Wined out

I haven't posted in a while, and it's not because I'm busy, but that I'm lazy. Yes I feel it settling in. The winter blues. People, or rather I, get more cranky, short tempered and chilly! But lets get on with the negatives and into the positives. I went to Seattle on the weekend (long weekend I should say) and my guy had planned for a whirlwind tour of the Puget Sound wineries! We ended up going to more wineries (7 in total) and took 3 ferries! it was nice to get away! Here's what I ran away (fine, I paid for them) with:

Mount Baker Winery

• Chasselas Dore
• Late Harvest Viognier
• Late Harvest Pinot Gris
• Pinot Nior

Eagle Haven Winery

• Madeline Angevine Siegerebbe
• Black currant Late Harvest

Carpenter Creek Winery

• Late Harvest Semillion

Pasek Wine Cellars

• Syrah Port
• Cranberry Wine

BainBridge Island Winery

• Strawberry Wine

Greenbank Farms and Winery

• nothing!

Whidbey Island Winery

• Siegerebbe
• Rhubarb wine

As you can tell by my selection, I have quite the sweet tooth! Late Harvests are soo yummy. Pasek actually has a bigger selection of berry wines but we didn't have time to try them all. I was MOST impressed with Mount Baker as they were the most friendly and their wines were the best tasting out of all of them. Well this was my Bday weekend so I thoroughly enjoyed it. Only time it was a downer was the fact that we were stopped at the border for have ANY alcohol content in our car. Yes, we didn't do our research and find out how much alcohol you're allowed within 48 hours. You cannot bring any amount of alcohol back. We got taxed around $50 but that was because it was using Dex's Alberta license ( 1 tax)!!

Another first for me was eating at a Moroccan restaurant. It was yummy but I was not educated in their rituals from the beginning. We were attracted to the menu because it was open late and it served Hare! Well we went in to see 3 people waiting for us to come in, and it smelled! Eww...but I got used to it being smelly after a while. We then got seated and got handed a large towel (little smaller than a body towel). They brought a basin and told us to put our hands in for washing...they poured water onto our hands. Interesting. Okay so I wiped my hands on the towel and put it aside. We got our appetizer, some salsa salad plate. The waiter gave us bread from a basket at the front of the restaurant and left us. WHERE ARE OUR UTENSILS??

You don't get utensils...you eat with your hands and bread! So that's what our towel was for. You drape it across your legs in case you drip. We sat on these low cushions so you have a risk of dripping. So then onto our main meal. Dex ordered rabbit, I ordered Lamb -- they MUST give utensils now! How can I possibly eat three huge chunks of meat bare handed, especially with a lot of sauce around it? Well we confirmed it, you do still eat with your hands. Don't get me wrong, the lamb was very tasty in with Eggplant. The meat just fell off the bone, but I was using my hands to peel off the fat etc. My hands stunk (well smelled like cooked lamb) after wards, even after I showered, washed my hands twice with soap, and put on fruity antibacterial cream. Nope still stunk. It was a food stink so it wasn't that bad but bad enough to annoy you. They sprayed some fragrance oil on your hands after eating and it smelled really nice for a while, even masked some of that lamb smell. They gave us Mint Tea after which was nice....got that lamby taste from your mouth but otherwise you still got it on your hands.

I finally managed to get rid of that smell somehow, probably just from sleeping it off! Magically! Nevertheless it was an interesting experience that I might not want to do again!