We started my husband’s birthday weekend off by enjoying a date night. I heard from friends that The Station was really yummy,  and then I read an article about it in Sunset Magazine and I was sold!

The Station boasts a huge wood-fired pizza oven, a fantastic menu, local brews on tap and great atmosphere with a super friendly staff.  The restaurant was packed so we had a beer on the adorable patio while we waited. Christmas lights and cool, brisk autumn air are essential for a good date night in October. While snuggling on the patio, we got a really good look at the menu and although there were not many vegetarian options (I’m a pescatarian, have been for 12 years), I had my eye on a pizza called Boss Lady and intended to order it without chicken. It has Maytag blue cheese, basil chiffonade, fresh eight vegetable medley, and Serrano pepper…hello there, Boss Lady, yes please. Allow me to digress for a moment and share my disappointment about NOT trying the Boss Lady pizza. It is so popular that they ran out of vegetable medley! I was so sad. I asked the waiter if it would be worth it without it and he said no way, so I’ll just have to go back and try it another time. *Sigh* Okay, so my back up order was the classic Margherita Fresca, always a good choice. My hubby had the Albatross, pictured below, which has house-smoked pork belly, Serrano pepper, grana, and a sunny-side up egg. He was over the moon with his selection, and I enjoyed the freshness of the ingredients and the fantastic crust. It was hand tossed and perfectly crispy, not overly seasoned . On to drinks! My first beer, not pictured, was a Fort George Sunrise Oatmeal Pale Ale and my hubby tried the Triple Horn Irish Red. Both were delish and we would definitely order them again. For dessert they had a pretty tempting menu, cannoli, panna cotta, fresh baked cookies, gelato…aye yi yi! After pizza and beer, we had to go a little on the lighter side, so we went with gelato. We tried 3 flavors, lemon, chocolate peanut butter and spicy chocolate. The clear winner was chocolate peanut butter because of the ridiculously gigantic peanut butter chunks. It was a great meal and a great time with my hubby.

If you’re in Woodinville, taste some beer and/or wine, and stop by The Station for some seriously good pizza. I can’t wait to go back and try more items off the menu!

Have a great Tuesday!

Ahhhh, the fair. Dreams of eating funnel cake in the sunshine and going on rides all afternoon. What’s that you say? It’s going to be cold and rainy? That doesn’t scare us one bit! I’m too old for roller-coasters? No way!

Here it is, the real deal:

We knew going in that it would be cold, and I believe there was an 80% chance of rain. When we arrived, it was not raining, just a bit chilly, and we had high hopes. We made our way to most important thing of the day, the Washington State Fair Amateur Beer Competition booth. It was a glorious moment to see that my hubby and our dear friend, Mel, had done so well. They placed 2nd and 3rd for some of the beers they entered, and I couldn’t be prouder of them. They’re pretty awesome at what they do. With that checked off the list, we were ready for some adventure! We went full steam ahead towards one of those rides that takes you up really, really high and then drops you, and you feel like your stomach is in your throat. It was exhilarating, and with that ride under our belts, we went straight for the next ride, a steel roller-coaster that had many loops and appeared like child’s play after what we had seen. With my arms stretched straight out over my head, the ride takes off, and I’m thinking to myself, “why don’t we go on rides more often??” Yeah, that was short-lived. We hit a serious dip, and I smacked my head way too hard on the head rest. Just like that, arms are down, and I want off. I felt old. You may be wondering how to recover from such a realization…baby farm animals, of course!

It’s a little embarrassing to see how crazy I went over the baby farm animals. That’s a lie, they’re adorable and I’m owning this obsession. After the farm animals, we ate some fried food, played some games, got soaking wet in the rain, and won this guy.

Keroppi

That’s the Washington State Fair in a nutshell. It was good times. Did you go to your state fair this year?

It’s hard to believe that this time last week, we were huffing and puffing, making our way to this gorgeous destination. I just wanted to share a few more photos.

Happy Friday friends!

As a send off to an amazing summer here in the PNW, we ventured out on another backpacking trip, only for real this time. The hike…4 miles. The elevation climb…2700 ft. The verdict…I was grossly unprepared for how difficult this would be. I figured that I had done hikes similar before, so I’d be totally fine. Boy, was I wrong! This was the most grueling hiking experience I’ve ever had, truly pushing myself to the limit, motivating myself with thoughts like “mind over matter” and (from the movie Finding Nemo) “just keep swimming”. With that said, it was glorious! I was so proud of myself and felt such a sense of accomplishment. The view is truly breathtaking.

My home for the weekend.

For this trip, we needed to pack very light because the hike was so tough. My pack was about 25 lbs and consisted of food for my husband and I, a pot for boiling water, utensils, my sleeping bag, sleeping pad, clothes, toiletries and first aid kit. For the hike in, I wore a pair of denim cut offs with a tank and long sleeve hooded tee, wool socks and hiking boots. I packed a basic tee and an extra tank, yoga pants, fleece pajama pants (doubled as a pillow), extra socks and undies, my swimsuit and water shoes. Here is the look for day 1.

Pretty sure that I’m asking my hubby to carry my pack for me.

For food, we had to keep it to the bare minimum, so we had to be strategic and deliberate. We went to Fred Meyer and hit the camping section for freeze dried meals in a bag. They are kind of pricey @ $10.00/bag but suuuper convenient and very filling, so totally worth it. In the pic below, you can see that we packed almonds, peanut butter and rice cakes, oatmeal and tuna packets. We had to pick up some crackers and dried fruit, so there was a Trader Joe’s trip after this pic was taken. **Side note, we basically raided our pantry and made use of what we already had.

Sodium central — of course, after the trip we came up with great ideas, like apples and baby carrots.

When we arrived, it hit me that we had no camping chairs and that there would be no benches or picnic tables. Our campsite was definitely primitive, with a fire pit and a couple logs for sitting. Let me tell you, after that hike, a log was a beanbag chair to me! Anyway, we got smart and used our sleeping pads to sit on and really sprawl out. Best.Idea.Ever. See?

Gettin’ some zzzzzz.

As for the items that we needed to function for the weekend… a water purifier and a hatchet. The lake water is gorgeous but unsafe to drink, so we filled the bladder with lake water and hung it from a tree so  the filtration system could work its magic. A large portion of our food required hot water to cook, so between that and drinking water, we went through a lot of water and this worked like a charm. There’s also no way that we could have packed in enough water to get us through the weekend. As for the hatchet…why, for chopping wood, of course! Being able to chop wood provides a nice warm fire, and that means cooking and keeping the bugs away. There are, of course, a ton of super cool, fancy pants backpacking items out there, but these were the ones that we simply could not do without.

Now, I just have to share some of the great photos my husband took.

Mia the camper, taking a rest.

Enjoying my only beer of the weekend. They are far to heavy to carry up that trail.

The boys went on a hike and got this great shot of our camp. That’s our blue tent!

The stars were amazing on the first night.

Here they are ladies and gentlemen, our amazing friends.

This trip was fantastic, but we really are into the whole camping thing and have been for years. Here’s why:

1) Nature’s beauty

2) Being unplugged

3) Really connecting with each other & friends

4) It’s cheap

For this excursion we spent a whopping $10 for the parking pass, about $50 on food/alcohol and $12 for a headlamp for me. That brings us to a grand total of $72 for 3 days/2 nights. We do have a lot of gear that we have accumulated over the years, but if you shop off season and scour the internet for deals, you can get yourself everything you need to enjoy the great outdoors.

This was an awesome experience, and I’d do it again in a heartbeat. I hope you had a great weekend and are giving summer a proper send off.