Mukilteo, Silver Lake, Snohomish

Friday and Saturday June 24-25, 2011
Friday was a gorgeous night. We went out to dinner at a Hungarian place, Budapest Bistro in Mukilteo. Everything is made from scratch by Elizabeth, a Hungarian lady, complete with the authentic accent and everything. They were out of a lot of things since they were preparing for a big dance festival to feed 200-300 the next day. We had our fill of meat and potatoes and beer.

Saturday morning we ate breakfast and then got out of the house again even though it was mostly cloudy. By the time we were over in Mukilteo, the sun was in full view. It was really shaping up to be a beautiful day. We parked on Front St and moseyed over to Diamond Knot Brewery & Alehouse B1, established in 1994. They have 3 other locations around the Puget Sound. This location handcrafts its own fine beers. We did a sampler tasting of 9 beers of their beers, with their reknown IPA as a favorite and the fruit notes of the Industrial IPA peaked my palette even more. This hole in the wall location served up some great food, surpassing most bar food. They are known for their stone grills. We had stuffed portabella mushrooms with sausage.

Afterwards we took Chance across the street to the Mukilteo Lighthouse Park. The old-fashioned white lighthouse has guided seafarers for more than 100 years. Today the main sea vessels were the 2 ferries heading back and forth between Mukilteo & Clinton on Whidbey Island.

The rocky gravel beach is strewn with driftwood and a popular picnic spot, especially today. There are fire pits, grills and picnic tables. There’s a playground and large grass field for playing.

I’m not sure what was so funny, but Joe took a good picture. We have an overwhelming about of pictures of Joe out here, but not me since I am the one majorly behind the camera and writing this blog.

We walked back to Front Street. We passed Woody’s Market, eyeing their ice cream cones and open garage door policy letting Chance come in. We walked by Ivar’s, a Puget Sound fried seafood stable. There were tons of people at their walk-up counter ordering lunch & soft serve. They have a great outdoor dining deck where you can watch the ferries come in and out every 30 minutes. We went back to Woody’s and enjoyed our moose tracks and coffee ice cream cones, with Chance even getting a little treat.

Both of us were really tired for some reason. We drove further down the coast towards Edmonds, but we decided to head home and take a quick catnap before our next endeavor outdoors.

We grabbed our bikes and took to the streets around our house. We biked north to Silver Lake, in the Silver Firs region of Everett. There isn’t a trail around the whole lake since there are a few private single-family homes on the waterfront, but Thornton A. Sullivan Park is really nice on the western shore. There are picnics and playgrounds. There is even swimming, that’s lifeguard monitored from mid-June to September. Unfortunately pets are not allowed in the beachfront part of the park. No swimming for Chance. I can’t imagine how cold that water must be anyways.

Since Joe needed to do work on his Xterra on Sunday we chose to drive to Snohomish to burn a few gallons of gas. He had to replace his fuel gauge censor so he can accurately know how much gas is in his tank so the less gas, the easier to work with it.  We drove closer toward the Cascade Mountains. They felt so close we could almost touch them, except they were still an hour away. The valley is well known for skydiving and great for hot air balloon rides. We saw both as we drove by the small aircraft airport. As we turned onto Second St, the main drag in town, running parallel to the river, we noted Chuck’s Seafood Grotto where we ate lunch while house hunting in Lake Stevens months ago. The hanging flower baskets gave the rustic shack new life with the patio setup awaiting the summer crowds. As soon as the word’s Fred’s Alehouse came out of my mouth, Joe was turning into a parking spot. Apparently I didn’t need to say those words twice. Looks like we’re having dinner in Snohomish instead of at house as previously planned. We walked along Second Street for a bit noting other locations to try and the lower trail along the river which begins the Centennial Trail, a path I hope to bike soon.

Nothing peaked our interest as much as Fred’s Rivertown Alehouse and I’m sure glad it didn’t because this place was phenomenal. It is known as the place for fine ales, single malt scotch, and northwest food. The bartenders told us it was actually a slow night due to the miraculous appearance of sun & beginnings of summer today. The place would usually be packed and loud if everyone wasn’t out enjoying the weather. There were 32 beers on tap. Fred’s was awarded the highest rating of Four-Stars by The Beer Lover’s Guide to the USA, one of only two such ratings in Washington. They were also on the list of Top 21 Beer Establishments in the country. I think we found our favorite go-to bar. There’s only 2 tv’s so not the greatest for watching games, but the food and drink selection makes up for it.

Back at the house, the sunset creates beautiful colors even in the eastern sky where we can view the Cascade Mountains from our bedroom window.

Mill Creek bike ride

Tuesday June 21, 2011

Tuesday after work, it was just too beautiful out. We grabbed our new bikes and  took them for a test ride around the residential neighborhoods near our house. We rode a few cul-de-sacs with nice houses. We found the local high school with lots of fenced in fields that will be a great place to take Chance during the summer months when school isn’t in session. We ended up coming to a stoplight and then realized we made it to the main north-south though fare in Mill Creek. If we kept heading straight through the light we would have ended up in McCollum Park where I pick up my park and ride bus I take to work every day. It was nice to know I could take back roads there if I needed to. 

