road trip and food

First of all, I wanted to say "Hello and Welcome!" to all our new readers and friends. It's so exciting to have you on our blog! I hope we get to know each other well and you enjoy coming over!

We had a long and adventurous weekend, full of food, driving and thrifting. It all started on Thursday with (yes, you guessed!) Valentine's Day! After work we hopped in the car, drove across the lake, witnessed a gorgeous sunset and had dinner at Forty-One South. It's a great restaurant not too far from our town, we've been talking about going there for a long time but never actually made it before. Ben surprised me with a reservation he made there for our romantic date, and I couldn't be happier. No, actually, I could - I was ecstatic when I discovered duck in their menu! Duck is my  favorite, it's not in the photos though. It was pretty dark there, candle lights don't work well for cameras. You can see Ben's steak at least, and Ben's happy face:

It was kind of hard to work on Friday.  The office was empty (due to a Winter Festival in town over the last few days), it was sunny, and the road was calling us. We left a bit early and took a trip to Spokane, WA. It was wonderful: we stayed at Courtyard Marriott downtown (and forgot to go to their swimming pool even though we brought the swimsuits!), we discovered the best cafe in town: Kim's Korean Restaurant (ate there twice and wished they'd move to Sandpoint!); we shopped at the Asian Market and at Kiev Market, stocking up on all the essentials for homemade bibimbaps, kimbaps and Russian tea parties.

We also spent lots of time thrift shopping, found an old film camera, a fencing foil, cute picture frames and a Mexican painting! I guess I'll make a separate post about those. Overall the weekend was very romantic and nostalgic, Ben got to use some Korean he remembered and I met a couple of nice Russian ladies.  We drank lots of coffee. I hope you all have a great week and I can't wait to catch up on all the emails and blogs!

Bugogi (marinated meat) with lots of side dishes. 

Bibimbap. So good! We made it at Ben's parents again last night after the trip.

I have no idea what it is and why. Some things in thrift shops are so strange.

Ben's favorite Russian food "Bychki" - fish in tomato juice. His happy face is adorable!

And one last thing: have you entered the giveaway yet? Hurry up! Lots of cool prizes are up for grabs! I wish I could enter... :-)