An Irish Lunch - 2/14/15

Or - The Double Eagle Day

We were approved to rent the house in Lincoln City and will be moving soon so now every time we go out it is like saying good-bye to an old friend. Familiar places and good memories.

Wrapping things up, I thought it would be fun to head on over to yet another Irish Pub and try their Rueben sandwiches before heading south to The Central Coast of Oregon which is, as far as I can tell right now, an area with a distinct lack of Irish Pubs around Lincoln City.

Ah, gotta take the bad with the good, I guess. Ol' Philosophical Jackie keeps telling me that. 

I tell him to shut the hell up.

Cheez, you can only take so much positivity!!

Hahaha, it will be great. 

 Now it seems every time we drive down Rainier towards Renton we see an eagle. And, sure enough, as we were driving on over to lunch, Carol spotted America's National Bird, The Bald Eagle.

Fun Facts: The bald eagle is both the national bird and national animal (I did not know that!!) of the United States of America. It also appears on the Seal of the United States.

In the late 20th century, the bald eagle was on the brink of extirpation, or local extinction, in the continental U.S. Fortunately, though, the populations recovered and the species was removed from the list of endangered species in 1995. It was removed from the List of Endangered and Threatened Wildlife in the Lower 48 States in 2007.

Whew, thank goodness!!

We did something different today. Normally, when we spot an eagle, we pull on over right on Rainier and take a gander at him. Not today. Today I pulled off Rainier and actually went up into the neighborhood to get a different angle for the picture. And, evidently, to freak out the locals. 

I was standing in the street getting ready to take a picture when a man pulled up, rolled down his window and asked me, "What are you taking pictures of?" 

Seeing as I was on a public street, in the middle of the day I thought it germane to ask him, "Why do you want to know?"

Fortunately, he was polite and obviously more patient and understanding than I because he smiled and said, "Well, that's my house." 

Ah, a light bulb moment. I was looking at the eagle in the tree just beyond his house. Hahaha, so I said, "So you know about the eagle . . ." and pointed towards the tree with the eagle. He was acquainted with this phenomenon because he then smiled, backed up and parked his car in his garage.

And I? I went back to doing what I was doing . . . marveling at the eagle and trying to get a decent picture.

I didn't notice until I got back home and downloaded (I keep wanting to say, "developed", but that isn't right anymore) the pictures but this poor boy was smack dab in the middle of a swarm of mosquitoes . . . or gnats. I don't know but either one would be irritating to anyone, or anything.

Hahaha, I thought I was getting some good pictures from a new angle and I discovered I was also getting a pretty thick cloud of pesky mossies. (A new word courtesy of our Australian cousins . . . a mossie is slang for mosquito in the Land Down Under.)

After this little adventure, we made it on over to The Pickled Onion.

Mind Your Pints!! 

Hahahaha, always good advice regardless of where you are.

Fun Facts: This advice brings to mind an old phrase, Mind your P's and Q's, It is one of those phrases that people use but don't normally know its origin. 

In this case it is understandable because it seems there is more than one explanation. 

The first one is Mind your pints and quarts. This is suggested as deriving from the practice of chalking up a tally of drinks in English pubs. Publicans had to make sure to mark up the quart drinks as distinct from the pint drinks. Although this explanation is widely repeated, there is little to support it apart from the fact that pint and quart begin with P and Q. However, I like this one so I tend to use it whenever I try and amaze and amuse my less trivially literate and usually slightly drunk friends.

The second one I remember from my high school shop days. Hahaha, I was notoriously dangerous around hammers and sharp tools and hopelessly inept with anything mechanical so this pretty much ruled out Wood Shop, Metal Shop and Auto Shop. All that was left was Print Shop . . . where we had to learn how to set type and print things.

Good advice to any printers' apprentice was to avoid confusing the backward-facing metal type lowercase Ps and Qs. Coincidently, also the same good advice to any kid learning to write. The fact that handmade paper was an expensive commodity and that the setting of type in early presses was very time consuming makes this version a strong candidate. It wasn't that easy setting type as it had to be set upside down and backwards and you had to be exceedingly careful.

