Spontaneity

I haven’t been keeping up with my blog lately. My husband had some time off between sites and we decided to visit some of the local areas. He flew his parents up for their 50th wedding anniversary and they did some sightseeing with us. We drove around the Mt Hood area which is absolutely beautiful. We also took a trip to Goldendale Washington. If you ever find yourself driving through there be sure and stop at St John’s Greek Monastery on US 97. They own and operate the Greek Bakery which has the best baklava you’ve ever had. Another interesting and educational place to visit is the Goldendale Observatory. We however got there about 5 minutes after 5:00 and missed the opportunity. We recently returned from a spontaneous “day” trip to Seattle. Something I learned from that trip is I need to keep a small bag packed with a change of clothes, small antiperspirant, toothbrush, and travel size toothpaste, as well as a light jacket, work out clothes and swim suit. We have recently become increasingly spontaneous and have actually taken 3 trips where we ended up staying the night somewhere without a change of clothes, or a tooth brush. Most hotels will provide you with certain toiletry items at no charge, such as toothbrush, toothpaste, deodorant, and razors. But not all hotels do. The place we stayed had everything except deodorant. So I have decided to just stay prepared and keep a bag ready to go as soon as my hubby says “Let’s go for a ride.” Fortunately, this trip was so spontaneous and the drive so far I decided to just put my hair up in a ponytail and put my makeup on in the truck. So at least I had my makeup with me and didn’t have to worry about fixing my hair. I highly recommend bringing along healthy snacks when taking a long drive like this. I always carry with me some mixed nuts, fruit, and/or granola bars. I like the Nature Valley granola bars because they don’t have high fructose corn syrup, usually the first ingredient on most snack bars, and they have less sugars than most yogurts. Carrying snacks with me keeps me from grabbing unhealthy munchies at the convenience store like potato chips or cookies. I also bring lots of water, and stay away from sodas.

Seattle is a beautiful city, but the traffic is less than desirable. Almost as bad if not worse than Houston. Our trip also coincided with the annual gay pride parade and it was crazy in downtown Seattle. We didn’t get to do a lot of sightseeing because we were with his parents and they can’t do much walking. But we did get to go to the Pike Place Market where they have the “flying fish” where employees throw three-foot salmon and other fish to each other rather than passing them by hand. When a customer orders a fish, an employee at the Fish Market's ice-covered fish table picks up the fish and hurls it over the countertop, where another employee catches it and preps it for sale. According to the employees, this tradition started when the fishmongers got tired of having to walk out to the Market's fish table to retrieve a salmon each time someone ordered one. Eventually, the owner realized it was easier to station an employee at the table, to throw the fish over the counter. The "flying fish" have appeared in an episode of the television sitcom Frasier that was shot on location and have been featured on The Learning Channel. After that we took a trip up to the observation deck in infamous Space Needle. It was interesting and you get a great view of Seattle and the bay, but not sure its worth the $17 ticket price. I hope to go back to Seattle soon and experience the Underground Tour. It’s an hour and a half walking tour beneath Seattle's sidewalks and streets, so we didn’t get the opportunity to do this for obvious reasons. Since we are now about a 2 hour drive from Seattle I’m sure we’ll make several trips there. I'm looking forward to my next spontaneous trip and my bag is already prepared and ready to go.