Lueders Haus Blog

The Times has good taste. A few days after our visit, it published this review of Tilth. We were at Tilth for the Monday night “Homage to Local Producers” – which last Monday was a homage to mushrooms. It was a bit like being judges on IronChef, with each course featuring mushrooms in a different way, from the creamy porcini soup starter through the mushroom-infused creme brule (better than it sounds). Both of us opted for the wine pairing which meant we did not have to make any choices the entire meal. We just got to sit back and relax while they brought out the food and drinks.

Spent a beautiful (if chilly) Saturday afternoon outside next to the brew kettle brewing this. As usually I tried a few new things this time. Last weekend I installed a spigot onto the bottom of my kettle. This made transfer to the fermenter easier but we did have some spillage when the hose slipped off. Also I used 4oz of Magnum hops, a hop I’ve never used before. I was a little worried about the hop shortage’s affect on the homebrewer but my store was still well stocked. The shortage seems to be affecting those who have to shop online for hops the most.

Spent Friday night downtown with dinner and a show. We caught the late show of Luna Dean & Britta at the Triple Door. This was the first chance we have had to catch a show at the Triple Door and both were very impressed. They sat us right at the edge of the stage (Sherry grabbed Britta’s set list at the end). We split a half bottle of Ribera del Duero and the cheese plate and enjoyed the tunes. They played mostly new songs but did toss in a few Luna songs. My only complaint is that the new stuff does not have the guitar wankiness that I love from Luna.

Before the show we caught a quick dinner at Flying Fish. We hadn’t been there in years and sure it seems a bit dated next to newer hipper places these days (the older couple dinning next to us looked like tourists) but everything was still excellent.

All the mountain passes were closed, so Seattle had no excuses not to caucus on Saturday afternoon. We headed up the street to our local church basement to practice some democracy. The scene was total chaos. Overflowing with people, few knew what to expect or even knew what caucusing involved. Having both gone through the process before in ‘04 we knew what to expect. It was about as chaotic as I remember last time being, just with tons more people. Our precinct was being run by two women who got the job just by the fact that they showed up early. It was unclear to me if they had ever been to a caucus before let alone run one. (Next time I will definitely volunteer to run our precinct.) About eighty people showed up for our precinct, the vast majority for Obama, a few Clinton supporters, and a handful of undecided voters. After the initial vote a few speeches were given, a mother with baby in arms gave a speech for Hillary (accord the baby’s bib he appeared to be supporting Obama, no reason was given). A few first time caucus goers gave speeches for Obama (I don’t understand these non-voters, everyone in my family votes, its just assumed). I don’t know if we swung any undecided voters our way but in the end we sent six delegates on for Obama and two for Hillary. 

The weather cleared up just enough for us to head over the mountains on Saturday morning for some post thirtieth birthday cross country skiing near Leavenworth. We arrived at Lake Wenatachee State Park a little after ten and skied both the North and South sides of the park. Both trails were short (3-5k), flat, and nearly empty. They were through pine forest with occasional lake views.

Afterwards we drove a few miles farther down the road to Chiwawa Sno-Park to ski the “See & Ski” trail. This was our favorite trail of the area, it follows the Wenatachee River for most of the way before looping back to the trail head. After its 6.5k we were pretty beat so we packed up and head to our hotel in Leavenworth.

Being my thirtieth we figured we would live it up a bit and stay in style at the Sleeping Lady resort just outside of town. The place happened to be full of pharmacist talking drugs this weekend but we didn’t mind. The included dinner and breakfast was some of the best food I’ve had in Leavenworth. The cabin was nice and quiet and the ski trails started near by so it was the perfect place to stay.

This morning we skied the Icicle River Tails and the Golf Course Trails in Leavenworth then grabbed a bite to eat the Sleeping Lady’s Cafe before heading back to Seattle. Leavenworth’s trails were nice, flat with a few small hills, but a bit crowded compared to Saturday’s skiing. Checkout all the photos here.