little black journal

Yesterday was the day I officially fell head-over-heels gaga for Beantown (despite the fact that it’s nickname is, in fact, Beantown – why is that so unappealing?). Shane headed out first thing in the morning for a run, and since I had left my New Balances back at home, I pulled on my gray suede boots and set out for a stroll over to Beacon Hill. I zig-zagged my way toward Boston Common, gazing up toward the tops of skyscrapers and listening to the sound of delivery trucks roll their doors shut as they finished their alley drop-offs. People in suits rushed out of the corner Dunkin’ Donuts, caffeine fix in hand, and the hot dog vendor on State Street started setting up shop. Those few blocks in the Financial District had me majorly high on the big city vibe.

And then I found myself on Mount Vernon Street, at the heart of Beacon Hill in all it’s red-bricked, tree-lined perfection. The sidewalks were quiet and deserted, save the occasional dog-walker, and I wandered slowly toward Charles Street, wanting to savor every last detail of the enchanting brownstones.

I ordered a croissant and a cup of coffee at Cafe Vanille and settled into a sunny little sidewalk table with my breakfast and my Kindle. Shane met me there and we headed over the Boston Public Garden to fully soak in a perfect Fall morning at the park, with it’s sparkling water and green, green grass.

From there, we walked over the to the river to stroll along the lovely waterfront esplanade before eventually winding our way back up toward the North End.

The pizza place we’d been planning to hit up for lunch was closed, so we put our names in for a table at Neptune Oyster Bar for another OMG seafood fest. More plump, fresh oysters paired with crisp glasses of Vinho Verde, followed by an anchovy-topped Caeser salad for me and a hot, buttery lobster roll for Shane. I’ve never really loved oysters, but those Moon Shoals are doin’ a number on me. Deeeee-lish.

We spent the afternoon out in Cambridge, exploring Harvard a bit and then trekking out to the Mount Auburn Cemetery, per a recommendation from a couple we’d met at lunch. I’ve had a thing for cemeteries since my first visit to Pere Lechaise in Paris, and Mount Auburn did not disappoint. Full of winding little pathways among beautiful old tombstones and huge, gorgeous trees – I could have spent hours wandering around there. But dang it, my dogs were barkin’ in those gray suede boots, so we caught the red line back to our hotel so that we could rest for a bit before happy hour.

We met up with my friend Emily in the evening for a beer at the Bell in Hand Tavern, and after a good, solid catch-up with her, Shane and I hopped back on the red line for dinner at Posto in Davis Square. We’d heard great things about their Neopolitan-style pizza and were eager to give it a go. It was good, although a pizza place really has to bring their A-game if they’re going to impress someone who’s eaten at Tutta Bella as many times as we have, so Posto got a solid B (with a couple of bonus points for that Manchego bruschetta). Shane had grand ambitions for after-dinner cocktails on the other side of down, but showing Boston all that love had left me pooped – we settled instead on snuggling into bed and watching the latest Parks and Rec on the iPad. What a day.

We have easily made the transition into full-on vacation mode – we’re sleeping in, eating ourselves silly, and reveling in the absence of stress and work and any to-do’s. Life is good. We kicked off today with a stroll through the North End – more lovely brick facades, more statues of dudes like Paul Revere and John Adams, and heaping tons of charm.

After a little cafe-lounging at Boston Common Coffee Company, we squeezed our way into North Street Grille and grabbed a couple of seats at the bar. The place was packed and cozy, the portions were huge, and Shane gave the mimosas two thumbs up. Score.

Post-brunch, we were ready to stretch our legs and burn some calories, so we walked over to the Seaport District to check out the Institute of Contemporary Art. This building was under construction when my thesis studio took our big tour of Boston architecture in 2005, so it was fun to come back and see the finished product.

The afternoon had turned chilly and gray, so it was nice to take in the views of the bay from the warmth of the open, glassy galleries. The collection was more limited than we expected, but the exhibit by Os Gemeos was lots of fun, and the building itself was a piece of art worth the trip.

We walked back to the hotel through the Greenway Open Market and got swept up in the mobs of people browsing the stalls at the Boston Local Food Festival. We were still stuffed from our over-indulgent brunch, so I behaved myself and walked away with only a kale apple smoothie. And a package of salt-and-pepper dark chocolate, for later, of course.

