Who Knew

That the middle of nowhere is just north of the Mojave Preserve. Since it was dark by the time I exited the Preserve, I had no idea what the area around the hotel looked like. I actually really hate arriving somewhere totally new in the dark for this exact reason. While bringing my bags in, a train rolled passed. Within about 50 yards of my room. That happened 7 more times that night. As it turns out, I was pretty much staying in an old train station.

Needless to say, there wasn't much going on as far as food in Nipton, CA. The hotel staff suggested going to Searchlight, NV, 22 miles away, which was literally, the only game "in town." ("Town" being a relative term, of course.) Apparently the are a couple of casinos in Searchlight, and one, "The Nugget" had great prime rib.

I don't eat cow unless I can help it, but I figured that a casino IN NEVADA that served prime rib had to be a decent bet. I had visions of the casinos I saw in Tahoe... and in Vegas, for that matter. You can imagine my shock when I had my dinner here:

Yeah, this place is HOPPING, isn't it? Believe it or not, it isn't even 8pm yet. What you can't see in the picture is that the restaurant is supposedly "smoke free." The casino, is not. Still can't understand how that works. Also don't understand how prime rib could be $10. The slot machines were so old school, that when I won $8 in a nickle machine, I got my winnings in 160 nickles. It was pretty exciting. I stood there completely stunned as an avalanche of coins fell out of the machine. "What am I going to do with so many nickles?" I announce to nobody in particular. An older gentleman, a regular I would assume, walked by and handed me a plastic bucket. Awesome.

Mojave Preserve

North of Joshua Tree is not much of anything as far as civilization is concerned. But there is the Mojave National Preserve. This place definitely counts as the "scenic route."

Joshua Tree

About an hour from Palm Springs is Joshua Tree National Park. I always thought that the main attraction in this park was the Joshua Trees. Rumor has it, they were an inspiration to Dr. Seuss.

But for me, the main attraction of the park was all the rocks. I am not the only one who is attracted to the rocks. Believe it or not, I think every rock, no matter how big or knarly, is considered climbable. There are even books that you can buy that rate rocks by they climbing difficulty like ski runs. And no, I didn't climb them.

The person in this picture is my friend Sarah who was traveling with me.

So I've been on vacation...

In Southern California, to be exact. Somewhere I've never been. It was really fun and different.

I started out in Palm Springs, which seemed to be a bit of a mish mosh of a lot of things and walks of life. The hotel was a throw back, for example:

In Desert Hot Springs, there is an "energy vortex," apparently. In case you are not clear on what this is exactly, you are not alone. But I think it has something to do with a lot of different kinds of energy (water, air, heat, etc) come together in a single place that makes you feel some kind of powerful.

http://energyvortex.net/

What would you expect an energy vortex to look like? How would you think something so amazing would marked... so that you would know it was there? Well, in Desert Hot Springs, they put the main intersection of the town right on the vortex.

There is a airway tram that takes you high above the desert floor. This is not for those who are scared of heights or who get motion sickness. Not only does it go up nearly 10,000ft, but it rotates as you go up. Hence, no pictures till I got to the top.

In the tram parking lot, I noticed I was parked next to this car. It made me giggle. So redundant.

How do you know you could be at a Seattle wedding?

1.  When you on a ferry:

2. The cake is Scandinavian:

3. There are a lot of children. Doesn't matter if it is a night time wedding either. And they have no problem making themselves comfortable.

You know you are at a charity auction in Seattle when:

...one of the "big ticket" items is a chicken tractor.

Not sure what a chicken tractor is? It is a portable chicken coop. You know, in case you need to take your chickens camping with you, I guess.


http://www.chickencoopsource.com/chicken-coops/chickentractors/victoriachickentractor.cfm?TID=GKP009&source=channel_intelligence_gbase&ci_src=14110944&ci_sku=GKP009

Have you ever watched a local professional team win the "final" or "championship" game of anything... LIVE? Sure, watching it on TV is exciting... and better than nothing... but LIVE... an entirely different experience.

Last night I watched the Seattle Sounders Football Club defend their America's Cup title. It was awesome to watch. I was jumping at my seat the entire 90 minutes. I lost my hearing AND my voice. Totally worth it.

Guard Your Fingers

So it is Oyster Season. Any month with an "R" in it is an 'oyster' season month. Oysters are a huge deal out here... so when the season starts again, people go a little Oyster crazy.

There was an Oysterfest about 90 minutes Southwest of Seattle this weekend.. sure, the purpose is to celebrate shellfish and eat a lot of it... but the main attraction is the speed oyster shucking competition that goes on for two days. This seems entirely too drawn out for my taste considering that each heat only takes about 90 seconds.

How many oysters can YOU shuck in 90 seconds? 1? If you are lucky, maybe 2? Try 2 dozen.

And no, I will NOT be entering this competition next year. I like my fingers exactly where they are.

On Saturday, I went to brunch on a farm outside Poulsbo on the Kitsap Peninsula. This farmhouse is only open for brunch one saturday a month... and they have only one thing on the menu that month. The best part of going here is that you really need to take a ferry to get there. I had yet to go somewhere for a feed that required a ferry ride. Very Seattle.

The menu was stuffed french toast with bacon, egg and sausage.

The surrounding gardens are even more beautiful than the food.. which created a wonderful backdrop to brunch.

The best part, however, just might be what the server said to me after the meal:

Server: "Would you like a box for your leftover eggs?"

Me: "Oh, no, that's ok, thanks for asking."

