Westcoastiness: Pat and Sarah's Blog

#93 in Russia

2008-04-21T18:56:00.000-07:00

After toiling away in anonymity for months, Patrick finally earned an honor on YouTube. The latest video, which celebrates our Volvo turning over 200,000 miles, is the 93rd most viewed video in the Autos & Vehicles category among Russian visitors to YouTube. You have to savor even the small victories...

Patrick's first gig with Wilgus

2008-04-05T20:26:00.000-07:00

The new Wilgus lineup played out for the first time last night. Patrick had a great time on bass, and all the of the guys thought the set went really well. Although there were four bands on the bill, turnout was surprisingly light. No matter, it was a great adventure going up to Everett to play a real rock and roll bar.

A (not-so) plain weekend in Plain

2008-03-09T21:32:00.000-07:00

The annual "ski weekend" was held in a beautiful house in Plain, WA, about 20 miles north of Leavenworth. Thanks to Sarah who organized this year's gathering. Unlike previous years, skiing was not a part of the equation due to a lack of recent snow as well as warm temps. Hats off to Mitch, however, who gave it the old college try by driving to Stevens Pass on Saturday only to turn back upon seeing raindrops on his windshield. While Mitch was experiencing rain and clouds near Stevens, the weather was sunny and beautiful in Plain.

A big thanks to Robert who organized the annual fondue feast on Friday night as well as Sarah who spearheaded the soup, stuffed cabbages, and chocolate cake night on Saturday night. The hot tub championship medals were awarded to Alex and Erik, who reportedly spent up to three hours soaking it up while the crew was painting Plain red on Saturday afternoon. The first night - Friday - was the typical night of overindulgence: food, drink, other. Saturday night was a bit more chill. Only three managed to make it through the entire screening of the Big Lebowski which ended before 11pm. The rest were victims of the previous night's overindulgence. A longing for all things Bavarian took a few of us on Sunday to Leavenworth where we couldn't resist a bit of Schnitzel, red cabbage and Bier.

Sarah's 10 seconds of fame on The Food Network

2007-12-12T18:51:00.000-08:00

Our friend Dirk is in the video a couple of times too. The diner where our breakfast group meets was on a Food Network show called Diners, Drive-ins and Dives. The episode is finally up on YouTube for your viewing pleasure. Check it out right here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LfH_JXkVzWc&eurl=http://voulasoffshore.com/default.htm

Favorite German People

2007-12-11T20:09:00.000-08:00

I made a quick trip to Germany during Thanksgiving. It was part business trip, but I did have time to visit a few of our favorite people in Germany. Karsten is a very old friend, who you see eating German breakfast here, and Jini and Sascha are dear friends from our year in Muenster. It was really nice to enjoy their hospitality and home-cooked food during a hectic trip!

Birthday party/ Martinsumzug

2007-12-11T19:59:00.001-08:00

My friend Gabi and I organize a joint birthday party every year. This year, we were both busy at the beginning of November, so we put off the party until almost two weeks in to the month and declared a Martinsumzug. St. Martin's day is essentially the German equivalent of Halloween. Children make lanters and parade with them at night. They are rewarded for their efforts with candy. We did an adults-only procession, and it was a big success. The photos show Gabi and Franziska singing a Martinslied and my friends Scott and Katy, caught in the act of parading through Ballard with a lantern.

Definitive proof of the decline and fall of American civilization

2007-10-31T18:09:00.000-07:00

Yes, friends, this coupon arrived in our mail today. Spawz, as the business is called, is a doggie swim center with heated pools, treadmills in said heated pools and "warm water massage." Seven years of George Bush have not pushed me over the edge, but this may have done it.

With Mitch and Alex at Molly's

2007-10-18T21:23:00.000-07:00

The Bermuda Triangle of heavy drinking for our group of friends is a block on 65th Street in Ballard. At its epicenter is Molly Maguires, an Irish pub. Here are Patrick, Mitch and Alex at the end of a long Saturday night. Man boobs!

Our building: Pasta Bella

2007-09-29T11:26:00.000-07:00

We live in an old brick building with four storefronts on one side. The most notable business is Pasta Bella restaurant, which is obviously an Italian eatery. The trash for the whole building is located behind the restaurant, so we frequently exchange small talk with Alfonso the chef and others who work there, but almost a year into our lease, we still had not eaten there. That error was rectified on Tuesday night. Here is what the interior of the restaurant looks like. It was quite busy, even on a Tuesday. The food, though too focused on pasta for my taste, was delicious. I had a saffron and sausage risotto and Patrick had pasta with scallops and lemon sauce.

