The whole day was awesome. We went climbing at Stone Gardens in Ballard. It took a few minutes for everyone to filter in, but as I was getting my harness and shoes on, D walks in and says, "Hey Erica, I have something for you." Standing right next to her is Hesper, who flew up from TX to celebrate with me. Total surprise to me, I really had no clue that Nick, D and Hesper has apparently been planning this for 3 weeks.
Brief personal aside: D, I have to apologize for all those times I said you can't keep a secret. You got me. And Hesper, wow. Just wow. What a gift. Thank you.
Anyway, it was really cool having Hesper there, and in a way it really brought back that feeling of our old workout/hang out group. I think everyone had a really great time and enjoyed the rock climbing quite a bit. D's boyf wasn't too keen on heights, but apparently he was a total badass at bouldering. I was pretty decent at climbing...on my hardest route I managed to climb up and over an overhanging ledge but was so tired from climbing at that point that I couldn't seal the deal on the route and ended up falling like three times. Still it was really cool. Nick, Hesper, Jo & Colin all did an amazing job and by the end of the couple hour climbing session everyone was pushing themselves with harder routes.
Our belayers (our 7 person group got 2 of them) did an awesome job of making everyone confident and encouraging us, keeping us safe and walking us through the trickier parts of courses. They were so cool. Thanks guys!
After everyone's forearms were pretty much toast, we all finished up with fruit and cupcakes from cupcake royale. The Salt Caramel cupcake was incredible. :)
After climbing the boys went their respective ways. Colin had another party to go to, Mike had to get ready for work, and Nick graciously volunteered to drive home, drive the babysitter home, get Bella packed and take her up to my mom's house for an overnight. He did this all so I could have time to hang out with my girls, so that's exactly what us four girls did....we ended up on the beach in Golden Gardens, just catching up. It was gorgeous, and really nice time to just talk and hang out.
The Girls!
Then we all moseyed up north, got dressed up and went out to dinner. We had a reservation for 12 people at Loft Lounge and I had requested the upstairs room when I made the reservation. I like the Loft, but there were some serious hiccups with the reservation and food pacing. First, they set us up outside, which ended up being fine but was a customer service fail considering I had made my reservation 3 weeks earlier and had been assured of the upstairs room. Apparently they couldn't give me that space because another party of 10 had it reserved (uh, hello?).
After we got set up outside with heaters it turned out fine, though I think a few members of the party (sorry, Jo) ended up fairly chilly. Eventually, after drinks and appetizers (the calamari and wings were ok but both were pretty greasy) everyone ordered entrees. Here's where the real fail came into it: it took like 40 minutes for my entree and Nate's entree to arrive....after everyone else was served.
The owner bought a round shots to apologize, which was a nice gesture, but when the server brought them out no one was particularly impressed. They were kamikaze shots (what the hell is a kamikaze?) apparently, and they tasted for all the world like minute maid lemonaid. Super sweet, really gross. I had one because, well, I sorta felt like it was expected, but it was not my style at all. I am also about 80% confident that there was no booze in them at all, and 100% confident that if there was booze, it could be measured in fractions of a teaspoon. In other words, the attempt to make good just didn't work. So D (I learned later) basically went in and regulated on the owner. She was really bothered that I was eating everyone else's meal and had no birthday dinner of my own, so she went and yelled at the owner (I love it, D). He said, "well, I bought you a round of shots, to which D replys, "That's great, but we're not really a shot crowd, and she's turning 30 and has no damn dinner." So the owner also picked up the two unacceptably tardy entrees.
So here's my quick review of The Loft in Edmonds: I would 100% recommend going there with a group of 2-6 people. Well, definitely 4...and I think they could handle 6. The food (when it came) was really great. The drinks were ok if you stayed clear of gratis shots of sugar water. But I will not take a large party there again. They simply do not have the kitchen or the organizational ability to handle it, and it's a good thing I was in such an awesome mood or I would have been in there regulating on the owner just as hard as D.
As a group of 12 people, we spent around $700. Interestingly, for as much as we were comped, everyone came away feeling like they put in about $10 too much, which to me is a sign of iffy percieved value. The waitress was nice but was clearly pissed about the kitchen/expediter failing, and had her own hospitality failings (my second cocktail wasn't brought out until I re-ordered it; it was pretty hard to get water refills). She also made a few comments like: "If you ask my to itemize the bill I'll have to kill you," that, in combination with our huge tab, led to a good 30 minutes of rather awkward bill divying at the end (I hate that).
That said, please don't get the wrong idea, because I had a really wonderful time, and was just totally pleased with how everyone mingled, got along and enjoyed each other's company. That was a true gift to me, and despite the hiccups of The Loft I had a truly great birthday dinner.
From the restaurant, most of the group headed over to our house, and we all just chilled out until about 2, when I was about to pass out and I had to kick the last of the party out. But it was fantastic...I really couldn't have asked for a better birthday or a better group of friends.
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