King...What!?

It has been an exciting week because Matt's mom and aunt are in town for a visit. A Seattle vacation filled with shopping, sightseeing, and family time. We thought it would be fun to go see the King Tut exhibit at the Pacific Science Center and we were all excited to go see the king "on display for the last time in America!!" Check it out here!

I'm a sucker for a historical monument, artifact, or basically anything else scholastic or nerdy, so I was pretty thrilled to go see THE King Tut in all his glory in person. For $34 a ticket, you better be excited! Anyway, the exhibit started out with several different dimly-lit rooms filled with lots of amazing Ancient Egyptian artifacts. Everything from statues to jewelry, even a toilet seat...all  3000+ years old! Here are some pictures of just SOME of the amazing things we saw:

A cat sarcophagus - we'll have to get one for BA.

Just a 3500 year old statue- no big deal.

A torch holder on the left- and other trinkets found in the tombs.

This was WAY cool- the gold finger and toe coverings that were placed on King Tut- and his golden sandals. I think I saw ones just like that at the Nordstrom Anniversary Sale.

Most of the beaded necklaces still had their original string.

Hey, even Ancient Egyptian Pharaoh's had to take care of business- here is an Egyptian toilet seat.

A game board and pieces found in a tomb.

I want a golden wine glass.

Big ass Egyptian statue.

These were from some of the later Egyptian dynasties- you can tell by how they're more intricate and have finer details.

A chair.

The bed Tut laid on- they said it could have even been used in his palace as well.

Egyptian mask.

This was a sarcophagus from a Pharaoh's wife- it was made of cedar.

Apparently these guys hang out in the tomb with the dead Pharaoh. 

So we passed from room to room reading about and looking at all these amazing treasures that have been found over the years. Not all of them are from King Tut's tomb, but from the tombs of pharaoh's throughout Ancient Egyptian history.

We were starting to get really excited toward the end of the exhibit, because we knew the big show was coming up. The last leg is set up like King Tut's actual tomb. There's an annex, the treasury, and finally the burial room. Megan (Matt's sister) grabbed our hands and said, "let's all go in together!" so we headed in to meet the "Boy King", the center of all the hype.....aaaand he wasn't there.

But, there was a lovely gift shop. That's right, it turns out the ACTUAL King Tut doesn't get to travel, so basically we just paid $34 to see all of the contents of his hoarder-like tomb. Okay, I'm being unreasonable...it really was FASCINATING and I learned a TON of interesting facts, but we all felt pretty misled about the whole thing. Maybe it was our misunderstanding, but we (and most everybody I've spoken to, AND most of the people at the end of the exhibit today) thought King Tut himself, was going to be there. So needless to say, we were a tad disappointed.

After giving it some thought, I do recommend seeing this exhibit. How often do you get to be 2 inches away from a statue, necklace, or canopic jar (look that up here) that was created by people...humans like you and me...that lived 4000 years ago?? It's mind boggling to even think about, and quite frankly I can't quite wrap my head around it. Just keep in mind, the amazing "Boy King", the one and only Tutankhamun, will not be making a guest appearance!

Happy Happy Hour!

Matt and I enjoy the finer things in life. However, our incomes don't quite agree with our preferred lifestyle. We are BIG into trying new restaurants, especially ones that we find online or in food magazines that boast excellent reviews. The problem is....their prices are usually as high as their popularity, and frankly, we don't have a huge budget for fine dining.

Our solution: Happy Hour. I know it sounds funny. Isn't happy hour usually for a post-work drink with friends? Well, here in Seattle (and surrounding cities), we've realized that happy hour is a great time to try reallllly nice restaurants for cheap!

This weekend we decided to check out a place in downtown Seattle. It's a fancy restaurant right on the water called Cutters Crabhouse (check it out here) We have seen it a bazillion times because it is right at the end of Pikes Place and across from another favorite eatery of ours, Etta's. Matt ran across it when looking at a list of Saturday happy hours that he found online, so I put on a cute little dress, and we headed out!

At Cutters Crabhouse

The grass overlooking the sound- the new ferris wheel in the background.

  

As you can see in the happy hour menu above, they have a great selection of some of their fresh seafood, raw bar, and kitchen treats. I really liked the variety of drinks as well. Often, happy hours will have great beer or wine specials, but cocktails will still be pretty expensive. We ordered the following: Steamed Fresh Manila Clams, California Roll, Smoked Wild Alaskan Salmon Roll, Cranberry Mojito, Basil Gimlet, Kentucky Sour, and Sycamore Lane Chardonnay.

The clams were TO DIE FOR! I am a sucker for a bowl of steamed clams. The california roll was good, but not much more amazing than our favorite sushi joint (California Monster Sushi in Kent). The smoked wild alaskan salmon roll really blew my mind. The salmon was so creamy and fresh, and I was impressed that you get 8 pieces with the happy hour item. My cranberry mojito was delicious, but light on alcohol. Matt said both his kentucky sour and basil gimlet were quite tasty (warning: basil gimlet is pretty girly looking lol).

