As someone who has lived my entire life on one coast or another, it is hard for me to imagine life without water.  And life without water would mean life without islands.  Here in the Pacific Northwest, we have a plethora, a bounty of islands.  I grew up on an island, which was not all that special, but we do have a special family house on Lopez.  My good friend Jen is extra lucky in that she lives and owns a yoga studio on Bainbridge Island, and her family has a home – well, a compound – on Whidbey Island.

The Sunday before New Year’s, Jen’s husband Tom called to ask if we wanted to join them for a couple of nights at her parents’ island paradise.  We had plans already and I had a lot of cooking to do for our supper club, but it took us about 1.5 seconds to say yes.  We had been there twice before and words cannot begin to describe the beauty and special energy this place possess.  Each small building is warm, welcoming, and not at all grand, just perfectly homey.  Each of her parents have an art studio (her dad is a painter and her mom is a weaver) and there are lots of bunk beds for all of the grandchildren.  Their table seats 12 or so, even though most of the time it is just the two of them.  They are always ready for a few guests.

If, perhaps, it is a beautiful warm night with a full moon, you may decide to sleep here.  In the summer months, a mattress is laid on this bed along with pillows and all kinds of warm blankets.  Tom is a big fan of this bed and I’m sure, as the kids get older, there are going to be fights about who gets it.

This photo was taken on rainy windy New Year’s Day – not usually a banner weather day in our part of the country.  And still, I hope you can see how powerful and riveting the beauty is.  Imagine this exact same spot on a sunny summer evening with cocktail in hand and children running about.  Imagine it again in the darkness and with roasted marshmallows and a guitar.  Imagine on your way back to your bed you stop by the hot tub to warm up.  Yes, hot tub.

Years ago, our famous Pike Place Market had artists all over the city design a pig.  They were then auctioned off in a benefit for the Market and its’ medical clinic.  I (somewhat) jokingly told Randy I wanted one of the pigs.  I should not have been surprised to find one on her parents property – and one of the coolest pigs at that.

In fact, the art may be what I love most up there.  Each sculpture is so lovingly chosen and placed.  There is so much whimsy and celebration of what makes art special.  Nothing stuffy about it.

Three years ago, we had an epic wind storm in our area.  We only lost power for about 18 hours at our house, but some people were without it for up to two weeks.  Just as the storm was brewing, Jen went in to labor.  She was able to make it across the Sound to the hospital with husband and other three children in tow.  After she had the baby, they stayed downtown in a hotel while waiting for their power to come back on.  Imagine.  Newborn baby, recovering from childbirth, three other young children, and not in your own home.  At some point, her mom, who had power thanks to a generator, had her come to Whidbey where she gave up her bed to Jen and her new baby.  Jen says that visit healed her in more ways than one.  Take a look.  Couldn’t we all heal here?

I can’t mention Whidbey Island without telling another very special thing about it.  If it weren’t for this very long island (2nd longest in the country after Long Island), I would never have met this guy.

Many years before I knew him, Randy was a Naval Aviator.  He graduated from the Naval Academy in Annapolis and went to flight school in Pensacola.  He was assigned to fly the A-6 Intruder which gave him two choices of bases.  One was Virginia Beach and one was Whidbey Island.  Being an East Coaster his whole life, he just assumed he would go to Virginia.  Some friend who had been to Whidbey took him out for a beer one night and told him about the beauty of Puget Sound.  The close access to Seattle and the proximity to skiing, boating, hiking, mountain biking, and just the general outdoors.  Because Randy will always choose adventure over complacency, he decided to listen to his friend (bless him) and take a chance on Whidbey.

Once he oriented to West being the ocean and East being land (important if you are flying a fighter jet), he fell in love with our area.  He took advantage of all it had to offer and then some.  After a few years, his life became a little more complicated and he opted to move back East to teach at the Naval Academy, to get more schooling and to appease a difficult first wife.

In 2000, as he was finishing business school in Boston, a friend from the Navy came for a visit and to try and recruit him to join a company that he had founded in Seattle.   Randy had already accepted a very good job with an international consulting company and had planned to set down roots in Boston.  For many different reasons, the friend’s job offer was enticing.  Perhaps the main reason was that, having spent time on Whidbey, he missed the Northwest.  And so, he did something very un-Randy like which is to re-neg on an accepted job and take a different job for half the pay.  In June of that year, he landed back in Seattle.

