Missives from the 6th Floor

I figured since her car door was in pieces, we'd take my car for our outing, but one dead-battery later (have I mentioned I need to sell a car? 97 Saturn SL2, well cared for, etc. etc.) we were back in her car and squeaking onto the ferry.

We hit the Saturn dealer first; the plunger switch was easy, but what he thought was the part I needed turned out not to be, and looking through the parts diagram it turned out they no longer sell that part. Instead they want you to buy the entire window mechanism to the tune of $150. No thanks. I left with my switch and a bad attitude - not looking forward to crawling through a pick-your-part to find the simple plastic bit I needed to make my window work again.

From there we hopped on the 405 to Woodinville and made our first stop at the downtown Wendy's for a quick bite to eat. After that gourmet repast, we started our days tasting at Facelli Winery, Lou and his wife were handling a counter-long crowd in the tasting room, and we lined up at the end. Ended up buying about 8 bottles, including a Late Harvest Syrah, which was very tasty and reminiscent of a "light port" in taste and character.

We continued on down Woodinville-Redmond Road, stopping at Woodhouse Family Cellars (some tasty but slightly overpriced offerings), Silver Lake Winery, Chateau St. Michelle (the Disneyland of the day's stops - highly commercial, slightly sterile, and way too busy for my taste), and Columbia Winery (another big commercial operation that managed to retain a much smaller, friendlier feel).

While we were in the tasting room at Silver Lake the parts manager at the Saturn dealer called with good news. He didn't give up looking when I left, and had found - in the back of a drawer of "un-cataloged parts" - two of the window guides I needed. I told him I'd be by before the dealership closed to pick them up; and yes, I'd take both of them.

From there we turned up 140th and stopped at Mathews Cellars which was closed for the day, and continued north in search of Woodinville Wine Cellars.

We made a wrong turn and ending up driving through a mall, and my eye was caught by a familiar white building, with red trim, and a neon Ruby's sign.

Ruby's?! In Washington?!

I mentioned this to Dawnise, who promptly abandoned the search for the vineyard and announced - "we're going to Ruby's."

This is probably a good time to mention that I'm lactose intolerant, and I haven't had a "real" milk-shake in years, literally. Staring at the menu, looking down the list of tempting flavors, all guaranteed to make me a very happy person - right until they made me a very unhappy person. I caved.

Peanut Butter Cup, please.

Dawnise said I haven't had a grin that big in a looonng time, and I suspect she's not exaggerating. We had planned on just the shakes, but apparently Ruby's has started doing breakfast - and the cinnamon roll french toast looked too good to pass on, so we split an order. It didn't disappoint - sweet, without being precocious. ;)

Exiting the Ruby's parking lot we discovered that had we gone but one block past the Wendy's during our search for lunch we'd have made our amazing discovery much sooner.

By the time we had finished our unplanned stop, the Woodinville Wine Cellars were closed, so we made our last stop at Di Stefano Winery. Unfortunately, between the shake and the french toast, my pallet was completely ruined, so while I'm sure they make some lovely wines - they all tasted like peanut butter and maple to me. Ah well, next time. Seems not finding Ruby's for lunch was a good thing after all.

We hopped back on the freeway and stopped at the Saturn dealer to retrieve the precious plastic on our way back to the ferry.

Upon arriving home, I put Dawnise's car door back together (with a working window - huzzah), and installed the new dome light switch in my car, which is getting it's battery charged as I type.

Neither of us is particularly hungry for dinner, so the order of the evening sounds like a movie. Maybe some pop corn. And perhaps a glass of wine.