Summer's last gasp

We had rain the last two mornings, but the automatic sprinklers were the only sound of water today. It will be back in the high 90's again, but next week is supposed to be much, much cooler.  Everyone is excited about the 75 degree days coming up, although it will be unpleasantly windy when the weather changes over the weekend.  Marji is driving "Maurice" home from Utah on Sunday, and I hope she has an easy trip.

I'm flying home tomorrow morning, so this is my last full day in Las Vegas.  We've had a relaxing time visiting, reading books and of course, eating. There are many inexpensive, quality restaurant options here in the Entertainment Capital of the World.  The days of the $1.99 buffet are long gone. I wish the excellent "Pollo Loco" fire-grilled chicken chain would expand to Seattle!    

Pollo Loco avocado chicken salad...

Pollo Loco chicken fingers...

 Salmon dinner at home...

 

Las Vegas panhandler...

Chillin' out

I woke up this morning to the nice sound of rain.  It didn't last long but refreshed the desert.  We stayed close to home with our noses in books for most of the day.  I finally finished the interminable "Barkskins" by Annie Proulux, my summer reading project.  Boy, she could give Tolstoy a run for his money.  

In the summer it's too hot to walk Doodles and Molly around the neighborhood, but I took them out for a long one today.  They use one of those double, leg-tangling leases and the naughty Dachshund swaggers in front, pulling like a miniature Rottweiler.  He especially enjoys taunting a fierce guard dog behind a fence. Heaven help him if that animal ever gets his revenge.  Molly is old, and she takes her sweet time "marking" the way every few steps.

We didn't make fast progress, but I enjoy snooping at other people's front yards. There is plenty of desert landscaping (i.e. rocks and concrete) in Las Vegas suburbia, but some people must have their bit of green grass.  And what a blessing folks like my sister planted shade trees when they moved here 20 years ago.

We had gone about 8 blocks and were headed back when Doodles flopped on his back with all four feet in the air. Did I kill him?  Fortunately, Marji told me that's his tactic when the sidewalk heats up.  Yes, he's low to the ground and I was sympathetic, but it wasn't THAT hot. I told him nice try, but no way. He is small, but solid and heavy.  He gave me that resigned look, then walked the rest of the way home.  They are the cutest dogs.  And of course they are not spoiled at all. 

Green desert

The flight to Las Vegas was trouble free yesterday morning, and the Super Shuttle van brought me to Marji's doorstep from the airport. Who can ask for anything more? We had a shrimp and pasta dinner and then watched the "debate."  Enough excitement for one day.

This morning Dad and I took the dogs for a walk around a lake in Floyd Lamb Park. The weather is beautiful and it was a perfect day for a drive in the desert.  Good thing, because somehow we missed the park freeway exit.  I-95 North heads merrily off into the open desert when the Las Vegas sprawl abruptly ends. No interchange or place to make a U-turn for many miles.

I enjoyed the wide open highway, desert scenery and crystalline blue skies, but as we approached the town of Indian Springs it was time to head back, lest we find ourselves in Death Valley for lunch.

(John can tell horror stories of my navigational "mishaps.")

Anyway, we backtracked and found the park on the second pass.  Without resorting to Siri, who doesn't like me much and the feeling is mutual.

The weather is perfect for sitting outside. No too hot, windy or cool. Yesterday afternoon we watched hummingbirds and a big, colorful Monarch butterfly feeding on the orange flowers in Marji's back yard.  Dad said it's the first one he has seen here. Monarchs spend the winter in Mexico, so perhaps they are migrating through.

This is not my picture, but it could be if I wasn't so lazy.

Clouds and sun

This is a pretty time lapse from local photographer Don Jenson.  It shows an early autumn weather system with clouds casting their shadows across the face of Mt. Baker.

It's going to be nice in Seattle for a couple more days, but this might be the last 70 degree temperatures.  Later next week the weather pattern shifts over to rain and 50's.  I'm flying to Las Vegas tomorrow and looking forward to spending time with dad.  Early fall is a nice season there, it's still summery without being oppressively hot and the evenings cool off.

