You are a stranger here but once... ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Welcome to North Bend, Wa.
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And on to George. Washington, that is.
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Rural Quincy to follow. 4th of July fireworks and warm summer air.
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Greetings from Twin Peaks? If you know me, you know this should have happened nearly 20 years ago. My mother hardly ever let me watch television growing up, but she must've sensed something in Lynch's masterpiece (or at least had a wicked sense of cinema, which in fact she does) because after a similarly bizarre beginning---watching them place Laura Palmer's body in the ground the summer before my first year of middle school, bundled in blankets with my great aunt Betsy while on a trip to our homestead in New Holstein, Wisconsin---she kindly brought the portable 8-inch TV out of the closet every week so that I could follow Agent Cooper et al. in their quest for Laura's killer and beyond. She even indulged my newfound penchant for plaid skirts, sweater sets and moody jazz. Sound familiar? It's strange then, to remind oneself that a place that seemed so real is actually just barely there in reality---there's no checked tile in the "RR" diner nor is that even its name, there's construction at Snoqualmie Falls and the Great Northern plainly isn't. But it's still a thrill, hunting down that which doesn't really exist, I mean why else would we do it? So keep doing it. And if you do, there's an amazing place in North Bend, Wa. called the Log Cabin Bed and Breakfast where you can stay in a teepee for the night, build a fire inside and cook breakfast by a river. From there, Snoqaulmie Falls is just up the road a ways and continues falling, falling, falling. Don't forget to stop by Twede's for pie, while the interior may rate nothing special the pie is still damn fine. Our trip continued east from Lynch-land through George, Washington and on to Quincy, home to industrial agriculture and a wonderful hill that overlooked the town and its celebratory explosions of light for miles around. Who knows what yours will bring.