life lately

It has been a busy December! In addition to all of the holiday festivities, Anders has been working his crazy holiday schedule at the market (80+ hours in a week!). We also signed up to be dog sitters on Rover and have had two clients already. We had a nice and relaxing Christmas Day, and we are looking forward to an easy New Year's Eve as well. I'm excited about our plans for 2016, but I'm always excited about plans, so that's nothing new! Let's do this!

Our first Rover client, Calvin

Holiday time with the boys at the market

My office is full of silly people especially during the holidays

Our second Rover client, Mac (we loved him so much we wanted to keep him)

Christmas Day dog walks with Mac and Maggie (and Santa)

 A pottery piece by 3SevensPottery I had made for Anders for Christmas. 

Happy New Year!

you cut

These pictures are from a few weeks ago when we went out to Carnation to a you-cut Christmas tree farm. We picked this particular farm because it is salmon safe meaning the farm protects wetlands, controls soil erosion and encourages plant and wildlife diversity. Awesome! We went early because we were working around a Seahawks game, which is why everything is covered in a blanket of frost. We're pretty happy with our little tree. 

world fishing journal

World Fishing Journal just aired an episode entirely about Pike Place Fish. I have watched a lot of shows on the fish market, and this one is much different. It is filmed documentary style and has in-home interviews with Johnny, the owner of PPF and Jim, their coach. It also features Anders and a few of the other guys. I really liked it and felt like it captured the spirit of the place and gave a cool look at the history. Johnny shows a lot of old pictures and talks about why he bought it. Check it out!

http://www.worldfishingnetwork.com/shows/world-fishing-journal/videos/?vid=60688

Passcode to view this episode: wfj

party time

My office celebrated the holidays last Friday night at the Garage. I might be biased, but this is my favorite picture of the night.

jarrbar

My dear friend, Bryan, opened the cutest little bar in Pike Place Market called JarrBar. It's a Spanish themed bar featuring Jamon Iberico, a special type of cured ham made from black pigs in Spain and Portugal that feast on olives and acorns. It's delicious and JarrBar is one of the only places you can find it in the city. Check out this great write-up from Seattle Times!

thanksgiving

I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday! We spent out Thanksgiving with good friends and good food. Every year this group manages to successfully deep fry four turkeys as well as tempura (because you can never have too much deep fried anything) and serve it up along delicious sides and homemade pies. It was such a fun day. I am definitely thankful for this group of friends and for always being able to afford and feast of this magnitude. We are all truly fortunate. 

My one regret is that I didn't get a group picture. I was too full to make it happen, so unfortunately not everyone is represented. Here are a few pictures from the day, though!

I decided to dye my hair pink

Here is a blurry picture.

Happy Monday!

long beach

Anders and I took a long weekend and headed out to the coast. Long Beach sits very close to the Oregon border, and it is the cutest little beach town! It has a lot of charm, great restaurants and a lot of outdoorsy things to do. I highly recommend this little town if you are looking for an easy coastal getaway. Here are our recommendations!

Stay: 

Adrift Hotel - this is an eco-friendly lodge that sits right on the beach. They rent bicycles to guests for free, have a cute restaurant with live music most nights, a game room with shuffle board and ping pong and lots of board games and DVDs for your use. Also, it's dog friendly!

Do:

Bike or walk the 8 mile boardwalk along the beach! You can also drive your car straight onto the beach, which is fun

Hiking at Cape Disappointment state park is a must. There are a lot of trails, but we chose the Cape Disappointment trail, which is easy and around 4 miles long. It takes you to the lighthouse at the mouth of the Columbia River and past Fort Canby that you can explore. It's set up to give you a lot of history about the fort. 

Eat:

Cottage Bakery & Delicatessen - THE BEST DONUTS ON THE PLANET. They are so good that I made Anders stop there again on our way out of town.

Captain Bob's Chowder - get the smoked salmon chowder!

Laurie's Homestead Breakfast House - huge portions, delicious food, lots of character