His then wife was supposed to close up house in Boston and then take her time driving across the country.  At Wyoming she decided to go back to Boston and end the marriage.  Two months after that, Randy and I met.  Almost two years after that, we got married.

So, even though I have only been there about a dozen times, I have a deep appreciation for Whidbey.  If it weren’t for that island, my life would be very different.  It is hard to imagine life without Randy.  And very hard to imagine life without these two.

So much to catch up on!

First of all, this is my 250th post!  As with every other blog milestone that I have surpassed, I’m not sure how I got here or how it happened so quickly.  I’m just grateful that you are all here along for the ride.  It was so wonderful to hear from so many readers who don’t usually comment.  Thank you all and please know I cherish those comments so don’t hesitate to leave one if you are moved to do so.  I also loved reading about everyone’s most cherished cooking tool.  It seems that simple tools are the things that people can’t live without – wooden spoons, whisks, spatulas, zesters, tongs, chef knives.  Quite a few of you need your Kitchen Aid mixers (I understand) and Nancy can’t live without her wine opener – amen Nancy!  I want to cook with you!

Graham picked #44 which was Tammy who loves her apple slicer.  Tammy,  please email me at danatreat {at} gmail {dot} com so I can get your address to send you the Japanese knife, shears and paring knife combo, and the $25 gift card.  From the conference, I also have a voucher to mail in for a Cuisinart mini food processor.  I already have one so Graham picked #31, Lesley who loves her tongs, as a second prize winner.  Lesley, please email me so I can send you the voucher.

So, New York.  Wow.  I had so many memories being in that city.  Because both of my parents are from there, I grew up going back East at least once a year.  At first we went to visit family and then, as my extended family became more and more estranged, we went just because we wanted to.  When my dad moved our little family to Seattle in 1972, there was not much going on here and it was hard for my mom to leave the Italian food, the theatre, shopping, and the culture.  He appeased her with one family trip and one trip just for the two of them each year.

I went to college in Connecticut and would take the train down to the City a couple of times a semester.  My mom’s cousin and her husband still live on Staten Island and I would stay the weekend with them.  From time to time, I would also take the art history bus in just for the day.  I went in my 20’s before I met my first husband, I went with him just after we were married, and I went with him as our marriage was completely falling apart.  I went with Randy right before we were married, and again while we were living in London, and then this past trip.  New York is a city that I keep coming back to and while it does change, parts of it are refreshingly always the same to an admiring visitor.

One of the first questions I got from people when I told them I would be visiting is, “Where are you going to eat?”  We had three nights and, because there were other people involved besides just myself and Randy, I only got to plan one of those nights.  I chose WD-50 because I have heard so many incredible things about it and because I am fascinated by that type (molecular gastronomy) of cooking.  Years ago, Randy and I were lucky enough to eat at The Fat Duck just outside of London.  It had just been awarded it’s third Michelin star and the 17 courses we ate were by far the best food of our life.  Not only did they make all of mine vegetarian, Randy thought my food was even better than his.

I had heard that WD-50 could do a vegetarian tasting menu for me as well and so I encouraged our table of five to go that route rather than ordering off the à la carte menu.  The guys’ food was clever and innovative (including a play on bagel and lox where the “everything bagel” was bagel shaped ice cream) but mine was a little ho hum.  Out of nine savory courses, three of them were soups and four of them were fried.  I started off tweeting was I was eating and as they all started to blur together, I stopped.  Still, twelve courses of vegetarian food is always a treat and the mere fact that they offer it (and that they also offer a vegan tasting menu) makes me appreciate the restaurant.