Finally, the last version comes from the Navy. And it goes like this, Mind your pea (coat) and queue (wig). Peacoats were short rough woolen overcoats, commonly worn by sailors in the 18th century. Perrugues, or queues, were full wigs worn by fashionable gentlemen. It is difficult to imagine the need for an expression to warn people to avoid confusing them so I don't give this one much credence. It sounds good so I included it.

In the end, if pushed for the real reason, I would have to go with the type-setting one as being the right explanation regardless of how I feel. Makes more sense.

OK, back to today. I found this bar/restaurant when Carol and I came this way to get her Washington State ID. It's right next to the Licensing Agency in a strip mall.

I'm always ready for a trip to an Irish Pub. Carol is, fortunately, not adverse to them. So off we went.

It's a big bar, much bigger than I thought it would be and it is built for utility rather than for aesthetics. But twarn't bad, not bad at all. Plenty of seating in a wide open room.

And distinctive and eye-catching window art. Hey, it's what caught my attention the time we were out here for the ID. 

I was left wondering what that brown thing is that's playing pool? See it there, on the left?

Odd.

And the specials for Saturday fit me to a (XL) T . . . 

Mmmmmmm, Reubens!!!

And for Carol she was looking for some Fish 'N Chips.

Hahaha, win, win!!

Speaking of win, they also had plenty of SeaHawks reminders around. Yeah, it's still a sore point, but we're getting over the loss. The 12 will be back in force next year, count on it.

Gooooooo, SeaHawks!!

They had the requisite six big screen TVs, a karaoke machine and . . . these, five machines set up for electronic darts.

Uh, semi-pro, eh!?!

Modern times, they take a card that IDs you and you can keep track your games and scores. It sorta dampens the flavor of playing darts, though. I was never any great shakes at darts, but I did have my own set and it was fun, flinging the ol' missiles at the target.

Fun Facts: Darts were historically used in warfare in ancient history; skirmishers used darts of varying sizes, similar to miniature javelins. It was the practice of this skill that developed into a game.

Before the First World War, pubs in the UK had dartboards made from solid blocks of wood, usually elm. They had to be soaked overnight to heal the holes made by the darts, and it was a messy business for the publican. This changed when a company called Nodor, whose primary business was making modeling clay (which has no odor, hence the name Nodor), started making clay dartboards in 1923. The clay dartboard never caught on and Nodor switched back to making the traditional elm dartboards that were popular at the time.

Their model of dartboard was not a great success until someone came up with the idea of using the century plant to make a dartboard. Small bundles of sisal fibers of the same length were bundled together. The bundles were then compressed into a disk and bound with a metal ring. It was an instant success, as the darts did little or no damage to the board - they just parted the fibers when they entered the board. Obviously, this type of board was more durable and, key point, required little maintenance.

Ah, pool tables. 

Hahaha, good memories. I was never any good but my brother, Curtis, was pretty good. I remember one time he was getting hustled and, after losing a couple of games, he got mad. He had 4-5 balls left to sink and he said to the guy, I'll bet you $20, (I don't remember the exact amount but it was the 70s and this was a small fortune then) you don't get another shot.

Of course the guy took the bet. 

And then Curtis shot the 8-ball into a pocket. 

Game over.

 The other guy didn't get another shot.

Go on take the money and run.

(To be honest, I vaguely remember this happening and I may have, like Brian Williams, misremembered parts of it. It is, I think, pretty much true. As evidence I offer the solid evidence that anyone who knows me will not dispute . . . I'm not smart enough to think this up on my own!! 'Nuff said.)

And the heart of the whole operation, the bar. It was shortly after 1300 and the regulars were there. To be fair, it is a Saturday.

See the man on the left? The one with the light blue shirt? He is actually from Ireland. I heard him talking about finding a pub for himself.

Welcome home, Bucko.

