AN AXE TO GRIND
The Cole Street days festival in Enumclaw is always an event we enjoy. This weekend in particular, the Octopus Ballet duo was playing, so we knew it would be a hit and then some!
The Dynamic Duo of Octopus Ballet, Leanne & Sheryl.
PHOTO FROM O'LOONEYS IN GIG HARBOR
Along with the music, we also knew we’d end up at Leony's Cellars enjoying some of our favorite wines. If you love wine and haven’t been here yet, you need to stop in!
We actually made a return trip to Leony’s after everything else, and thoroughly enjoyed some conversation with Wine Master Salvador about future releases. Not to spill the beans, but there's an Italian varietal coming up that I'm especially excited about!
You may be wondering where the Axe to Grind comes into this…
Well… it was at Casting Iron, in Enumclaw. A stop we’ve tried to make more than once but we’ve been beaten by weather and scheduling. This time, we won out!
We met up with several of the usual suspects in our group of music friends, and sat in the shade of Casting Iron's canopy to enjoy the music and a few drinks.
After music was done, we all wanted a little bite to eat. Denice decided it would be a good idea to eat and throw axes (with an X… inside joke). Who can say no to an idea like that?
Zeek, Denice, Milo, and Kim decided to throw axes, and after a safety briefing and a quick set of suggestions, we were casting iron on lanes 5 and 6.
In the middle of axe throwing, we got a text from our daughter. We didn’t think about the fact that she has the Killin The Empty Nest email linked to her phone as our self-proclaimed social media manager… The very email I used for our waiver before we started. She sent a screen shot of this notification from her phone to the family group chat, so I shared exactly what it is we had been up to!
Brian decided not to show off since he had spent many years as a child in Enumclaw honing his axe-throwing skills. I'm not sure we really believed him, but hey… it's your story Brian, tell it how you want.
It doesn’t look like Kim really wanted to hear the story, Brian!
After 10 rounds of throwing, the scores were tallied. Kim came in first, Denice in second, Milo in third, and Zeek took a dismal last place. Zeek's score was so low that if you added it to Milo's, it just tied Kim's first place score!🤣
As if that wasn't enough humiliation, there was oversized Jenga that Denice challenged Milo & Zeek to. I know Denice is borderline professional with Jenga, but I thought maybe her arms would be tired, and i’d have a chance.
WRONG!
After all the activities, it was time to sit down and eat… FINALLY an activity I knew I (Zeek) could excel at more than any others! A great charcuterie board for us including pulled pork Mac & Cheese, salads, and sandwiches around the table paired with a few mixed drinks, red wine, Prosecco, and a yummy raspberry espresso cocktail.
The only thing missing from the day (for this set of empty nesters) was some dancing.
But not entirely, since we did get in a few practice runs at home.
