Can't think of a single clever title to introduce this with, so I'll stick to the facts:
Yesterday was Bob's birthday. We got up, had coffee and hit the road, dismayed by the gray day that was supposed to actually be the only sunny day this week--and me especially, as I'd planned several outdoor surprises in which rain would be an extreme hindrance.
By the time we got to I-5, the north-south corridor that is the bloodline of Western Washington, it was drizzling. By the time we got to Arlington, about 70 miles later, it was coming down pretty good and the biggest blackest cloud was hanging right over the direction we were going--to a Kangaroo Farm. That's right, for his birthday, I took Bob to a Kangaroo farm. And believe it or not, in spite of the weather, about 25 other people had accumulated for the noon 'tour'. Something to love about the PNW--you don't turn around and go home, you don't let rain defeat you. You just pull up your hoodie and try not to think about your shoes and the hems of your jeans as you muck about in 2" of soupy wet wild animal dung. And then you laugh at yourself.
Afterward we drove further east on SR 530 to Oso, to pay our respects at the makeshift memorial for the unfortunate people who lost their lives in the worst landslide in modern American history. The sun came out while we stood there examining the pile of hand-painted rocks, money, watches, faded boxes of Valentines Day chocolates and what-nots that survivors had left in remembrance. We felt embraced.
And then we headed south to Ballard where, inspired by watching David Chang's pizza episode of Ugly Delicious last weekend, we picked up the most authentically Neopolitan pizza in this part of the world and took it to dine, outdoors, on the Ballard locks which we had not been to before. Constructed in 1917, the locks enable pleasure craft and others to pass back and forth from the Salish Sea to the higher-elevation freshwater lakes of Union and Washington that surround Seattle. We ate our pizza while heckling the boaters and hung out with a heron expert who was there to examine the rookery on the opposite shore.
And then we drove home. Dinner was a garlicky green salad followed by rack of lamb on roasted cauliflower with a lemon-herb bechamel. And with it:
1999 Paul Jaboulet Hermitage La Chapelle
Decanted for just 30 minutes because that's all the time we had. Have to wonder if more time--two hours or more--might have had better results, but while this garnet-colored wine was quite pleasant--bright red fruit, licorice, mushrooms, fennel, garrique--it just didn't show as well as hoped. It lacked depth, and certainly wasn't at all in the same camp as an '86 a year ago. Rather, it was like listening to a great rock song with the volume turned down--recognizable, but.
