Need Another Weekend For My Weekend

Do you ever have those weekends where you feel like you need another weekend to recover from your weekend? Yeah, that was this past weekend. Not that I’m complaining, but it was really busy.

Saturday morning I got up super early and started Phase 2 of Suzanne’s program, which I will write more about later because I’m REALLY excited about it! Then Michael and  I drove to Seattle. We were going up there for my cousin’s wedding. It ended up feeling like we spent the entire weekend in the car. The good thing about driving to Seattle on a nice day is the view of the mountains! Hello Mount St.Helens and Mount Rainier! You’re gorgeous!

We stopped at Red Lobster in the middle of nowhere for lunch on Saturday. While I’m not usually a fan of chain restaurants, the Red Lobster is pretty much the best option in the middle of nowhere (i.e. the monotonous ride from Portland to Seattle). I do like that Red Lobster has a lot of low calorie options.

It’s a great choice for someone watching their weight. I ended up getting the grilled garlic shrimp and fried scallops. You can choose your side dish, which I got steamed broccoli. I also asked the waitress to only bring ONE of the cheesy biscuits. 🙂

I was kind of bummed the scallops were breaded and fried. I was expecting them seared. But lunch was tasty and low in calories. We got back on the road and got to my parent’s house in the nick of time. Then my mom drove us to Camano Island for the wedding (another 1.5 hours in the car!).

Camano Island was a gorgeous place. The island was covered in lush forest and the water lapped on secluded beaches that looked out at the Cascade Range. The wedding was in a state park and the ceremony was in the Cama Center. What a picturesque place to get married!

I loved the way it smelled there, like pine trees and salt water. The wedding was a really nice event and it was so good to see my dad’s side of the family after so long.

The wedding was short and sweet and the food was really good! There was coleslaw, green salad, potato salad, lots of fresh fruit, mac n’ cheese, shredded pork and chicken skewers.

I loaded up on salad, had one scoop of potato salad and mac n’cheese, some pork and 1 chicken skewer. It was all really delicious and good wedding fare. There was a champagne toast and then the cake was cut. They also had cookies and brownies. I had one brownie and then Michael and I split a piece of the cake.

The cake was vanilla key lime! I loved the flavors. The cake was so tall, though, that the lady cut a piece that was big enough to feed four people. I had four bites, Michael had two and we called it good. It was just too rich to eat much of.

The wedding was over and the sun was just starting to set over the mountains as we drove back to Seattle. The orange and red sky was beautiful.

The original plan for Sunday was to have breakfast with my Grandma, Helen. I wanted to take her out and she picked her favorite place to go to near her house. Unfortunately, the plans changed. Saturday night when we were driving home from Camano Island, my mom got a call from her cousin with the news that her uncle had had a heart attack.

My grandma’s brother was 88. My grandma’s history is pretty fascinating–her dad was a settler in the High Desert in Bend, Oregon. He was a sheep farmer and rancher back at the turn of the century. She had 6 siblings and now there are only two left. Her brother Fritz was a Marine in World War II and was stationed in the South Pacific. About a month ago her revealed to his family that he had been a POW by the Japanese for over a year. No one had known. He was told not to tell anyone. They had sliced both of his achilles tendons and as a result always had a strange walk (and no one knew the reason!).

Anyway, my mom took Grandma to the hospital Sunday morning to say goodbye to Fritz so we didn’t go to breakfast together. Instead, I got to catch up with her a little when they got back to the house. I’m glad she got to see Fritz, he passed away Sunday night, and I’m glad I got to see her for a little while before Michael and I headed home.

It was a nice visit, despite the change of plans and the sad news. When we got back to Portland I went for a quick swim and then we went to our friend’s house for a BBQ. Like I said, it was an exhausting weekend and I really needed one more day to just relax and decompress!

How was your weekend?