Anticipation rose on Wednesday evening, as I packed my bags and readied my mind for 3 days of being a little closer to nature. Of sitting around the fire, drinking beer, playing games, laughing with friends. And then the thunderstorms started and 50 million emails later, we decided not to go camping in the rain. Of course, it looks like it cleared up and everyone else went - but sometimes you have to make a decision and stick to it.

My weekend, nonetheless, was filled with good things. The Seattle International Beer Festival is one of those events I've always wanted to go to, but have typically had plans, had to work or had been out of town. We went for their "happy hour" - which means that for $20 you get an additional 5 tastes of beer - bringing it from 10 to 15 4 oz pours. The beer itself was fabulous. I don't have my program handy, or I would name a few of the highlights. It was a good time. The sun peaked out (I'm one of the few who didn't end up sunburnt) and we stayed for 5 hours or so.

After some sushi at Chinoise and some time wasting at my house, we walked to one of the overlooks of the South Lake Union show from Queen Anne. My 4th was spent in the same spot it was last year. We followed up with a few rounds of Taboo.

Yesterday we took some "newer to Seattle" friends to Snoqualmie Falls. While I think the falls are beautiful and the trip (at least to the upper observation deck) is worth it - do NOT go on the Saturday of a big summer holiday weekend! It was pretty crowded and the lower observation area was barely tolerable. But it was a fun "hike" and the falls were spectacular - they were raging!

One highlight of my weekend was seeing an art installation unveiling and purchasing a print of it. I love my print and now all I can think about is getting it framed. It is by Blaine Fontana. I don't see the piece on his site yet, but you can get a sense of it from here:


The print, of course, is much smaller. It has a lot of visual elements I'm really excited about. I think it will work so well at my place at Veer.

Then we got wind of the Hale's Brewery 25th Anniversary party. It was an unexpectedly great time! You never know with events like this. The weather was great, and the event was in their "garage" (palladium?) in the back. The event was free. We met up with friends, ran into some people we knew, and people at our table were friendly. They were cooking out and had free cake, but the highlight, of course, was $2 beers! The fancy beer they were unveiling, the Dubbel, was $4. Still incredibly reasonable for good beer.

Good weekend all around. I'm bummed about not going camping, but the art alone made up for it.