Icy Weather and Ice Cream

[liralen]

Written: 11:23 p.m. January 2, 2009

In which the weather does yet another about face, waffles, an icy shoreline walk with warm rewards, rose and lavender chocolate ice cream, getting out of the snow, and a lovely dinner with shaterri at Sakuma.



When we got up it was raining. Well... almost... it was actually snowing for a bit, and then turned to rain. There was enough snow to put a few more inches on the rather sloppy driveway. But we stayed in for a good chunk of the morning. I just stayed in bed for a while, but then when everyone was up and making music and stuff, I got up and got myself put together and was in pretty good shape as David let us use his bed for the night.

He made waffles for breakfast. He added walnuts and almonds to them and it made for really good crunch. The Costco jars of Oregon Marionberry jam really helped as well, as the leftover whipped cream from the night before and real maple syrup and butter. Jet ate three whole squares of waffle. I think he's in a growth spurt or something.

I had five. *laughs*

It was really good, especially having whipped cream in the coffee as well. Jet and I did a little origami while folks played musical instruments and I worked with Steve on figuring out the details of where we were going to meet up. He's very knowledgeable about Japanese food and the styles of food thereof, so it was fun having him look for a good place for us to eat. It took a few passes before we finally settled on a place that actually existed (I tried a place that didn't exist at all, and he went for a great place downtown) and was in line with the fact that we had only our very informal clothing, including a pair of Christmas sweatpants that Jet kept having to hold onto with his hands in his pockets to keep up.

We had a lot of back and forth because John and I had no coverage for our celphones at David's house, and my celphone ran completely out of power while trying to find coverage.

So I had to rely on email and a little bit of gmail chat.

At noon we went out for a walk, as the weather suddenly did an about face and turned clear and bright and sunny. There is a trail that runs right on the waterfront, and most of it is over the water. It starts with a very steep concrete ramp from the nearest street down to the water, and it has rest platforms for a wheel chair every 30 feet. It was also covered in slush when we got there, really slippery slidy slush that made me very glad that there was a pipe railing along one side. I took the rail the whole way down.

The walk was cold. Everyone had down coats, hand coverings, and hats to start. There was just a little breeze, but the sun was out and my back felt kind of warm. The broadwalk, on the most part, was clear and wet. But just before the park, where the surface was still in the shade, the slush was still on the surface, even over the water. At the far end, in the part, in an ex-ceramics store, there was a new coffee shop. We all went in where there was a fireplace, and the warmth was a big change. It really brought home just how cold it was outside.

My breathing doesn't really like the humid cold at all. But with the exercise of the good long walk (I hit another 10,000 steps today), it helped clear things up a bit more. It's an odd balance trying to figure out how much exercise I need to clear things up and how much I can take when I'm still recovering from my cold.

I bought Jet a hot chocolate with mint and myself a latte and John a mocha. So we had hot drinks for some of the walk. The park is beautiful with a lot of windswept trees as well. The walk back was easier as the sunshine did a good job of getting the broadwalk cleared wherever it shone. I was pretty impressed by the power of the sunshine. Now I see why, in Colorado, these kinds of snows are no problem. The streets just clear with the heat from the sunshine against the pavement. And it was warm enough that Jet stuck his hands out from his big coat and took his hood off.

When we got back to the car, we headed into downtown Bellingham. Mallard's is a one-shot ice cream shop that makes their own ice cream. They do all kinds of flavors, and everyone could get what it was they wanted. John got lime-chili and Earl Grey. Jet got Mint Oreo and Peppermint. I got Lavender-chocolate and Rose. All very, very different flavors in odd combinations. It was pretty impressive. I really like the little shop, and they had a whole rack of sweatshirts, and I decided to get a bright purple hoodie that felt so soft on the inside. I've been wearing more sweaters this winter, as the heaters just aren't enough, really, and it's nice to have the extra layers. And there's just something alluring about the interior of a brand new sweatshirt. *happy sigh*

From there we headed back to David's house, had a little leftover turkey for dinner, and then played a couple games of Fluxx before it was time to pack everything up and get to the car and go South.

It was a slippery deal getting out of the driveway, but we made it. We hit Burlington's Costco to get gas, and then headed for Mukilteo to meet up with shatteri and Jeff. He'd found it on Google, and it was relatively easy to get to for us, since we followed Google maps and Isabel spotted it at the last intersection.

The restaurant was really, really good, too. They had seasonal specials along with the usual menu. Jet and Isabel had the vegetable tempura. John and George had a mixed tempura with shrimp, crab, scallops, and asparagus, and it turned out to actually be all the things mixed together with the tempura batter and then deep fried in a mass. shaterri got an udon with a dipping sauce, an aji sushi, and the mixed tempura as well.

I got one albacore toro nigiri that was buttery, lovely, light the way albacore often is, really rich and almost fruity. I had tobiko with quail egg, and the tobiko was as crisp, sweet, and salty and the quail egg yolks were sweet and creamy and that particular texture only available from a really fresh egg. My main "dish" was a single grilled pike mackeral, cut in half. They'd only salted the whole mackerel and grilled it with the skin still on until the skin was crisp as anything. So I ate it from the tail up, and decided I just wasn't into the bitter innards at all and cleaned it myself of the stuff I really didn't want, including most of the head and gills. But the meat itself of the fish was really rich and tasty and perfectly cooked.

Really, really nice.

So a good find for shaterri as it's in his neighborhood, and it was a good stop for us after a pretty busy few days.

We got home to a cold house, and George lit the heater and set up a small space heater for Jet's room while he brushed his teeth, changed, and got ready for bed. I put him to bed and just stayed with him until he fell asleep to the white sound of the heater.

Now it's in our room. *laughs* Time to go to bed.