A Baseball Break

 

This title probably insinuates that the Mariner baseball season is over but it's not and that isn't what this post is about (although the Mariner season might as well be over since the rest of the games are away and there will be no playoffs for us.)  This post is about Nick leaving town for three days during his visit from Japan to play baseball in Portland at his college alumni game.  He's excited about playing in it this year because he's in pretty good shape since he plays on two teams in Japan and was invited to play on a third (photo above).  He only went to one of the games for the third team because they play after work and that makes for too long a day when he'd rather just go home.  The two teams he plays on are Japanese community teams. He loves the Japanese camaraderie and the fact that they play in the mornings before work.  We went to one of his games when we visited in June and saw first hand how much fun they have. 

He and Bruce have been going up to the park to practice and work out since he arrived a week ago.  Today and yesterday, they went golfing so Bruce has been getting a lot of physical activity since Nick arrived. 

My physical activity has been in the kitchen cooking, cooking and more cooking.  Man alive, that boy eats a lot.  How did I ever survive his teenage years?  We've been through two apple pies, a loaf of cinnamon bread from Great Harvest bakery, cinnamon rolls from the Public Market, and a gallon of Nick's favorite orange juice from Trader Joe's, the fresh squeezed unpasteurized. I realize a lot of the fun of him returning to the U.S. is to eat all his favorite foods so I'm happy to oblige and I don't have to make everything from scratch.  I bought both the pies which are nearly as good as homemade since we have such excellent bakeries around here, thank goodness.  I have cooked four dinners so far; his favorite teriyaki flank steak when his friend, Hiroshi, was here.  Last night, we had another favorite, Herbes de Provence Crusted Lamb Chops and Nick's favorite pasta cole slaw for dinner after they returned from golf with his friend, Jeff, and also Lauren joined us.  His first night here, I just made your basic spaghetti dinner with a salad since he was jet-lagged from traveling.  

But Nick's jet-lag never lasts long and he was off and running quickly after arriving.  He's been to three Mariner baseball games

he's  played golf twice and he's been to the Puyallup Fair with his friend, Jeff. The weather has been so glorious here in Seattle, Nick wanted to go to the Public Market one day so we decided to do "a Market" dinner, which was the fourth meal I've cooked.  We got some white king salmon that was soooooo good!

Bruce caught white king salmon on one of his fishing trips so we've had it before and I think this was our best dinner so far since Nick arrived. 

Since we were at the Market, we didn't stop there.  We also bought artichokes for an appetizer and shrimp, lettuce, avocado, etc. for a shrimp salad.  I wandered over to my favorite bakery, Cinnamon Works, and bought three kinds of cinnamon rolls for breakfast and then a super sweet golden honeydew melon. (The vendor let us taste it first to prove how sweet it was) 

I was glad Nick was with me because he helped carry all the bags which is the biggest problem when going to the Public Market.  I always buy so much and can't carry it all!  The city has recently added on a new section so it was fun to check out that part and also the new parking area.  But aside from our home cooked dinners, Nick has cravings for specific food when he's here that he can't get in Japan, like Mexican food.   So, we've already been to our favorite, Cactus restaurant, on Alki Beach because they don't really have Mexican restaurants in Japan.  He had his "barbecue food" fix at the Puyallup Fair when he and Jeff went there after a Mariner game and we had German food with Lauren and Ari at the Rhein Haus, which is in their neighborhood. 

In between all this eating, he and Bruce like to practice their golf swing in the backyard.

Fore!

(He's not really hitting the ball out into yonder.  They were pretending...)

They say we are only getting one more day of this gorgeous weather in Seattle that we are calling our last bit of summer.  Once my baseball break is over and Nick returns on Sunday, our eating frenzy will return.  What will next week bring?  Maybe Fall food?