Yesterday Nathan, Lauren and I went up to pack mom’s moving truck.  She got the biggest truck she could because she didn’t think all her worldly possessions would fit in a smaller truck.  We started loading the truck and when we had loaded nearly all the boxes the truck was maybe a 1/4 of the way full.  It is amazing how reduced your life can be when you see it in the back of a truck.  We arrived about 10:15 and by  about 2:15 the last of everything was loaded.  We had a quick lunch of McDonalds and left mom sitting on the lawn in front of the house waiting for Cory to arrive so they could figure out how to get the last of the stuff.  They are towing the little red truck behind the big truck on a dolly, and the cats were going in that truck, which was down at the rental yard, plus they had Cory’s car they had to drop off at a friends place.  We heard from them this morning.   Cory arrived as we were leaving, just after 3pm.  They didn’t get on the road until about 5pm.  Hit rush hour traffic and drove until midnight when they stopped in Hermiston, OR.  They called at 10:30am and were already in La Grande.  Here is their proposed route.  So if you see them in a big ass rental truck towing a little red truck with WA plates give them a wave!  It is sad to know they will be so far away, but I just means we have to plan more vacations right?  Road trip?!

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I have been neglecting my blog as of late.  It is easy to do when you get out of the habit while you are on holidays, and I am just trying to get back in the swing. 

We did have a wonderful holiday with family and friends in Australia.  We never seem to get everything done we want, but it isn’t for lack of trying, more a lack of time.

11/24 – 12/1
We left home in Olympia on Monday November 24th, it is always a mad rush to get everything together and get out the door.  This time not only did we have to organize ourselves, the pets an the inn, we had to make sure we had every possible situation covered for Lauren too.

Our first flight from Seattle to LA was on time, and it wasn’t full so we were allowed to take Lauren’s car seat on board and we buckled it in between us.  We weren’t sure how she would do, but she was just fine.  She slept nearly the entire flight.  No crying, fussing, etc.  In LA we checked the car seat in at the gate through to Melbourne so we would have it on the other end.  We had seats booked with the fold down bassinet, and it was our hope that since we would be flying late afternoon and evening that she would sleep for a good portion of the flight from LA to Auckland.  We had some turbulence when we left LA, but as soon as we reached altitude it was a smooth flight.  We had some issues with my screen and we didn’t have an entertainment guide so after watching a movie we put Lauren to sleep in the bassinet and reclined and we slept as well.  While it wasn’t the most comfortable sleep in my life it was good to have a relatively good rest.  Again Lauren was amazingly well behaved.  No crying.  I kept her on her usual schedule for feeding and sleeping with my watch set on our home time.  We landed in Auckland and since we weren’t changing planes we could leave our carry ons on board and just walk through security and back to the waiting area to get back on the plane.  After another three to four hour flight we finally arrived in Melbourne.

It was a relatively warm day compared to Washington, and the drive was easy and we quickly settled in at home with Nana and Poppa cuddling with Lauren at every chance.  She absolutely loved it!

We visited with Auntie Glenda before she left on her own holiday, we had a BBQ and the spread was quite impressive!  Sausages, chicken skewers, fruit plates, two different green salads, a fruit plate, coleslaw, potato salad, desserts, all amazingly good.  It was too bad the weather didn’t cooperate as well as we had hoped so we ate inside.  By the time we left we had a few rain showers but the sky was clear and blue.

12/1 – 12/8
We decided to visit a friend who has moved to Ballarat.  She took us to Daylesford which we visited last time we were there.  It is definitely B&B and Spa country!  For such a small town there are just so many.  Of course we stopped to look at the real estate offices and there were a lot for sale too.  We had a nice lunch a little café, but it was a bit expensive.  We all had vegetarian dishes, and for Nathan’s vegetarian lasagna, my vegetarian pesto pasta, and a side salad it was nearly $40!  OUCH.  We didn’t even order drinks, we just had water.  It was good, but I don’t know if the price was right there.  It really is pretty up there with all the trees and mountains, it rained the entire time we were there though and was a bit chilly. 

The next day we went to Sovereign Hill the site of Australia’s gold rush, it was very interesting and we had a lot of fun.  We went on this underground mine shaft tour that is self guided and there are things to prevent you from proceeding until the description of what you are looking at has finished playing. That didn’t stop a group of girls who were in front of us and charged through a waterfall, we were at the end of the line and I was thinking, surely this isn’t right, and just about that time Nathan went through and the water stopped as I went through.  We dried quickly though because the weather was bright and warm.  For lunch we had sausage rolls that are made on site in a wood fired oven.  They were really yummy.  We should have bought more treats from that bakery, but it had been such a long day we couldn’t think about it.

