Restoring the Ravenna Centenarian

Monday, January 15, 2018

recappin' late 2017

Haven't posted for a while, but that certainly doesn't mean we haven't been doing stuff. In fact, its been one thing after another! All good stuff, tho - here's a recap of the end of 2017.

Fall in Seattle was truly epic this year. The color was vibrant and the leaves stayed on the trees forever!

Fall is also the time of year for hunting mushrooms in the forest. It was actually a terrible year for the edible fungi - but we did have one hugely successful weekend in the Hood Canal with our good friends (who are now engaged!) Tristan and Marielle! probably got 20+ lbs.

The fall is also grape harvesting time! We planted a couple of Riesling vines two years ago and got our first minuscule harvest this year. Enough to make four bottles! When the vines are at peak production in another 2-3 years, we'll have enough to make ~25 bottles. And you know what? It turned out well - its actually pretty good!

And its also the time of year we start on a new barrel of red wine with our wine making friends. This year we are doing a Petit Verdot. One barrel = 250 bottles! We won't bottle this until next fall - needs time in the stainless steel vessel, then in the oak barrel.

And fall is OF COURSE football season! We got our hands on two tickets to see the Seahawks play Houston. We won, it was a beautiful day and exciting game to watch!

Adrienne cooked another Thanksgiving feast that was out of this world. We had seven for the holiday this year!

We lost my grandmother a year ago now, so we decided to go to San Diego to be with family on the same weekend she passed away. It was so good to be with everyone, spending time on the beach and catching up with my grandfather over football!

Even though we weren't going to be home for Christmas this year, we had to get the house all dudded up!

For once, I have been the one doing a bunch of travel for work these days, which included time in Atlanta, DC, and New Orleans. In DC, I got to catch up with our old friend Emily; and in New Orleans, my mom met up with me there to see our family friend Sandy who has lived in NOLA for about 40 years!

This year we went to New Jersey for Christmas - it was an awesome time! The cooking was out of this world, and it was great to just lounge around hanging out and catching up with family.