The rest of the afternoon was good and lazy, with reading and naps and some web-surfing by the lobby fireplace. We rallied around 7 and headed out for dinner in Back Bay at Island Creek Oyster Bar. And oh. my. word. The evening was total perfection, from the champagne cocktails to the fresh, flavorful Moon Shoal oysters, to the creamy clam chowder and the noodles topped with grilled lobster and braised short rib. It was a seafood bonanza. And that wall made of oyster shells held up by wire mesh? Awesome.

We popped back over to the North End for one last stop before going back to the room to catch the game – we’d heard that Mike’s Pastries is a Boston icon and so we joined the hoards of other people craving a late-night cannoli. We took ours to-go, thinking these over-sized, super-rich cream-filled shells would be the perfect way to celebrate a Giants win. Turns out they were more of a consolation prize (9-0 – ouch!), but I’m shrugging it off. Tomorrow is Monday and I’m sleeping in – that’s certainly something to celebrate!

Greetings from Beantown! After a 10:30 red-eye flight from Seattle, we arrived in Boston early Saturday morning, sleepy and stiff, but excited to kick off our New England adventure. We ditched our bags at our hotel (no 8 am check in! gah!) and promptly headed toward Charles Street for breakfast at The Paramount. After chowing down on french toast and huevos rancheros, we stepped back out into the sun, rejuvenated and ready to do some wandering while we waited for our room. We strolled through the neighborhood in all its brick-lined, black-shuttered charm, wondering what it would take to snag one of those beautiful brownstones on the shady, quiet side-streets.

Our food-fueled energy was short-lived and we found ourselves dragging after only a few blocks, so we parked ourselves on a bench at the Frog Pond in Boston Common to soak up some rays and watch the park’s bold, friendly squirrels dart past our feet. I couldn’t shake my sleepiness and felt my eyelids growing heavy (seriously, how did I survive all those all-nighters in college?), so we got up to do a little more walking in search of our second wind. We ended up at the park’s baseball diamond and spent an hour watching the little sluggers go head-to-head – it was kind of a sorry substitute for a Red Sox game at Fenway, but the back row of the bleachers proved to be the perfect place for tilting my face up toward the sun and doing a little dozing.

Our room at the Millennium Bostonian was ready by 11:00, and I nearly jumped for joy at the promise of a hot shower and a long nap. Four hours later, I was a new woman, ready to get out and give Boston a proper hello. Shane and I checked out the offerings at the Greenway Open Market and slowly made our way south for happy hour at Masa. The city was buzzing with Saturday shoppers and the late afternoon sun skimming the brick buildings was lovely – I took it all in, reveling in that hopeful, giddy feeling that comes with the first day of vacation.

The margaritas and half-price tapas at Masa made us even giddier, and we left the bar ready to do a little more exploring and see what else Boston had up its sleeve. Ten minutes later, the city started spitting big, fat raindrops upon us, but not to worry – we were a block away from Thinking Cup cafe (on Shane’s to-visit list) so we ducked inside for a pot of tea and a couple of salted caramel macarons. Those few raindrops soon turned into an all-out torrential down-pour and we happily poured from a second pot of tea and dug into a killer slice of carrot cake to wait out the storm. Sweet tooth and cafe-craving satisfied, we made our way back to the hotel once the skies cleared and spent the rest of the night watching the Giants game from the comfort of our king-size bed. Barring our team’s bitter defeat (the profanities were flying out of Shane’s mouth), day one of our Fall getaway had been a smashing success. Can’t wait to see what else New England has in store for us!

October is here! This is one of my favorite months, in a three-way tie with July (sunshine!) and December (Christmas!). A few reasons why I’m particularly stoked about this flip of the calendar:

Travel time! We both have our birthdays in October and think it’s important to grow older with a bang – last year, we celebrated in Amsterdam and Paris. This year, we’re off to New England to take in the foliage and stuff ourselves with lobster rolls.  Bon anniversaire, baby.

Color. Gold and orange and bright, bright red. Add to that the satisfying sound of dried leaves crunching underfoot, and you’ve got the makings of a perfect Sunday afternoon stroll.

Makin’ stuff.  I’m spending less time out on the back patio and more time inside with my yarn and my beads and my tubes of paint.  It started with my weekend bonanza of knitting and basket-painting – now I’m into jewelry making and maybe, possibly art-making again.  My crusty watercolor set has been giving me the sad, neglected stink-eye.

