Starry Wisdom

At the Villa. Yesterday we ended up going to Spoleto instead of Perugia. We walked around a while before deciding to go get food. We wandered down a windy, shoddy stone staircase and found the city wall:

We followed it around a bit until eventually we found Il Tartufo, perhaps the finest restaurant in Spoleto. We had a very impressive truffle based meal, and the wine spider made an appearance in Joan’s glass. What a tricky creature he is!

After lunch we headed back to the car to drive down to the Cascata delle Maremore, a Roman made waterfall that only runs when the power company feels like turning it on. At 165m tall, it is amongst the tallest in Europe.

After viewing the waterfall, we pulled off the road to take some pictures of the urban decay:

We drove back to the Villa, and were unable to buy a newspaper. We decided that there must be a guild that controls the selling of them, and that you need special powers to get one. Or perhaps there just are no Sunday papers in the Catholic country?

When we got back we pretty much crashed. We ate some of the Pecarino we bought in Spoleto (so delicous) and sat in front of the fire, and headed to bed around 10PM. I woke up around 8:00am today.

Galleries:
Spoleto
Cascatta delle Marmore

At the Villa – We spent an hour or so in downtown Perugia wandering around. I took some pics, and saw some great views and the pastry snake:

Then we found our way to the villa a bit before our 4pm check-in time. Miss Teodora, the keyholder, was already there, so we dropped off our deposit, and learned that gas was 4 Euros per m^3 since we were so far out of town. We decided we would try to limit our gas usage, and we got some extra wood for the fireplace.

After we settled in we decided to go grocery shopping, and then we would decide if we would go out to eat or eat in that night. We found a PAM grocery just a few km down the road. We bought some food and such and then went back up the mountain to the Villa.

We bummed around for a bit and then decided to cook in. We had strangozzi with a tomato sauce with some turkey and chicken sausage in it, spinach and some bread. Unfortunately we did not construct a potato robot with the extra selenium potatoes we bought – well maybe some other day. The dinner was simple but quite nice and filling. The 2 Euro wine we had with it was quite nice with it. After we finished we did the dishes and lit a fire, at which point it was 9PM and Fred and I had been up for more than 30 hours. We sat around talking for a while, and at about 10:30PM we decided to call it a night. Under the blankets in my bed it was quite warm!

I woke up at 3AM and layed around before deciding to play DS for a while. I then slept from 5AM to 6:15 or so, waking up hungry. I ate a little banana loaf thing I had gotten on the plane and drank from Aranciata. At 6:45 I decided to shower, which was exciting because the stall was tiny and moving around moved the lever that controlled the pressure and temperature! After I got dressed I went out and took some pictures of the area:

I found Joan’s wallet on the driveway near the car, luckily we were in a remote place, so nothing was missing! Fred made french toast and soon we will head back out to Perugia.

Galleries:
Perugia
San Lorenzo della Rabatta

1050 CET. In the Fiat, heading out of rome – Fred and I landed at 7:20 then were quickly out of passport control, just a quick scan of our passports, a stamp, and we were on our way. Cool. After we got our bags we found the aweosome Leonardo Express to Termini station, where we were to meet Joan and Chris. It took us a few minutes to figure out how to buy the tickets, and soon enough the train arrived, and we piled on and were on our way through the outskirts of Rome, towards the city center.

Once there we found Joan and Chris, after a bit of up and down with our heavy bags. We took a stop at Cafe Moke for coffee and a pastry, and then grabbed a cab to the Hertz location. The cab driver was quite awesome, driving at incredibly fast speeds, weaving and dodging and honking – very exciting! Eventually he put the radio on the local English language station (for our benefit?) but then started singing Italian songs. Soon enough we arrived at the rental location, safely. We rented the car,then went to the hotel where Joan and Chris had stayed the night before to pick up their bags before heading north to Perugia. There were 5 hours before we were supposed to meet the keyholder for the Villa, so we had plenty of time.

Oh, as we were driving along the Roma loop, we saw a FIRT lose its hubcap. So exciting!

1540 EST Dulles – The flight from SFO was perfectly cromulent. The next leg is considerably longer.

Trying the Iphone wordpress app. I’m at SFO on the way to Umbria, Italy:

Today I volunteered for the Barack Obama Campaign for Change by phonebanking from a cafe in the Mission. We were calling up voters in Indiana, finding out who they intended to support in the election, and encouraging early voting. Based on my calls, people in Indiana support Obama over McCain at around 2 to 1. I made about 120 calls, and talked to twelve people. Of those, 2 of them wouldn’t tell me anything (fair enough), 3 were for McCain, and 7 were for Obama. Strangely there were no undecideds that I talked to.

Anyway, Indiana is considered a weak McCain state by fivethirtyeight but my results were sort of heartening.