And, of course, the top of the bar is lined with zany collectibles and other minutiae.

In response to the question asked by the Hilliary Clinton thing . . . 

No!! Absolutely not!!

Do you have Prince Albert in a can?

Yes, we do.

Let him out!! He can't breathe!!

Hahahaha, keen humor!!

OK, it was almost like an Irish Pub. They make a game effort and put up some Irish Pub signs, you can see one for Guiness behind the menu. However, they fell far, far short of being a Pub.

First I asked for a Harp.

Nope, they were out.

Then I asked for a Smithwick's.

Nope, out of that, too.

OK, have you got a DC?

Bingo!!

In a PBR glass.

After a short wait we were rewarded with our lunches. Oh, Carol did a big change of pace today and got herself a Rueben.

She'd originally ordered the Fish 'N Chips but  . . . Hahaha, you guessed it!! They were out!!

Then she toyed with the idea of a burger but in the end, she went big and got herself a Rueben.

Mmmmmmm, Rueben!!

   Barroom Convex Reflected Mirror Selfie!!   

We're shameless. Totally.

But we're fun, too!!

And it was good. 

Here's the front window with a little window dressing, ala Carol.

Driving back, I decided that, since our days here are numbered, I would grab every opportunity to stop at our park. And I did.

We've enjoyed this small park and had some good lunches here. I've also had the opportunity to grab some nice shots here.

Like this. There's the Boeing plant on the right and Coulon Park to the left of it on the distant shore. There were some dramatic clouds livening up the sky, too.

Looking northeast towards Bellevue.

Getting a little closer with the zoom.

Look carefully at the center and you'll see a small private plane. It was practicing take-offs and landings. It would take off, circle the field in a big loop and then come in for a landing. As soon as it touched down, it would start climbing back up into the air.

Over and over. 

Whenever I see this, I think of my son-in-law who used to instruct pilots here. Back in his footloose and fancy-free bachelor days.

And here's Carol looking for some more waterfowl.

Here, chick, chick, chick . . .

We were hitting on all cylinders today. Eagle? Check! Lunch? Check! Seaplane taking off? Check!!

Hahaha, be thankful. There were over ten pictures in this sequence, you're welcome.

Whup!! Here he comes again!!

We left and were on our way back when Carol spotted this guy up in Eagle Tree #2.

So, having hit on a winning idea earlier, we did it again and drove up into the neighborhood to try and get a look at him from a different angle.

And we did.

As we were driving up we couldn't see him and then, as we were stopping, two eagles flew up!! Evidently he had taken off as we were making our way up to the tree. One of them landed in the tree and the other continued flying on.

Look at those talons!!

Ouch!!

And where we parked we had a good view of these Robins . . . 

Rockin' Robins . . . 

Go Rockin' Robin cause we're really gonna rock tonight.

But the star of the show was, obviously, This guy.

He rocks, too.

What a great day. It was fun getting out and I am always up for a Rueben. 

And today we got eagles coming and going. 

Now that we know we'll be leaving and have a semi-workable date, I am hit with a bit of melancholy at leaving. I've had a lot of fun in Seattle and there is still so much more to do and see.

But, it really is time to be moving on.

Case in point . . . as we were driving home, we stopped at a light where Rainier Avenue and Seward Park Avenue intersect. As I accelerated, we heard a loud bang and then, just a second behind that, several distinctive pops. 

I wasn't sure but I wasn't going to hang around to find out either and I applied my foot to the gas pedal and quickly drove out of there. We stopped at the Safeway about a quarter mile away and as I was walking into the store I heard the wailing of the sirens as the police responded.

Yeah, another shooting. Another drive-by.

We watched the news and there was no mention of the shooting on either KOMO or KIRO. I guess shootings in Rainier Beach are so common they don't rate much notice on the local news.

Yeah, time to move on. I've had more people shot within a two-mile radius of me here than when I was overseas.

Regardless, it was a good day . . . for us.

Life is good.

     Hooah!!