Country Daughter Swim Meet

Country Daughter showed off her swim skills at a recent meet.  She collected several ribbons and was very pleased with her performance.  Meanwhile, Country Girl beamed with pride.  The video is from her leg of the 100 IM where she swam the butterfly.

Country Girl Rocks

and Rolls, it's true!  She did so recently at the Rock n' Roll half marathon.  Couldn't be prouder this guy. 

CSS Show - Columbia City Theater

CSS, my fav Brazilian indie electro-pop band, was in town recently and ripped it crazy nice.  They were originally scheduled to play at a larger venue and were shifted to the Columbia City Theater after tickets didn't go like hot cakes.  Although Columbia City is home to my fav taco bus (Tacos El Asadero), it's deep in the south end and and I don't get there often.  Accordingly, I hadn't previously been to its theater.  First times a charm as I came away impressed.  It's small at a 300 person capacity and laid out very well.  More long than wide, the GA area is in front of and below the stage.  Raised up a few steps behind just GA is the bar area.  Being about the same height as the stage, this area provides unobstructed views of the stage and works out very well.  

The show, you ask?  Loads of fun, high energy songs and dancing all around was the end result.  Country Girl, who hadn't previously heard of them, also gave the show high marks.  Highly recommend you check them out if they're in your town. 

Magnuson Picnic

On a recent Sunday, Country Girl, I and the fam took advantage of the sun and headed to Magnuson park on the scenic shores of Lake Washington for some outside fun.  After packing a picnic with a strong assist from Country Daughter, off we went.  

Tennis was played, kites were flown and most importantly, sandwiches were eaten.  High jinks ensued and everyone had a ball.

One-Dish Rockfish

A while back, I took advantage of a buy one, get one free coupon for rockfish at our neighborhood, leafy suburban market.  The internet yielded a "One Dish Rockfish Recipe" that looked intriguing (and most importantly, easy enough for City Boy to handle). 

Overall, I thought it turned out well.  Fish was very tender, flavorful and the dish turned out looking quite nice.  I read in some of the recipe comments that the using the recommended amount of broth results in a soup-like finish.  I halved it and still encountered the same problem. Other than upping the garlic (obviously), I followed the recipe.  Next time, would further reduce the broth and add chili pepper flakes.

After

Before

Patty's Eggnest and Turkey House, Kubota Gardens, El Malecon

Country Girl and I had a fine Sunday a couple weekends back visiting a new breakfast place in the neighborhood, made a trip to the south end to visit a Japanese garden and topped it off with a margarita pit stop downtown.

Patty's Eggnest is a local chain of breakfast spots and one opened near our neck of the 'burbs recently.  We stopped by to give it a look see and mostly liked what we saw.  It's quite spacious and full of natural light.  The prior tenant was a bar and grill of sorts and while the bar is still there, no booze was available on our visit (boo).  The food, however, delivered heat.  Country Girl had a fruit waffle with their fancy devonshire cream and she had high praise for it.  I had their Irish eggs benedict which comes with corned beef under poached eggs with hollandaise.  Never had anything like it and will certainly try it again.

After breakfast, it was off to the Kubota Gardens in Ranier Beach.  It was the first visit there for both of us and we came away impressed.  It's a 4 1/2 acre garden over varying elevation complete with a stream, a couple of bridges and a couple of ponds.  Lots of colorful plants and flowers and very well manicured.  There's also a stone garden that's pretty neat.  Despite being pretty far south, well worth the trip. 

After the garden, we headed downtown to walk along the waterfront.  While getting on stroll on there, a tout was kind enough to let us know about inexpensive margaritas at a Mexican place not too far away.  We decided to check it out and sure enough, margaritas were available in abundance.  Turns out it was Cinco de Mayo and it was a lively affair at El Malecon.  In addition to lots of revelers, there was also a couple doing some traditional Mexican dancing from time to time.  Though a bit inattentive at times, the bartender was quite friendly when around.  After a couple margaritas and a brief chat with the most interesting man in the world, it was time to head home.  Another exciting outing with Country Girl in the books.  

Hunger - Freemont

Thanks to an online coupon, Country Girl and I checked out a new place in Fremont called Hunger.  To sum it up, incredibly impressed and highly recommended even factoring in the terrible parking situation that is Fremont.

The decor in Hunger was simplistic and inviting.  One wall is nearly entirely composed of massive windows allowing in lots of light.  They also have a neat curved bar situated near the middle of the restaurant. 

The food in a word?  Fantastic.  Country Girl had the croque madame while I had the steak and eggs.  Both were full of flavor and darn near perfect.  The harissa sauce that came on the steak was flat out amazing.  As impressive as the food is, the smiles didn't stop there.  

The coupon included "bottomless mimosas" which I hoped meant they gave you pitcher to start and would perhaps grudgingly refill it once after we made a stink.  Quite wrong, I was.  I noticed several patrons had mimosas in standard (tiny) champagne glasses when we being seated.  Didn't like our chances of getting regular refills at that point.  As it turns out, our server couldn't have done a better job bringing fresh drinks.    He came by time and again asking whether we'd like more.  At one point, another server who was just passing our table must have noticed we were running low and asked if we'd like a couple more.  Even after we finished our meal, our server was still on it with the fresh drinks.  Very, very impressed with the attentive service.  Do yourself a favor, eat at Hunger.