The 4th of July

We had an amazing weekend, starting on Friday the 3rd because Blair had the day off for the holiday weekend. The three of us (Blair Justin and Sammy) drove north to Seattle proper to visit our friends Jim and Laure, drink beer, and eat bacon.



(We did not make this baconstein, but I found this on the internet, and I want one)

We had a wonderful time catching up and checking out Jim and Laure's new place. On Saturday we decided to go wine tasting in the greater Seattle area, as there are supposed to be some fancy wineries. We did our research and found a few that were supposedly free tastings. come to find out each place that we found was charging TEN dollars- each strictly limited to 4 samples. We became jaded with the wine scene, and longed for the days of Tobin James- which for those of you who don't know is an amazing winery with genuinely happy employees who make the tasting super fun, but it is also free. And if you ask nicely they will open different vintages for the customers to try, and give yous seconds, thirds, and sometimes fourths if you can get the butterfly eyes down just right.

After the wine country had disappointed us, we came across the RedHook Brewery. We drove up to a packed parking lot, and a sea of people trying to get to get to the brew pub for lunch. We looked inside and found that they had a Brewery Tour for only a dollar. We decided to take it, but had half an hour or so we split a pitcher before the tour.

The tour was AMAZING. For a dollar and 45 minutes of your time, you learn all about the history of RedHook, learn how to brew beer, taste six different beers- these are no sissy tastes either, a full 8oz plastic cup was filled for each tasting. After more than 40oz of delicious beer (even more because we were all splitting Laures' servings) we were well on our way to having a good time. So we decided to let Laure drive the Rig home so we could digest the beer we all were full of.

After heading home, we went to a delicious Mexican restaurant where the burritos are the size of babies. After a spicy, scrumptious meal we meandered on home in a food coma and played cribbage while we tried to digest the little person we just consumed.

Sunday, the 4th of July, we all went for a lovely walk in a park just along the Puget Sound in the morning, and went home to cook giant bacon burgers for lunch. After consuming lots of bacon and beer for the weekend, the Monell clan left and headed south to SeaTac airport to pick up Momma Monell.

After stopping by the airport and picking up Momma, we got home and settled in and gave her the grand tour of the trailer and the park. For the 4th of July, we agreed to go check out a local casino's fireworks show. What we ended up seeing was far beyond expectations!

Since these people live on a Reservation, they don't have any rules. Fireworks of all shapes and sizes are legal for purchase, from sparklers to multi-burst aerial explosions. For two hours BEFORE the casino's show, there was a block party directly across the street from the casino where many many aerial fireworks, piccolo pete's, cherry bombs and every kind of burning amazing thing people could buy were flying! Two and a half hours of nonstop fireworks was an amazing way to spend our Independence Day.

Much much more to come to tell about our week with Mom!

J-