As promised, part 2 of my Seattle trip. I received my camera today, so I have photos posted on flickr I’ll be linking a few of them here, so no need to rush off and look yet – I’ll even relink it later in the post.

As I said in Part 1 we decided to go to Twin Peaks on Sunday. So after we woke up we packed Holly in to the car along with snacks and water and camera gear, and head out East. Twin Peaks is not really a single place, but it is a number of locations located in the towns of Snoqualmie and North Bend, WA. We visited a few of the external sites of the show, but also spent time admiring the stunning views.

Our first stop was at the water falls, which was also the external location of the Great Nothern, where Agent Cooper stays in the show. Here is the best shot I got of the falls and the hotel, which is actually the Snoqualmie Lodge, and quite nice – more on this after the photo:

We spent some time shooting the falls, and Steve attempted to wrangle Holly in to a photo to mark her 16 months of life. This took a while because babies, well, once they learn to walk, evidently that’s all they do. Eventually he was satisfied, then we went over to the Lodge for breakfast.

The Lodge has two restaurants, evidently. The dinging room and the “Attic”. The latter is more casual (not that the dining room is formal) but wasn’t yet open. So the dining room it was. A table for two and a high chair – well, that will be 15 minutes. A table for 2, right after of us? 45 minutes or more. You’d be tempted to say we just got lucky, but the place wasn’t that packed and the service didn’t seem that busy (although the service is really good, so maybe that was part of it), but we think Holly’s cuteness just charmed them. They offered her a crayon while we were being seated and Steve said “How do you feel about her drawing on the table cloth?” “Oh, that’s OK.” “Give her the crayon!”. They had an extra cloth on the floor under the high chair, and after we were seated the offered to bring her a fruit cup. This turned out to be very nice with some crackers, a breakfast roll, and a good variety of fresh fruit – and they didn’t even charge us for it. Our food was really good too. The coffee came out with shaved chocolate, which was a nice though, and was, uhm, a damn fine cup of coffee. I had a mushroom and spinach fritatta, which was delicous. The included herbed potatoes and biscuit were also great. Not a cheap breakfast, but it was definitely worth while.

After breakfast we got in the car and used a combination of a the More in Twin Peaks website via my iPhone and Steve’s GPS, we headed out to see some other sites. Thankfully Holly fell asleep soon after breakfast and so we just left her in the car and took turns taking pictures at the next couple of destinations. First up was the Road House.

They’ve renovated since the show, but it was still pretty cool looking. Plus there was a firetruck there when we got there, pure excitement!

The next destination we decided on the Packard Mill. It turns out that it had since been purchased by Weyerhauser, and so a bit of google maps allowed us to figure out it’s approximate location. However it’s down a bunch of backroads, so getting there was tricky. We got lost a couple of time but hey, we found a nice little lake to take pictures at:

Note that this is looking Southeastish, and the mill would have been about due East of where we were. But it took us another half an hour to get there.

The mill itself is in a nice state of decay, which actually leads to some neat pictures:

One nice thing about the mill is that it is a two-for-one destination. The “Sherrif’s Department” exterior is actually the mill office.

Note that the best views of the Mill are from the road on the way down (ore back up), but you can’t see the office until you get to the bottom.

Our final destination was the nearby “Double R” diner, now known as Twede’s cafe. We decided to make a stop there for a little snack (read Cherry Pie) and relaxation before heading back to Sammamish.

The pie was actually pretty decent, but the service was abysmal. Not a destination location, but the outlet mall is right down the street, so I can see locals stopping by for some pie after a consumer driven afternoon.

Anyway, after the cafe we drove back so that Holly could finish her nap and we could shower. After hanging around for a while, we headed over to Jum’s brother Jon’s house, not too far away. He has a really nice, big house. Holly seemed to like it there a lot. Jon, Steve and I played a bit of a boardgame that Steve had recently purchased, and then Jum went and picked up Thai food for dinner. After dinner we played a bit of Xbox, but soon it was time for little Holly to go to sleep, so we went back to Steve’s house. Steve and I ended up reading a bunch about early pay TV that night, such as ON-TV. Interesting stuff. Eventually it was midnight and since Steve had work the next time, it was bed time.

Monday Steve left early as he had a 9am meeting, so I hung around with Jum for a bit before she brought me to the airport. The flight was fine, and soon enough I was home, and noticed my camera was missing. I swear that thing hates me!

As promised, my flickr gallery.

I got im to SEA at about 6:30 on Friday and called my friend Steve who was already on his was to the airport. I waited about 10 minutes for him and we were off. On the way to his house in Sammamish we picked up food for him, his wife Jum and me, since it was going to be too late to start going out by time we got back.

