End of Summer 2023 recap
Even though summer doesn’t officially end until the Autumn Equinox, September 1st always feels like the end of summer. Here are photos of some things we did this summer.
In July, we went to a campout with a group of friends at Paca Pride, an alpaca farm, guest ranch, and private event space in Granite Falls, Washington.
The main lodge at Paca Pride.
Alpacas at Paca Pride.
This campout is an annual event, and every year there is a theme. Its a debaucherous campout, and it involves a lot of partying and trail running/stumbling. Our campout had a space theme. Steve has a bar that he brings to these campouts, so we did a Star Wars Bar. (It’s called the Cougar’s Den because his nickname is Cougaroos.)
Us in front of our Star Wars Bar.
Blurry pic from the Photo Booth.
We made drinks and snacks to fit the theme of the Star Wars Bar. In years past, Steve has just brought a bunch of booze and made people drinks as ordered, but that seemed too tedious for us to be able to enjoy the party, so we made self-serve drinks this year. It was way better than having to man the bar all night.
Our Yoda drink was made with green things and whiskey.
Our Storm Trooper drink was made with white things.
Our Darth Vader drink was made with dark things.
Our Han Solo drink was made with a sprinkling of edible glitter and stars.
We weren’t even going to do any snacks, but a friend thought up “Admiral Snackbar” and knew we had to include it.
In August, we did another campout at a private property in Coos Bay Oregon. This was a campout with an overlapping group of friends as the other campout, and it’s another debaucherous event filled with partying and trail running/stumbling. This campout doesn’t have an official theme, but it has an ongoing theme of “bees” because of all the bees on trail, and people came up with a loose Barbie theme for the event. Steve and I brought the bar again and made some themed drinks.
The first night, we made a Bee-Sting drink, and then, because Coos Bay has a famous whale explosion story, we made a drink called the Whale Explosion.
I forgot to get a pic of this one at the event, but here’s the display we made. It has lemonade, gin, honey, and a little chili liqueur sting.
The Whale Explosion was so fun to create. Basically, you have these ingredients that have differing colors and densities, so when you drop the grenadine in, it makes the “explosion.”
The second night, we did a Barbie Bar. We renamed the Cougar’s Den to “The Mojo Dojo Casa Bar.” I actually dressed up as Weird Barbie, and Steve dressed up as denim vest Ken, but I didn’t get a photo, so I’m posting this photo of us from a different Barbie event.
Mojo Dojo Casa Bar.
Ken and Barbie.
We made some great themed drinks. The Barbie Drink was very pink. We had garnishes that were black, or pink and sparkly, so people could choose their own version of Barbie. We had the display with the garnishes served in a pink stiletto and a pink Birkenstock.
Barbie Drink.
Larger Barbie Drink display.
The Weird Barbie had coconut milk, gin, sake, matcha, and lime syrup. The garnish was Pop Rocks.
Weird Barbie Drink.
Larger Weird Barbie Drink display.
The Allan was basically an Old Fashioned, a classic.
The Allan Drink.
The Allan larger display.
The Kenergy Drink was just a shot of Jaeger and Monster Energy Drink served in a little solo shot cup. It sounded disgusting and basic to me, but it was a surprising hit. People kept coming back for it.
Other than the campouts and all the wine stuff I’ve posted about previously, not much happened this summer. I did enjoy many meals made with ingredients from our local farmer’s market on the balcony, which is so lovely.
Goodbye summer!