Traveling from sea to shining sea

I love Washington D.C. After my Seattle trip, I left one Washington for the other...It was good to get back and see my roots, as well as the roots of our nation. 

There are some truly powerful monuments there.

Oh the Native American museum was so amazing, and everything was so thought out and purposeful. I was really impressed.  Can you spy the capitol building in the garden?

I like this shot.

 The light in the Jefferson Monument is divine. 

 My favorite monument however, is the FDR...

" The freedom wall holds 4,048 gold stars. Each gold star represents one hundred American service personnel who died or remain missing in the war. The 405,399 American dead and missing from World War II are second only to the loss of more than 620,000 Americans during our Civil War."

I had studied the Vietnam memorial in Art History classes, and even wrote a paper about it. Until I actually walked down into that dark mark, the shame and pain of this war still seeping into the ground around it---and the names yelling at me from the wall, I had no idea how powerful it was. 

We interrupt this Seattle posting for TREASURE!

 

Okay, I know it's just a wood pile...but you can find some pretty fungis....HA!

I'm hilarious.

And a dork.

Okay, I'm going to go get married now to a REAL fun guy, Ok?

Back...soonish?

Seattle Trip: The one you've been waiting for...

This post should actually be titled: In Which My Camera Fails Spectacularly to Capture the Coolness of That Night.

{The inn: It's so unassuming from the road, that if you didn't know about it, you'd NEVER know an incredible jewel was right there...}

 {The gardens and the view from each room. How'd you like that to be your back yard?}

 {The rooms were not the reason for going...Amanda and I were about to embark on a gastronomic journey}

 {Little did we know what was in store...Pictured on the table, a glass of sparkling water with lavender syrup...we also go dry sodas, Vanilla flavor...I'd never been a fan of "just" vanilla until that moment. Oh man, it was tasty.}

 {And right about here is where my camera starts saying low battery--which means: "I'm only going to take blurry pictures in the dim light." Silly camera. BUT you can kind of make out the personage of Matt Costello there, gesticulating about the magic he's about to serve. I really loved knowing about the different farms and beaches that our dinner was coming from. Everything local, homegrown, and organic. The dinner was an experience, almost like eating theater! Chef Costello wanted us to be transported to different areas of the island as we were eating. It made for a thoughtful, savoring, imaginative time}

Also--if you want real pictures of what we ate you can drool all you like over this food porn @ http://blog.costellofoodblog.com/ 

 

{Left: Fig with goat cheese & vanilla salt.  Not pictured was the beet meringue cookie hollowed out and filled with cheese and hazelnuts. Mmmm, quite the amuse-bouche!  Right: Salmon mousse (+ Co2) roasted cumin, pickled onion, cilantro flowers, and a little gel of something I can't remember...It was a perfect blend between delicate textures and rich flavors.

{Now this...THIS ladies and gentlemen was amaz-z-z-z-z-z-z-z-ing. Yes...8 Z's worthy. A Deconstructed Baked Potato: Potato foam, with chives, with a pork belly cube perfectly fried up, doused with a potato skin consomme...I can still taste it in my dreams...it was heaven}

{Left: "What's that?", you ask? THAT is some dungeness crab on a smear of mascarpone cheese, little cut outs of cucumber, bits of cilantro, a lemon sorbet quenelle sitting on top, and a green 'blob' of pea juice topped with a light drizzle of a lemon olive oil. It was wild. Right: My favorite dish of the night...Black cod perfectly poached(?) on a bed of blanched pumpkin, basil dust, garlic smear, and star anise-marshmallow swipe, with a coconut sauce. Oh. My. Goodness.}

{We had many other amazing courses, *Sweet Hay Ice Cream, Pine encrusted venison sitting in a cloche of cedar and lavender smoke...Feta and Melon Sorbet, chocolate chip cookie cotton candy--trust me it was amazing, and I hate cotton candy... but my camera is a loser. Note: my camera, not me. It was an amazing 3 hour 13 course meal....no...meal is the wrong word...adventure! I felt very pampered to be able to enjoy such luxury! Thanks Amanda Panda!}

Seattle Trip: Whidbey Island

 {On the ferry, birds of a feather huddle together.}

 {Not all is gloomy gray in Washington...the light in the darkness has to be PICKLES Deli! }

{If you take a walk on this beach with a best friend, all your troubles will float away}