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rivendellroseSo, on Sunday I went out with Programmer-Boy again. We got coffee on the Ave, and then took a walk through the university campus - that was especially neat, because he's not a local, and hadn't seen it before, so I got to play tour-guide a little bit. Campus really is an impressive place, especially on a sunny fall day. Then we walked back to my place and hung out (and got hit up for attention by the cat) for a bit before I had to run off to spend time with my dad and step-mom. Whereupon I immediately got the third degree about the "cutie," since they'd seen him before we parted ways. And last night he called to confirm that he was having fun and wanted to see me again. So... still going well, I guess. ♥
I went over the mountains with Dad and my step-mom, with the idea of taking pictures of the fall foliage, but we were somewhat hampered by a lack of good pull-over spots on the actual pass. Still got some good shots on the far side, though, so I'll have to go through them tonight and get them down to post-able size. We don't get nearly the lovely fall colors that are classic on the east coast, but Northwest fall has it's own special beauty.
Once we were over the mountains, we went to Leavenworth for dinner. Strange place, Leavenworth - basically, it was a dying town up until the 1960s, when a team decided to redesign the whole city on a Bavarian theme, to bring in tourists. It worked. We got there about 5pm (on a Sunday, keep in mind) and it was pretty packed. It gets moreso in the winter... I've been once around Christmas, and it was insane. The weird thing is that everything is Bavarian-themed, at least in architecture... right down to real estate offices, the auto parts store, and the McDonalds. Most of the shops have twee little signs painted calligraphy, with at least some nod to German language ("Das Candy Shop" or something like that, for instance), with flowers and so on. Which leads to a funny point - we went to dinner at a nice little Italian restaurant, and across the way from our window I could see ye olde Bavarian Starbucks. Which had a motto written over its door in the fancy colored calligraphy that's omnipresent in Leavenworth. My eyes almost passed right over it, but something in my hind-brain kicked in - it was in French. Why? No idea. The motto read "Soyez le Bienvenu." Which... seemed to me as though someone had rather misused BabelFish. Isn't Bienvenu enough for these people?
Other than that, all that's to be said about Leavenworth is that I ate wonderful chicken marsala and some sort of deliciously heavy custard dessert, that the stars over the pass on the way back were almost unbearably beautiful and bright... and that my dad gave me my great-grandpa's pocket-watch for my birthday. It's gorgeous, it runs and keeps proper time, and it's got his initials engraved on the back. And it fits neatly in my vest pocket, where it is merrily ticking away right now. I'm sort of in love with it. It also required a bit of quick research - apparently my great-grandpa was a member of a Masonic Lodge, and his watch has the Freemasonry symbol, the compass and square, on the, er, dangly bit that hangs off the button-hole part. ...Possibly I should look up some of that terminology, too...
I went over the mountains with Dad and my step-mom, with the idea of taking pictures of the fall foliage, but we were somewhat hampered by a lack of good pull-over spots on the actual pass. Still got some good shots on the far side, though, so I'll have to go through them tonight and get them down to post-able size. We don't get nearly the lovely fall colors that are classic on the east coast, but Northwest fall has it's own special beauty.
Once we were over the mountains, we went to Leavenworth for dinner. Strange place, Leavenworth - basically, it was a dying town up until the 1960s, when a team decided to redesign the whole city on a Bavarian theme, to bring in tourists. It worked. We got there about 5pm (on a Sunday, keep in mind) and it was pretty packed. It gets moreso in the winter... I've been once around Christmas, and it was insane. The weird thing is that everything is Bavarian-themed, at least in architecture... right down to real estate offices, the auto parts store, and the McDonalds. Most of the shops have twee little signs painted calligraphy, with at least some nod to German language ("Das Candy Shop" or something like that, for instance), with flowers and so on. Which leads to a funny point - we went to dinner at a nice little Italian restaurant, and across the way from our window I could see ye olde Bavarian Starbucks. Which had a motto written over its door in the fancy colored calligraphy that's omnipresent in Leavenworth. My eyes almost passed right over it, but something in my hind-brain kicked in - it was in French. Why? No idea. The motto read "Soyez le Bienvenu." Which... seemed to me as though someone had rather misused BabelFish. Isn't Bienvenu enough for these people?
Other than that, all that's to be said about Leavenworth is that I ate wonderful chicken marsala and some sort of deliciously heavy custard dessert, that the stars over the pass on the way back were almost unbearably beautiful and bright... and that my dad gave me my great-grandpa's pocket-watch for my birthday. It's gorgeous, it runs and keeps proper time, and it's got his initials engraved on the back. And it fits neatly in my vest pocket, where it is merrily ticking away right now. I'm sort of in love with it. It also required a bit of quick research - apparently my great-grandpa was a member of a Masonic Lodge, and his watch has the Freemasonry symbol, the compass and square, on the, er, dangly bit that hangs off the button-hole part. ...Possibly I should look up some of that terminology, too...
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Date: 2008-10-27 10:03 pm (UTC)I must have gotten out of the loop somehow. Sounds like you had a great weekend!!!
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Date: 2008-10-27 10:12 pm (UTC)Programmer-Boy is just the name I've given to a guy I've been on a few dates with. He's nice, though. ♥
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Date: 2008-10-27 10:20 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-10-27 10:10 pm (UTC)dangly bit that hangs off the button-hole part
Fob [g]
Sounds like a lovely watch.
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Date: 2008-10-27 10:11 pm (UTC)Thanks!
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Date: 2008-10-27 10:15 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-10-28 06:55 pm (UTC)And yeah, Leavenworth is absolutely beautiful in the winter, when under a blanket of snow...