{"id":184,"date":"2008-05-26T02:05:55","date_gmt":"2008-05-26T09:05:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/silenceoftheclams.com\/blog\/archives\/184"},"modified":"2008-06-08T23:38:18","modified_gmt":"2008-06-09T06:38:18","slug":"british-invasion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/silenceoftheclams.com\/blog\/2008\/05\/british-invasion\/","title":{"rendered":"British Invasion!"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ok, so it was more of a visit than an invasion… and really more from SLC than from Britain…\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n

Two days after the Ashleye<\/a> departed, Kathleen (who really is British) arrived to spend 5 days in the lovely northwest with her fantastic friend (me).\u00c2\u00a0 She thought she was coming to relax, but I had other plans.\u00c2\u00a0 Actually I didn’t really have other plans, but\u00c2\u00a0we kept ourselves busy nonetheless!<\/p>\n

\"KathleenShe arrived in Seattle at the ungodly hour of 7:50am (neither of us are “morning people”) and we headed straight into Seattle for the “Savor Seattle” tour at Pikes Place (review to follow in another post).\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0 This is Kathy standing by one of the many flower peddlers in the market.<\/p>\n

After a fabulous, but exhausting, 2 hour walk around the market, we made a few purchases and headed back to my place.\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0 Kathy (who hadn’t slept the night before, worried she wouldn’t hear her alarm) took a much needed 2 hour nap…. that lasted until late the next morning .\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n

We took it pretty easy on Friday, exploring my small garden and left the condo only for dinner at Azuls<\/a>\u00c2\u00a0and a little shopping at the fabulous Musings<\/a>, which features the work of local artists.\u00c2\u00a0 We finished the evening off with pedicures. Our feet were very happy.<\/p>\n

Saturday was another big day.\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0We started off by browsing a couple of shops at The Country Village<\/a>, then headed to downtown Bothell (which is tiny) for a bit of lunch at the Kozy Corner Cafe – and then were off on a quest to find the Chateau Ste Michelle<\/em><\/strong> <\/a>winery.\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0 We took the scenic route through some lovely Woodinville farmland (i.e., I didn’t know where the hell I was going),<\/em>\u00c2\u00a0 and eventually found ourselves entering the incredibly beautiful grounds.<\/p>\n

\"So<\/a>Neither of us had ever been to a winery before so decided to take the free tour.\u00c2\u00a0 We both learned a lot about how wine is made, why red wine can be so expensive (aging them in expensive, hand made oak barrels imported from France or Italy) <\/em>and all about why Washington’s Columbia Valley offers the perfect climate for growing wine grapes.\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0 And did you know that the year of a wine is not the year the wine was made, but the year the grapes were picked?\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0 Neither did I.<\/p>\n

The tour ended with a tasting of 3 wines….\u00c2\u00a0 I should point out that I hate wine.\u00c2\u00a0 I think it’s nasty.\u00c2\u00a0 And it’s\u00c2\u00a0deceptive!\u00c2\u00a0 It smells so wonderfully fruity, and then has this dry, bitter taste.\u00c2\u00a0 Blech!<\/strong>\u00c2\u00a0 So the tasting was a bit awkward to say the least.\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0 I graciously did try a sip, and when our\u00c2\u00a0cute tour guide noticed I was disposing of the remainder (or pouring them in Kathy’s glass for her to finish )<\/em>\u00c2\u00a0 I explained that I like my drinks sweet.\u00c2\u00a0<\/em>\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n

So she was delighted to tell me that the final wine we would be tasting is a sweet wine…\u00c2\u00a0 a dessert wine, Muscat Canelli<\/a> (2006, I believe), available only in the retail shop at the winery.\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0 I was a bit apprehensive, but discovered it\u00c2\u00a0was quite tasty and finished the glass.\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0 Wouldn’t it figure that I’d like a dessert wine?\u00c2\u00a0 And an expensive one at that.\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0 I’d probably never buy a bottle, but if you offer me\u00c2\u00a0a glass of dessert wine, I’ll try it.<\/p>\n

Kathy, on the other hand, really enjoys wine in all its varieties.\u00c2\u00a0 She can expound on which were her favorite.\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n

We would have loved to spend some time exploring the beautiful grounds, joining the other winery visitors who had spread blankets on the grass to enjoy a picnic or some wine and cheese…\u00c2\u00a0 such a delightful place to spend a Saturday afternoon… but it was TOO DAMN HOT!\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0 Most residents of the area were enjoying Seattle’s unseasonably warm weather (80-ish) that weekend, but we both prefer a cooler temp, so we got back in the air conditioned car and made the requisite pilgrimage to nearby Molbaks<\/em><\/strong><\/a>.
\n\"Molbaks
\nLook – while I was taking photos of hydrangeas, Kathy found more wine and passed out on a lounge chair.\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"DaysMolbaks is the ultimate garden store…\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0 acres of flowers and fabulous interior decorating\/gift sotre. On a rainy or cool day we’d have spent hours there.\u00c2\u00a0 But, unfortunately, it was also a bit warm for both of us – so our stay was brief.\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n

We had a party to get ready for anyway.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/a>After a bit of freshening up, and preparing a tasty spinach salad for the potluck, we headed to Mercer Island for lovely evening socializing with\u00c2\u00a015 members of my fabulous Seattle Post Mormon<\/a> group.\u00c2\u00a0 Great conversation, good food, perfect temperature, and a beautiful view of Lake Washington.\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>Kathy was a hit at the party, of course.\u00c2\u00a0 This woman is very clever and knows how to tell a story… she can even make funerals funny.\u00c2\u00a0 They were very disappointed to learn she lived in Salt Lake and won’t be a regular attendee.<\/p>\n

And so ends part 1 of our adventure…. tune back tomorrow (or the next day) to hear about our journey to the San Juan Islands…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ok, so it was more of a visit than an invasion… and really more from SLC than from Britain…\u00c2\u00a0 Two days after the Ashleye departed, Kathleen (who really is British) arrived to spend 5 days in the lovely northwest with her fantastic friend (me).\u00c2\u00a0 She thought she was coming to relax, but I had other … Continue reading British Invasion!<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10,11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-184","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-familyfriends","category-travel"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/silenceoftheclams.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/184","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/silenceoftheclams.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/silenceoftheclams.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/silenceoftheclams.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/silenceoftheclams.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=184"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/silenceoftheclams.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/184\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/silenceoftheclams.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=184"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/silenceoftheclams.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=184"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/silenceoftheclams.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=184"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}