The Northbound Bitch Express

T, Ape, Nik - these are a few of my favorite peeps

I had the good fortune to wind up on a girls only road trip to Seattle last weekend to visit Teresa, a long time friend of Nikki's who has become a friend to me over the years, (even if long distance.)  We hit the road Saturday morning and ended up on T's doorstep around 1:30 when the drinking began.  In retrospect, I don't know if mixing Vodka and cranberry juice and darkish beers was a wise idea, especially after a month of low-carb eating and reduced alcohol consumption, but throwing caution to the wind is a good thing every once in a while.  GO WITH THE FLOW, I always say, right girls?

The company was great, the conversation stimulating, even when drunken and at high decibels and the hostess was more than accommodating.  We started off at an awesome place, Black Raven Brewing for a cool annual festival - I can't remember if there was a name for this festival but there were supposed to be goats on site, eating (and thus sustainably disposing of) used up beer grains like malts and hops and barleys. I guess we missed the goats but we were treated to a free Reggae concert and some delicious beers.  Also entreating was a near peep-show from a dude who we called "Zipper Guy" the rest of the night. After agreeing that it was well time to get some food in our systems, we headed then to Red Hook Brewery for dinner where I had some of the best non-Mexican restaurant Mexican food.  And more beer.

The goats were gone.  Nevermore to return.

I just liked this bumper sticker, OK?

Another view of our table at the brewery.

I guess I liked this tree, too?

Signs, signs, everywhere signs.

We were pretty ready for our appetizers at this point.

Mystery pitcher, given to us by Zipper Guy's buddy who was desperately on the prowl

 

We wound up "singing" along to one of T's karoake games well in to the night -- actually, it probably wasn't that late but it had been a long day of imbibing and giggling.  I think the vodka made another appearance at this point and thus contributed to a bit of a miserable ride home the next morning but luckily, after we found a great breakfast spot, Nikki took the wheel and got us home right on schedule.

Thanks for the great time, girls.  And now, Apologies:

To April - for the picture.  You were a good sport though and it has been deleted from my phone.  I think.
To T - for my lack of coaster usage every time I had a drink at your house. I wasn't raised in a barn, OK?
To Nikki - for the late night lambasting - I thought we agreed earlier in the day not to talk about peoples' parenting decisions but...???
To T - also for enduring the above
To April - for the late night snoring and farting you got blamed for... I think some of that was me
To Nikki - for any part I may have played in coercing you to liberate merchandise from the Redhook gift shop
And to all for THIS:

Lots of love to you, Chulas!

Let's do it again soon.