Surprising Bunny!

My friend Bunny that I know since kindergarten (our kids that is... Rikki and Paul, tee hee hee) was having a special birthday this year. Mimi another kindergarten friend (she has triplets, she is one of my hero) and I comploted for few months to surprise her with my visit. She lives in Issaquah, WA. So I flew in for few days from LA leaving Gaia behind. So Mimi picked me up and we started with a stop on the way to her house at Pit's Wine shop in Bellevue. Veuve Clicquot stocking (we had visited the "cave" in 2005) and also Roederer California, (a new one for me that turned out really good). Mimi has just moved to her dream house on Lake Samammish. She really looks like she belongs to a house like this. She has a gourmet kitchen with a 8 burners Wolf stove (with red knobs!!!!!!! love that), two full size oven, two warming trays, a steaming oven (Emily informed me that it really is best for fish), two refrigerators and all the storage cabinets any cooks would need. There is a nice Jacuzzi looking over the lake, a dock waiting to welcome their boat. The neighbors have a little platform where we saw an otter coming up few times at sunset when we were sipping another glass of champagne. Where was I? Well I was describing what a perfect house it is. I fell asleep looking over the glistening water and it had the shades of silver and platinum with floating diamonds. Nice....... Well when I woke up we were ready to surprise the Birthday Girl. Mimi has found a nice Bakery in West Seattle "Bakery Nouveau" ( http://www.bakerynouveau.com/) and she had purchased the most delicious croissants and pains au chocolat, baguette and tartelettes. There was fresh strawberries the size of apples that were tantalizing my taste buds and jam and oh we took some roses and plucked their petals to shower Bunny with their beauty. 8:30am and the deed was done. She was very very surprise and what was the most surprising of all is that I had not spilled the beans as we say . It had been so hard to talk to Bunny on the phone and not say anything. Really it is the hardest for me. Mimi, Rikki her daughter and Don her husband had been really quiet about it too. Anyway after feasting then opening her presents and much talk we went to "Palisades" with Sue for a very nice lunch... (more food) I had wonderful scallops with a nice risotto. We had the pots de creme trio (mocha, vanilla and passion fruit) This very popular restaurant by the Locks in Ballard on the Puget Sound side was deserted. We had a great table by the bay overlooking the marina. Seattle had been removed from the scenery by a very thick fog. Eventually it started to snow. By the time we left the sun was shining once more. Interesting weather patterns those days. The next few days were filled with food (Mimi made outstanding chicken wild mushrooms in Marsala sauce with roasted root veggies and Brussels sprouts, it snowed again and we came home with a real white out from Mimi's house), we ate lunch at the Boarding House (a favorite in Issaquah), we had Dim Sum in Bellevue, an Italian Restaurant in Snoqualmie Gianfranco http://local.yahoo.com/details?id=22120381,we went to check out the Frye Museum in Seattle (R. Crumbs has a show of his Comic strips and it was a treat to see the permanent collection too) They have quite a good selection of Fauvist paintings. I could not take pictures there but you might check on line for a peak. http://www.fryemuseum.org/pages/onview.htm We also spent some time at the new downtown's Library. The architecture is exquisite. Don's friend had painted a section of it. It is a red tunnel. It is such a glowing red. They had to use pure pigments in order to get the actual color right. I enjoyed taking pictures, lots of them. ...

I should make a different entry for what is next but I think that I might just continue in here. Bunny and Don's place is a magical place. An oddity in Issaquah (it has been wrecked with track homes one on top of another) and other places too I am sure. They have a house that has the effect to calm you down as soon as you set you foot through the threshold. Low light with very unusual decor. My favorite things in this house if I have to name them are their pets (Mr Monster and Elvira), then the backyard that is a sanctuary for bobcats, families of coyotes, deers, many bird species , squirrels (they don't like that... who does?), even a bear and a mountain lion have found it. When you are sipping your coffee in their kitchen your eye is turned to this fantastic open space where life is happening in the most serene setting. It is the picture that comes to my mind when I am meditating and need to find a calming place. So anyway here are some pictures of what is going on out there.