If you watch Top Chef, you probably would recognize the chef, Wylie Dufresne.  He has been a guest judge and competed in Top Chef Masters.  He has kind of stringy 70’s era hair and pseudo mutton chops.  In other words, he is instantly recognizable.  As we walked in to the restaurant and I could see into the kitchen, I was impressed to notice he was in there cooking.  I love that a well-known chef is still doing his job.  At the end of the night, he was sitting at the bar with some friends and while I got my coat on, my husband thanked him for a great meal.  I walked up and told him how much I appreciated the thoughtfulness that went into my menu and that we vegetarians usually get the short end of the restaurant stick.  He said, “Well, I’m sorry you are a vegetarian.  If you ever change your mind, come back and I’ll buy you dinner.”  Given that I haven’t eaten meat in 23 years, it’s not likely that I will wake up one day and decide to start eating meat, but if I do – I’m hopping on an Eastbound plane.

The other two dinners we had were good but nothing to write on my blog about.  I had the good fortune to meet Stacey from Stacey Snacks for lunch at the Standard Grille and while the food was good, the company was the most delicious part.  She is gorgeous, funny, and we have about a million things in common.  I knew just from reading her blog and her emails that we would get along but I had no idea that it would be so much fun.  I was also able to see my friend Victoria which was wonderful and heartbreaking at the same time.  She had just gotten some not-so-terrific news and was still handling it like a champ.  If you have a spare second, please send a good vibe to her.

Friends, I’m feeling a little guilty.  And lucky.  And thankful.

I’m heading to New York on the red-eye flight tonight.  I’m meeting my husband who is there (again) for work.  I am leaving my sweet boys in the care of our most trusted and loved babysitter Erika.  When Randy took this most recent job, he thought that the travel would be minimal when it fact it has been maximal.  (I know that’s not a word, but shouldn’t it be?)  As the trips began piling up in the calendar, he asked me when I would like to go to New York with him.  He knows I love it there and I haven’t been in six years.  My favorite time of year anywhere is the fall, so we settled on October.

I am reminded that six years ago, Randy and I were just settling in to our year in London.  His sister planned an October wedding in Richmond, VA and we were scheduled to fly in for it.  She was kind enough to invite my parents and we decided to meet up first in New York so that I could have a little more time with them instead of just the wedding weekend.  My parents are both from New York – Dad from the Lower East Side and Mom from Long Island – so I have lots of memories of time spent in the City with them.

Just a month before we were set to meet, I got an unthinkable phone call from my dad.  He was having some strange symptoms and when he went to get checked out, they found that he had a tumor on his bladder.  Subsequent appointments showed that it would not be possible to remove the tumor safely and they would have to actually remove his bladder, hope that they got all the cancer, and construct a new bladder for him out of a part of his own intestine.  He decided to schedule the surgery for after the trip to the East coast – he was so looking forward to the trip and his doctors didn’t think waiting a few weeks would matter.  I made the decision to return to Seattle for a few weeks after the wedding to help him and my mom out.

Those days we spent in New York were wonderful.  The weather was perfect, we ate well, we shopped, we walked, we sat in the park, we saw a show.  We could forget for moments the scary thing that awaited all of us after the fun was over.  It was the most bittersweet vacation of my life.  As we traveled south to Richmond and the surgery loomed closer, it was harder to pretend that we weren’t nervous.

I’ll cut to the chase and tell you that this story has a happy ending.  My dad had a rough recovery initially but recover he did, and he has been cancer free these six years.  He is as incredibly active as he was before the surgery and has continued to work as an oncologist helping people with their own cancer diagnoses and treatments in the warmest and most human way possible.

Ironically, as I am about to get on a plane to New York, I got word that my college roommate and friend Victoria has just had surgery for invasive breast cancer.  I haven’t seen her in years and have only been in touch with her via Facebook.  She lives in New York and she has a baby girl and she has an unfathomably tough road ahead of her.  The first thing I did when I talked to her yesterday (after telling her how sorry I am) was to offer up a conversation with my dad.  He has walked along the breast cancer road with countless patients, some even younger than the 39 years of my dear friend, and I so hope that he can be a resource, or even just a comfort to her.  I hope that I can see her and hug her and meet her baby.  I wish I could cook for her.

So, I’m feeling guilty.  Guilty that less than two weeks ago I was in San Francisco and tonight I head off to another world class city.  I’m feeling lucky that I live a life where travel like this is possible.  I feel thankful for my health, my family, my family’s health, and all the other things that make my life blessed.