On our way home from Ballarat we stopped and had fish and chips, we were so hungry we ordered their "surf and turf" special.  It consisted of 1 cheeseburger, 2 pieces of flake, minimum order of chips, and a drink.  We ordered two, one for each of us.  The cheeseburgers were large and really tasty, great flavor, not quite a Big Tom, but up there. The flake pieces were large, well cooked, and fried not grilled.  The chips were just salty enough, and crispy without being overcooked but there was too many.  Normally when we ordered fish and chips at home we would order a minimum of chips for 4 of us, so two minimums, it was a lot of chips.  Then to wash it down, a lovely can of Solo.  Just the right balance of lemon and carbonation.

12/8 – 12/15
Home Improvement time!  Nathan’s mum has wanted to replace the floor "out the back" in what I would call the family room for years.  Nathan and I decided we would help them accomplish it!  First we had to move Sharky (the shark) and downsize his tank, then we removed furniture and started picking up the old flooring.  The old flooring was vinyl tiles stuck onto masonite.  We just wanted to start the process, we didn’t think we would get it all done before the family Christmas party next week.  We also did a lot of looking around for a food mill.  I  have been on a search for one for months and months.  I want it for the inn and Lauren to make food and sauces using the produce we grow here at the inn.  It needed to be large enough to do the volume, but have interchangeable discs so I can use it for our small tomatoes and grapes.  We went to several places, but they were either too small, made of plastic, or too expensive.  We did go to a restaurant supply store that had one but it was way too big, we would have had to have it shipped back to us and it was really expensive.  On Saturday it was absolutely pouring with rain and cold.  We decided to head up the coast to Narooma on Sunday to visit with some of Nathan’s friend who own a "motor inn" that is like no motor inn I have ever seen.

12/15 – 12/2
We left Melbourne around 8:30 or 9:00am after Lauren woke up, we ate and packed the car and we headed north up the coast.  It was torrential downpour the whole way.  We stopped a few times for breaks to feed Lauren and ourselves and for those "Nature Calls" that are a necessity on road trips.  We arrived in Narooma at about 6:00pm, checked in and were shown our room.  The Whale Motor Inn has the most amazing view.  We can see why they picked that property to run.  It is an older motel that they have updated to make relavent and attractive to a different market share.  The building has mostly been rendered as it was formerly two different types of brick, the logo and front sign redone and it really stands out amongst the other lodging in town.  The room we were in was large.  We were told it had a half makeover.  You walked into the room and there was a hallway.  The first door on the   right was the bathroom which the best way to describe would be that it would be large enough to made wheelchair accessible without any problems for space.  Tile floor, large shower, and vanity.  Apparently it hadn’t been updated, but it was in really good shape.  The next door on the right was the bedroom, with lots of closet space, a makeup vanity (or changing table if you are traveling with an infant), and a double (queen) size bed.  Nicely decorated, contemporary but not garish paint colors, and bed linens, not the typical motel polyester palm tree comforter, it had a designer touch.  Then to contiue down the hallway you came into the sitting room.   Two leather sofas, a large coffee table, a small kitchenette with new slate tiles, flat screet tv, desk.  I really loved the artwork and lighting and again the paint colors were really well suited for the space.

Matt & Jen, (or Matthew and Jennifer), invited us to their apartment for dinner as thier restaurant was closed on a Sunday.  It was the first time I had met either of them and they were very gracious and nice.  For dinner we had roast lamb, butternut pumpkin (or squash depending on where youare from), and pasta and bread it was delicious.  I have a new appreciation for lamb, it is very common in Australia, but not so much here in Washington.  You can probably find it in some supermarkets, but probably not all the time, and you see it on restaurant menus.  We talked about wines, running a motel, restaurant, bed and breakfast, spa, tourism in general, life.  It really was a nice evening.

