Washington – leah explores

I just got back from another amazing cabin Christmas in Mount Baker, with five of my closest friends. It’s become our tradition to go down to a Cabin in Mount Baker for Christmas as our surrogate family of six (and Dave the dog!) I never get to go down with the rest of the group on 23rd December because I nearly always have to work Christmas Eve, so I miss out on all of the shopping, and tend to just swan in for the fun stuff (sorry guys!) I like to think that the six of us have it down to a pretty fine art, after a few years of having done this, and this year was testament to that, our Christmas was filled with laughter, cheese, snow and good times! So with that in mind here are my top ten tips on how to have a stress free awesome cabin Christmas with friends.

Winter wonderland

Beautiful

Book the cabin early
We always book our cabin pretty early in the summer.We have a few specific needs – pet friendly, sleeps six, not ridiculously expensive – which means that our search is a bit narrow. We’ve gone to the same cabin three times now, and because we like it so much we want to make sure someone doesn’t sneak in and book it first, plus booking early is one less thing to worry about the closer it gets to Christmas and getting some of the payments out the way early is always helpful.

Our cabin
Plan ahead
My friend James takes charge of the food on Christmas day (thank you!) and I know he plans what our meal will be ahead of time, so that when it comes to the trip to the grocery store, the list is already done meaning the whole mission is streamlined and somewhat stress free! If you’re cooking a meal think about all the little things you’re going to need down to oil, spices and salt and pepper that you might take having to hand for granted.
Keep it simple
We keep our food pretty simple whilst we are down at the cabin, we have our big Christmas day meal, and then for the rest of the time we pretty much stick to cheese and crackers, leftovers and some other snacky bits. This works for us, you might feel like being a bit fancier, but just remember it all has to be eaten or thrown away.
Know boarder restrictions
If you’re crossing the boarder, like we do, be aware of restrictions of what can and can’t cross the boarder. We buy all our food and alcohol once we’re in the US so we don’t even have to worry about this. This applies to what you can bring back into Canada too. This year we had quite a bit of left over unopened cheese, so we came home with those.

Some of our many cheeses

Our amazing Christmas dinner
Buy food and booze in the US
Like I’ve already said we buy everything we eat and drink once we get down to the States. For a start it’s so much cheaper, we had a bottle of Port that was $6.99 (USD) and I know the other alcohol we get is also a lot cheaper than what we could have got in Canada. Same goes for the food, cheese is cheap and the options plentiful, and we love cheese! Plus there is no worrying about what can and can’t cross the boarder.
Be prepared
Two years ago I had a tickly cough on my way down to the cabin, by 11pm that night I felt terrible and all I had with me was some cough drops and 8 cold and flu tablets. I had the flu, and I felt horrendous. The cabin is pretty remote, and whilst there is a gas station a few miles away, it’s not just like running around the corner like you would of you were in a city. The moral of the story is be prepared. This year I took a few more medication options just in case any of us didn’t feel 100%.

Snow queen
Discuss expectations
As I’ve already said the six of us have done this a few times now and we all know how the few days are going to go. If this is your first Christmas with new people I suggest discussing the day before it gets there. You might expect to eat at lunch time whilst everyone else thinks you should eat in the evening. Think about all the little details and traditions that you want to be part of Christmas and make sure you’re all on the same page or willing to compromise so everyone can have an enjoyable Christmas.
Don’t be greedy
We don’t have a whole turkey because realistically we are not going to even get close to finishing it, we have turkey breasts which are more than enough and save us from having to throw a load of leftovers away. Another reason we don’t have an entire turkey is down to limited room in the oven; if we wanted a whole bird we’d probably have to sacrifice some sides. Think about the details.
Bring entertainment
We always take ample films and games to keep us entertained.The cabin we stay in does have a few classic games in there but we have our favourites that we take down with us. We also take some of our favourite Christmas films, so that we aren’t stuck watching what’s on television.

Enjoying the Sound of Musix

The tree in the cabin
Go offline and relax
Our cabin didn’t have wifi the last few times we went there and we loved that about it. This year the owners had installed wifi, which we only used a few times, to Skype home on Christmas day and to contact me about the road/snow situation for my drive down. Going offline and having no phone signal is part of the beauty of the cabin for me, it’s a chance to switch off from the real world and relax.

Enjoying the snow

Snowy days

Pretty lake

Whilst traveling with friends can be amazing, and is definitely one of my favourite things to do there is no doubt that there can occasionally be a few bumps in the road. I hope some of these tips can be applied to traveling with friends, even if it’s not for Christmas but just in general, and to help you have as good of a time as I do when I go away with my friends for our cabin Christmas.

