We always enjoy getting out of town for the weekend and Seward is one of our favorite destinations. Doug got a heads up that our friends, Karl and Laurie, were going down to visit with mutual friends, Kirsten and Kevin, so Doug put the wheels in motion to see about joining the impromptu reunion.
Zach had spent the night at his friend Jacob's house the night before, so we got a bit of a later start as we had breakfast with Sarah, Chris, Jacob & Tripp before heading out. We ended up getting to Seward around 1:30 pm and headed over to Kevin and Kirsten's house. Both kids had been asleep in the truck and had only started to wake up. We walked into Kirstin's and were greeted with a symphony of barking dogs (there were 4 - 2 of theirs, 1 of her mom's and Rosie belonging to Karl and Laurie), screaming happy kids (4 of those too), and just at that time our kids came to life and added their own volume to the mix. Wow, it was definitely time for a beer!! Laurie had made Nora and Kiana matching outfits; the girls sure were cute!
We have been friends with Kirsten, Karl and Laurie for about 12 years now, we all sealed our friendship during a trip in 2000 to Cyprus & Greece for Dustin and Cecile's wedding. It has been nice that we have really grown up with these friends. Everyone's lives have really paralleled each others, making it easy for everyone to hang-out together, and enjoy the challenges and joys of each stage in life. Everyone in this group has 2 kids each and we are fortunate that the kids are right around the same age and that everyone gets along so well. We see Karl and Laurie's crew pretty often due to them living in town, but we see Kirsten's gang at regular enough intervals that no one is a stranger when we get together. The kids didn't skip a beat when we got there and within minutes were off playing somewhere in the depths of the house.
Despite the organized chaos, Kirsten and Kevin did an awesome job preparing a nice dinner for all of us. As dinner was close to being ready, we all looked at each other like we should get a plate ready for the kids to eat dinner with us. We looked around and saw that we were alone and that there were no screams coming from downstairs, so we decided to have a nice (quiet) dinner by ourselves, and take advantage of the time while we had it. The kids could eat when they were ready, i.e. after we were done.
Kevin and Kirsten have a great house set-up. They have a couple acres which is so much fun in the summer turning the kids free on - run!! They live in one side of a beautifully decorated duplex during the summer and operate a vacation rental (like a B&B, but no breakfast) on the other half of the duplex. During the winter, they utilize both sides. They are so nice to let us come down and stay at Fern Gully Forest Retreat. They have decorated it beautifully and we always enjoy seeing what decorating projects Kirsten has been up to. We need to have her come over to our house! Kevin and Kirsten's website is:
http://www.sewardak.net/ferngullyretreat/guesthouse.html
It is nice having two full kitchens to prepare meals in! Kevin is a commercial fisherman and has a freezer well stocked with great fish. Tonight he prepared sable fish, aka black cod. It was amazing! It tastes just like scallops. We asked why we never see this in our grocery stores - well, because it is worth a lot and most of it goes to Japan where they pay well for it. According to Kevin, some of the really nice restaurants on the east coast have started to serve it. We had the fish once before at their house prepared in a different way. Tonight's fish was great!
With the kids playing happily in the playroom downstairs, we had a glass of wine!
Kirsten, always thinking ahead, had arranged for two babysitters to come at 6 pm so we could all go to a movie and out for drinks. The Seward theater is an old, one auditorium theater that shows 1 movie a weekend. Two shows at 2 pm and 7 pm, so don't miss it! Crazy Heart was playing tonight. It won a bunch of awards and the acting was good. We just weren't into the story line of a spent, drunk singer who dates a young, pretty girl and at the end of the movie goes for alcohol treatment. The movie made for a bunch of good laughs....we all felt "dirty" after watching the older drunk kissing on the young, single mom - we were all pretty much on the same page with this movie.....take a pass on it!
Do you see the children? A kid free movie, how fun. All 6 kids were back at the house having a great time with the sitters.
A small, quaint theater. Doug and I had been in here once, many years ago. We had gone camping and we went to escape the rain by watching a movie. It is a great place, a good portion of the town was at the show tonight.
After the movie, we dodged the rain/snow/slush drops and went to the Seward Hotel for a drink. The hotel restaurant/bar is nice in that it is smoke free.
Kirsten kept talking about the Showcase Lounge on the street over from the Seward Hotel. The Showcase is right out of the 70's, the decor is red chairs on caster wheels, a large bar with padded upper sections. The walls are all shelves of the old liquor bottles in various shapes and colorful designs, bottles that celebrate anniversaries of states, television shows, etc. I am sure the extensive collection is worth quite a bit. The place was pretty neat.
We enjoyed a margarita....a very strong margarita. We had taken Doug's truck as we all could fit in it. Poor Doug got to be our designated driver and have a Coke while we enjoyed a tasty beverage!
Doug and Sam arrived home at the end of the day and Sam wanted a "snack". He headed to the refrigerator and when I opened the door he grabbed a large pad of butter and took a bite....yuck!
The mailman had left two boxes from Mema and Papa on our porch today. Sam was excited to find a Easter Cars movie set to play with.
Zach was pretty excited about the window clings and got to work immediately decorating the back door.
Sam was hungry and put down two helpings of chicken, rice and green beans/peas. Zach still wasn't feeling too well so didn't eat much dinner. Doug and Sam enjoyed an ice cream, Sam definitely got into it...eating from both ends!
