonus.

Past:

• This week exhausted me.  Really long hours thanks to always exciting usability testing, which included a fun-filled trip to Boise, where the highlight of the city is the sign you see leaving the airport.  (Warning: this is only really entertaining when you say “Boi” with a Flava Flav affectation- “Boiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii.”)

• Yesterday Mike and I slept until 11 and then went on what we intended to be a leisurely bike ride.  We ended up going 23 miles round trip.  I was thinking that I could handle a 100 mile ride by the end of summer, but now I think I should stick to something much shorter.  We forgot a memory card with the camera (kharmic revenge for me stealing my dad’s memory card and not mailing it back to him in time), so the only good picture I got was this, taken with my phone while laying on top of a picnic bench post our dinner at the bourgoise grocery store conveniently located just off the bike trail when we realized that we were both starving to death:

• This afternoon I sat in Olympic Sculpture Park with two of my favorite knitters, Brooke and Ange, and we knit.  I reapplied sunscreen 3 times in 2 hours and still ended up with a wicked sunburn.  Thank god for aloe vera.

Present:

• Sitting on the couch, resizing images for Handicrafte Cafe, writing this blog post, trying to figure out how to watch the season finale of “Bones” on our television because our stupid faux-tivo ate it.  Oh well, thank god for Hulu.

Future:

• Tomorrow: going with the knitters to help find an elopement dress for somebody sane enough to NOT plan a wedding.  Then coming home to get cooking prepped for the week- turkey pesto meatballs, grilled vegetable and pesto salad (me), pasta salad with some grilled vegetables thrown in for kicks (Mike), Chicken and Spring Vegetable Gratin, and a bastardized version of Banana Blueberry muffins that use oatmeal and quinoa instead of flour.  I am very well aware that this last item may taste like total crap- it’s an experiment.
• Next week: Promises to be grueling, but at least it’s only 4 days long.  Happy dance!
• Next weekend: Kate’s getting married!  Super happy dance!  Now I just have to find something to wear.
• Next next weekend: Our two year anniversary is June 2!  Mike told me to take Thursday and Friday off, but he won’t tell me what we’re actually doing.  Much like the quinoa-hippie muffins, this could be great (like the surprise trip to NYC for my 25th birthday) or it could be a disaster (like our trip to Monterrey in 1999 when we ended up sleeping in a motel in Salinas that came complete with bars on the window).

Sunday morning we woke up at 6:30 am with one singular goal:

Beat the Bridge is the main reason Mary even flew up this weekend.  It’s an 8k race that circles around Husky Stadium at UW.  You have 20 minutes to cross the University Bridge, which falls exactly at the 2 mile mark.  At the 20 minute mark the drawbridge raises and everybody behind the bridge has to wait for it to come back down.  It’s not really that terrible- the whole thing basically gives you a six minute break before you go run the rest of the race, and they give away prizes while a live band plays.  But beating the bridge is still a matter of pride.

Running 2 miles in 20 minutes shouldn’t be that hard, but the race is so popular that it takes you a good 3 or 4 minutes to really break through the crowd and get running.  Plus, I’m not exactly a great runner- more like a good plodder.  Real runners leap through the air like graceful gazelles- my movement is little more like a baby giraffe just learning to walk.  There is a great deal of teetering involved, hence my rather frequent falls and injuries.  (Thankfully, this race was catastrophe-free.)

Anyway, with a final time of 48:37, I DID in fact beat the bridge!  I just barely made it- I literally heard the drawbridge buzzer go of as I took my last step off the bridge.  I even had my own personal photographer to document my crossing the finish line:

Yeah, Mike did an awesome job as support staff.  He woke up just as early as Mary and I, drove us to the event, let us jump out of the car in the middle of the street while he searched for parking so we had time to pee before the race started and took fabulous pictures while he waited for us to run.

Team Michael FTW.

Post-run, we grabbed for food and I grubbed for free samples (which were sadly lacking by the way- a diabetic energy bar and a bottle of smart water were the best things I could get my hands on.  Boo.).  However, by noon total exhaustion had kicked in and I knew I could barely keep myself from falling asleep in a plate of pineapple chicken.  I even had to call and cancel on my friend Kate’s bridal shower, which was a total bummer.  Thankfully, her wedding is less than 2 weeks away, and I’m not planning on running my ass off the morning before that big event.

At home, we all immediately fell asleep.  Even Mike, who didn’t run, but is always willing to get a sympathy nap in.  We eventually roused ourselves to get Mary to the airport, with one quick detour to the market to meet up with our favorite baby in all of Seattle, Derrick’s niece Bella:

Yeah, she’s already a total ham.  But if you know Derrick, you understand where it comes from.

After dropping off Mary, Mike and I ate leftovers from Salumi for dinner and I was asleep by 9:30 pm.  Total Rockstar style.

