Welcome Kuwait Sunrise
Adventure Man looks at me like I am stark-raving-out-of-my-mind.
“It feels different,” I have just said. “I can feel winter coming.”
The temperatures the last couple days have been 118° F. (48° C) going down at night to 91° F (33° C), according to my friends at Weather Underground: Kuwait.
But the five weeks I have been away have made a difference, I can feel it. The sun is rising almost a full hour later. The clouds are different, early in the morning, and there are more of them. No, no, I am not breaking out my sweaters yet, but the shift of the seasons has already begun in Kuwait, and I am nearly dancing for joy. I love the six months of winter in Kuwait.
For some reason, I am not jet lagging so badly this time, or at least not yet. Sometimes it hits me hard a couple days after arriving, but so far, so good.
And look at the Titian sunrise that greeted me this morning:
Watch out, Kuwait. Intlxpatr is back!
Port Gamble
Port Gamble is always a great place to stop, stretch your legs a little, walk around the beautifully maintained old company town, snap a few photos . . . .and have some delicious locally made ice cream. (I had raspberry sherbet, sorry, it disappeared before I could photograph it for you.)
God blessed us with a gorgeous, cloud free day in the Pacific Northwest for my Mother’s birthday, and a great road trip, alhamd’allah!
(Yes, we can make a birthday spread out over a week or two in our family!)
Jardins de Soleil
Sequim is the largest lavender producing area in the United States. We stopped at the Jardins de Soleil to pick a few bunches of lavender and to visit their gift shop. Step out of the car and you are enveloped in the most delicious fragrance.
Everywhere you look is a photo. Here are just a few:
Washington State Ferries
The Washington State Ferries are part of the highway system – you drive your car on and off, and relax with a great cup of coffee as you cross the waters.
On the weekends, lines can back up and you might have to wait a couple hours for a ferry. There are coffee stands along the way to help pass the time.
And nice clean bathrooms, after you drink all that coffee!
There are ferries of all different sizes – this one has six rows of traffic on each of two levels going across to the Olympic Peninsula.
Those who watch Grey’s Anatomy will recall that Meredith almost died in a ferry boat accident. The reality is, thankfully, that the system is well maintained, and incidents are rare. Counter-terrorist teams patrol the ferry lines and suspicious cars are checked.
Cost Cutter
The store I was going to wasn’t open, and I knew we needed a couple groceries, so I headed across the parking lot to the Cost Cutter (yep, it’s raining):
As soon as I got inside, I knew this was not just any old grocery store. The cashiers, the manager and the butchers all looked Mexican! And when I got to the deli section, the specialities were things like Dulce de Leche, all packaged up for people who eat a LOT of dulce de leche:
To my delight, there was an aisle labled Middle East foods, with tabbouleh, canned hummus and muttabel, foul, and Lebanese olive oil:
And a huge aisle with East European foods (I am not sure what East European foods are!)
And, while most stores hide their beer selection in some dark corner of the store, Cost Cutter has a huge aisle down the center of the store, with all kinds of neon signage – it looks very festive:
Stores like Cost Cutter, that serve the large and varied population of immigrants are one of the reasons I love Seattle.
Ivar’s Acres of Clams
In Seattle, there are three restaurants, Ivar’s Acres of Clams (the original, established in 1938), Ivar’s Salmon House and Ivar’s Landing in Mukilteo, and several smaller, more casual, fast-food kind of Ivars, famous for fish and chips.
This was one very smart man. The first Ivar’s Acre of Clams was built next to the ferry terminal in Seattle and provided both oceanfront dining and a quick place to grab some fish and chips coming to and from the ferries. It was a Seattle landmark; everyone knew Ivar’s Acres of Clams.
He also did a lot of promotions, appearing on TV in his own ads, often singing. The ads were very very bad, so bad that everyone remembered them, so in fact . . . they were so bad that they were good.
(Photo courtesy Paul Dorpat from the HistoryLink.org collection of Pacific Northwest History.)
(Kuwait needs this Wikipedia kind of historical page, gathering data and stories before the old Kuwaitis are all gone, and their stories with them. This would be a great thesis program, getting this set up and running.)
Some of my earliest memories are meals at Ivar’s. As a child, visiting from Alaska, the whole of my father’s clan, aunts, uncles, cousins, would all gather at Ivar’s for a grand dinner. Later, as a starving college student, from time to time a kind aunt would invite us to dinner or lunch there, taking us out of the university environment. As a young married, it was the restaurant where my husband-to-be met my extended family for the first time. Ivar’s is full of memories, as well as good food!
To this day, I often meet my old friends at Ivar’s. The food standards remain high – good Pacific Northwest Seafood, prepared so that their flavors come through. Dungeness crab Louis, salmon and chips, prawns and chips, halibut and chips – even plain old fish and chips, fresh out of the deep fryer. Even Ivar’s fast food is delicious, and as well as the fish and chips you can get their great clam chowder, also smoked salmon chowder, and a salmon ceasar salad, or a shrimp or crab cocktail – at the fast food Ivars. Great quality food, not the supersize me kind of food.
