Ebina Farmer's Market

Mrs. Bag-O and I have a friend who kept telling us about a farmer's market in Ebina that would "CHANGE OUR LIVES."  Obviously, we needed to find this place ASAP.  Luckily, while we were doing a base event in Tokyo last weekend, we overheard a few girls talking about this very place.  They were kind enough to share their pin with us and off we went on Monday morning.  

I can't say that it CHANGED MY LIFE, but it was a great find.  Tucked away into a nondescript building were row after row of fresh produce, beautiful flowers, Japanese snacks and local products (like honey and jam)!  

The very unassuming building ...

Beetles!  I saw these on my second trip to the market.

Fresh eggs

Cherry tomatoes

Who knew this is how edamame grows?

I didn't really NEED anything the morning that we went ... it was more of a scouting mission.  But I came home with two beautiful flower bouquets for 700 yen (approximately $7.00).  You sure can't beat that!  Unfortunately, I did not take any pictures of the flowers before they died :(

Afterwards we stopped by Starbucks.  

I love what they wrote on Mrs. Bag-O's cup ... "Have Fun"

And this little cutie joined us on our big adventure.

I am so glad that we ventured out looking for the farmer's market ... it is so nice to know that we have more options than our commissary for grocery shopping.  The commissary is great for all of those things you can't find out in town - half and half, pasta, shredded cheese, cookie dough, biscuits, cleaning supplies ... I could go on.  But everything that is perishable, is frozen and shipped from America, which does not make for the best quality.  

Weekend Recap

I hope you all had a good weekend!  We weren't treated to any beautiful weather like I hoped, but we still managed to enjoy our weekend :)

Friday night we had dinner with one of J.'s friends and his wife.  They have been wanting to get together for dinner for months now and we finally made it happen!  It was a really fun night filled with new friends and good food.  It's always nice to make another friend in the Navy community!  

Saturday we did some chores around the house ... we haven't had a typical Saturday at home since we moved in.  I did some cleaning and painting and J. worked on our new compost bins.  We are going to give composting a try ... I want to start a vegetable garden and apparently composted soil is the best soil out there.  I will report back in a few weeks (or months?).  Saturday night we had plans to hang out with Mateo and R.  They wanted to go check out Bellingham, so they picked us up and off we went.  We really did a Tour de Bellingham.  We started at Temple Bar in downtown Bellingham.  They have happy hour on Saturdays (YAY!) and their special was a bottle of wine and a cheese plate for $15.00.  We just couldn't pass up a deal that good!  We also happened to have the nicest bartender you could imagine who gave us recommendations for the rest of our evening.  Unfortunately, the restaurant he recommended for dinner (The Prospect Street Cafe) was closed but we drove out to the bay and had dinner at the Harborside Bistro.  It was in a beautiful hotel and we had a great view of the water while we dined.  From there, we stopped at Cap Hansen's and Rumors to check both bars out.  Cap Hansen's is a small dive bar and Rumors is the gay bar.  We enjoyed people watching at both.  On our way out of town, we stopped at the martini bar in the Best Western.  It was a really fun night and we got lots of valuable recommendations for our future trips to Bellingham.  I can imagine how beautiful the view at Harborside will be on a sunny, summer afternoon! 

Today (Sunday), I ventured into Seattle with my friend Mrs. S.  She wanted to go to the Ballard Market and we were going to wait for a nice day, but decided to go in the rain.  One of her good friends from home is in town for the next three months, so we picked her up in Queen Anne and had lunch at Homegrown.  It was a great place to grab a quick sandwich before heading out to the market.  I didn't take a single picture, but it was a nice market with lots of beautiful flowers and fresh produce.  Mrs. S. and I got very cute headbands from one of the vendors.  We wandered around a few more stores in the area before heading back up north.  

Slowly, but surely, I feel like I am learning my way around Seattle and finding the cute, hole in the wall places that really make up a city.  I love exploring all of the neighborhoods and can't wait to show all my finds to our next visitors!

Portland, Day 3

I was depressed for a short while on my last morning in Portland ... it's always weird when you've been hanging out with a bunch of people and then they leave and it's just you.  But, I got myself out of my funk and headed out into Portland to enjoy my last day.

I started at the Portland Farmer's Market.  The farmer's market in our town is over the weekend, so I had missed it and wanted to get some vegetables for the week.  I was not disappointed.  It was set in a park and was full of goodies ... including an adorable bakery, Two Tarts Bakery.  I will definitely be looking them up next time I'm in Portland.  They had amazing macaroons, small treats, and mini chocolate chip cookies with sea salt sprinkled on them.  YUM.

I know it's sideways, but you get the point.  The adorable little box from Two Tarts.

Loved the paper inside

And finally, the goodies!

After the Farmer's Market, I headed over to Pioneer Square to see the Courthouse.  We'd walked by it several times, but I hadn't stopped to take it all in.

The busy square

No smoking!

The Courthouse ... I LOVE old courthouses

And a close-up

Next up, I wanted to go back to the riverfront and get a picture of the "Made in Oregon" sign.  Luckily, VooDoo doughnuts was on the way to the sign.  I decided if they didn't have a line, it would be a sign that I should go in and get more doughnuts.  And guess what?  There was NO line.  So how could I not go in?

I got myself two Marshall Mathers (M&M doughnuts) and an Oreo one for J.  

It was hard to get a good picture of the sign because there were so many huge trees along the road ... 

but how can you be mad about that?