Boot weather. And comfy sweaters. I like my flip-flops and tank tops, but I love my leather boots and chunky knit turtlenecks.  I’m giving the pedicures and the push-ups a rest for now – pressure’s off for the next six nine months!

Fresh Fall fare.  Honeycrisp apples (puts those Fujis I like to shame), acorn squash roasted with butter and brown sugar, my favorite pumpkin muffins (ok, so it’s a stretch to say that canned pumpkin is “in season”, but mmm…).

Happy October, friends!

Our perfect stay on Orcas Island ended yesterday.  Hmmph…  But here’s how the last couple of days looked:

We stepped back onto the ferry on Thursday and headed to San Juan Island to check out Friday Harbor – the mist rolling over the water that morning was beautiful (and again, a little bit like heaven, no?).

Friday Harbor was a bit touristy for our taste, but we had fun soaking in the sun and checking out the marina with the girls.

Elise was pretty taken with the seal that hung out right by the dock – she named him Sealy and got a big kick out of his whiskers.

We got back to Orcas just in time for naps all around, then wolfed down hearty helpings of Mitch’s spaghetti and meatballs for dinner.  The wind picked up that evening and the weather really started to cool down, so we spread out a beach towel and had our ice cream in front of the fireplace instead of out on the deck.  Ah, I love an ice cream picnic.

After a stop for sticky buns and scones at the bakery around the corner, we headed out on Friday morning to do a little kayaking.  Mitch, Kathryn, and Elise grabbed their paddles and did some exploring in the Sound while Shane and I sat on the beach with Morgan and let her dump cups full of sand into our laps.

We all wondered how well Elise would take to the water, worrying that she may be nervous or bored, but the girl totally dug it – this smile quickly turned upside down once she realized her time in the boat was over.

Shane and I handed Morgan off to Mom and Dad and then took our turn in the water.  Determined to make it around Obstruction Island in the allotted rental time, we paddled our hearts out.  My biceps were on fire by the time we landed back at the beach 80 minutes later!

The rest of the day was quiet – quality deck time, a stop at the bookstore for a good cup of coffee, and another leisurely meal around the dinner table.

Elise pulled out her toy microphone at the end of the meal and interviewed each of us, wanting to know what our favorite part of the vacation had been.  The past few days were full of so many good memories, but it was the little stuff that really stuck out – listening to the girls shriek with laughter as Mitch played monster and chased them around the house, watching Morgan giggle uncontrollably over a particularly silly game of peek-a-boo with Uncle Shane, curling up in front of the fireplace with a book and feeling so deeply, contentedly warm.  Simple, lovely, good-for-my-soul kind of stuff.

We spent Saturday morning packing our things (sigh) and took one last stroll through town before heading back to our reality-bound ferry.

Au revoir, Orcas.  Hope to see you again real soon.

Shane, Mitch, Kathryn and I boarded a ferry yesterday with the girlies for our first (annual?) island getaway – we’ve rented a sweet house on Orcas Island and are calling this little piece of heaven home for the next few days.  From the sunny ferry ride over here to the evening I spent wrapped up in a blanket on the deck with a hot cup of tea, this little vay-cay is shaping up to be everything I’d hoped it would be.

We’re right on the water, just a stone’s throw away from the neighborhood bakeries and coffee shops, and Ho-Ly Cow – I’m ready to make an offer on this place!  I mean, honestly, this view is just a little bit incredible…right?!  Right?!

We’re spending lots of time sitting on the deck, eating leisurely meals and reading and painting and soaking in all kinds of sunshiny, adorable goodness.

We’re also taking advantage of the island’s scenic offerings.  Shane biked to the top of Mount Constitution this morning (stud alert!) and the rest of us piled into the rented mini-van and met him at the top.  We could barely make out Mount Baker in the distance, hovering just beyond the morning fog.  Elise and I counted the surrounding islands, then I counted my blessings.  There were lots of both.

Next stop: Cascade Lake per one little girl’s very emphatic request that we find a beach to do some swimming.  Morgan and Elise splashed in the water while Shane and Mitch tossed the frisbee around and Kathryn and I went for a run around the lake.  This is the stuff of perfect PNW summers!