Both bikes seemed to ride well, but neither of us were used to it feeling so uncomfortable on our butt. Those padded spandex biker shorts are starting to make sense…

Vision House Volunteer Build Work

Saturday, June 11, 2011

This Saturday GGLO (my new employer), had a Community Service Event with Vision House in Shoreline, WA, just north of Seattle, 10 miles south of our home in Mill Creek. We were at Jacob’s Well Site. The founder started this non-profit 20 years ago after watching a documentary about a single mother becoming homeless due to a series of unfortunate circumstances. She ended up needing to give her kids up to the state because she could no longer care for them since she was homeless. Susan Camerer, the founder, felt moved by this and began Vision House (http://www.nohomelesskids.org/ if you’d like to read more). Vision House successfully provides transitional housing and support services to homeless mother and children and separately to homeless men recovering from drug and alcohol addiction. 

The Jacob’s Well project is a supportive housing complex of 12 (1, 2 and 3 bedroom) apartments for homeless families, a licensed after-school care program, laundry facility, crisis counseling offices and a community center in the first 3 story building phase. The next phase will include 8 additional apartments, a licensed child care center for 65 resident kids and a resource, food and clothing bank to support resident families. The total budget for phase 1 is $2.3 million. Vision House builds is facilities debt-free on a pay-as-you-go model. Pieces of the project are being built by volunteer labor and funding. Framing work began April 1st and 6 weeks later the roof was installed. Today we did framing finish work, such as nailing in support brackets where the interior of the truss rests on the exterior wall. Each bracket needed 10 nails, with several lining up with the metal truss plates. My shoulders are going to be extremely sore from all the overhead pounding with a hammer. Through a group effort we completed all the remaining brackets on the third floor. Another intern and I moved onto our next task of replacing 6 stair treads that were 2 pieces of wood not one solid tread piece. We excited to finally use some power tools. We used the chop saw to cut the stair tread board down to the appropriate width. We then entered demo-mode and used a crowbar to remove the bad stair board and then laid down the new in case someone came by needing to use the stairs. Unfortunately there were no more nail guns so we had to pick apart the glued nails one by one so we could then hammer them into the stair runners. It was a great sense of accomplishment to see all the work that 20 other volunteers from GGLO (and other volunteers that day) completed and checked off their punch-list. In case you’d like to follow the progress: http://www.buildjacobswell.blogspot.com/

The best part of the day was my husband being home from his week-long work trip to the Netherlands. Fortunately he approved of most of the locations I placed things in the house so we haven’t had to do much rearranging. I’m trying to get everything in its place and looking nice since our first house guests arrive in 2 weeks. Once the pictures are hung, I will finally take some pictures to post on the blog.

SETTLING

Saturday June 4-Saturday June 11, 2011

Joe had a great time. The weather wasn’t the best, but he still is glad he went and got to see all he did. You’ll have to ask him about it because I doubt he’ll get on here and write about it.

Joe made the comment after he got home that this is what it must feel like for the parent that works all day and comes home to hear about all their kids habits and what they like to do. As most of you know, Chance is our baby. After a week in the house just the two of us, I learned everything she likes to do. On the weekend when we wake up a little later than normal, Chance is not in her bed. She’ll have already made her way downstairs to try and bask in the sunrays coming in from the 8’ wide sliding patio door between the living room and back deck. In the afternoon she will do the same behind the couch by the coat closet on the remaining bit of carpet before the hardwood floor entry, to catch the rays from the high windows in the 2 story foyer/stairway.

This house is so much bigger than our old place, we often lose her and have to call her because we can’t find her. 9 times out of 10 she is in the living room in one place or another, but without fail she’s usually curled up sleeping right under our feet between the couch and coffee table. She hasn’t found her favorite spot yet though in the living room.

She is apprehensive of the gas fireplace. We are still learning where all the light switches are so we often mistakenly turn on the fireplace. She hears the low whoosh noise and immediately has to go investigate. Even after it’s turned off she spends the next 10 minutes or so staring at the fireplace because someone has to keep an eye on it. To her that sound comes out of nowhere so she’s worried about why. Eventually she forgets about it, because let’s face it she’s a dog and can’t focus on one thing for too long. 

The other strange new behavior of her’s has to do with her basket of toys. She was so excited to see them all the night I unpacked them. I had brought her favorites, her kong, tennis ball and squeaky green beer bottle (thank you Pat, Chrissi & Liam for the awesome Christmas gift!) to the house in Bellingham, but I guess all her “forgotten” toys really peaked her interest (much like my long lost jackets). She will proceed to pull multiple toys out at a time and have a grand old time pretending to bring them to us to play with and then run away before our hand is close enough to get them. She has 3 ropes and without fail, all 3 are strewn across the room. It looks like I’m going to have to begin her training again of fetching her toys and putting them back in the basket. Someone’s gonna have to teach that dog to clean because I’m not going to do it all the time.

