I’ll probably forget this next year when it’s been 20 years, so I’ll post this while I’m thinking about it….

It’s been 19 years since I’ve eaten at McDonald’s. How do I know this? In 1989, at the age of 19, I spent the summer backpacking around Greece eating and drinking beer. I hadn’t realized it then, but while I was consciously nurturing my taste for beer, I was subconsciously developing a taste for quality food. The food in Greece is very fresh, especially the seafood and vegetables — the tomatoes in Greece are red and are sweet, unlike the orange watery ones in the US. So after a summer of eating very tasty food, unbeknownst to me, my body had become accustomed to good fresh food. The morning after my arrival back at home in late August ‘89, my parents took me to breakfast at McDonald’s “as a treat”. They love the place and I think they still go there at least once a week. But that day I couldn’t finish my food and had an upset stomach all day from what I did eat. After 3.5 months in Greece eating the opposite of McDonald’s, McDonald’s cholesterol-enriched stale food was too disgusting to smell, let alone eat. I vowed to never eat at McDonald’s or any restaurant like it again.

And I still haven’t. I’m 38 now, so this no-fast-food thing has lasted half my life. When you can say “half my life” or talk about things you did 19 years ago, you’re officially old. Technically, I did go to the McDonald’s drive-in one morning at 5am back in 1992 or 1993 when I was heading out on a road trip and wanted coffee and couldn’t find any other place that was open that early in the morning. And I looked for an alternative because the coffee at McDonald’s back then was like drinking instant coffee. This was well before Starbuck’s made its way to Virginia. I’ve had the Sourdough Jack cheeseburger from Jack In The Box a couple times late at night while in Seattle as late as 1999. The Sourdough Jack is actually pretty good, for fast food.

I don’t avoid McDonald’s because of my teenage vow or because of health reasons (although that’s a good reason to avoid it). I simply avoid it the way I avoid eating things I don’t like, like anchovies and lousy beer. We’ll see how long I can continue this when Havana and her soon-to-be-brother are begging to go to a McDonald’s.

It’s been hot here lately, in the high 80s/low 90s, so this beer went well with the weather — a light and sweet beer.

I love my view…

For our 4th wedding anniversary present to ourselves, we got photos of Illy and Ouzo put on canvas (giclée prints). We had them stretched on wooden frames and we hung them today:

These are photos taken during our wedding. Illy was wearing white pearls and Ouzo was wearing a white bowtie. They’re both great photos taken by our wedding photographer, Rebecca Douglas.

They were put on the biggest walls in the house, walls that were begging for some art. We couldn’t find anything we liked. Gay had the idea to have some of our own photos blown up as art. We love our dogs and having photos of our dogs on our walls seems more personal to us than any art we may find.

The photos are posted on Flickr (click them to see the bigger versions):

Eric stayed with us this weekend and we had dinner for him Saturday night. He’s leaving Thursday for a 10+ month trip around the world.

Monday morning we were back on I-90 heading home:

Havana enjoys a good book and a snack:

And I survived another trip to Spokane:

The Connolly’s had a brunch on Sunday where Havana had one of her few exposures to a ton of kids:

She held onto her doll and seemed shocked by all the activity. Frankly, it was a bit too much for me as well. Note to self: stop short of 12 kids.

After brunch, we drove out to Grandma’s farm where Havana met some animals:

Saturday night was Jon & Megan’s wedding at Arbor Crest Winery.

The Dry Fly Distillery is the only distillery in Washington State. They’ve been in business a year and we visited and got a tour from the co-owner. They make vodka and gin right now and will be coming out with a whiskey later this year and a bourbon next year. Most gins are made with juniper berries and maybe one more ingredient, they put several spices in their gin, including hops. Everything they use is grown in Washington State.

I even got to bottle some gin and put the labels on it:

Because I did such a great job bottling, they gave me a free t-shirt. We bought a bottle of gin and vodka and will try a martini as soon as we get home.

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Another day, another brewpub for lunch. I was shocked to find out that Spokane had, not one, but two brewpubs. This time we went to Northern Lights Brewing. The beer here was much better than Steam Plant’s beers. I liked almost all of their beers:

The food was much better too.

As luck would have it, Dry Fly Distillery was right next door. Gay had read about Dry Fly months ago and we made a mental note to visit it the next time we were in Spokane. So we went.