We'll take a few walks, eat some good food and just visit. I'm packing my ukulele along in the suitcase. It has an indestructible hard case so it should be fine.  I need to practice for The Uke's fall concert season. Ha!  John said when dad gets tired of the "plinkey-plinkey" he can always take his hearing aids out.  Very funny.

Out of Africa

I was cooing over the adorable baby pineapples at QFC this morning and the produce manager gave me one for free.  This was nice, because it had a $5.99 price tag hanging around its little neck.

I told him I wrote a food blog, which isn't exactly true, but it worked. These miniature pineapples come all the way from South Africa (rather a big carbon footprint) imported by a specialty fruit company in L.A. called Melissa's Produce.  From her website:

Also known as Queen Victoria Pineapples, they thrive in the hot and humid climate. These sweet, tart baby pineapples have a bold, rich flavor. They have a fragrant, golden skin and brilliantly colored yellow flesh. South African baby pineapples are entirely edible, with no need to remove the core. The size of an average fruit is about 4.5 inches high (not including leaves) and about 3.5 inches in diameter, making it a perfect individual serving. 
 

How cute is that?
(And the produce guy ain't bad either :-)

Well, here's a different kinda hunk. I bought a massive pork roast on sale at Safeway, and it's been marinating in the fridge for a couple of days. Since I'm home doing chores, and it's raining, and it's officially fall, I'll slow roast the thing this afternoon with onions, garlic and apples, and the house will smell fabulous when John gets home.

Of course this is an embarrassing amount of meat for two old people who must watch their diets, but the leftovers get carefully divied up in individual freezer bags (I'm my mother's daughter) for pork fried rice, pork enchiladas, barbecue pork sandwiches and so on, and so on...

Have a good weekend.  We're going to the first Symphony of the season on Sunday, and meeting our friends Betsy and Paul before the show for lunch.  A whole summer of news to catch up on.

The long view

World sunlight map

Today is the first day of fall, and there is exactly 12 hours of daylight and 12 hours of darkness at the equator. A bit more, a bit less, depending where you live on our globe.  Ready or not, the daylight hours will dwindle until the Winter Solstice.   

"I have come to a still, but not a deep center,
A point outside the glittering current;
My eyes stare at the bottom of a river,
At the irregular stones, iridescent sandgrains,
My mind moves in more than one place,
In a country half-land, half-water.
I am renewed by death, thought of my death,
The dry scent of a dying garden in September,
The wind fanning the ash of a low fire.
What I love is near at hand,
Always, in earth and air."

Theodore Roethke 

News of the day

This ugly scene caused an outrage back in February. The City of Seattle announced this week they are suing several homeowners $1.6 million for cutting down 150 trees on an environmentally sensitive slope above the Duwamish. This fancy West Seattle neighborhood is not far from our little bungalow, but it might as well be another planet.

Maybe these people thought they would get away with it, to improve their multi-million dollar view.  Anyway, the homeowners are playing innocent and blaming the contractor they hired to "clean up" the hill.  But the city attorney intends to make an example of them. We take our public trees pretty seriously here.

And Bertha. Well, she's been keeping a low profile because she has only mined 104 feet in September, opposed to 745 feet in August. WASH DOT says the speed is based on conditions and now she is moving through "abrasive" soil requiring lots of inspections and repairs on the drill head.  But on the bright side, it looks like we're about half way to the finish line.

Can you believe today is the last day of summer? And it's going to be nice in Seattle, with bright blue skies and fall temperatures.  I planted the tree rose in the ground and it's having a last hurrah for the season.

I've been moving kinda slow this week after the long road trip. For example, I'm having trouble getting out of bed and turning off this time-sucking computer!  I'm driving out to North Bend to see my barn friends and we have a steak for the grill tonight.  That should energize me. A perfect way to end the summer.

Strange fruit

John sometimes brings these funny-looking creatures home from work.  The Asian ladies in his shop leave them on his desk like presents.  They are called "rambutan," which is derived from the the Malay word meaning "hairy."  The fruit originated in Southeast Asia, but ranbutan is now cultivated in Mexico and Hawaii.


When the hairy exterior is peeled away the slippery fruit is revealed inside.

