The Great Northwest

After a sweltering good time in Chicago we headed home via Seattle/Vancouver/Portland. Ah lovely reliable overcast-cool weather, how I miss it! It was actually gorgeous on July 4th in Seattle--sunny and hot--the rest of the time it was typical northwest weather. Gray (not a bad thing to me since I actually didn't mind the gloom when I was at UW).

I gotta say we had just as much good food and fun in the northwest as we did in Chicago, maybe even more since we were in such good company! Big ol' hugs, kisses and thanks to all our fanstastical hosts--housing, dinner, bbq, tour guide--you guys rocked our world--WICKED AWESOME!!!

Unfortunately, being the lame-o picture taker I am, I missed out on a whole lot of potentially wacky shots with friends--HEH?! Yeah, I super suck. Some of the silly pictures I did manage to sneak in during our NW tour:


I've been wanting to try this candy for a while--ever since I saw it on Food TV, that show that Double Dare's host hosts...Mark Summers? Anyhoo, have I mentioned that I love regional snacks?! I tried to buy it when I was in Houston earlier this year but they only sold it in a big expensive pack of nostalgic candy so I passed. Found this at a rest stop right before the Canadian border. Oh, and fyi, if you're ever driving to Vancouver from Seattle I highly recommend the truck crossing border route, it was so quick and has a nice Duty Free shop coming back into the US--unlike the main border which can take longer to cross and I hear Duty Free is literally a shack/trailer.

Whoa, got a wee bit sidetracked...I only took one bite but it was enough. I'm not a super big fan of marshmallows to begin with (I'm dumb, I knew it was a marshmallow candy but I wanted to try it anyway), the marshmallow was on the firmer side, don't know if that's a good or bad thing. The grated coconut didn't do anything for me and I'm thinking there might have been a base of some sort but I can't really remember. Eh, it was okay, I can check it off my list, my life can go on now. Side note--are the eyes on the wrapper creepy or what? Reminds me of these eyes.


This shot I took in a convenient store in downtown Portland, I laughed out loud when I saw it. Didn't try it though, the free Monster energy drink they were handing out in Chicago put me off of energy drinks--tasted too much like my cough medicine. The boy on the other hand couldn't get enough of it, said it tasted like bubble gum. He even drank the diet version of Monster....daring!


Hehe, here's a requested picture--the mini doughnut machine at Pike's Place Market. We had to make a stop at Daily Dozen. How can anyone resist the allure of a fresh doughnut?! Actually I'm just as in love with the doughnut machine as I am with their doughnuts--I'm not saying they're the bestest ever cause I've had some duds from here (when I un-lucked out and got cold doughnuts, they should through people in jail for serving cold doughnuts!) but when doughnuts are fresh...watch out!!! We bought a bag of cinnamon sugar ones, my personal favorite but I guess there are only so many doughnuts (even fresh ones) a person can eat before feeling...blah. My limit was three or four, sad huh? The boy didn't think they were as good as they were before (I just stare at him crazy-like--can't say anything cause my mouth is stuffed with cinnamony cake doughnut goodness) so he didn't eat as many as I think he could have :) We had left over--ACK! The horror! All those doughy balls of heaven wasted...those are the times I wish I were a camel, store doughnuts in my fat hump and not look weird (poor camel, wonder what happened to its hump).