This is a pretty tiny cedar that we are hugging, but all trees deserve a bit of love now and then right? I'm catching up on the April fun with this blog...maybe in another month I'll manage to post about our May adventures? April was a lovely month filled with spring flowers, friends, decent weather, and lots of fun and hard work on the jobs. Since everything is poking up early in WA this year, I was concerned that the morels (wild mushrooms) were going to come up early and we would miss them! So we planned a weekend trip to the east side of the Cascades near Winthrop with our dear friends Nickie and Carolé. It was still pretty chilly at night during this time of year, so we rented a sweet cabin in the woods complete with a cedar sauna. Ahhhhh. Both evenings were spent eating outside, sipping wine, and then roasting in the sauna. Doesn't really get any better than that? Well.....it would have if we had found morels! But we didn't. Nope. Despite some epic wildfires last year, the morels were not popping early (fast-forward to today and the morels are going off about three weeks late!). But the four of us spent the day wandering around burns searching for the elusive yummy mushroom. The result? The South African in our group, Carolé, found the single morel of the day. Not the Americans who grew up on a continent that produced morels...nope...the South African. Pretty cute and funny I must say.
Jay cooked our single precious morel in a pan and then added it, with much celebration, to a homemade mushroom, goat cheese, and leek pizza.
The morel goes on the pizza!
The next day we left Jay behind at a cafe where he was going to work on PhD stuff....and the remaining three of us (plus Beebee the pooch) took off on a day hike near Winthrop. The wildflowers were everywhere and the clear skies afforded us fantastic views of the Cascades. What a great weekend!
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| Ruckle Provincial Park |
I wish I had more time to write about all our wonderful adventures with Allison, who visited shortly after we saw Nickie and Carol
é. Alas, if I don't put something up on this blog, I'll never put anything up again. Allison flew in late at night and the next day we were off to the BC ferries and Salt Spring Island. The Canadian Gulf Islands are, essentially, an extension of the San Juan Islands in Washington. But Jay and I had yet to explore these lovely islands and it was super exciting to finally visit one with Allison!
One of our first stops was the awesome little Farmer's Market on the island. The market was packed with amazing breads, cheeses, lunches, greens, honey, and crafts. Along with the local breads and cheeses we bought, I had brought along a bottle of Washington's own Treveri Blanc de Noir and we were all set for a perfect evening in our rental cabin on the water.
Before we got the bubbly, however, we had to take in the views around the island, including this lovely scene from Mt. Maxwell Provincial Park.
We spent a little time wandering around the woods and freezing our butts off in the park.
Ruckle Provincial Park wasn't part of the plan for the day, but it managed to sneak in there and we were all so glad it did. What amazing views of the San Juan Islands and the Gulf Islands!
View of Ganges Harbor at sunset
Our last day on Salt Spring was our paddling day! We only brought one of our two kayaks with us (my beloved
Alaria) because the owners of our rental cabin said we could use their two kayaks under the deck. They were a bit mossy and muddy, but we cleaned them right up and launched right from the beach by the cabin. Check out Allison rockin' the paddle in her borrowed boat!
Allison took this great photo of Jay (funny little borrowed black river kayak hidden, thankfully, from view) and me (in
Alaria).
On the way back to the cabin, Jay and Allison picked up a few oysters for their lunch. Don't worry, he checked PSP levels and bivalves were O.K. to harvest.
One of the first things you have to do when visiting us in Anacortes is take a trip to the rooftop bar when it is sunny out. It must be a requirement at this point? So here we are, trying to be warm, on top of the world in awesome Anacortes.
We are lucky ducks to always eat so well - both in our house and out at restaurants. Allison had a red-eye flight out of Seattle, so we stopped at our new favorite restaurant in the big city,
Sitka and Spruce. Lucky for us, we were joined by another member of the family (Sophia) for the dinner! What a night it was..... I'm not sure I'll ever forget my morels in a brandy cream sauce...... ohhhhhh...
Photos from April are here -
https://picasaweb.google.com/111221596171793333099/April2015?authkey=Gv1sRgCOK1n9jwgqv46gE
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