It tastes sweet and sour, kind of like a grape. Yes, you have to get over the fact it looks like a big fish eyeball.

1700 miles round trip

The final leg of our road trip was an easy drive from Portland yesterday, thanks to our friends Estelle and Bill, who hosted us with such warmth and generosity on Saturday at their home in Lake Oswego.  It was a great way to finish a nice vacation.

Thank you for the delicious food and comfy night's sleep, and especially the great dinner conversation.  We've sorted out the country's problems for the time being! And we look forward to seeing you in Seattle in November. 

The season changed from summer to fall in the week were were gone. It rained heavily once or twice  and there's a chill in the air.  We were home in time to watch the Seahawk game yesterday afternoon (oh, boy) and I pulled some chili out of the freezer for dinner.  Home sweet home.

Headed north

Of course there was a mandatory stop at the Olive Pit in Corning yesterday, and yes, we came out with a box of goodies. You would need stronger willpower than we have to resist those bargains.

We left Calistoga early and the drive north on I-5 went smoothly. It's scenic passing by Mt. Shasta and going over the Siskiyou mountains. The weather is still warm and nice.

In California, the big trucks on the freeway behave and go the speed limit in the right lane, where they belong.  They go slightly crazy when they reach Washington. Maybe the California mellow yellow wears off when they hit clouds and rain. I know the feeling.

We stayed in Medford last night and had dinner with my niece, her husband and their two adorable little boys.  They made a delicious gourmet salad with barbecue chicken, and after a week of restaurant food what a treat.  Best of all was spending a few hours with our family, and we loved seeing their beautiful new home.   Thank you, April and Jordan!

On to Portland today...

Last evening in Calistoga

Our time in Calistoga went by in a flash, and tomorrow we pack up and hit the road north.  It was chilly on Monday when we arrived, but each day the weather became progressively nicer. Tomorrow it will be back in the 90's again, which is typical for the upper part of the Napa Valley in mid-September.  The days are hot and the evenings cool. Perfect for grapes, especially the red varieties.

It's the most exciting time of the year because the grape crush is beginning at all the wineries. The vineyards are dripping with picture perfect, incredibly valuable fruit.  Timing is everything.

They won't miss a few, will they?  Wine grapes stolen off the vine are small, incredibly sweet and very seedy.

A trip to Calistoga is not complete for us without a visit to the Old Faithful Geyser. We took a picnic, as we always do, and sat for an hour and watched.  The geyser typically erupts every 45 minutes or so, but today it was going off at 10 minute intervals.  Seismic activity affects the frequency, and there was a flurry of earthquakes a few hundred miles north of here this week.  

This is not me, but you get the picture.  And the highlight of my last day was a mud bath treatment in the Dr. Wilkerson bathhouse. And then, I was totally worthless.

Nice day in Wine Land

A few million years ago (3.4 to be exact) Mt. St. Helena (not to be confused with Mt. St. Helens) blew up.  Volcanic ash made the fertile Napa Valley wine growing region of California.

It also blew an ancient redwood forest to smithereens,  and created the Petrified Forest a few miles outside Calistoga.

Say what you want about tourist traps, but this one is pretty neat.

We've been here several times. The picnic area is free and you pay a small fee to take a self-guided tour through the petrified forest that Robert Lewis Stevenson admired.

On a beautiful California morning... 

What could be better?

In the afternoon we took a tour of a wine "castle" called Castello Di Amroso.  A Disneyland of wine country affluence.

If you came to the Napa Valley in the early 1970's, a young guy named Darrel Satttui was peddling wine from a VW bus along the highway. He had an MBA in business marketing from Berkeley (uncool at the time)  and borrowed a few thousand dollars from his grandma to open the V. Sattui winery and picnic deli, the first of its kind in the Napa Valley. And now, he is a multi millionaire and we are visiting his castle. 

In the early nineties, be decided to build an authentic Italian medieval castle with tons of art and materials brought over from Europe.

The Great Hall.

The Wine storage.

Antiques galore.

Fake scary dungeon.

Hideous torture chamber with a few real relics. 

 More nice wine.

And more wine.

 And so on...another vacation day comes to an end.