The next day Nathan and I decided to play tourist, as we were, and be on holiday.  We slept in, taking our cue from Lauren.  She woke up, had her morning snack, and then went back to sleep, so we did too.  At about 10:30 or so we wandered downstairs and asked where we should go and see and do, and if there was a good spot for a late breakfast or early lunch.  So map in hand, baby in sling, off we went.  We walked down the hill to the boardwalk.  Narooma is on an inlet of sorts.  They have the ocean beaches, then an S shaped entrance that creates a swimming beach (complete with shark net) and leads into the town Warf and a lake (Wagonga Inlet)for lack of a better description.  To me a lake is freshwater and this was probably salt to maybe brackish.  So anyhow there is a boardwalk that goes from one side of the entrance around the harbor around the lake across a bridge to the other side of the entrance.  A big U shape, the open part of the U being where the boats go in and out and the bottom part of the U being a bridge.  We start heading down the boardwalk away from the ocean waves.  You can see a bit of a reef and different parts of the water, but it was a high tide so a lot of the features were hidden.  We walked past the bridge and continued on to some restaurants that were recommended to us.  We decided to dine at Quarterdeck.  It was built on pilings out over the water which was still rising with the tide.  We each had fish and chips.  I wish I could remember the variety of fish.  It wasn’t flake like you would typically find in a fish and chip shop, but whatever it was it was good!  The batter was light, the tartar sauce fresh, the chips crispy without being over cooked, and the salad simple. 

The weather had improved and it was sunny out, but the wind was blowing as we walked back down and over the bridge to the other side of the inlet.  We ended up covering Lauren up in the sling as she slept because it was so windy she kept holding her breath.  The views were breathtaking.  We didn’t spend long on the beach though beause the wind was blowing so much.  As we walked back around the tide had crested.  In spots is was coming up the storm drains and onto the path!  Apparently it was a King Tide and with the rain from the day before it was causing a little bit of concern but didn’t do any damage.  After our walk back we decided we needed a nap.  After looking at the map we decided we had walked close to 10 kilometers.  We were beat!  We woke from our nap and had showers and realized that we were quite burnt.  It wasn’t that hot out, we think it was more of a wind burn than a sun burn.  My skin espeically was very red and chapped.

We decided to head down to dinner at the restaurant at the motel, but there was a private event going on.  We had seen an ad for a woodfired pizza place and decided that sounded good, so we asked and yes indeed they have fabulous pizzas, but they were closed on a Monday.  Shoot.  Next option.  We headed to the pub.  We walked in and they too had pizzas, but we were told the pizza oven was broken, so no pizza.  Someone was trying to tell us we didn’t need a pizza.  So then we puruse the menu.  Nathan orders the Chicken Parma,  I order the Pasta Carbonara.  So apparently this pub has $1,000,000 views.  We go out onto the deck, and they have a beautiful glass barrier, with huge NO SMOKING signs printed on it.  So much for the view.  And it isn’t as good as the view from our room, so if that was the million dollar view, the one from our room must have been the billion dollar view.  Our food arrives and the it was ok, but it wasn’t pasta carbonara.  It was linquini with some sort of whitish sauce and a WHOLE bunch of diced ham.  I mean a ridiculous amount of ham.  There could have been close to a whole ham in my pasta bowl.  Oh and the parsley, a couple of tablespoons of parsley.  Oh well, like I said it wasn’t bad, it was edible, but wasn’t carbarnara by a long shot.

Ouch.  The next morning I am very sore from walking and burnt.  We decide we are going to spend one more night so we can eat at the restaurant so we decide to drive further north up the coast to the Mogo Zoo.  It is zoo of mostly engangered species, small by some standards, but was fun to see.  Lauren loved the little monkeys, whose names escape me at the moment.  They were tiny and fast and jumping all over the place and chattering away.  Tamarins I think?  On the way back south we took the "tourist drive" well two of them actually.  The first tooks us from Batesman Bay south along the coast.  Past Casey’s beach, it was a very pretty beach, but I don’t know if it was a swimming beach at all.  The second was just north of Narooma and took us around the back side of the inlet, according to the map, and past a scenic viewpoint.  We turned off into the "bush" and the road when from pavement to gravel to dirt.  We continued on and eventually saw a sign that said to viewpoint.  We kept going and going, up and up and up, contemplated turning around, but like in all adventures we were convinced it was just around the corner.  Eventually it was just around the corner.  And it was an amazing view of Narooma and the coast.  We stayed there until the flies started bugging us too much and we decided to continue on.  It was either continue on or turn back and since the viewpoint on the little map appeared to be half way, we decided to continue on.  Down the windy road in the bush, dust plume in tow we drove slowly with the windows down to hear the birds calling.  We passed several wallabys, it was amazing how quickly they disappeared.  Two hops and they were vanished like they never really existed there.  We also saw a few lizards on the road, to me that is a sign that not that many cars travel the road.  We stopped at a dock that was near some oyster farms, the water was still and the weather was perfect it was a beautiful spot.  Nathan immediately said it would be a great spot to put in a kayak, it would have been fun to explore.  In time we started seeing houses.  We passed one with a huge teepee in the front yard.  It only looked out of place to me once I thought about where I was.  We also passed a bed and breakfast which we were later told was the original pub for Narooma and the road we were on was once the highway!  There were two trucks that passed us carrying logs, but otherwise there weren’t any other people until we hit the highway once more and headed back to the motel.

