j returned from his business trip on a friday afternoon, and i had one day to spend with him before he left for a climbing trip. i was supposed to go with him on that climbing trip up to squamish in british columbia, but a number of things happened. first of all, the girlfriend of j's climbing partner p, who was supposed to be my play date, cancelled. next, the forecast for squamish was totally rainy, and rock cannot be climbed when wet, so the boys decided to go elsewhere. elsewhere turned out to be leavenworth, washington, which is a place i had been to last summer. there's not much there besides rock climbing, aside from the touristy silly bavarian village stuff, so i opted to just stay home, as i'm not big on rock climbing.
so, for my one day with the hubby, we began our day by seeing the movie "sicko." it was depressing, while having humorous moments. i was unaware that so many people had problems with insurance companies, and unaware of what those companies are willing to go through to not pay for things. so sad. i hope everybody sees this movie & demands lawmakers to come up with a better alternative. after seeing the movie, we grabbed a quick lunch of noodles before heading out for some wine tasting. we know someone who works at elk cove vineyards, and we had never been there before, so we drove to gaston to check it out. we really liked a pinot gris, but the others weren't particularly impressive. kramer vineyards were nearby, just up the road, so we went there, too. j had been there before, but i had to stay home from that trip because i had harry potter music to learn for an thanksgiving weekend pops concert with the oregon symphony. so i got to experience kramer for myself. it was a really touristy joint... one of those tasting rooms that sells lots of wine knick-knacks besides the wine. in my opinion, if a place sells all that crap, the wine probably isn't amazing. and that was true in this case. however, several kinds were quite drinkable and very affordable, so we purchased a few bottles anyway. on our drive back, we passed the sake establishment sake one, and had never been in before, so we stopped & checked it out. very interesting. i'm not a big fan of sake - i think it's the taste of the rice that turns me off - and i usually prefer the hot kind (versus the chilled), which is usually really bad cheap sake. i think the hot temperature tones down the rice taste for me. anyway, they had about 5 or 6 different types they were tasting, and we ended up purchasing one. i think j will be drinking most of it....
last friday, we met up with some friends for a concert in the chamber music northwest series. i'll write more on that in another post. after the concert, we met up at vault martini bar, and then j & i ended up at the voodoo doughnut shop. the selection was limited, so i was a little disappointed with what we got, but the visit definitely took care of my doughnut craving. because we ended up at the doughnut place around 1am, the next day, saturday, was a sleep-in-stay-at-home-get-errands-done kind of day. i never quite ended up waking completely up. i made some quiches for the week...took a nap or two... we watched a good movie - "12 and holding" -which was twisted, but with a well-resolved ending. sunday was busy - i went running while j went mountain biking with friends in the morning. we went to a housewarming party in the afternoon, and then saw the decemberists play at mcmenamins' edgefield location in the evening. i guess the summer concert series is a new thing, and i really liked the venue. the concert was sold out, but it wasn't crowded, and i didn't feel claustrophobic as i normally do in large groups of people. we arrived late because we had the party beforehand, and still ended up with v.i.p. parking close to the entrance. the people we parked next to were having a little tailgate party, and they gave us some free pbr. nothing like a chugged pabst - whoowhee! some friends of ours had some extra tickets, which is why we ended up at the concert in the first place. we weren't familiar with the band, so probably didn't get as much out of the concert as most people there, but it was fun to be outside, with lots of people, listening to music, smelling the summer air. we didn't get rained on, despite the week's rainy & cloudy weather, so it was a good time, and a fine ending to a full weekend.
