Long Beach and the Oregon Coast

Our hotel was at Long Beach, Washington, which is at the very southern end of Washington. Our hotel had free bike rentals so we took advantage of that and went on a ten mile bike ride in the morning along the beach. That was great fun.

We then headed down to Oregon to the town of Astoria, which is pretty hipster. It's like a mini-Portland. Someone had sheep in their backyard, and even the beer is served in mason jars in this town.

Further south on the Oregon Coast, Ecola State Park has beautiful views of Cannon Beach.

As we were looking at this, Leonard asked if I wanted to go down to the secluded beach, which involved a trail for "experienced hikers only", and I said no since I wasn't even wearing proper shoes. I thought he was upset because he became quiet and didn't take any photos of this gorgeous view, but little did I know what he was actually thinking...

He then led me to this picnic table off to the side of the viewpoint, got down on his knee, and proposed! I'm now an engaged woman!  And what a wonderful place for him to pick.

We then headed off to explore Indian Beach and Cannon Beach.

What a great day!

The Olympic Peninsula

Day one of our three day road trip involved twelve hours on the road along the Washington coast, with no map and only a 2001 Michelin travel guide from 2001. We were incredibly lucky with the weather on our trip. It felt like summer!

Our first stop was Port Townsend. We got there by driving through Whidbey Island and taking the ferry from Coupeville to Port Townsend. It's a pretty town with amazing architecture from the Victorian era.

Fort Worden's lighthouse:

Port Townsend:

We then headed west towards the Olympic National Park. We didn't get to go inside the park, but drove around it instead and stopped at the sights along the highway.

Lake Crescent:

Ruby Beach

Driving through the rainforest and Lake Quinault

I'm definitely going back one day. These weren't even the three star attractions in the park!

Cooking Class Night

This spring's high school alumni event was a celebrity chef cooking class! The cooking class was held in the old home ec room, and the five course dinner was in the fancied-up gymnasium, with candles, flowers, and a big chandelier.  It was great fun and I got to see what the new school looked like (they did renovations starting the year I graduated).

Los Angeles & San Diego

Leonard and I recently went on a five day mini-trip to L.A. and San Diego to escape the Vancouver rain. We took a 7am flight to LAX and were on our way by noon to our rental apartment on Melrose in West Hollywood, an excellent location. He took me on a whirlwind tour of the city, including the farmer's market, the Getty, Hollywood, Silver Lake, Santa Monica, Griffith Observatory, and downtown. We did a surprising amount in one and a half days, and ate incredibly well thanks to our food research the night before we left.

We took an Amtrak train from LA to San Diego, where we stayed with my sister and her husband in Pacific Beach.  We only had one full day in the city, and we ended up deciding to go to Tijuana for that afternoon. We parked the car on the San Diego side and walked across the border, and I was surprised at how easy it was to get across. There was no one checking passports; we simply walked through a gate and were suddenly in Mexico. Our lunch spot was a hundred times fancier than I imagined a Tijuana restaurant could be, and we even ate ceviche and raw oysters. The line-up to get back to the USA was the opposite of the other border crossing. This time, we had to wait 2.5 hours in line. At least there were churros being sold along the way.

More duck

Duck confit salad with pear and pecans

Duck and Terrine

Recently I signed up for the "Beasty Box", a box of local, sustainable, high quality meat that I pick up from the butcher shop every week.

This week I got some duck breasts, which Leonard and I ate with roasted potatoes and kale...

I also got terrine (similar to pate, but more coarsely ground). We had the terrine with crackers, mustard and a bottle of red that Leonard had gotten from Paris during our trip last year. Needless to say, this was an incredibly rich and sumptuous meal. It reminded us of our time in France, where we ate duck almost every day.

...And this is why we rarely go out to eat anymore. Why go to a restaurant when you can have a meal like this at home while wearing your sweatpants instead?