Tag Archives: Nell Thorn Pub & Restaurant

La Conner

In 1869 John S. Conner purchased the trading post on the Swinomish Channel and named the area in honor of his wife Louisa Ann Conner and that’s how La Conner got its name.

After we mucked about in the fields of daffodils my sisters and I drove a few minutes away to La Conner for lunch and a little shopping.

Sisters wknd 101

We chose Nell Thorn on the channel with good food and nice views.

Sisters wknd 100

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Lana, Kathy the youngest and oldest and me and Vera in the middle.

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We each chose something different for our lunch and everyone enjoyed their choices.

Whew! Happy my sisters were here last weekend instead of this weekend as we had quite a wild Sunday. Our power was out for 13 hours and we were happy to wake up to electricity again. Schools in our area are cancelled today as 85,000 are still without power. Trees were down and some of the trees brought down power lines, too. Here’s our light sources from last evening…

12814268_10209003802880554_4684928547280182380_nHope you all have power today and are enjoying the light!

Appetizers!

A is for Appetizers!

We love food at this old house and sometimes our meals out are all about the appetizers. Bruschetta is something we like to order and it’s interesting to try all the different styles of it. We also like flat breads with tasty toppings. The top right photo is a favorite of ours, fried Polenta with a creamy mushroom sauce from Nell Thorn Restaurant in La Conner, Washington. The top left photo is from Eureka at University Village in Seattle. Those are Oso Buco Riblets and their take on Bruschetta. The bottom left photo are 4 plates of appetizers from Canlis in Seattle, Washington. The Flat Bread on the bottom right is from Seasons 52 at South Coast Plaza in Costa Mesa, California.

Join in with ABC Wednesday in this new year. We are at the beginning of the alphabet again and our thanks go out to Denise Nesbitt the originator of the meme and to her team of bloggers that help keep the meme going.

Our Anniversary Dinner

Nell Thorn2We traveled north from our home to LaConner, Washington for our anniversary dinner at Nell Thorn.

Nell Thorn1The food was delicious. We started with Polenta Cakes smothered in a creamy Shitake Gorgonzola sauce. For our main course Dear enjoyed a Rib-Eye steak and I enjoyed a Lamb Shank with a stew of beans and greens with a lamb jus. Because I’m a lover of all things lamb this hits the spot for me.

So this new week brings some fun preparations at this old house for a much anticipated Christmas Party coming up this next Sunday. I will share fully next week. We were challenged today at church to slow down, enjoy the wonder and receive God’s love. I will consider how to do that in the midst of preparations. How are you doing?

Tulip Festival in the Skagit Valley

Tulips

By A.E. Stallings

The tulips make me want to paint,
Something about the way they drop
Their petals on the tabletop
And do not wilt so much as faint,
~
Something about their burnt-out hearts,
Something about their pallid stems
Wearing decay like diadems,
Parading finishes like starts,
~
Something about the way they twist
As if to catch the last applause,
And drink the moment through long straws,
And how, tomorrow, they’ll be missed.
~
The way they’re somehow getting clearer,
The tulips make me want to see—
The tulips make the other me
(The backwards one who’s in the mirror,
~
The one who can’t tell left from right),
Glance now over the wrong shoulder
To watch them get a little older
And give themselves up to the light.
~
On this past Sunday after Dear picked me up from the airport we headed straight to the Skagit Valley for lunch and a quick trip to some tulip fields. We are really blessed here in Washington to enjoy amazing flower festivals including tulips, lilacs, lavender, daffodils, and of course our state flower the rhododendron. I will be sharing lots of tulip photos but decided to start with a poem and a few shots since this is poetry month, too. Blessings…
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Here are the photos of our lunch before we headed to the fields. We ate at Nell Thorn in La Conner. A restaurant we highly recommend. Dear had a lamb burger that was amazing and I had a quiche that was more like a souffle. I also had to taste their soup of the day which was a spicy bean garnished with cilantro. Yummy!
~

Early Celebration…

Sunday evening we drove an hour to the little town of La Conner for dinner together to celebrate Father’s Day. Our children will be scattered next Sunday so we decided to celebrate early. Nell Thorn has a variety of good local food cooked to perfection. We all enjoyed our choices. As your family grows and your children marry it is a very good choice not to get too attached to celebrating on exact dates. Flexibility and enjoying the times you do spend together are key to contentment in extended family relationships.

Mosaic Monday is hosted by Mary at Little Red House. Thank you Mary!

 

We Highly Recommend…

The Wild Iris Inn in La Conner, Washington for a great getaway.

Dear and I had an overnight there for my birthday last weekend.

 

First we had lunch at Seeds-A Bistro & Bar. They have a great menu. After lunch and a little walk about town I checked in for my 90 minute massage at Salon Rouge while Dear checked into our Bed and Breakfast Inn. Later we would have dinner at the restaurant in the bottom right photo.

Before dinner we strolled through the La Conner Quilt and Textile Museum which is housed in the National Historical Victorian Gaches Mansion. It’s the white house on the left…

All of the food we ate was wonderful. Top left is my lunch at Seeds, Borsch and a 1/2 meatloaf sandwich. That amazing appetizer of fried polenta smothered in a fabulous sauce and the lamb shank was my meal at Nell Thorn Pub and Restaurant. It was an exceptional place to eat with a great staff and ambiance. Our two course breakfast at the Wild Iris was very tasty and filling.  Good thing it was a lovely weekend to walk around town and burn a few of the calories we ate.

Some of the shops about town. In 1869 John S. Conner purchased the trading post on the Swinomish Channel and named the area in honor of his wife Louisa Ann Conner and that’s how La Conner got its name.

The waterfront and the Rainbow Bridge crossing the Swinomish Channel. The Swinomish Indians are La Conner’s First Nation.

It was fun to come upon the wild turkeys that made La Conner their home in 2005 and that the city has declared the official town mascot.

Some sites just outside of the city center. The acres of fertile farmland around La Conner were first planted mostly with oats. The Tulip industry emerged in the Skagit Valley in the 1920’s when there were restrictions on importing Dutch Tulip bulbs. After WWII, Dutch immigrants began farming tulip bulbs. Since 1982, the annual Skagit Valley Tulip Festival is held the month of April and has been attracting visitors from around the world to view between 400 and 500 acres of tulips in bloom. I’m going to try to get back up to this area when the tulips bloom…

On the way home on my birthday we also saw the Snow Geese which I posted about earlier in the week. La Conner was a delightful overnight getaway for Dear and ellen b.