30 before 30

Fair warning, two part post. Many of you don't know that Dana will pass an important milestone this November--he'll turn 30. I always thought it was ladies who dreaded those big birthdays but it turns out guys are just as uncomfortable flipping that first digit so this year I surprised him with an early birthday trip to soften the change. The theme: thirty before thirty. Basically, a bucket list. I made (then laminated...so much fun) a list of twenty five amazing things he's done in his life so far, like serving a mission, having a mohawk, and marrying me! Then we did five bucket list things to complete the list. Here's our trip:

WEDNESDAY
To save on vacation days, we worked most of the day. I know, super zzzzzzz, right, but since we were only going over the mountains for our trip it worked out okay. We took off around 3ish in our swanky new Subaru and Dana really let loose on the mountain pass. Arriving in Seattle, we parallel parked at our first stop: Paseo. Every time we travel Dana likes to try a new type of food and Paseo is this little hole in the wall jewel that serves mouth watering, huge, Cuban sandwiches. To date, we figured out that Dana has tried American, Ethiopian, Indian, Greek, Mexican, Chinese, Filipino, Dominican, Japanese, Vietnamese, Thai, Seafood, Southern, French, and, now Cuban food. The sandwiches were on this indescribably delicious baguette-type bread. So good. We walked up and down the quirky area, picked up some ice cream, and then took off for the Georgetown Inn. It got great reviews online as an authentic throw-back hotel in Seattle and it certainly lived up to the name. Check out the keys. Yeah, those are real keys, people.

Even cooler, the room had one feature I've never seen in any other hotel:

Yes, that is a tub right next to the bed. A jetted tub to be completely accurate. Hilarious. It was a great short first day.

THURSDAY
Seattle was not our main destination so we headed down south toward Tacoma, making one quick pit stop in Renton for the COOLEST thing ever. There's a little place called Uptown Glassworks that will let you make your own blown glass art (and they even had a 2 for 1 Groupon all for me!). It was beyond cool. First, we picked out the designs we wanted: I did a wavy glass thing for our table, and Dana made a candy dish for the office. Then we picked two colors to make them a swirl. Black and red for me, blue and yellow (Dana's old school colors) for him. Tell me our artist doesn't look a little bit like Mr. Miyagi?


The glass artist (yes, he deserves that name) super heated the glass, twirled it around into a cone like shape, dipped opposite sides in our colors (which were just small colored glass shards) and then let us get to work. I don't know quite how to describe it. Basically, he'd twirl really fast while shaping the glass with a rounded piece of metal and then we'd blow into a long tube in short bursts and the air bubbles would expand the glass. In Dana's case, since he was making a bowl, he got to puff in air and then suck back and the glass literally collapsed like a crater. Soooo neat. Once it was in the desired shape, they stick it back in another oven to set it, snip it off, and mount it on a little preprepared base.
Pardon her eyes, but this is a girl finishing up Dana's bowl. It then goes into a  much cooler oven to slowly cool down over 18 hours. If you just left it out, it would shatter.


The finished products! On a side note, I told Dana if he ever died or something, I would remake myself as a professional glass blower. The hours seemed nice, you make pretty colored art, and the whole place was about two hundred degrees. Imagine that in the winter!

Our next stop was the mall. Okay, I know that's not very bucketlisty, but we had an hour to kill before lunch so we stopped by TJ Maxx and bought Dana a swanky new bowtie (Terrace Heights ward, you'll get to see it next week so you're welcome in advance) and I caved and bought some beautiful red suede heels. And yes, Dana my love, suede is always in. For lunch we did another dive that got great reviews. It's a sandwich place in Tacoma called MSM, which literally stands for Magical Sandwich Makers--basically a cross between a subway and a 7-11. They were pretty good. We knew this before we even got them because there was a 20 minute wait and it was slammed the entire time we were there.


We finished perfectly and were fed and ready to go for a 1:48 tee time at the Dupont Home Course. That's a golf course, for those of you who don't know or who have never read our blog. It's a rare thing for the Gailans to golf, ummmm, in Tacoma anyway, and the course is famous for being the sister course of the 2010 US Amateur. Naturally, with creds like that we were expecting BAM! Instead it was more...waaa waa. The place didn't even have a club house. They operate out of what's basically single wide trailers. They were even hawking sodas and chips out of a food cart. It felt surreally like we were at a High School football game...except it was surrounded by one of the most beautiful courses we've ever golfed. And that's why people come. Even if they have to pee in porta potties on the 6th hole (even though they built a perfectly good stone bathroom but neglected to hook up the plumbing. Whoops.) Really, it was a great day. We started a little late because of a tournament but finished and got to play with some really nice guys (one who carted his bag the whole 18 holes. You go Bob!)

This was Dana's first experience playing a links golf course versus a parkland course and the difference is the style. It's more open with less trees and crazy bunkers. I'm serious about the bunkers. We got a good look at them on the third hole when Jim chipped his straight into this beauty. If you're thinking 'Wow that looks like the Great Wall of China' you're not alone. Tim hit another one a few holes later and then Dana landed in one too. He took four strokes to get out. And, yes, if you caught it we golfed with Jim, Tim, and Bob. Not making this stuff up people. Dana likes to complain that I only get shots of him hitting from the bushes but I call it like I see it, love. Maybe it's cause you're always hitting from the bushes. Kidding. Mostly. Sort of.



Hard to capture the beauty. There weren't many trees but it was so wide and sweeping and  a lot of the holes overlooked a beautiful mountain lake. Really just a neat course. Remember to pack your own toilet paper if you go though. And mind the carts, they're gutless...and loud...and gas powered. Ahh, diesel in the morning. 

The day wasn't over yet, though. We again followed our GPS to our dinner spot--another gem called the Southern Kitchen. Funny enough, when we arrived we looked around a realized, hey, weren't we just here. Turns out the MSM sandwich makers was just around the corner:) The Southern Kitchen was my favorite place we ate. So amazing. You could order grits, fried chicken, and every meal came with a sweet corn cake. A funny thing about the restaurant, it was featured on Diners, Drive-Inns, and Dives so I got to spend my whole meal staring at a cheesy thumbs up photo of Guy Fiari. But seriously, the place was cool and had antique southern collectibles and amazing food. At the end, the server offered us pie and Dana perked up. Apple, he asked? Banana cream? Unfortunately, they just had sweet potato. Not quite his cup of tea and thus launched the very funny, sad part of our trip whereby Dana tried everything to get his hands on a piece of pie...to no luck. (Never fear, because I love my hubby I found him some when we got home).