I don’t know if it’s because I’m getting old or if I’m just seriously aching for warm weather, but I have become obsessed with the idea of gardening lately.  This weekend, after weeks of bitching to Mike that all I want in the whole world is a vegetable garden, I finally got something accomplished in the gardening arena this weekend.

My friend Ange joined me Sunday morning to see what we could pick up at the Seattle Tilth Society’s Edible Plant Sale.  Ange is lucky enough to have an actual backyard where she can plant things in the ground!  I am still kind of iffy on whether or not our landlord would be ok with that in our shared yard, so I decided to stick to container gardening this year.  We’ll see if I can keep anything alive.

As you can see, Sunday was a freaking gorgeous day, which was good for our aspiring green thumb moods.  We thought we would be ahead of the game by getting to the sale at 10:30 am, a full 30 minutes before it opened.  We were wrong.

That was just the END of the line.  People take their gardening seriously in Seattle.  Thankfully, we were armed with coffee and only got verbally attacked by an especially eager old woman once when we had trouble figuring where the end of the line was.

At 11:00, the gate opened and we were off.  It was kind of a mad house.

Even with the crowd, things went quickly and we got plenty of help choosing the best plants for our abilities from Tilth members.  Seriously, what a cool organization- they offer free classes on sustainable urban living- they even offer classes on raising chickens in the city.  Considering we used to live in an equestrian community and I would make fun of the goats, chickens and ducks living in our backyard (not to mention our emu-raising neighbors), I can’t help but notice the irony in the fact that now, only a few years later, I spent an afternoon trying to convince Mike that our own chicken coop would be a great idea.

In the end, I went with a collection of fairly safe and easy herbs and veggies- tomatoes, crookneck squash, strawberries, basil, sage, oregano and chives.  I also got a stevia plant (because I’m obsessed) and some lemongrass (I have no idea if that will grow well up here, but I LOVE lemongrass). Ange picked up some tomatoes, onions, an assortment of herbs and a hops rhizome for her home-brewing obsessed fiance.

Wish me luck on my gardening endeavor- lord knows I’ll need it.  I don’t exactly have a best track record in this department.  However, I definitely think it’s a good sign of my evolving maturity that I resisted the urge to buy this groundcover plant just because I thought it had a funny name:

I’m totally growing up.

Hi kids, I’m back.  Nice to see you all (aka like the 7 people who read this) again.  Sorry for the absence- and no, I didn’t suddenly become disillusioned with the act of blogging or run off and become a professional peanut butter sandwhich maker.  Rather, I got a new laptop this week (no, I didn’t drop mine again.  Mike sold it, allowing me to get a smaller, cuter 14″ model) and it took me this long to remember the url to our blog dashboard was while I wait for Mike to import my old bookmarks and data to the new computer.  Yeah, I know that is kind of pathetic.

Anyhow, the last week has been busy, as usual, but the upside of that is that I get some good subject matter to work with.  Today, I finally get to tell you how we spent last weekend- by riding our bikes around the Skagit Valley Tulip Festival.

Poor Mike- he’s a good sport for putting up with me dragging him around on stupid couples’ activities whenever I get the chance.  So when I came home from knitting one night telling him about this amazing bike ride through the tulips that my friend Barrie was planning, he agreed to go, mostly because it involved riding bikes.

Here is Barrie, the mastermind behind our adventure, looking really excited to get on her bike:

We joined a tour that Barrie found.  Our group was a little bigger than I would have liked- there were about 15 people total, all of different skill levels- but it was a fun way to spend a sunny day.  I mean, there were a lot of flowers.

I like flowers with stripes.

I would actually like to come do this again next year, but maybe skip the tour itself and just ride around on our own.  Even I was a little tuliped out by the time we hit the 4th tulip field.  And the lunch that was provided didn’t exactly make my tummy sing with joy:

I think Barrie looks really excited here because she just convinced the tour guide to buy us apples- the offerings were a bit heavy in the deep fried department for our delicate digestive systems.  This was best represented by the “Veggie Basket”:

If you’re having trouble seeing any vegetables in the “Veggie Basket,” that’s because it consisted of eggrolls, green beans, french fries, corn cakes and carrots- all breaded and deep fried.  Seriously, WTF?  I was so happy that there was a sample that I could document.

In summary: flowers are awesome, tours with too many slow bicyclists who spend too much time in actual flower fields are not awesome, sunny days spent riding bikes are awesome and deep fried everything is not awesome.  While I didn’t love this particular tour, our guide did mention that they offer a “Berries and Dairy” tour during the summer that involved riding to berry farms and artisan creameries in the area for some fruit and cheese tasting, and I could easily be talked into that tour.  As long as there isn’t a deep fried green bean anywhere in my eyesight.