The other Washington

Somehow I have completely fallen off the blog bandwagon, and have taken three or four trips they never made it in to the blog. 

In July I recovered from COVID just in time to visit my favorite grumpy pet, Wesley the cat. He had recently moved from the San Francisco area to the state of Washington, just outside Portland.

Wesley spent a year with me while his family traveled the world. He remembered me and occasionally deigned to let me pet him during my stay. Wesley is now very old, but has managed to maintain his misanthropic personality.

Conveniently, my brother and his family share a house with Wesley, so I was able to spend time with them as well. One of the highlights was a trip to a nickel arcade. I have no experience with arcade games because they were expensive when I was a kid. But my brother treated each of us to 50 nickels worth, and it was a blast. My nibling trounced me at  Guitar Hero, and my nephew left me in the dust during at motorcycle and car racing. (For the record, my IRL skills include riding a motorcycle and playing acoustic guitar.)

The penny arcade was part of our Portland tour sponsored by the letter "P": Powell's books, the "pentapenny" arcade, and Pip's Donuts.

These donuts were expensive and we had to wait in line for them a half hour. Definitely worth it.

My brother and I had a disagreement about the best brand of mint chocolate chip ice cream. We settled this as everyone does, with scientific blind taste tests. We procured seven brands, and each person tested them twice over two nights. Conclusion? Standards to evaluate mint chocolate chip ice cream vary by person. We largely agreed on the worst ones, but couldn't agree on the absolute top choice. The best value, though, is expensive local brands that sell in half gallons, rather than expensive pints or cheap half gallons.

Up next on the blog: not one, but two trips to Homerville, Ohio!