It took about an 45 minutes to get to his place with traffic and getting food. We arrived and I was introduced to his 16 month old daughter Holly, who is the most adorable little thing ever. She obviously inherited this from Jum, and won the genes lottery in that respect. She knows about a dozen or so words and of course repeats them over and over, but in someone as cute as her, it is endearing. We had Jeopardy on while we ate, which is her favorite show. In fact, she loves the Final Jepoardy song so much that she dances to it! Evidently she fell in love with the show while very young since they always had it on during dinner, and it’s about the only thing she is actually interested in on TV – after the show, Jum put on some Clifford, but it seemed to disturb Holly more than interest her, especially since Clifford was a puppy and hidden in a cupcake that was about to be eaten at some point!. Soon, though it was time for her to go to bed.

After they put her to bed, I was given the tour of the house, which is pretty damn nice. Their spare bedroom, which I slept in, is jam packed with books and DVDs and such – which knowing Steve was not surprising at all. Anyway, after that Steve and I retired to the “media room” which is upstairs and played some Xbox. Eventually it was late enough for us to go to bed (1am or so) and I was out like a light.

I was awoken by crying baby at about 7:30. I stayed in bed for a bit, but eventually went downstairs to watch some Dr. Who with Steve and Holly. Jon Pertwee – old stuff. He’s starting her young! We had plans to go to a recycling event nearby at 9 to get rid of an old broken TV (with a Tube!) and some other electronics. Eventually we headed out to Issaquah, which is just South of where Steve lives, to do the recycling (which was at Costco). Afterwords we decided to go to the farmer’s market which is held at Pickering Farm, which has a neat barn:

We gathered up some blackberries, blueberries, peaches, apples, and bread (the latter of which Holly got to hold while Steve held her, much to the amusement of the bread vendor! and then headed back to Steve’s house. Holly ate a few blue berries and then it was time for her nap. Steve decided to take a little nap too, so I played a bit more of Braid, and solved some puzzles that were quite vexing the night before in no time flat. It’s a cool game, and one that benefits from detachment.

Anyway, once they woke up, I gave Holly the toy I brought her, a Leapfrog guitar that teaches animals and counting in English and Spanish. She greatly enjoyed the music it made and she danced around holding the guitar. Then we left (the four of us) to go to Pike’s Place market, which is the de facto Seattle sight. I’d been there before on a vacation with my Folks 15 years ago, and it was mostly the same. We walked around a little bit and then got a late lunch at Lowell’s, which is a big restaurant and Bar across three floors, overlooking the water – I am most certain I ate here back in 1993. For being a place that seems to be skewed to tourists, and in a touristy location (although the market is a real market that locals use) the food was surprisingly tasty, and reasonably priced. Holly didn’t make too big of a mess, although she tried like the devil to get her table topper off constantly. After lunch we walked around a bit more, and visited a few stores, including a cool map store, where they bought a 2 foot inflatable globe for Holly, and then we set off to search for the Fremont Troll.

The Troll is a rather amusing piece of art which lives under a bridge in the Fremont neighborhood of Seattle. He’s well enough hidden, and the streets are goofy enough, that it took two passes of us crossing over the bridge bear him for us to find, even though we had GPS in the car with us. The search was worth it because he’s really amazing:

I have better pictures on my actual camera, but I sort of left that behind at Steve’s, so the iPhone pic will have to suffice for now. But we had a good time shooting it, because of the interesting lighting. Steve managed to get a good pic of me up on the Troll’s shoulder which I will link to when he posts it.

After the troll it was time to head back to Sammamish. We watched some Nightflight and then they put Holly to bed. Despite the late lunch we were a bit hungry, so we went to get Jimmy John’s – this was funny because the kids working there asked us if we had been there before. Well, I’ve not been to that particular store, but I’ve been going to Jimmy John’s since they were in short pants, and I bit my lip to not say that. After dinner, Steve and I watched Point Blank, an interesting “nouvelle noire” Lee Marvin movie. It’s a very weird movie in a lot of ways, but we enjoyed it. After the movie it was about time for bed, but before that we planned out what we were going to do the next day, which was head to Twin Peaks. More on this in my next post.

I am going to Seattle tomorrow to visit my college friend Steve, his wife Jum, and their 15 month old daughter Holly. I’ve been to Seattle twice before, once with my family in 1993, right after I graduated High School, and once for a Job Interview in 1999. I basically only remember Pike’s Place, but there has to be more to the city than that! I’ll report back with more after the weekend, and hopefully have some pictures too.

Today’s my last day in Chicago. I am looking forward to sleeping in my own bed tonight. I’ve had fun the past couple of days, had dinner and drinks with friends last night and saw Too Much Light Makes the Baby Go Blind, and had a wonderful brunch this morning with my parents, brother and sister-in-law. I need to pack now, and then go stop by my Grandma’s for a few minutes to say goodbye. All-in-all this was a good trip.