Dirk's birthday/ farewell Seattle beach fire

2007-09-24T21:58:00.000-07:00

Tonight was Dirk's birthday, and he chose to celebrate with a beach fire at Golden Gardens in Ballard. It was a beautiful night to huddle around a fire and watch the boats and the sunset. Chilly Mondays are great days to be at the beach; we had lots of sand to ourselves. Here's Dirk taking one of his last photos of the bay.

Cure tribute night at the Sunset Tavern

2007-09-24T21:50:00.000-07:00

On Saturday night some friends of ours headlined a Cure tribute night at a local bar. I pulled out my punk rock jacket from high school for the occasion. (Sadly, I had to suck in to zip it up for the chilly walk home that night!) The Sunset Tavern is a Seattle live music institution, and Cure night included some six bands. C'est la Mort was definitely the most Cure-like of the bunch. Here we are rocking out before going to the Sunset.

Beach Hiking and Hot Springs in Olympic National Park

2007-09-03T21:39:00.001-07:00

We spent Labor Day weekend as it should be spent: not working. We took a ferry to the Olympic Peninsula, where we did three days of light hiking, first to Olympic Hot Springs, then to two beaches on the Washington coast. Olympic Hot Springs has 21 pools, so every group gets a private pool. The sulpher smell is very strong there, so it is easy to tell when you have reached the end of the 2.5 mile hike. Our pool was extremely hot, to the point that we couldn't put our whole bodies into the water, so we soaked our legs and splashed water onto the rest of our bodies. That's what I'm doing in the picture. On day two, we drove to Neah Bay and the Makah Indian Reservation. The Makah have a trailhead to Shi-Shi Beach on their reservation, which we used to reach the water. That afternoon, it rained heavily, so we visited the Makah museum. You may have heard about this tribe on the news, because they resurrected the traditional whale hunt a few years back. On the way out, we accidently discovered the unique burial customs they have developed. The Makah were Christianized a long time ago, so they use a mix of burial customs, most notably characterized by a large number of objects placed on the graves. They put everything from basketballs to bead necklaces on the graves, as you can see in the photo. On the final day, we went to Rialto Beach, where we hiked to Hole in Wall, which is a rock formation with, as you probably guessed, a large whole in it. There we saw enourmous driftwood, colorful sea stars and crashing surf. Note the beautiful rock formations that characterize the Washington coast. It will never be a resort area due to the ruggedness of the land and weather, but it is certainly beautiful.

Hiking Weekend at Grand Coulee

2007-08-24T20:09:00.000-07:00

With Sarah back in the U.P. for her sister's wedding and relatively cool weather here, it was a great weekend for hiking in Eastern Washington. This is the area near Grand Coulee, about 3 1/2 hours east of Seattle. Dirk and I spent two nights at a campground and explored the area during the day.

Backtracking: Farewell Luzie

2007-08-24T17:03:00.000-07:00

Yet another of our favorite people pulled up the stakes and left the Emerald City. Luzie and her husband Dirk are a relatively recent addition to the gang, but certainly count as a pillar of all things related to hanging out, drinking beer and having a good time doing nothing in Seattle. Dirk is wrapping up his project at UW and, being a teacher, Luzie had to take a job back home in Germany for fall. She is now settled in Berlin, looking for a cat and awaiting Dirk's arrival next month. She decided to say goodbye to the US of A by having a yard sale and going bowling. Talk about embracing our culture!

Backtracking: Michigan trip

2007-08-24T16:50:00.000-07:00

We made our way back to the homeland to visit the family in Michigan in July. Much fun was had, including pasty eating, beer drinking, boating, bicycling, dining and, of course, dune buggy riding. It was almost two solid weeks of family fun. In these photos, I am eating the food of my people, the pasty, and Patrick is dressed for the underground mine tour, a cool tourist attraction owned by the family of my stepmother. The whole Nugent gang is engaged in dune riding.