Cranberry Mojito and Kentucky Sour

Moral of the story, if you like fancy restaurants but can't afford to attend them often, hit up happy hour! Other places we've been to recently for happy hour and highly recommend are: Seastar, Sazerac, Koral, Pogacha, Palimino, and The Dillar Room. Be sure to either use a happy hour app like Seattle Weekly Happy Hours, or search online. Also, we ALWAYS check out the restaurant's happy hour menus online before going, to ensure their prices and selections are worth it! Happy happy hour-ing!

Summer Hike...On 10 Feet of Snow

Matt loves to hike. He loves the outdoors, nature, taking pictures; and could do it all day, every day.

Brooke loves relaxing. She loves the couch, naps, reality television; and could watch it all day, every day.

Ok, so that is extreme. I do like being outside, especially when the weather is nice. I like to explore Matt's hobbies with him, just as he as done for me (he watched the Bachelorette with me yesterday!) However, I am 100% OK with Matt taking a guys day to go hiking, kayaking, or whatever it is he would like to do that maybe I am not exactly thrilled to put aside my relaxing weekend time to do. Matt asked me earlier in the week if I would want to do a hike that he found in one of his outdoor magazines. The weather was forcasted to be great, I hadn't hiked with him since February (when we went out looking to try our new snowshoes but didn't find any snow), and I had never been to Mt. Rainier National Park, where he was wanting to go...so I agreed.

We set out yesterday morning around 9:00, because it takes a couple hours to get down there. I half entertained the idea of bringing our previously mentioned snow shoes, however it's July, so what are the chances that we would need them?! Boy was I wrong! When we got to the trail head we were quite confused. Basically, we couldn't see a trail head. We knew we were in the right spot, we knew there was a picnic area and a small lake that signified the beginning of the 4 mi hike....but we couldn't see said picnic area or lake.....because of the 15 feet of snow that covered everything!!

We found the lake! Or what was left of it.

And evidence of the picnic area.

We didn't realize that in July, the hike would still be completely covered with what looked like 5-15ft of snow. My initial thought was, "oh well! Let's head home!"....but we had come all this way, and despite the snow it was so warm and sunny, so we decided to do what we could and make the best of it. After all, this hike boasted amazing views of Mt. Rainier, something that we are both fascinated with.

Matt is excited, I'm thinking, "30 minutes max."

Honestly, it turned out to be one of the coolest hikes we've been on. It's funny how we joked about bringing snow shoes, and this would have been the perfect place. Now we know where to get our snowshoe fix in the summer months. We hiked for a couple hours, and it was quite the workout trampling through the snow! We even got a little sunburned :)

Our amazing Rainier views; just as the hike promised.

This picture gives a good idea as to how much snow there was.

At one point in the hike we knew there was a bridge, we were very excited to find it!

Right before this picture, I knocked a bunch of snow off trying to get on the bridge; subsequently soaking my entire backside :(

Matt's Photography

Matt's Photography

Moral of the story: we each have hobbies, interests, and free-time preferences. I could have easily let Matt have a guy day, and not taken him up on his offer to hike this weekend. However, this adventure reminded me that sometimes you just have to get out there and do it and you will be reminded of how fun memories often come when you least expect them!

Happy 4th of July!

Happy birthday America! Matt and I had a very low key 4th of July. Well, I had a low key day off, and Matt had a normal day at work. It was one of the first really nice days over here, and believe it or not I spent the whole day inside! Don't feel bad though, I don't. It was a nice relaxing day filled with catching up on TV shows, a nap, and a little light housework.

When Matt got home, we cooked an amazing dinner. We had to do SOMETHING to celebrate! We had some BBQ pork ribs slow cooking in the oven, warmed up the grill outside and made corn and french bread. After the ribs slow cooked for 2 hours in the oven, we finished them off on the grill. I can't remember the last time I ate that much!

The finished product- yes I cleaned my plate.

I could have had a few more- too bad you don't get the 5th of July off too!

Finishing off the ribs- corn is in the foil.

If you've never had bread that's been grilled on a BBQ, you're missing out! Just put a little butter and garlic powder on it, and lay it right on the grill- it doesn't take long though!

Playing a little chess in the nice evening weather- Matt used a pot to heat up the coals before putting them in the BBQ (that scared me but he insisted he knew what he was doing).

Our deck- it's small, and a little messy, but it's great to have!

Struggling Artists

Matt and I have been taking our art experimentation to the next level. Well, not really, but we've been interested in painting more since our wine/paint class date. While I was shopping for summer camp supplies, we hit up Michael's and grabbed just the bare essentials to help our new hobby along. This isn't a long post, but I just wanted to share our most recent creations.

Brooke's Bird

Brooke's Flowers

Matt's Abstract