These are photos of the original Ivar’s Acre of Clams:
This is what their seafood cocktails look like (YUMMMMMMM!)
This is one of their dine-in fast food places; there is a long line of people ordering!:
This is the Ivar’s motto:
The Mukilteo Landing Ivars suffered so much damage in a recent storm that they were closed for over a year as they remodeled to be able to seat more people:
This big fish is part of the interior:
You sit in this beautiful restaurant, inside or outside, and watch the Mukilteo ferry come in and out of the dock. The restaurant is right next to the dock, and also has a fast-food Ivars outside to sell fish and chips or chowder to all the people in line waiting for the next ferry.
Ivar Hagland isn’t alive anymore, but his restaurants live on, thriving, after all these years. The concept holds true – have a great product in a great location and the profits will follow. You can read more about his restaurants, and even look at their menus by clicking Ivar’s.
Holy Cow! It’s Hard to Explain.
As I was leaving the Apple Market, I saw this display:
which totally cracked me up.
EnviroGirl told me there are all kinds of displays for all kinds of life events – birthdays, new babies, anniversaries, promotions, graduations – if you can think it up, this company will put it out there. Tombstones for a 40th birthday, storks for babies, and this one – Holy Cow! for a birthday.
I don’t know how I would like to get to work and find one of these displays outside on my birthday – I prefer to celebrate quietly, without a lot of fanfare. But every time I see these, I have to grin, so I guess it isn’t all that bad.
What also gives me a grin, however, is how very American this tradition is. I cannot imagine it at all in Kuwait. I can’t imagine it in Germany. Somehow, I just don’t think it would be so funny in any other country, except maybe South Africa, or Australia . . . countries where people don’t take themselves too seriously, and the loss of dignity would not be too severe. It’s just a joke, something a good friend might do.
What do you think? Do you think it is too undignified? Does it invade privacy? Do you think it is funny?
Autumn Plum Torte
We are watching the farmer’s markets for the first of the Italian plums, those elongated plums that show up around this time of the year. We are getting eager for Pflaumekuchen, or Autumn Plum Torte.
It’s really more like a pie. And I hate to tell you how easy it is to make.
This is my mother’s recipe:
Autumn Plum Torte (Pflaumekuchen)
1/4 Cup Butter
1 T Sugar
1/4 t. salt
2 eggs
1 c sifted flour
10 – 12 purple prune plums
1 c sugar
1 T Flour
Dash nutmeg and cinnamon
1/2 cup half and half
1. Cream butter and sugar, add salt and 1 egg yolk. Blend well, add 1 cup flour, mix well.
2. Press mix into bottom of greased 8” pie pan.
3. Cut plums in half or quarters; place cut side up on top of mix. It is pretty if you make a kind of circular pattern out from the center.
4. Combine sugar, 1 T flour and spices. Sprinkle over plums.
5. Beat 1 egg and 1 white, add half and half, pour over top.
6. Bake at 425 for ten minutes, then turn down to 350 for 40 – 45 minutes, until custard sets and plums are cooked.
The smell as it is cooking is divine. You can serve it in wedges, warm or cold.
You can also double this, and make it in a 9 x 14 pan, to serve to larger groups. It goes FAST!
Anthony’s Beach Cafe, Edmonds, WA
These are the bathroom doors at Anthony’s Beach Cafe, in Edmonds, Washington. I am not going to show you any of their delicious food – they already have too many customers, and a long line of people waiting to get in and eat there, especially in this gorgeous summertime weather. Even in winter, Anthony’s is packed.
You would never see bathroom doors like this in Kuwait. But it would be fun to see a door with an abaya, and another with a dishdasha and gutra. 🙂
Long Sleeves in Seattle
The weather is back to Seattle’s normal for late July – early August – absolutely gorgeous. At sundown, we watch the light shift over the mountains and the sound, watch the cruise ships coming and going, watch the clouds change colors until they go that bright smokey fushia just before all color disappears. The sky does not actually become dark until after nine at night.
And it can be chilly! My first day here, I got to wear a little long sleeved hoodie I haven’t worn since February! It was overcast and rainy, and there was an occasional chill wind blowing . . . brrrr! I love it! Even though it can be cold, it isn’t really cold, just a tiny bit cold, just enough to make you move a little faster and get the blood going, and you will be warm enough. I love it.
The weather is shifting, and should be like spring in Kuwait – in the high 70’s, low 80’s Fahrenheit.
My Mom is looking great. We did a little shopping, had a great lunch . . . it has been a hard year for her, with my father’s death, and she is still recovering. Today she will have her hair trimmed up; she knows her birthday is coming and that will mean PHOTOS. My entire family is as camera-happy as I am, and an event like a birthday means a minimum five cameras. I am amazed at how good she looks!
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