Herbs!

The number of dried things in jars - herbs, fruit, tea etc. was amazing to me - in the New An Dong Chinese Herb & Grocery in Seattle's ChinaTown/International District. One of my goals is to learn to use the buses in downtown Seattle so that we can show guests around without worrying about finding parking. This past Tuesday, my friend Carol and I took the bus to Seattle to learn about its International District. Not only did we see the fascinating herb store in the picture above, we had lunch at the Cambodian Noodle House, stopped by the huge factory where fortune cookies and noodles are made, visited the Wing Luke Museum, toured a very narrow-aisled fish shop, and learned some history of the area from our guide. And, most importantly, we managed to get on the correct bus to come home!

Iowa to Michael Jackson: No Butter Sculpture

So -- it's been decided - no Michael Jackson memorialized in butter at this year's Iowa State Fair! Read all about it here. Plus, you might enjoy some of the comments. Even the non-dairy spread Earth Balance is mentioned!

Something Old - Something New

The old: A slice of this ancient oak was exposed by ice age floods and then found by road crews in the 1930s in Central Washington, sage brush country near Vantage by the Columbia River. This petrified example and several hundred others, including the rare Ginkgo, are on display at the Ginkgo Petrified Forest State Park that Dave and I visited this past Sunday. Plus, there are some petroglyphs on display that were salvaged from oblivion when the nearby Wanapum Dam was built. An eloquent park ranger willingly shared lots of information with us.


The new: The guide here at the Wild Horse Wind Facility ten miles from the Park on Vantage Highway, was quite informative too, as were the displays in this visitor's center. This relatively new 9000 acre wind farm currently has 127 wind turbines with more in construction. Note the 'old-fashioned' windmill in the picture - like the one on our farm (except ours was metal and had a ladder) where my dad had to rescue me when I was about four and I tried climbing its ladder!

Kasey Recommends

On a hot summer day, Kasey finds this napping position very comfortable.

Doing the Crossword!

"Dude, Nice Leg!"

...by one of my favorite columnists in today's Seattle Times. And I hope there are no brown dogs on the 2009 Tour de France bike race route.