We're Back

We're back from a vacation on the coast, and it feels good to be home! Here's pictures from start to finish - watch out, there's a BUNCH!

At Sitka and Spruce - favoritest restaurant ever! Absolutely the best!!

Westhaven Beach - Near Westport, WA

 Our yurt in Grayland State Park! Really fun to stay in, everything stays nice and dry!

Drove down the Oregon coast and stopped at a bunch of things on the way. This is in Seaside, statue of Lewis and Clark in the background. This is supposedly where they came to the Pacific Ocean.

Cannon Beach and Haystack Rock. Pretty overcast.... but we got to walk all the way out to the rock and see all the tide pools around it.

Little sea things on the side of Haystack Rock.

Roseanna's Cafe in Ocean City, Oregon.  Romantic little spot. Below is the view from Ocean City.

Fairly certain this is Beverly Beach, right next to the "Devil's Punchbowl" and Otter Rock. Was fun watching people try to surf! ...looks difficult. Then took a nap in the sand.

Next stop was Yaquina Lighthouse, very interesting.

The last city we stopped in was Newport, Oregon. Decided to lay off on the driving and relax a few days. Was nice being able to adjust our plans as we went though. Below: Crabbing equipment on the sidewalk.

Rogue Brewery - took a free tour.

The last night we had a blast staying at the Sylvia Beach Hotel. Really awesome bed and breakfast. Each room is themed after an author - I'll give you one guess which author our room was themed after. There's a library on the forth floor, plus an attic full of more books, puzzles and reading nooks! There's a "Coffee room" with coffee and tea all the time and spiced wine in the evenings. There's also a cat named Shelly that lives there. Highly recommend it if you're ever in the area.

Lovely little garden area out front - the Tolkien room is right off the garden, would love to go back and stay there again some time. 

Good night and enjoy the last few days of summer!!

Culinary Lavender

Culinary lavender seems to be all the rage right now within the foodie community. My first discovery was about a month back. We were up visiting Nelson, BC and one of our favorite restaurants when we had some honey lavender creme brulee that was amazing! Then on a recent trip to Seattle, I had honey lavender ice cream at Molly Moon's which was delicious - lets just say it's a good thing I live four hours from Molly's...

Anyways, while there, I noticed they sold culinary lavender, but ouch, pretty steep price $7.00 for half an ounce. Yesterday, we were running some errands and stopped by the Kitchen Engine, a local kitchen store, I found lavender for $3.00 for half ounce. Yay!

The first thing I made was lavender lemonade! It's my new favorite summer time drink :) Recipe was from Apartment Therapy here. I don't have any awesome pictures but if you need some further inspiration, here's a few from Pinterest that inspired me!

(photo originally from Sunday-supper.com)

(photo originally from designsponge.com)

Blast from the Past (& the winner)

Snapshot from the weekend! Kickin' it old school with the tent trailer, although the vibe is a little different now with everyone busting out their smart phones :) The retro camera app makes it look like an old family photo though. I guess Joe's new barefoot shoes and the Pilot kind of give it away though...

Anyways, the winner is Debbie, with the 3rd comment! ...and to answer her question on where to find it - I have found Mrs. Meyer's locally at Rosauers, Huckleberrys, Main Street Market and online at Soap.com.
(P.s. Joe and Random.org both picked the number 3, so that's how we picked the winner)

Mrs. Meyer's Giveaway

Since my house is a diaster (with a capital D) and I'm throwing a bridal shower here in a few weeks, I'm seeing a lot of cleaning in my future. I've been pondering a give away for awhile and thought sharing my favorite cleaning product with a lucky reader would be perfect. I've already professed my love for Mrs. Meyer's cleaning products back in the winter when I first discovered them. It all started with Lavender Hand soap seen above, who knew soap could smell so delicious! The winner gets the "3 pack" above - hand soap, dish soap and countertop spray. To enter - leave a comment with your favorite cleaning tip or trick. Then check back here on Saturday and I'll post the winner!

Rocket Bakery

I've decided summer is flying by so fast, and I hardly had my camera out. I'm not diligent enough to do photo of the day for a whole year but I'm going to try for the month of August to "document" some of these nice summer days before they're gone. Joe and I went down to Rocket Bakery for bagels and coffee before he went to work today! Another nice coffee shop to check out if you're local Spokanite :)
Check back tomorrow for my first ever give away!