Seattle Sunshine

This past weekend was sunny, hot, and beautiful. Roslyn has taken up a liking to biking, she asks for her helmet and reaches up to be put in her seat, so we biked to Greenlake with our swimsuits on. We weren't sure if she'd be into getting all wet but we hoped all the dunking her in cold lakes we did last summer would pay off. It did, she loved it. I'd swoosh her around in the water and dunk most of her body in and she kept signing more, more. 

After we finally convinced her to leave the water Joshua got an iced coffee and I got a fruit popsicle to share with Roslyn. Thinking oh she'll have a few tastes and I'll get most of it. Nope! Wrapper came off she jammed it into her mouth and never took it back out. She let it ooze down her face, her hands, I tried to lick it (while it was still in her mouth) and she started yelling at me and pushing me away. It was pretty cute.

We spent most of the weekend outside at the park or laying around in our backyard while Roslyn bounced or tackled us. But I also figured she was old enough to appreciate the secret passage through our wall so I cleared it out and showed it to her. She was so giddy. We'd holler from the other side and she'd start laughing and crawling through, Joshua and her just lounged around inside of it for awhile, and she'd hide in it from us when we chased her. So glad I cleared it out! Our own Harry potter baby spot!

New Orleans Bikes

 Being that everything was so flat we biked almost everywhere. I especially liked biking along the Bayou. Everything is so calm and the warm air with the bike paths and water nearby was just lovely. The French Quarter was about 3 miles away and you could almost coast there and just people watch.

Of course we also ate a lot of beignets. We got 3 sets from 3 places. They were all delicious, I love that they're served warm. Also a lot of the coffee places don't have the lengthy drink menus I'm used to. A lot of places just had a cappuccino and café au lait listed. Being as we were never in a hurry, New Orleans does that to you, we always sat down and got coffee in ceramic mug and tried not to puff powdered sugar all over. Very relaxing.

There were lovely little art markets at night in empty lots with local artists selling wares. An sure enough always a guy walking around with a rolling cooler of beer trying to sell to anyone walking by. We wandered down Frenchman street which is filled with live music venues, most without a cover, a few nights. The brass bands were outstanding. One night we found one just crushing it on the street corner so we grabbed a PBR from next door and jammed with them for quite awhile.  Even during the day so many of the streets in the French quarter had amazing musicians. We had an absolutely lovely trip. I didn't have many ideas of what New Orleans would be like but now I am a huge huge fan!

Biking in Boise

 

Our last day in Boise we hopped on our bikes to explore the city. Started off googling best donuts in Boise and grabbed 4 of those- Lavender wildberry, chocolate chili stout, cardamom orange, & espresso cream filled. Then we walked around their farmer's market and then the sun started to come out. We ended up biking quite a few miles because it was so beautiful out. There was even warm wind, there is never warm wind in Seattle.

 

 

 The bike path along the Boise river winds down both sides. There are tons of cute bridges that intersect the paths so we'd bike back and forth over them. Lots of parks created pit stops along the way, stopped to watch few people attempt surfing at a little dam, saw a weasel running around.

 

After that we popped into Payette Brewery and got little taster flights. We were the only people in there so we chatted a lot with the people working and even ran into a guy who had been to Rhinegeist in Cincy. Then we found another place that had great food- I had poutine & bacon popcorn for lunch.

 

That night we biked back into downtown to a pizza place to order a Mac & Cheese with jalapeno and bacon pizza!!! It was life changing, so so tasty. Joshua was very skeptical and by the end was a true fan. Wandering around after we heard music and stopped into the Pengilly Saloon. It was free to listen, cheap drinks, and a man dressed in a colonial outfit dancing to it upfront all by himself. Fabulous.

 

 

This is our fancy place we stayed in. The porch was the best spot.

 

Concerts, Euchre, Rain Rides

 

This past weekend was lovely! On Friday night we started the night with tacos. Saw Sturgill Simpson- whose voice is amazing live. Grabbed a hot dog with cream cheese from a cart. Had a Moscow mule at Montana Bar and hung out outside.

 

Saturday we went to a euchre tournament, our team name was swing state swingers. We hung out with a bunch of people from the Midwest and we all instantly became friends. Started off winning and ended in 4th place. Somehow we shoved 6 games of euchre into one night.

Sunday we hopped on our bikes and had brunch downtown with our friend Liz. The ride home was quite rainy but it was really nice to be back on our bikes. Spent the afternoon baking for a United Way bake sale and Joshua fit in a little work.

Biking to the beach

 

After an very large tasty random brunch I requested a chill bike ride. Luckily the 2 guys were up for it. We hopped on and biked over to Alki beach. The sunshine was out in full force, see my very sunburnt back for proof, and the mountains were visible and I don't think we saw a single cloud. I love the ride to Alki. You bike on the Burte Gilman Trail for a bit, then along the water through a train yard, along some more water into the sculpture park, fight some construction and back to water, another bridge and then you're along Alki beach.

 Alki Beach always looks a bit like California. Shiny rims and big bass music in cars, rollerbladers! beach volleyball, and then we partook in the margaritas where we lucked out with a window seat. All in all we biked about 32 miles. Back at home we ate a bunch of tacos and then I'm pretty sure we all passed out early. Minus the sunburn it was a lovely day of slowly biking around while not really doing much.

Visit from Californians

 

Joshua and I have visited San Francisco to see them and they were excellent hosts. This past weekend we got to try to return the favor. Friday was super stormy and dark but we lucked out and it cleared up for the rest of the weekend. So we spent it mostly on bikes, not shockingly with these 2 boys.

 

We toured Ballard and Fremont, stopped at breweries, tried Paseo sandwiches (greasy amazingness) and headed to Capitol Hill that night to wander around. Finished the night at Kings playing lots of skeeball and getting shooed out as the bar closed but just before they unplugged the game Andy got 410! He finished the night off right for us.

Very slowly the next morning we had brunch and wandered the farmer's market. Then we hopped back on our bikes and began eating our way through the day- first at Pike Place, then at the Seattle Food Truck Festival where we listened to music and ate things like fried Indian tacos and fried pb&j, then back to Ballard where we ate totchos (tater tot nachos) and topped it all with some late night gelato.

 Lovely visit and very glad we got to show them around and hopefully repay the amazing job they did hosting us a little.