A quick post on my Great Thirtieth Birthday Cascade Loop Tour, then back to the politics, I promise.
Tomorrow, May 12, is my 30th birthday. Woo. To celebrate, Liz, my sister and I revived the Badunkadunk and went for a 3-day drive around the Northwest corner of Washington. They call it the Cascade Loop. We call it the, umm, uhh, we call it the Cascade Loop, too.
Departing Seattle Saturday morning, we had some coffee and breakfast sandwiches at Starbucks. Honestly, they're not nearly as good as McDonald's breakfast treats, but they're probably made with fewer anuses. It's a trade-off.
The Badunkadunk managed to scale the dizzying heights of Steven's Pass, and we arrived safely in the faux Bavarian village of Leavenworth, a town that remade itself as a Bavarian village for no other reason than to get people to stop there. Try the Bratwurst, it's delicious.
Coming out of the mountains, we descended onto the high, dry, lonely plains of central Washington. Living in Seattle, a veritable rain forest, it's easy to forget that an hour or two east is some of the driest, scrubbiest, sunniest land in the country. I forgot it myself.
Our destination for the day was Grand Coulee Dam. I'm a big fan of big things, particularly marvels of engineering and ingenuity and like that, and since it was my birthday trip, I got to decide. I quite enjoyed this, in the same way I'm sure to enjoy dragging my kids around to see giant buildings and Balls of Twine someday.
The town of Grand Coulee was having its annual "Colorama" festival, which consisted of a very small carnival with three rides and about 6 midway games. The scene was small town America at its finest, decked out in logoed sportswear and carrying a funnel cake in one hand and an ice-cream smeared child in the other. The teenagers cruised and looked tough, and we looked completely out of place. We tried and failed to win a stuffed animal, and that was that.
Saturday evening we experienced the Grand Coulee Dam laser light show, which I can safely say is the cheesiest thing I've ever seen.
On Sunday we headed back into the mountains. We found a beautiful campsite by the roaring Methow River and settled in for some beer drinking and campfire stoking. Dinner was cooked, wildlife was harassed, a good time was had.
Alas, on Monday we were forced to head back to the city, but not before a stop at Traxx for some high-speed indoor go-kart racing. Best average lap speed was Anthony's, while Liz posted the fastest lap overall. One accident, no injuries.
More photos from the weekend are here.