After showers and relaxing for a while we dressed for a late dinner.  Matt and Jen were going to join us.  First they showed us the wine cellar and chose a couple of very nice Savingnon Blanc wines, the first from New Zealand which we had had before and the other from France, a winery who had been producing the wine for over 150 years.  We sat in the restaurant, again with amazing views and purused the menu trying to decide what delectable bites to order.  I ordered the Watercress soup for entree (starter), and the Tasmanian Salmon for main (entree).  Nathan orders the Halumi Tartlet and the Perch special.  I will let Nathan rave about his food, I want to spend time raving about my own!  It was amazing, absolutely amazing.  The chef, Gilbert (if I remember correctly) has done something amazing here.  The watercress soup has a smooth velvet texture and the flavors blend so nicely together.  It was finishd with a little olive oil on the top and had yummy crusty bread to dip, it wasn’t too heavy for a warm day, it was perfect.  I could have just had that and still would have said the meal was amazing.  The salmon was to die for.  Cooked perfectly, with a lime leaf and lemongrass buerre blanc, you could tell it was fresh salmon, and not farm raised.  A little bit of a different flavor and texture than our NW salmon but beautiful.  The saffron jasmine rice was an excellent accompanment.  It was served with what I thought were julliened french green beans.  Longish ribbons of bright green, finished with a sesame oil.  But oh, they were no green beans, it was seaweed!  I could have eaten a huge portion.  I made Nathan try some, it was that good.  Sometimes it is a side dish that really makes the whole plate sing.  Plus the wine complemented all of our meals superbly.  The NZ wine was delicious, the French amazing, the years of experience and the old vines definately make a difference.  To top off our meal we had a decadent dessert.  We slept really well that night.

The next morning we were up and off back towards Melbourne.  Just south of Naroom we stopped in Tilba Tilba for a coffee.  It is a National Heritage site, a historic villiage full of cool little shops.  I fell in love with the Tilba Cheese factory.  Oh that cheese was so darned yummy.  We tasted and tasted and smelled and contemplated and the prices were so inexpensive compared to the cheese you could buy in the supermarkets and the quality was so much better.  We ended up getting a good size block of pesto cheddar.  Then later we saw a block about half the size at Safeway and it was three times as much!

While we drove all the way up in one day we decided that driving all the way back in one was a bad idea because we couldn’t see everything in between, so we had planned on breaking up the drive and staying somewhere about half way, or taking longer and stopping overnight twice. We thought that where Nathan’s family used to vacation might be a good spot to stop,  he hadn’t been there in about 15 years he decided.  This was also a good opportunity to scope out potential B&B locations if we decide to move back to Australia.

Blue Camper Van, Being Pulled Over, Air Raid Siren, Pizza, Waterfall.

Family Christmas Party

12/22 – 12/29

City, Nepalese, Christmas, Bamboo Floor, Test Cricket

12/29 – 1/5

New Years, Tile Floor

1/5 – 1/11

Burmese, Chinese

Originally I hadn’t planned on attending this past WBBG Board Meeting.  I am no longer on the board, and with Lauren, the inn, the spa, and Sydney we didn’t think it was going to be possible.  As the days approached the exact dates of the meeting remained empty.  Bookings either side of the meeting but not on those dates.  The meeting started on Tuesday and as of Monday morning we still didn’t have any bookings so we decided to test out Sydney in a kennel and shut the inn.

We had guests Monday night and they wanted an early morning breakfast which worked well for us as we needed to take Syd to the kennel and pack up the car and take off ourselves.  We were really nervous about taking Sydney to a kennel.  We had never taken her anywhere when we had gone away, people have always come to us to watch her.  Our worry is/was because Sydney was a rescue dog and didn’t come from a very good background that if we took her to a kennel she might think we were leaving her or something like that.  The kennel that was recommended to us by our fellow innkeeper friends was Northwind Pet Care Facility.  They calmed a lot of our fears and had reasonable pricing.  They provided everything and when Nathan went to drop her off he said it was amazing and amazingly clean!  They provided a freshly laundered huge bed, play toys, treats, food, asked about habits, what she liked to play with, any treats that she could / couldn’t have, introduced her to the staff and off she went tail wagging to her kennel.