Last weekend, I went of my first trip of the year, with three of my best friends to celebrate one of their birthdays. We went to Seattle to explore Capitol Hill and Ballad, and I had a fantastic time. It was so nice to go to somewhere familiar like Seattle, but avoid doing all the cliche tourist things that I have done so many times before. The main purpose of our trip was to eat, drink and be merry,whilst doing some exploring and boy did we succeed!

We rented an Air B&B apartment in Capitol Hill, which is the trendy residential area to the east of the main downtown core, where there are restaurants, coffee shops and bars aplenty. After a painless trip across the boarder on the Boltbus we headed out to explore.

First up was Unicorn, a carnival themed bar just a short stroll from our apartment. It was here that I had one of the most delicious and outrageous meals I have ever eaten; a cornbread waffle pulled pork sandwich. Believe me when I say it was as a good as it sounds. I paired this beast of a dish with a ‘Unicorn Jizz’ coacktail (I couldn’t resist the name) which was ridiculously sweet and yummy! We then headed over to Elysian Brewing, to start on the craft beer portion of the weekend. I have a confession to make here, I’m no beer aficionado, but I was promised by my friend that by the end of the weekend I would be one step closer to being so. I started off with the Day Glow IPA followed by a glass of the Splitshot which was a milk stout and absolutely delightful. From here we wandered over to Rhein Haus which is a cavernous bar that was very lively and offered drinks by the litre. Our final stop of the night was decided to keep it classy and went just a few doors down to Cannon, a fancy bar that describes itself as a “whiskey and bitters emporium” where I had a very yummy, but very strong gin based cocktail called a Hotel Georgia.

Saturday saw the peak of our exploring. We started out late morning when we headed for brunch in a lovely little spot in Capitol Hill called Witness. Once again I indulged in another over the top decadent meal (treat yo’ self, am I right?) called a Croque’d Toad, it was described to us by our waiter as being like a toad in the hole, a croque monsieur and eggs Benedict having a baby. He wasn’t far off with the description and it was every bit as good as I imagined it would be. We then walked over to Volunteer Park, where there were some stunning views of the city from the top of the water tower (which also helped burn some calories!) From here we headed back to our apartment for a quick rest to recharge our batteries before he headed out for round two.

The first stop on Saturday take two was Poquito’s, also in Capitol Hill, to make the most of their happy hour and enjoy some yummy margarita’s and guacamole. From here we Uber’d (is that a verb?) over to Ballad which is another neighbourhood located to the North West of the city, for the craft beer section of our day. We began in Stoup Brewing, where I tried the Pale Ale and the American sour.We then walked around the corner (literally) to Reuben’s Brews where I had my favourite craft beers of the weekend; the Seattle Milk Stout and the Cherry Weisse. Both were absolutely delicious and I would definitely have both again. Our final stop of the craft beer tour was Populuxe Brewing, which was by far the smallest venue tucked away in a tiny little house. Here I tried the Ballad Blonde and American Stout, rounding out my attempts to become a craft beer connoisseur. By this point, some of us (no names mentioned) had had our fill of craft beer. We headed west to the historic district of Ballad Avenue, which is full of bars, restaurants, and shops. We had dinner at Bitterroot BBQ a trendy rustic style restaurant where we shared ‘The Cowboy Killer” platter, which was yummy.

By Sunday, it was safe to say we were all a bit tired, so we had a nice relaxing morning in our apartment before we had to be out at noon. Our first port of call was Porchlight Coffee and Records just a short walk away. We enjoyed some delicious coffee and relaxed in this lovely little coffee shop for a while. Afterwards we stopped in at The Elliot Bay Book Company, somewhere I was particularly excited to go to. I can’t resist a good independent book store, and this one was particularly dreamy. Next, we stopped by the Starbucks Roastery and Tasting Room on Pike Street (when in Seattle…) for a quick look around. Across the street was Six Arms, a pub that had a great beer selection, where two of my friends had been before, here I had the Terminator Stout and the very yummy Pomegranate Cider. Our final stop for our time in Seattle was the Cheesecake Factory. As a bunch of Brit’s living in Canada, we were all pretty excited to get our fix of enormous portions and of course, decadent cheesecake.

Our journey back to Canada on the Bolt Bus was as pain free as our journey down, and we arrived back to some classic Vancouver weather; rain. All in all, I had a fantastic weekend, and I loved exploring a different side of Seattle that I hadn’t seen before, I felt like it was a great way to reinvigorate a city where I felt I had seen it all before. I would highly recommend Capitol Hill as a great way to see a different side of the city.

Sneaky Space Needle views from Capitol Hill

Tag: Washington

Top Ten Tips … For a Successful Cabin Christmas

Leah Explores … Capitol Hill and Ballad