Server: "I always like to ask because some people like to give their leftovers to their chickens. (Pause) Although that might be a little weird in this case... bringing eggs to feed chickens.. (Pause)... Nevermind."

I swear, ONLY in Seattle.

Bremerton is one of the towns connected to Seattle via ferry. On Labour Day Weekend, they have a "blackberry festival," where you can indulge in all things blackberry. This was fun, but my favorite part of the town was the waterfront park. The water fountains were fantastic. Spontaneous and totally synchronized. Awesome.

Herbfarm the Sequel

Last year I had my first trip to the Herbfarm Restaurant, which was an unforgettable experience. Thanks to a discount voucher, I was able to go again this week. The "theme" for their current menu is "Northwest BBQ." Dare I say, this menu was even better than the "Basil Banquet" from last year. Just the descriptions alone are enough to make you all kinds of excited, but lucky for you, I brought my camera.

Here is Slow Roasted Lummi Island Sockeye Salmon with Zucchini-Chive Noodles, Salmon Tartar, Smoked Steelhead Roe, Lemon-Thyme Corn Cream and Raw Corn Salmon. So essentially, a LOT of salmon.

The BBQ was quite impressive and very "Top Chef":

Here is the Local Duck Breast Gently Poached with Lovage Seed, with Wood Grilled Foie Gras, Hazelnut Duck Skin Crumble, Celery Root Apple Nasturtium Slaw with Oregon White Truffle Oil, and a Caramelized Hungarian Pepper Gastrique. How much of this stuff did I recognize? Just the Foie Gras, and it was a portion about the size of my fist. NICE.

Every time you get up for any reason, you get a new napkin. After you get up several times, the wait staff develops a sense of humor:

Check out the Big Leaf Maple Glazed Tamworth Pork Rib and Charred Pork Belly with Fennel-Fines Herbes, Chicharron with Smoked Olympic Peninsula Paprika and Sammamish Valley Three Been Salad.  Gotta love food with good height.

Sailing Queen

I've done quite a bit of sailing this summer. I am soooo lucky that I have a wonderful friend with a boat. Who trusts me enough to be on her crew and who believes that I won't wind up in the water. A couple of weeks ago, there was a "girls sail" to Gig Harbor... a place I've blogged about several times before. We got there in about 4 hours in 20 knots of wind. It was awesome. I seriously felt like I was a pro.

This past weekend, the crew decided to "take it up a notch" and sail to the San Juan Islands. This is officially the farthest I've ever sailed in one direction. It took us two days to get to Friday Harbor on San Juan Island. To get there, you have to sail over the Strait Juan de Fuca, or as the locals like to call it, "Strait Wanna Puke-a." It was a little rough, but nothing we couldn't handle. 

The main draw of the islands, besides the great weather are the pods of orcas that hang out there in the summer and the hoards of dungeness crabs you can catch. We didn't see any orca, but on Saturday night, we put some crab pots out. We did really well for a set of rookies and for only an hour or so of soaking.

So yesterday, I thought we were having an earthquake. Having experienced one in Portugal in December, I was positive Seattle was having one. There was a huge bang. The floor shook. The ceiling moved up and down. It only lasted for about 10 seconds or so, but I was terrified. Once I thought we were done with quake, I immediately went online, looking for an explanation. No quakes. Anywhere close, anyways. I really thought I had hallucinated or something. Time to cut back on the caffeine.

At the end of the day, I finally got an explanation... it was a sonic boom. Our president was in town and apparently, a seaplane got too close to Air Force One and two fighter jets FROM PORTLAND (three hours away by car) had to scramble to Seattle as a security measure.

Know what they are calling this event in these parts? Wait for it....wait....

"Obooma"

Culinary Adventure at Canlis

My brother and his fiancee came to Seattle over the weekend. Whenever Mark is in Seattle, it is all about the food. I love the fact that Mark and Kristin, the ultimate foodies, who are spoiled by NYC, think the food scene in my town is awesome. I really enjoy trying to find the "best of" or things that I believe they will just swoon over. I guess it is my way of showing off Seattle as well as letting my little brother know that there are parts of him that have rubbed off on me. Having Mark as my brother has made me a bit of a foodie and I love that.

So the culmination of our gluttonous weekend was dinner at Canlis, which is considered to be, THE most special place to eat within Seattle's city limits. It was quite an experience. Every detail was totally exquisite, fun and an adventure.

Disclaimer: SERIOUS food porn below.

The drinks at Canlis definitely set the stage... in a curious twist, Mark's drink was pink with a flower in it. I ordered the beer.

First course was a caprese salad. Needless to say, I've never seen one like this before. The seeds you see all over the plate are "rehydrated basil seeds." VERY "top chef" if you ask me.

Second course was a procuitto/melon/fig plate.

In between courses, it is hard not to have your eyes wander around to other tables.. if only to see what beautiful plates other people are eating. Being such a fancy place, I did expect to see some "sugar daddies." (notice the stealthy camera positioning).

What was a surprise, however, was watching the staff iron the tablecloths right on the table.

 

Third course was a chicken dish with seriously fancy mushrooms, followed by a prawn dish that was simply stunning to look at, as well as the best thing I ate all night, in my estimation.

The lamb course, I will admit, looks a little "suspect" the way I photographed it, but it was just as yummy as everything else.

The most unusual dish was the "ginger beer" course. Probably THE most fancy pants ginger ale I'll ever have in my life.

The dessert course was made special because of Mark's birthday. I think this is one of the "happiest" desserts I've ever seen: