Meant to be

Tyler and I went to get our marriage license the other day. The fee was $58 and they only accepted cash. We hadn't planned ahead, so we weren't sure we had enough money. I pulled out all the cash in my wallet, and Tyler counted up everything he had too. Between the two of us, we had exactly $58. No more, no less.

I guess some things are meant to be.

L'ecole 41 wine dinner

After months of preparation and hard work, the L'ecole 41 wine dinner finally became a reality. Tyler and Eric put a lot of thought into the menu, and in the end, it's some of the best food I've ever seen come out of the kitchen. I can't wait until the next one.

Below is the menu. The food and decor are centered around a school house theme because the winery is in an old school house. If you want to see more pictures, you can go here.













Amuse Buche
Sugar snap pea & chevre ice cream, smoked tomato "caviar," potato crisp cone

Paired with 2008 Estate Luminesce, semillion/sauvignon blanc













Gravlax
Citrus-lavender cured Copper River sockeye, smoked creme fraiche,
Yukon gold blini, salmon roe
&
Quail egg
Sunny side quail egg, radish, white truffle oil, sea salt

Paired with 2008 Estate Luminesce, semillion/sauvignon blanc













Spot Prawn
Local spot prawns, brown butter poached beet,
pineapple sabayon, sweet corn-pancetta polenta
(This was my favorite)

Paired with 2008 Chardonnay













Bison carpetbagger
Bison tenderloin, local oyster, hazelnut, celeriac, manchego mashed potatoes, kale

Paired with 2007 Estate Merlot
or
2007 Apogee — a blend of cab, merlot, malbec, cab franc













And finally dessert.
raspberry & brie danish
strawberry lemon-lavender shortcake
funnel cake, rhubarb jam, blue cheese ice cream
molten chocolate cake covered Bing cherry

Paired with 2007 Apogee
or
2009 Walla Voila, chenin blanc

Big Quilcene River

We took the dogs on a trip to the Olympic Peninsula for a short getaway. Because the rain wasn't letting up, we decided to rent a cabin that was on the Big Quilcene River.

The cabin is across the river from the Rob and Jacoba VandeWeghe's home, who are also the cabin's owners. They built a bridge over the river, and a path that leads to a small cabin with a loft. It was a pretty cozy stay for all four of us, but very nice. Jacoba has even created a trail that goes to a waterfall on her property, so there was plenty of land for the dogs to explore.

The only problem with the cabin is that Moses was displeased when he could not follow us up to bed. And he wasn't shy about letting us know how he felt either (he's a pretty persistent whiner).

In the morning Jacoba brought over breakfast for us, which consisted of homemade bread and jams, fresh squeezed orange juice, and more baked goods for us to snack on later. All in all, it was a relaxing weekend for us.

Tippy Canoe and Tyler 2's revenge

The official results are in, and Tippy Canoe and Tyler 2 came in 177th out of 464 teams that competed in the 99th Ski to Sea in Bellingham. Our total time was 8:48:03 for the 90-mile relay (the winning time was 5:47:55 with some help from Olympic athletes). The competition was fierce, the water attempted to tip the canoe, but Margarito and I stayed strong and conquered the Nooksack River.

Here's the breakdown of our individual times that contributed to our awesomeness:

Frank cross-country skied a four-mile loop in 43:10 , giving him 191st place out of all the skiers.

Dan, the man, completed his 2.5 mile downhill ski loop (which consisted of hiking up the mountain too) in 27:10, putting him in 32nd place out of all the downhillers — that's damn impressive.

Steve said he ran an "acceptable" eight miles in in 55:36, ranking him 212th out of all the runners.

Eric posted an all-time personal best of biking 38.5 miles in 1:38:10, knocking off his previous record by five whole minutes. That put him at 149th place with the other cyclists.

Margarito and I were happy to just finish, and we took down the Nooksack River's 18 mile course in 2:36:58, placing us at 332nd with everyone else.

Tyler was covered in mud when he finished his 14 mile mountain bike leg, which he completed in 1:11:31, earning him 212th place.

John brought it all home in the kayak by paddling five miles in choppy waters in 1:15:28, giving him 263rd place.