The Weekend Edition

When I went to school, I loved three day weekends. After hours upon hours of classes, nothing made the off time go down better than when there was a little bit more of it. Of course, now that I'm working for a living, I realized that I never truly understood how much I loved three day weekends. Especially when I manage to have a wonderfully diverse and incredibly fun one as well. What'd I do?

• Worked the State Fair on Friday and met tons of cool people
• Went to Amy's backyard fire and hung out with tons of cool people (lots of new people, plus Amy, Kim, Colver, Lorna, Hannah, Cate, Darren, and Eric)
• Screwed ESPN Gameplan up magnificently (but figured out that it's set up really well besides that, so yay!)
• Drafted a $250 buy league fantasy football team with Colver (Drunken Cowboys represent, our team is pretty rockin')
• Played two rounds of Frisbee Golf (Colver and I were on fire the second round)
• Checked out Crush (Anchorage Press Pick for best new restaurant - awesome wine bar) with Colver, Lorna, Kim, Hannah, and Amy
• Tropic Thunder v 2.0 (just as awesome as the first time)
• Went to the Alaska State Fair with Colver, Lorna, and Kim
• Pounded out six episodes of Freaks and Geeks with Kim (such an awesome show)
• Finished up reading the previous weeks comics (28 book week - good god)
• Had a Monday stocked full of rest and relaxation - hit the gym, lunch at Middle Way Cafe, coffee and reading at Kaladi's, hanging out at sister's, dinner with parents, Prison Break premiere)

So yeah, all in all it was a great day. What was the highlight? It's really a toss up between the fire at Amy's (so much fun!) and my first exposure to Crush, but because the fire at Amy's is pretty much impossible to talk about without sounding ridiculously boring (cliffs notes: we drank, we talked, there was bbqing, dogs wrestled, the fire was great, there were cigars involved - great times) I'm going to go with Crush.

Crush is a new restaurant in Anchorage that is primarily a tapas bar but is also renowned for its wine selection and its atmosphere. It's right outside the 5th Avenue Mall in downtown Anchorage, and to quote Kim it's "freaking delicious."

Kim, Hannah, and I arrived first, and Kim ordered a diet coke while Hannah and I ordered flights of wine. These flights were three two oz. pours of different types of wines, and Hannah went with the Italy package (a tour of wines from Italy, shockingly) while I went with the Discovering Whites package (a trio of tasty white wines). We also ordered four tapas, which is just a fancy word for little appetizers essentially. We ordered meatballs, mac and cheese, the hummus plate, and zesty chicken skewers. The waiter was greatly amused by our voraciousness, but we could care less. It was all incredibly good.

We tore those plates apart in no time flat, with Amy arriving with very little remaining and Colver and Lorna arriving with absolutely no plates remaining (they were taken away, I did not consume them out of sheer hunger). More drinks were ordered and we all discussed how much we loved the place. Whether it was the tables made of old wine barrels or the cork walls, the great lighting or the friendly wait staff, the comfy seating area or the even comfier looking lounge area, this place was a huge hit with our crowd.

Crush will most certainly be attended again by all of us, and whenever the next time is too far from now. From what I can tell, it deservedly won best new restaurant in Anchorage.