News from the Pacific Northwest

So, the lovely autumnal Pacific Northwest is lovely and autumnal, almost East-coast feeling, but it's cold. Freezing. I'm like wearing my coat indoors.

Today my friend Terri made me go took me birding with her in the wetlands on the Hood Canal. It reminded me of a trip she and I took several years ago to Vermont, when the Scottish Deerhound National Specialty was held at the Basin Harbor Club on Lake Champlaign (I probably spelled that wrong) in Vergennes. It looked a lot like this area, which also has a lot of lakes, but with one big and important difference.

All over Vermont I noticed a horrifying shortage of good coffee places. Here, not only does there seem to be a Starbucks on every corner -- I'm not a Starbucks fan but it's better than the gas station and convenience store coffee we had in Vermont -- but an independent coffeehouse or espresso stand, too. It's bliss.

We saw a bald eagle last night, Blue Herons today, and many kinds of duck that got her very excited. I'm happy to see her happy and long walks in beautiful places are always good, but I don' t think I'll get the birding bug anytime soon.

Tomorrow I go to Seattle, where I'm hoping the hotel is warmer than every house and business I've been in since I got here. Coffee must have some kind of anti-freeze effect on the blood. Yet another reason they should have more of it in Vermont.

Comments

[ramin]

Ok. Now I know I've been around retrievers for too long. My first thought of birding was hunting, not just looking at birds... (I'm a native with English, but I still miss a lot of idioms because I've lived my life in Finland.)

[kabbage]

You forgot the other universal Northwest beverage: microbrews. We drink beer so we won't notice how cold we are.

And we buy books because after we read them we can stack them floor to ceiling for insulation!