I sighed a little sigh tonight as the sun set on our first full day here – I suspect this will be one of those vacations that flys by much too quickly…

What. A. Week.  More jury duty trial on Monday, two days of the most painful deliberation ever on Tuesday and Wednesday (it was a conflict-avoider’s worst nightmare), and a brief but jam-packed work conference in Utah on Thursday and Friday.  And so this weekend was all about taking a breather – lots of naps, coffee dates and dinner with friends, and some solid progress on Dawson’s Creek Season 1 (don’t judge!).  I barely scratched the surface of my lengthy to-do list and am battling that sense of relaxer’s remorse that often sets in at the end of a particularly lazy weekend – I get a little funky when the leisure-productivity scale tips toward the latter.  I suppose there’s still time to peel myself from the couch and do that load of laundry, scrub that toilet.  Or there’s time to pour myself a cup of tea, bust out the Toblerone, and sink farther into this Joey-Jen-Dawson love triangle…  Happy Sabbath, folks.

Jack and La Verne are known to be pros when it comes to sampling Vancouver’s finest fare, so Shane and I were pretty excited when the four of us finally got a date on the calendar to trek up north together. We buckled ourselves into the Chens’ trusty Prius on Saturday morning, made a quick stop at Honore in Ballard for croissants and coffee, and we were Canada-bound!

The next 36 hours were a blur of eating and drinking and eating and…more eating. My word, if I had a nickel for every time I rubbed my belly this weekend and moaned about how full I was, I’d have enough money to buy that bottle of Johnny Walker Blue that Shane was eyeing at the duty-free shop!  We kicked things off with dim sum in Richmond, plowing our way through a table laden with shrimp dumplings and tofu rolls and little football-shaped fried pockets of meat. It was culinary gluttony at its finest.

We left Richmond with stuffed-full bellies, determined to do something active and build those appetites back up for our dinner resos at 6.  The sun was shining and we were feeling adventurous, so we settled on a bike ride around Stanley Park – tandem-style!  Shane and I had never braved a two-person bike before, and I was wary of our communication skills being pushed to the limit, but we fell into sync pretty easily and made our way around the park with only minor wobbles.

Next stop: dinner at La Quercia.  Ham, fish, pasta, wine, oooooh la la.  It was a meal, made perfect by the company of good friends.  We capped the day off with carefully crafted cocktails at Pourhouse – if only I had a picture of Shane’s gigantic grin as that first Old Fashioned was placed in front of him, and Jack’s furrowed eyebrows as he pondered whether or not his drink had been made with the appropriate proportion of Fernet.  Oh, those boys and their liquor…

We were up impressively early on Sunday (especially considering the gluttony that took place the night before) and started our day with a jog along the waterfront as penance for Saturday’s carb-fest.  Post-run, we grabbed coffee in Yaletown, checked out the neighborhood a bit, and found that our stomachs were sufficiently primed for another day of eating ourselves silly.  First on the list: soup dumplings at Long’s Noodle House.  These delicate, juicy little pockets of meat and broth kind of blew my mind – so, so, so good.

We spent the afternoon hitting the shops on Robson (Zara!), and though none of us were particularly hungry, we couldn’t leave without a stop at Motomachi for ramen.  Hot damn, those noodles make me happy.

We had all heard good things about the Van Dusen botanical gardens and decided to hit them up on our way out of town.  The swoopy new visitor’s center is striking and the were gardens full of the last bits of summer color. We spent a couple of hours wandering down the meandering paths, checking out the luxury car show on the central lawn (yeah, random…), and “racing” through the shrubbed maze.

Our final destination on Canadian soil was the Richmond night market – music and lights and stall upon stall of Asian street food.  The Chinese hamburger and the fried octopus were good, but the Taiwanese shaved ice was the definite winner and the perfect way to end a flavor-filled couple of days.  Milky ice, mochi, jellies, red beans, and a scoop of ice cream – totally worth standing in the evening rain!

And with that, it was time to bid farewell to Canada and point the car toward Seattle.  We crossed that border full, happy, and a little more in love with our neighbor to the north.

