On Vacation

Not much going on here at the moment. Pam just left for work, and Angus is due back from work in an hour or so (he works nightshift). It's been an interesting trip so far, though. Sunday's drive was a bit longer than planned, as I forget that the speed limit on Oregon interstates is 65. I drove 70 most of the time. To be honest, I don't care very much about speed limits per se. However, I don't see the point of pushing and pushing and pushing to the point that every car you come to is someone you have to pass, and every cop is an enemy. Also, Jean Luc gets the best gas mileage between 55 and 70 mph. Anything much above 70 cuts the gas mileage significantly.

Leavenworth is a rather cozy little tourist town. I felt right at home, as it's a great deal like Estes Park. A bit smaller, much lower elevation, but the same overall flavor. And it was good seeing Fibonacci again. One thing I like about tourist towns is that they're good places to look for gifts. So I now have a large proportion of my Christmas shopping done. However, I think the best attraction in Leavenworth is the riverwalk. Lots of plants, some historical markers, and bridges spanning the river. I'm not sure, but I think it was the Wenatchee River. There's also a nice walking/biking path up by the fish hatchery.

Oh, and I've been introducing everyone to Thai food on this trip. Fibonacci and I found a Thai place in Wenatchee (closed on Sunday night when I got there, but open the next day for lunch), and it had quite good food. No surprise: authentic Thai is nearly always good. Last night, I asked Pam about Thai places here, and there was one close to where Angus works, so we picked him up on our way (apparently when things are quiet, he's allowed to take off for an hour or so; *shrugs*). Also very good food, and the first place I've been where seafood other than shrimp was a meat option. I tried "Ta Ley", which means a mix of all the seafood they have: shrimp, scallops, mussels, squid. I didn't care for the mussels, but they were okay. Everything else was good. It's been a long time since I had squid. Very, very good flavor.

I tagged along with Pam to a mall yesterday (uh...Washington Square, maybe). Mainly she wanted to go to Gifts from Afar, which is a rather nice import store. Lots of stuff I liked, but either I had no use for it or it was more than I wanted to pay. We wandered through the rest of the mall looking for something else interesting. There were really only two other interesting stores. One was a toys/games store, but I had plenty of presents for Spencer and David already. The other was a tea store. Tea-Vana. Lots of teapots and tea sets and LOADS of tea varieties. Finally I have some Thai-tea to make at home again. *grins* Even better, they have a web-site for when I run out and haven't made a trip to Scapoose in a while. The rest of the stores were mall-weeds: the typical clothing/accessory stores that pop up in most malls becase most people don't have the sense to cut them off from their food supply (i.e. money).

Today? No clue. But I think I'll head down US 30 for a while. There's an island with a wildlife reserve somewhere around there, if I can find the road/bridge onto it. I might also head into Portland and see if I can find Powel's. I'm not in book-buying mode (except maybe as gifts for people), but there was an organic-foods market across from Powell's. Nice in-store salad bar.

Final thought: it's been rather amusing to be getting up early local time, and still feel like I'm sleeping in.