Her other new favorite toy was actually a gift of mine from an old-coworker. His daughter had picked out rubber duckies for the whole studio, each one dressed up to suit the person. Mine used to sit on my desk, next to the rubber duckie of my deskmate. She might not be happy to hear that Chance has really taken a liking to playing with it. She fortunately isn’t the type of dog to tear apart rubber toys and eat the shreds. I actually think the duck might stay around for a while until she gets overly excited playing one night and has her tooth go through the thing. I hope my deskmate is enjoying her maternity leave. It sounds like she has really taken a liking to motherhood. Knowing how much she loves her 2 dogs, her son is in the most capable hands imaginable. 

Chance still hasn’t learned her boundaries yet with the yard. Being on a cul-de-sac with wedge-shaped lots, I can see why she has issues knowing “her” area. 

Thursday to celebrate all the new hires my company had a happy hour. We had $2 PBR & Tartar Tots at Noc Noc, an introductory GGLO stable. I didn’t get to stay long since Joe was out of town and I needed to get home to take care of Chance. They are still hiring so I’m sure there will be another one soon.

First Weekend in Mill Creek

Friday June 3-Sunday June 5, 2011

I had worked later Wednesday so I left early Thursday, giving me more time to get most of the kitchen situated. I also completed hanging all of our clothes in our huge walk-in closet. I’m really liking it because we both have equal hanging space. Joe still has a dresser over me, but I know can hang all of my nicer clothing for easy access. In a few months we hope to finally find new bedroom furniture. After sleeping on a California King bed in Bellingham, our old queen feels really small. Maybe we’ll upgrade to a king.

Friday after work a guy came to the house to unpack our 2 crated flat screen TV’s and setup the washer and dryer. As soon as it was running, I had loads of laundry going, to prepare for Joe to pack to leave me Saturday morning. For work, Joe is heading to the Netherlands for a week. If only the trip was 2 weeks earlier I could have gone with him. I’m just glad it’s next week and not this week when the movers came. It’s a good thing I enjoy unpacking or else I wouldn’t be happy about his trip (I am really jealous though). Hopefully he’ll have a chance to go again next year when I have vacation time.

Saturday was a gorgeous day. The guy from DirectTV came to setup our cable, HDTV and satellite dish. By afternoon the televisions were showing far too many channels and the weather could not have been greater. I opened every window in the house. I’m so glad there are screens on the windows since that isn’t standard these days on new homes, even though you don’t need them out here because the bugs are really minimal. I made it through a good amount of boxes that night. By the end of the weekend I had opened every single box and determined where its belongings should live. Our closets quickly filled up with Christmas decorations, camping supplies, scuba gear, luggage, my wedding dress, gift wrapping supplies, spare boxes etc. 

Sunday afternoon Chance and I went for a long walk around Mill Creek. We walked through some connecting neighborhoods to the parkway that encircles the Mill Creek golf course. Chance had me worried at around mile 2 when she stopped walking completely. She would just stand there holding her own and doing her best to stay put even if it meant letting her collar slide over her head. She used to do this to me every time I tried to walk her beyond our old neighborhood in Charleston. I fortunately was able to coax her with treats to continue to Mill Creek Town Center. Since this suburban town lacked a real identity since it was incorporated in 1983, they created this shopping center to act as the central core “downtown” feel destination.  I forgot to take the camera on the walk.

I hope I didn’t ruin the idea of a walk for her like I feel I may have in Charleston. I was taking her for 3 mile runs out of our neighborhood, training for the Cooper River Bridge Run 10K. I think I just overdid it for her.

MOVING/UNPACKING DAY

Wednesday June 1, 2011

Joe took today off of work to be there when the movers arrived. It appears like all of the boxes and items showed up so let’s just hope the boxes have all our belongings without any broken items. 

After the movers finished around 3:30 Joe took his turn getting his Washington driver’s license and registering is car in Snohomish County, WA. By the time I was home from work, Joe had unpacked a lot of the kitchen. My goal was to get the kitchen settled first before moving onto other less critical areas of the house. I was on a roll unpacking that I couldn’t stop and continued with our bedroom so I could find all of my jackets I forgot to pack and new clothing options. I had packed all my nice work clothes, but I was beginning to feel a little too dressed up at GGLO. As soon as I opened a box and exclaimed, “oh how I’ve missed you,” Joe knew I had found the wardrobe box with all my jackets. I almost wanted to cry. I was so happy to have options, especially warmer options since it’s usually in the low 50s in the morning and very windy downtown between all the tall buildings.

When I finally called it quits unpacking, I failed to move an empty plastic bag away from Chance’s area. As soon as she could she jumped onto Joe’s side of the bed. Both of us were too exhausted to kick her out. I still don’t understand how she can be so terrified of a plastic bag.

Joe’s sister, brother-in-law, and their 2 sons (and their expecting another child in October) have booked a trip to come visit before they get too close to her due date. They will be here June 27-July 4 so that doesn’t give me much time to have everything unpacked and livable in all rooms of the house.