We left home about 10am or so and it was free Grand Slam day at Denny’s and we thought we would stop for breakfast / lunch on the way up to Sequim.  We looked as we drove past the westside Denny’s in Olympia and the parking lot looked relatively full, but there were still open spaces so we thought by the time we hit the one in Shelton it would be the in between breakfast and lunch time and we might be ok.  We stopped in Shelton and found a spot right out the front, I love it when that happens, and went in.  The lobby was quite full but there were empty tables and tables waiting to be bussed so I thought maybe 15 – 20 minutes for a wait.  After being ignored for about 4 minutes I politely said, "Excuse me?" and asked how long the wait was and was told at least an hour probably closer to an hour and a half.  I looked at the list of names waiting for tables and there were 6 names on it.  I don’t think they were fully staffed because there were about 4 or 5 tables empty or waiting to be cleared so I am not sure how the wait was that long.  We didn’t have an hour to wait so we left and continued up 101 towards Sequim.

We arrived in Sequim and decided to eat lunch.  At this point it was about noon.  The Mexican restaurant was well situated to our destination of the Red Caboose Getaway so we decided Mexican it was.  We did the quick glance of the menu and decided to order Chimichangas.  Nathan ordered chicken, I ordered seafood it was only $1 more.  They were not as big as the ones from Paco’s, but they were delicious and just the right size, not so huge that we would still be full at dinner time.  No complaints.  Good salsa, plentiful chips, quick service, tasty food.  My only complaint would be that it wasn’t fresh seafood in my chimichanga, but what can you expect for $8.50.

The three of us headed over to check in at the Red Caboose.  Olaf greeted us at the platform, checked us in, and took us over to Track 4, the Western Caboose.  The whole setup there is so much fun.  The caboose we were in was a western theme (complete with actual bullet holes), a clawfoot bathtub with handheld shower, tin ceiling, and inside outhouse, queen size bed, a fridge that looked like a safe, and the seats in the cupola covered in cowhide.  Olaf gave us the tour and then left us to check in the other innkeepers who had arrived.  I set up camp, putting the pack n play up in the back near the tub.  After saying hello to everyone before the meeting started, Lauren and I slipped away, had a good feed and both promptly fell asleep, and woke up sometime around 4:30 or so.  That felt so good!

 After the first days meeting we went to Cedar Creek Cuisine for dinner.  I always know that when we go to WBBG meetings the food is going to be superb.  Why not?  Us innkeepers kind of obsess about food, we don’t want to eat mediocre food, a meeting is like a mini-getaway.  We see friends we haven’t seen in months, talk about work with people who really understand what we are talking about and we eat a lot of really great food, plus get to stay in some really nice B&Bs.

Back to dinner.   Cedar Creek Cuisine is a renovated older home with a layout not that different from ours.  They have a nice bar that serves as the hostess station and we were seated in what was probably a parlor.  Since our group was so large we had one long table and two or three smaller ones.  Nathan and I took one of the smaller ones because there was space to put the high chair for Lauren and she would be out of the way of waitstaff, etc.  In the end Charlotte (Olaf’s other half) joined us and spent some quality time with Lauren when she started to get fussy.

We didn’t ordered Entrees or Appetizers or Starters (depending on where you are from), we just decided to order Entrées or Mains (again depending on where you are from).  Nathan had the Cannelloni and reported that they were yummy.  I ordered the Rack of Lamb.  Now before dating an Australian I had never had lamb before. I protested as a child that we were having roast lamb for easter dinner, in my mind the only thing worse would have been rabbit, (ham it has to be ham for easter).  While visiting Australia I tried it a few times and it wasn’t bad.  Then before we went this last time I had a chop salad with lamb on it and it was delicious, again this was at another WBBG meeting.  So when we were in Australia I was more adventurous with my lamb eating and when I saw the rack of lamb on the menu I decided I had to have it. 

