We got our new furniture on Monday, it looks great in the living room, not too big.
And very comfortable. Except we can't make the dvd player work, so we are watching movies on my computer. Aargh! Luckily, Pearl and Sage no longer romp around with their claws out scratching the leather.
Do you like the stump end table? We collected it this winter and sanded the top smooth, it is really beautiful. We're planning to add some other madrone pieces to the room so it won't be by itself. But even alone, I love it.
Ag Guild Cocktail Party: Mark Madsen's setup for our 1940s-1950s cocktails. At the Ag Guild fundraiser in September, we bid on and won (with Peg and Phil) a Mark Madsen cocktail party with apps for 12, period to be selected by the winners. We chose 1940s-50s. This is the night!
Mark gave us a handout that explained sources, techniques and history. He is such a scholar! It's wonderful for us.
We had 4 classic cocktails while Mark explained all of this (we shared them, he made two of each), and then we got to choose a cocktail from his long list of period-authentic cocktails. Meanwhile, Madden served appetizers that he made to go with each one. So delicious! Hawk took this fuzzy picture, you can almost tell that I am wearing a little tophat with veil and my fuschia dress. It's a shirt dress, so very 1950s. And very beautiful.
Everyone came dressed appropriately. Mimi wore her mother's mink stole and bright red lipstick; Sheila wore a vintage cocktail dress of Lainey's, and Phil came as Indiana Jones.
After our cocktails, we had minestrone, salad, bread, and Sarah Bernhardts. We used our Ag Guild Dinner Party china for the first time. Perfect evening! Except the dishwasher is broken, so all the dishes are hand wash.
Valentine's Day!
We took the ferry to Anacortes on Saturday because we needed to get up early to catch the Tswwassen Ferry to Nanaimo. It's two hours on the ferry and then three more to Ucluelet, but so worth it. We stayed at Black Rock Resort, incredibly beautiful.
It was sunny and very windy, with 15-20 foot seas. They crashed so hard on the rocks here that it was misty. This is a view from the balcony of our room.
A view from just outside the restaurant. The beach here is wild and rocky and so beautiful.
We found this amazing "Wild Pacific Trail" right outside the restaurant door. It's six feet wide and gravel, it runs right along the coast in both directions for miles. We're pretty amazed by the magnificient beauty of this coast.
More beauty.
Really. We got to look at this for two days.
After our walk, we went to the bar to watch the waves. I had a "burnt lemon," not so great, and Hawk had a beer.
We drove about a mile south and found another trail, leading to the lighthouse, and we got there just before the sun set.
Another shot from that part of the trail. After the sun set, we went back to our room and got dressed for dinner at the hotel restaurant "Fetch." They did local foods and a prix fixe Valentine's Dinner, reallly good.
The next day, we drove north to Tofino. We wanted to see the art galleries (not so great) and take in Wickininnish Inn. Here is Hawk at our table for lunch at the Pointe Restaurant. The Maitre d' said you can't see the view at night! We thought he had a point, so we took his recommendation to have lunch there, and then dinner at Norwood in Ucluelet. 5 minutes from our hotel.
We each had three oysters, Hawk had beef tenderloin and I had duck breast. Really good, maybe better than Fetch.
Look at the cool bottoms for the rain chains. I need one of those for our guest house.
I think I could do this sculpture, but where would I put it?
And where would we put this beautiful little deck?
After lunch, we drove back to Ucluelet and walked the wild pacific trail again.
That day was cloudy, somehow it didn't matter. But the next day was beautiful, sunny and clear. We drove with the top down all the way home, first in line on the Tswwassen Ferry, Chuckanut Drive to Anacortes, and center section on the Friday Harbor Ferry. We'd do that again!!!
Seriously. It's February 17th!!!! In our woods, while we were clearing out Bracken ferns.