Everything is Easy: East coast comes west

Mick was the first person from the east coast to come out to visit us and see out place out here in Seattle as such I thought I'd write up a little summary of the visit.

Day one:

I picked Mick up from the airport and brought him back home. We dropped off his stuff and went for a walk to the water through the park. After some supper we walked into Capitol Hill and had a few drinks. As is starting to be typical for Emma and I, we stopped in at the Neighbor Lady for some exceptionally poor service. We didn't stick around. Some stops off at Chuck's Hop Shop, High Five Pie, Unicorn and a few other south Capitol Hill bars we called it a night. We played shuffle board at Capitol Cider for a bit in here, too. Emma and I had been there before to eat and it was really expensive and small food portions but for drinks it was fine. The shuffle board table was pretty good quality, too, even if they didn't give you enough stores to play with. We didn't stay out too late because we had to get up earlyish to go skiing in the morning!

Day two:

We drove to Crystal Mountain for a day of skiing. It was a 2 hour drive from Seattle. Only the last 20 minutes or so near any snow, most of the drive it was in the 50s and dry. Once we got the the hill parking was tight and far away form the lifts. We had to walk maybe a half mile from the car to the rental place. Once the skis were rented we decided sticking our shoes in some hidy-hole to be cold, wet and maybe stolen when we returned from skiing was not th best idea so Mick walked back to the car to put them away. This had the consequence of making us walk back to the car in our socks at the end of the day. A long wet walk.

Rainier from the top of the Rainier Express chairlift.

Since we had both been skiing recently so we were feeling pretty good. Neither of us are great but we were fine on the blue runs. In the afternoon we were feeling good enough to actually try some little tricks in the terrain park. The jumps were between 1 and 3 feet, and were surprisingly easy to land. I mean...I definitely fell most of the time but it didn't hurt as much as I would have expected. So long as you don't hit a rock or a tree falling on skis is not that painful.

That is mostly true unless you are Mick Rubio and you are going way too fast and fall and hit your face on the grip of your ski pole. I got to the top of terrain park and stop to look back, there is Mick, kneeling, looking at the blood on his hand from where his lip busted open. Quite the spill. While I was taking a series of small falls throughout the day Mick said he would be fine until he had a major spill. No spills or a major fall. He was not wrong. That's exactly what happened. But he did great and kept skiing.

The top of the terrain park. Behind where this picture was taken is where Mick smashed his face up.

A whole baked apple exploding with cream cheese frosting

The day got capped off with a walk into Capitol hill for some beers and shuffle board. I think this is the night we went to Po Dog.

Day Three:

We biked into downtown. I think these hills were a real treat to Mick legs after skiing. Mostly we walked around the market, then went down the the waterfront, saw the red hallway in the library, almost went to the observation deck in Colombia Tower but didn't (cloudy and just too much walking) and walked to all in between. I wanted to make in to Pioneer Square and into Belltown but that was going to be far too much walking for a day.

The places we went and things we ate while there were

Meat and cheese place at entrance

Smoked pepper jack
Trail mix
I don't know what the name of this place is

Uli's Famous Sausage

Portuguese linguica. A delicious sausage! I withheld my vegetarianism for the day to enjoy some fresh meats at the market.

Mick's

Merlot Jelly

Some meat and fish place

Smoked salmon jerky
I also don't know what the name of this place is. I should walk back down and look

OMG! ( I din't actually know the name of this place but they sold pastas and oils)

some Garlic, Parmesan, Rosemary olive dipping oil. We brought this home and dipped some of Emma's delicious fresh made bread in it. Emma and I later used it to dip pizza crusts in. Highly recommended.

Beecher's

Grilled cheese Flagship sandwich
Mac & Cheese

Piroshky Piroshky

Whole baked apple (see pictures below). This thing is fantastic. The line for this little hole-in-the-wall restaurant was mammoth. Maybe a 30 minute wait. Well worth every second.