Confession:  I’ve been a little lax on my sweets resolution as of late.  While it’s been over two months since I’ve had a Skittle or a Red Vine or even one precious gummy bear, I’ve been a little fast and loose with the desserts.  But whatever – I’m still huffin’ through those evening jogs, and I ate a cucumber for dinner the other night (I had a big lunch), so I’m giving myself a pass and indulging in a few home-baked goodies.

First, after a whoa-there piece of biscotti from Cafe Fiore in Ballard on Friday, I came home and tried out this recipe from David Lebovitz.  I love the crunch of the cornmeal and have been wolfing down these things with my morning (and evening) cup of tea.  Note:  I added a couple handfuls of dried cranberries to my batch and was glad for the extra tang.  Also, don’t feel bad if your pieces aren’t as crisply sliced as Lebovitz’s.  There’s charm in the little bulges and cracks and smooshed edges, right?  Right?

I’ve been on a citrus kick lately and tried out a new lemon bar recipe on Sunday – sweet, tart, and Buttery with a capitol B.  Also perfect with a cup of tea.

I am fully on-board with the fro-yo fad and would visit Red Mango daily if I could for a small plain yogurt topped with berries.  Alas, this isn’t really convenient (or cheap), so on Monday I tried making my own tart frozen yogurt at home.  We don’t have an ice cream machine, so bear with me on this poor man’s version of my favorite treat:  I stirred about two tablespoons of honey into a cup of Greek yogurt (must be plain flavor for optimum tartness!) and popped it in the freezer.  I gave it a stir after an hour hour to break up the icy chunks, put it in for about one more hour, gave it another stir, topped it with fresh raspberries, and chowed down on the easiest dessert ever!  This certainly isn’t soft-serve, but if you’re craving something refreshing and simple, this will hit the spot.  I’m adding an ice cream maker to my Summer 2013 wish list – I can only imagine how good this would be if made properly.

And with that, it’s looking like maybe it should be another cucumber kind of night…

Happy Labor Day, folks!  Happy, indeed – it’s been a pretty glorious long weekend.  Things were slow for me at work last week, so I took advantage of my open schedule and took Friday off to jump-start the holiday.  It was the “me-day” to top all me-days – coffee at Cafe Fiore, a massage to work those blues out of my shoulders, tacos at Oaxaca (and a whole side of chips and guac all to myself!), a little shopping and crafting in the afternoon, and then a perfectly chill movie night at home with Shane.  It was, in a word, grand (but don’t bother renting Friends with Kids – completely awful).

On Saturday I was tasked just with one vitally important mission:  Shane and Jack were making their annual Red Hook Ride out to the Woodinville Brewery (joined by Jordan and Bees – welcome to the club!) and needed La Verne and I to meet them out there with our cars around lunchtime (apparently, this is not a round-trip kind of bike ride).  We scored a sunny table on the patio and the bikers restocked those burned calories with monster burgers and pitchers of beer.  La Verne and I joined in the beef-fest, and we all stumbled out of there a little heavier than when we’d gone in.

We met up with the gang for drinks at The Bottle House that evening and marveled at the fact that we were just discovering this little gem of a bar in nearby Madrona.  Their patio is amazing – like something right out of a romantic movie with it’s twinkly lights and vine-covered railings.  It was the perfect place to toast to the last glimmerings of summer.

Sunday was mellow – church, our ritual lunch at Kedai Makan, and then a couple of hours spent laying on a blanket in Jefferson Park, dozing and reading and watching the kids at the nearby birthday party beat the heck out of a fire engine pinata.  I could have laid there until the sun went down, if not for the lure of dinner hot off Jack and La V’s grill (and the season 5 Breaking Bad finale!).

Today started quietly, with an easy jog at the lake and a couple of hours at Mioposto with a latte and my dusty old sketchbook.

I hated to waste the last of our Labor Day sunshine and started feeling antsy this afternoon.  Just as I was telling Shane that we needed to get out and do something to end the weekend with a bang, he got a phone call from Jack.  “Dude – we’re renting a boat today.  Want to go for a ride?”  Heck yes, we want to go for a ride!  We made our way to a little dock in Kirkland and were promptly picked up by the Chens in their super-posh power-boat.  The Rust clan was along for the ride, and we had a blast cruising around Lake Washington, sun skimming our shoulders and hair blowing in the wind.

And with that, this long, perfect weekend is over.  Tomorrow I report for my first-ever summons to jury duty – how’s that for reality slappin’ you in the face?