From here, I headed back to the hotel to pick up my car.  I had one more stop to make ... J. wanted some Portland beer.  So, I picked up Reliable Randy and headed to find beer.  The concierge recommended I try Whole Foods.  I was disappointed with their selection and it was all cold.  However, when I headed back to the car, I looked up and realized I had parked right across from the Deschutes Brewery, one of the beers J. asked for.  What a coincidence.  He got some beer after all.  I also stopped by Powell's City of Books before I headed out: 

What a neat place ... I think it takes up an ENTIRE city block.

I had one last stop to make before I headed back to Washington ... the International Rose Test Garden.  I think I missed prime rose season, but it was still a neat place to visit.

Some of my favorites had won awards!

You could see downtown Portland from the top of the hill, but it was hard to get a good pic.

After that, I headed back to Washington.  I really enjoyed my time in Portland and can't wait to go back!

Weekend Recap!

Whew.  We had a BUSY weekend, but it felt great to be out and about doing stuff all weekend long!  Especially with no feelings of guilt for not studying hanging over my head!

Friday night, J. and I went to Olive Garden for dinner.  I had not been there in FOREVER.  But we got a gift card from the Easter Bunny last April so we decided it was time to use it!  And I'm really glad we did, I tried their new Parmesan-Polenta Crusted Chicken with Mezza Luna Ravioli ... YUM.  It was delicious.  J. had the Portabella Mushroom Ravioli which was really good too.   And, of course, no trip to the OG would be complete without their famous salad and breadsticks.  Yum.  Then we headed over the movie theater and saw The Other Guys.  It was very entertaining and had many laugh out loud moments.

Saturday we got up early and headed up north to Anacortes.  We stopped off at the R's house to pick them up and made our way to the Anacortes Art Festival.  The festival itself was great, tons of booths of beautiful photographs, paintings, pottery, jewelry, even flowers.  However, it started raining shortly after we arrived and it didn't take long until we were waterlogged.  We hit up the food booths, got some lunch and headed back to the R's to eat birthday cake.  We headed home, rested up for a bit and then headed down south to Seattle.  We met up with some friends we hadn't seen in awhile and had dinner at Peso's Kitchen & Lounge.  We didn't end up getting seated until after 10:00 ... but it worked out perfectly because their happy hour menu started again at 10.  We had tons of delicious food for a great price.  We headed out to a few bars after that and then called it a night.  It was GREAT to go out in Seattle and see people we hadn't seen in awhile!

Sunday we made our way to the Farmer's Market where we got some great stuff ... cherries, peaches, and fresh salmon.  Yum.  J. did a lot of studying and I did a lot of reading!  We spent Sunday night in Anacortes with our friend, G.  He cooked us a fantastic meal of Gorgonzola topped steaks with asparagus, sauteed mushrooms and onions in balsamic vinegar and bread dipped in olive oil and balsamic vinegar.  J. and I brought some wine and zucchini that we picked up at the Farmer's Market.  It was a great end to the weekend!

We just have a few short days before we head to San Francisco and Sonoma to see some friends from college ... I cannot wait!

I hope you all had a great weekend!

S.E.J.

Weekend Recap

We had a really nice weekend ... I hope you guys did too!  J. had a really busy week while I was in Bellevue taking the bar and I, of course, was EXHAUSTED.  So we stayed in Friday night and ordered a pizza and watched Dexter, Season 3, Disc 2.  I thought the disc only had three episodes on it, but I was pleasantly surprised to find out it actually had four!  Satisfied my Dexter craving for the day and luckily, the next disc is supposed to be in the mailbox today (Tuesday), yay!  I would up my Netflix subscription to 3 discs at a time, just for Dexter, but I'm on a budget and I can't justify spending $20 a month on a movie subscription.

Saturday we went to Mt. Vernon, which is about halfway between Everett and Anacortes, and went to the Bite of Skagit.  The best way I can describe it is that it is similar to the Taste of Chicago, but on a MUCH smaller scale.  They had some great stuff ... ribs, chocolate cake, shortcake with strawberries or mixed berries, tacos, salads, etc.  And it was so much cheaper than the Taste of Chicago.  If you've been, you know how freaking expensive it is.  Each ticket at the Bite of Skagit was $1 and I seriously got a taco for 1 ticket and a "taste" size mixed berry shortcake for 1 ticket.  And they were both delicious. 

Mrs. T., me, Mrs. R. 

(Caroline, if you're reading this, pretend my hair looks taken care of) 

Mr. R. and J.

(Note that it looks like they are holding hands on Mr. R.'s shoulder)

After the Bite, we stopped by one of Mt. Vernon's finest wineries ... Pasek Cellars Winery.  It might actually be a really fine winery, but the tasting room is attached to a gas station.  Seriously, I can't make this stuff up.

I like group therapy.

Saturday night we took the girls (Addy and Lucy) up to the R's and we had Thai and wine and the girls played with the R's dogs.  The R's have a nice backyard and while we have "grown-up" time, they have "dog park" time.  It's a win-win situation.  

Sunday, J. did lots of studying and I ran some errands.  And we FINALLY made it to the Everett Farmer's Market.  It did not disappoint.  I think we will be back as long as we're in Everett on Sunday afternoons.  I didn't take any pictures at the market, but here are the beautiful flowers that I got: 

I think my favorite thing about the farmer's markets around here are the flowers.  You can get huge, beautiful bouquets for $5-10 ... much prettier than grocery store flowers and much cheaper.  This particular bunch was $6 ... but they are dried, so they should last for awhile!  

Hope you all had a great weekend!  

S.E.J.