Farewell Bonfire for Morgan and Amy

2007-07-27T07:41:00.001-07:00

Two of our good freinds move to South Carolina today, so we had a farewell bonfire at Carkeek Park last night. As you can hopefully see, there is a beautiful fire pit with views of the water and the Olympic Mountains, so it is a nice way to remember Seattle. Morgan landed a tenure-track position at the College of Charleston, so they are Eastbound and Down!!!

Weekly Brekky

2007-07-13T18:52:00.000-07:00

We get together with a small group of friends every week for a pre-work breakfast. It is not easy to show up at 6:30 am, but it is always nice to start the workday so pleasantly. We love breakfast at Voula's, and we've even been on the Food Network program Diners, Drive-ins and Dives as a result of our tradition.

Willie Nelson and Lance, too!

2007-07-06T17:28:00.001-07:00

Over the last few years, there have not been many reasons to swell up with American pride. On Independence Day, we went for red, white and blue glory in the form of Willie Nelson's 4th of July Picnic, held for the first time outside of Texas. Wilie has been doing the Picnic for over 30 years, so it's a real honor to see the tradition moved to our state. The concert took place at the Gorge, a natural amphitheater set in a spectacular desert landscape on the Columbia River. Pictures can't really do it justice, but suffice it to say, it screams Wild West. Our old friend Lance came in from Nashville for the show. That's him in the picture next to me. Patrick is reading Willie's latest book. With great Americans like Willie Nelson standing up for peace, love and freedom, who can't be proud to call this country home?

Car Camping at Lake Katchess

2007-07-01T18:32:00.000-07:00

We spent the weekend with a group of 12 people at Lake Katchess. It was an old-school car camping trip: no exotic backcountry survival gear and no snobbiness about beer in cans. The lake is located in the mountains about 15 miles east of Snoqualmie Pass. It was just far enough out of the way that most of us had no cell phone reception, much to the chagrin of our friends camping at Denny Creek, who had hoped to hook up with our group on Saturday. As you can see, we did a lot of eating and drinking. Our other pursuits included hiking, nature photography and searching for the perfect swimming spot. That's Arex taking a photo. It was Evan's first camping trip (he just turned one a few weeks ago) and he had a good time. Rocks were the primary attraction for him, with sticks a close second. In this photo, Patrick makes the universal "Why yes, I'll take another beer" gesture by the fire.

Fremont Solstice Parade

2007-06-17T23:08:00.001-07:00

June weather is pretty bad around here. We call it the June gloom, which is the grey, cool result of shifting weather patterns over the Pacific. The first taste of the magical summer just around the corner comes in the form of the Fremont Solstice Festival. It has the same types of vendors, live music and beer gardens as the other festivals in Seattle, but is certainly the only one which offers nudists and exhibitionists the opportunity to strut their stuff down the streets of the city. The parade also features a great deal of lefty political expression. The entry that really gave me pause was a small group dressed up in the famous orange uniforms and black hoods of the Abu Graib torture victims. It's all too colorful to communicate with a brief blog posting, but I hope the pictures give some idea of the pagentry that welcomes the solstice in Seattle.

Boston in Three Days

2007-06-17T19:52:00.000-07:00

I was in Boston for three days working at the Boston Early Music Festival (www.bemf.org). Early Music can be defined as music from the Baroque, Renaissance and Medieval periods performed mostly on historical instruments. Suffice it to say that this is a niche audience. We, along with dozens of instrument builders, sheet music publishers and organizations, had a booth at the exhibition.

I took the opportunity to walk around downtown Boston and accidentally happened upon the pub used as inspiration for the "Cheers" sitcom.

Also pictured is a statue of Samuel Adams, brewer and patriot.

Rickshaw Seattle

2007-06-09T18:32:00.000-07:00

The Rickshaw is Seattle's karaoke institution, though I don't mean that in terms of singing talent. The Rickshaw is, quite simply, the ultimate Chinese restaurant/bar at which to belt out a few tunes. The decor is rediculous, a combination of kitschy Asian mixed with neon-lit Marilyn Monroe posters and it is pretty rare to see anyone order food. The people in cook's aprons have the time to come out to play pull-tabs, so that should tell you something. We used to go every Halloween, but now that the biggest karaoke promoters, Morgan and Amy, are moving, we might not hang out there anymore. In any event, the Rickshaw has been the scene of a great deal of foolishness on our part over the years. In the photos, we are singing a couple of our signature karaoke songs. Patrick is doing Roxanne in full falsetto and I am singing Boom Boom Boom.

