Our Big Kid Date

Last night we went downtown to Mount Baker Theatre to see Ain't Misbehavin' with American Idol's own Ruben Studdard. It was pretty fun. The theatre was pretty neat. It was first built to show silent movies, and now it catches some one-night-only performances of touring Broadway shows. We're going to see the Drowsy Chaperone next month. Before the play we went to our local Cliff House and, I've gotta say, it was a pretty swell night.

In the Midst of Greatness

We were waiting for Derrel's golf clubs at SeaTac Airport when we saw the following:

I thought it was an oversized flag, and Derrel thought it was vaulting poles. Well, he was right. We overheard some airport folks talking and it turns out their vaulting poles for the Olympics. I took a quick look at the baggage tag: L.L. Kelvin. A Google search of his name takes you to a UK shopping website. He may be a "Did you mean to type L.L. Cool J?" now, but look out for him during the next Summer Games!

Look How Hip We Are: Volume 2

Derrel and I decided that, because Bellingham has so many hole-in-the-wall restaurants, that every time we want to eat out, we'll try a new place. So before the second round of late night hotdogness (see Volume 1), we headed into Historic Fairhaven to try Flat's Tapas Bar. I had been to Tapa the World in Sacramento a couple of times, so this didn't intimidate me too much, and Derrel was sport enough to go along.



We sit down and start to look over the menu and, despite the vegetable-heavy descriptions (which usually mean 'CODE RED' for Derrel and me), we decided to stick around anyway. Derrel found his olive branch in something he saw at another table heavy with ham and sausage, and I found rest in a macaroni dish packed with cheeses I'd never heard of (half in English and half in squiggly).



And, despite being put off at first by the portions (Is this like the Coldstone try-a-flavor size?), Flat's Tapas Bar was a success (as were the various rounds of hangman and tic-tac-toe).

And yes, the Eberts prefer the Coldstone system of measurement to any metric or standard systems.

Look How Hip We Are: Volume 1

We were having our typical Friday night. Peeling myself off the couch from two hours of TV watching, I tried to convince Derrel, again, that 10 o' clock is an acceptable time to go to bed, even if it is Friday.

That's when Derrel suggested going downtown to the late-night hot dog stand.

When in Rome...



And, in classic Ebert fashion, we went to hang with the hipsters...in our flannel pajamas. One step at a time.

Then, to add insult to Polish dog injury, we did it again on Saturday night, only this time, I opted to try some frozen yogurt from Red Berry instead. It tasted...a little different. A little...nasty, actually.
Derrel: "What is that taste?"
Nicole: "I don't know, organic?"
Derrel: "Yeah, that's disgusting."

Look here, hippies, you keep your earth-kissing, tree-embracing fare away from us. We'll take our food processed please (and if you could stuff it in a casing and only sell it late at night, that'd be great).

As Much as We'd Like to Deny It...

...a good lot of the highlights from our family visit centered around food.
Derrel decided he wanted to make chocolate-covered strawberries for his mom the night before they came, so we did. 56 of them (give or take the three we ate in the process). Vancouver was more centered around a lack of food. We drove through Stanley Park (the largest park in North America), and attempted to find lunch along the way. We came upon three restaurants that were closed (or crazy expensive) before we headed back into town and proceeded to get temporarily trapped inside the lobby of mostly-deserted building (Derrel: "Is there some secret to getting out of here?" The guard over the intercom: "The secret is to press 'EXIT'.") Who said Canadians were friendly?

(Exhibit A)

On Sunday, Dennis and Derrel treated us with a Fried Fiesta. Buffalo wings, homemade potato chips...and it only took a week to stop our house from smelling like we were deep-frying. :O)

On Monday we had a picnic in nearby Whatcom Falls Park, and were able to miss the rain by about 20 minutes. Tuesday meant introducing the family to the Spuddy Pizza, and I think they've been converted.

A fun visit that went way too fast. We can't wait to see you guys again soon (and in the meantime, I'll try to lose some weight to make room for it). :O)