The rack of lamb was served with a goat cheese soufflé & lavender essence per the menu.  Yes it was a goat cheese soufflé, but I didn’t detect any lavender.  It was served with a side of spinach I think.  I was green and spinach-esce, but it was chopped into strips and still had form, I suppose it could have been chard, but no bitterness that you sometimes find with chard.  I suppose it could have been fried spinach so that it retained its shape.  It was good regardless, green, tasty, and I am sure packed full of vitamins.  The lamb was cooked perfectly and really well seasoned and the goat cheese soufflé was stunning.  So much so that in my vegetarian cookbook there is a recipe for one and I am going to see if they turn out and are any good for breakfast.  For dessert I had the Mocha Semifreddo.  Nathan had the Rum Cake.  He asked if I wanted to split a dessert but we couldn’t come to agreement on what to order, so we each had our own.  The Mocha Semifreddo was just perfect for me.  Coffee flavored ice cream with dried cherries in it.  It was similar in flavors to spumoni, only caffeinated.

After a good night with friends we retired to our caboose and our queen sized feather bed.  Lauren was not so sure about this part.  She had her rice cereal (no it is not as good as Mocha Semifreddo) and then a bit later a top up before I laid her down, but she was having none of it.  In the end I cuddled with her until she fell asleep sobbing and then laid her down.  She did not sleep through the night.

The next morning we woke up and drug ourselves out of the comfortable and warm bed to go to the dining car for breakfast.  It is just such a unique idea and all of the old train memorabilia, it is fun!  We boarded the dining car to the smell of baking bread and fresh coffee.  The perfect combination.  Playing over the speakers was nostalgic music taking you back to the days when you actually did eat off china with white table linens in the dining car.  Breakfast was delicious.  Olaf and Charlotte really know how to do breakfast right.  We had banana coconut bread with cinnamon butter, a broiled grapefruit with port, and a French toast something (it was delicious) and mustard brown sugar sausages.  Oh and dessert!  Olaf said every meal should end with dessert it is like the period on a sentence.  We had chocolate covered cuties.  Segments of tangerine dipped in chocolate, I could have skipped lunch but that is never an option at these meetings, all meals are included.

After our morning nap Lauren and I joined the group again for lunch, which was light thank goodness!  We had turkey rollers with fresh vegetables and dip, fruit, and cookies.  Just enough to hold us over for dinner.  During the afternoon Lauren and I went into town and went shopping.  It started out as fun, but after a while we were getting tired and cranky and we were glad to be back at the caboose for a rest before dinner.  We didn’t nap, but we didn’t do much of anything else either.  Tonight for dinner we are going to the John Wayne Marina and the Dockside Grill.  We all arrive at the restaurant and the group isn’t quite as large as last nights but we still take up two good sized tables.  Again we fore go the appetizers and just order entrées, thus saving room for dessert.  Nathan ordered the flatiron steak, I ordered the calamari steak.  I was hesitant, bad calamari is really bad, but it sounded so yummy.  Calamari steak stuffed with crab and then rolled and breaded with panko served with a light sauce.  It was delicious.  Tender and flavorful, not too much, just right.  A new found appreciation for calamari.  Even Nathan liked it, but said he was enjoying his steak.  The downsides were the winter lentil soup that had very few lentils, the vegetables were a bit overcooked, and our mud pie brownie dessert was a very small piece of brownie with vanilla ice cream.  The calamari steak was so yummy it made up for the shortfall.

Another morning another wonderful breakfast!  They surely do not disappoint on breakfast.  This morning we had orange pull-apart, grilled pineapple, and spinach fritatta.  Again delicious.  The pineapple was a quarter of a real pineapple, grilled until it was self caramelized, so good.  The orange pull-apart was addictive, I could have had the whole loaf with coffee and been satisfied.  The fritatta was beautifully cooked and the tomato that accompanied it was a perfect accompaniment.  Also something I haven’t mentioned up to this point, all the food was so beautifully presented as well! 

That is something I have been trying to improve in our breakfast menus.  We have some dishes that are plate licking good, but they don’t look like a whole lot.  We did it recently with our decadent French toast to rave reviews.  Now instead of serving the croissant toast whole we cut it half and stack it and drizzle an orange marrionberry sauce over it, it looks more impressive and still tastes great.  Next we are going to work on some food photography, it is the hardest thing to photograph so we will see how it goes.

We disembarked from the Red Caboose (ours was actually green) and headed home.  Back to cooking our own food and cooking for our guests.  It was a nice break full of good memories and fantastic food.

Oh and a plus!  We picked up Sydney and all good reports!  No bad habits at play time, no incidents or anything other than occasionally barking (with that ‘do you see me’ look no doubt) to get attention.  Hooray!  That eases my mind about leaving her for short periods of time.