Goodbye Saturday and gusty Sunday

Yesterday was Val’s last day on vacation. Back to work on Monday. This is how we worked it: he flies back from Seattle, so he can have the most fun-time on the road and I drive the little Element back to the barn in nice easy stages. I’m due back home mid-week.

This morning, it is pouring buckets! For a SoCal girl, this is a feature not a bug. Rain! Good hard rain. It sounds so good. Smells so good. It’s great. Mark mentions how it is great for sitting in pajamas and blogging, but not so great for cross country driving. So, he invited me to delay my return by a couple of days and keep my little nest of a room in Seattle until the really bad weather moves off my route home. He’s so nice and I am so comfy here, the company, the pace and flow of the day, suiting me so well. So, I’m keeping an eye on the weather and we’ll see what happens.

Yesterday: a leisurely morning as Val packed his things and arranged everything in the Element so it would be easy for me (thanks, sweetie), and then out into the delightful drizzly Seattle day. We went with M&M to Alki and got fried fish and oysters at Sunfish, a have-your-money-ready-and-know-what-you-want fried seafood place with a great water view and hot, juicy fried oysters. [Click here for Mark's funny Sunfish tale.] Then a stroll along the pebble and sand beach, enjoying the great grays, steely water, city buldings, dramatic sky, dark logs on the shore. M&M told us the local stories and it was a nice wrap for Val’s Big Graze.

^ Val on the beach at Alki

So it was off to Sea-Tac for Val and the Jet Blue jet home. Hated to see him go. Wii miss him! Things have been so charmed on this vacation, I could wish it to go on and on. We were already planning our next trip on the first day — the West Coast is so bountiful, so beautiful and so big, we could only savor the smallest slice in our three weeks. Now, it’s just about over and the new year of work about to begin, and even that is good, because I live in the land of plenty.

After we dropped off Val, Mark headed out to play cards and Michelle and I hung out at the house until dinner time. We went to the Junction, to The Matador, the West Seattle location of a nice local chain of swank tex-mex restaurants/tequila bars. We came in out of the chilly rainy night into the warm atmosphere: high cielings, golden lighting, dark scrolling metal work, deep red curtains. We were seated at part of a shared table that wrapped around a little fireplace, cozy, perfect for the weather. We talked over tall margaritas and big plates of enchiladas. Michelle’s=tomatillo/chicken, mine =habenero/carnitas. And the food was good, especially my habenero sauce, packing exactly the right amount of zing. Of course, the portions were big everything’s-bigger-in-tex-mexican-sized. To clean the plate would have been to suffer, but I really enjoyed what I did eat, including nice black beans and guacamole. It’s best that I didn’t realize while I was there that the bar served over 80 kinds of tequila — a tasting would have definitely been in order. And, we know how that sort of thing can get out of hand when you are paying attention to your conversation and not how much you’re drinking. But another time, earlier in an evening when it is all about tasting the liquor, I’d like to visit this place again.

^ Warm and bustling: The crowd at the Matador and our neat fireplace table top.

This afternoon, a real wind storm has taken hold of Seattle and the air is filled with wheeling eddies of fall-colored leaves. Michelle and I went out to get the Element some new windshield wipers. The search took us into downtown where we accomplished our mission and Nik gave me a nice driving tour of the neighborhoods as pretty tornadoes of leaves whirled around us. On our way home, after a stop at the SafeWay for sausage for tonight’s red beans, Michelle asked if I would like to try Seattle’s best shakes. Mmm, said I. Old timey shakes, malteds? Yeah. SMS Mark. He’s in. We take the turn for Luna Park Cafe where our friendly tattooed and pierced waitresses whipped up real-deal, made with vanilla ice cream and chocolate syrup, chocolate malteds. Whipped cream on top. Yum!

^ The shake: note the ribbons of chocolate. The shakers: The malt makers of Luna

^ Luna Park Cafe, West Seattle

Now we’re home again, snug, warmed by laptops, pot of red beans simmers on the stove, Blackeye Peas on the iTunes, and the wind rushes down the street. Fall is here. (And I am missing you val. xxo)