Locks Cruise, Honeymoon Night, More Restaurants

For my parents first night here we went to Anthony's, an upscale seafood chain restaurant. Despite being a chain the food is quite good and imaginative. My cioppino was nice and spicy with a rich tomato flavor. I have definitely had better seafood for comparable prices though.

Ben's strawberry rhubarb margarita...sounds good but this one wasn't

The view from Anthony's

The Shryocks treated us to a night at the Edgewater Hotel, while they stayed at our house with the dogs. Our suite was beautiful! It was the nicest hotel room I have ever stayed in.....perfect to celebrate our marriage. We checked in and then went for a walk around the Sculpture Park during the sunset. The design of this park is impressive and apparently award winning. The landscaping is mostly native plants and is done very well. We were a bit reluctant to have this night away, since we'll be going to Europe on July 2nd, but it was really fun and gave us much needed relaxation after our non-stop weekend.

This sculpture was my favorite...I love that it's on the side of a busy highway

The beautiful native plant landscaping

This one is supposed to resemble an eagle

I love the contrast of the black sculpture and the blooming purple irises

The Hotel Room

Our breakfast

Our dinner at Ray's Boathouse after the wedding was impressive. I cleaned by plate of grilled halibut with kale and jasmine rice with a creamy curry sauce. Ben on the other hand decided to go for a Skagit River Ranch steak, which was very large and hard for a new meat eater to handle.

Ben and Kenneth relaxing after the wedding

The next morning we headed out early to take an Argosy cruise of the Ballard Locks (the transition between the higher level of water of the fresh water to the puget sound. It was a bit long (2.5 hrs), but really interesting with spectacular views of Seattle that can only be seen by boat.

Our guide

The Seattle skyline

Slowly sinking down to Puget Sound level

Even though I would never live in one, I love house boats! I learned that Seattle has a combination of house boats that actually go some where and then floating homes, which don't ever move and are hooked up to the Seattle water and sewer system.

The tan house with green trim is the Sleepless in Seattle house boat

Then we went to Portage Bay Cafe. By this time I was getting pretty tired of restaurant food (this has never happened before), but went ahead and ordered emmer pancakes with peaches, blueberry sauce and marscapone...and then I added more fruit from the self-serve toppings bar. The pancakes were perfect.....whole grain, yet still fluffy. I have been wanting to check this place out for awhile, but we haven't because the wait to be seated has always been too long. They just recently opened this new location in the Lake Union area and there was plenty of seating. They are 80% organic and buy as many products as possible from local farmers and food artisans.






On Sunday after brunch Frances, my Mom and I went shopping for dishes (a wedding gift from my parents). I could not make up my mind. There were a lot that I liked, but couldn't picture looking at for many years. I didn't end up getting anything, but decided that I will probably get something that is mostly white or plain and then get some colorful accent dishes.

Here are some that I considered

An inspiring garden in Ballard

The majority of our fava beans were ready this weekend, so I had to pick them before they got too tough. I have some fun recipes in mind to use these up. Thanks to Kenneth and Frances for helping in the arduous process of shelling these and not even being able to enjoy them! I'll post my next fava bean recipe soon. I picked these when we got home from our wedding and I'm pretty sure everyone thought I was a little bit crazy after that...... if they didn't already!