Little Si Hike

2007-06-02T18:18:00.000-07:00

Today we drove out to North Bend, a town put on the map by the Twin Peaks series, to hike to the top of Little Si. The name is pronounced like sigh, because it is a fragment of the name Josiah, for whom Mount Si and Little Mount Si were named. Little Si is about a 2.5 hour round trip hike, so it is not a very big deal. We are pretty out of shape, however, so the elevation gain of 1200 feet was quite enough. While we were resting at the top, we discussed how much my mom would like the view, so I decided to give her a call. It was the first time I ever thought to make a cell phone call from the forest. Wouldn't you know it, I got the answering machine! The little bit of white on the rock beyond standing Patrick is snow, the bit of white beyond seated Patrick is another pair of hikers.

Folklife music festival

2007-05-29T21:04:00.000-07:00

Seattle's most kicked-back, West Coast event is the annual Folklife festival. It features music made by real people from all over the world. They bring in a few world music artists of renown, but most are small time performers who usually play for their own people, not for the general public. This year, for example, the festival focused on bringing Wasington's East Indian population to the stage. We were treated to some beautiful Orissi dancing and Sikh singing, along with many other styles. But getting back to the West Coastiness of it all, the Hare Krishna's provided a highly democratic, all-day dance beat, which really got the young people moving. The percussion player and the dancers in the photos are all singing Hare Rama. The shirtless guy was on a bench next to the Krishna craziness and was able to snooze right there, in spite of all the action and noise. The other pictues show Patrick enjoying the sunshine and our good friends Tim and Saskia. Saskia is a professor at a university in Hong Kong, so it is a real treat to have her back here for a visit. Patrick always says she is the sweetest German he's ever met. That is either a great compliment to Saskia, an insult to the Germans, or a little of both. In any event, Memorial Day weekend is a great time to visit Seattle; Folklife is a truly great community event.

Backtracking: wine trip

2007-05-28T09:16:00.000-07:00

This post is also intended to catch up on spring doings in the Great Northwest. Last weekend we drove out to Eastern Washington for our customary wine tasting and buying. There are many more wineries in the Yakima Valley than there were just a few years ago, and building continues.

We kept it pretty low key this time and only did about a dozen wineries over two days. My favorites remain Hinzerling Winery's ports and sherries and all of the whites at Blackwood Canyon. The photos were taken at Blackwood, which is the product of the obsessive experimentation of winemaker/owner Michael Moore. He is now producing wines which have spent as many as eight years on the lees, something some would say is not even a possibility. The results are amazing: aromas of petroleoum, ocean beaches and moss, just to list a few impressions. As you can imagine, long term winemaking requires a price tag to match, so we never buy more than one bottle per trip.

We brought along Dirk and Luzie, new friends here from Germany in connection with Dirk's post-doc research. This trip included a new stop in Union Gap, a tiny town near Yakima. Union Gap is known for a little tamale restaurant called Los Hernandez. They do make an amazing tamal indeed, thanks to hand ground masa that starts out as fresh corn. I didn't take any pictures, but if Dirk has put a photo of the place on his blog, I will link to it.

Backtracking: tulip fest

2007-05-27T22:19:00.000-07:00

I'm going to backtrack quite a bit now, but it will be brief. We have not mentioned any of the road trips we've made this spring, so this is intended to bring you up-to-date. About a month ago, we drove north to the Skagit valley to view the tulips. It is not common knowledge that Washington State is one of the world centers of tulip bulb cultivation, but it is. They grow vast fields of tulips, "top" them to remove the bloom and concentrate the energy of the plant into the bulb, and sell the bulbs all over the world. We went with our friends Gabi, Mary and John. After viewing the tulips, we had lunch at a pub Patrick and I have been going to since our Bellingham days called the Edison Inn. The most interesting thing about the trip was the huge numbers of East Indian and Russian immigrants who drove out to see the tulips. We don't know why, but it seemed to be a significant thing for both of those groups to get out among the flowers. Even men from those countries were having their pictures taken with the flowers.

First post

2007-05-26T23:51:00.001-07:00

This is the first post! Hopefully we will prove to be good correspondents with the world at large. Updating our website is a bit too involved to do it often, thus the move to blogging. Look for great pictures and musings of all kinds in the future!