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Loaded Bruce into the car and took off to the huge and bustling metropolis of Tonasket, Washington on Friday afternoon. Saturday was a "celebration of life" in Loomis for a great aunt and uncle who'd passed on.
We stayed at a little place called The Junction; this is a motel, laundromat, and gas station all in one. There are a total of 8 motel rooms, and my family descending on the town took up at least half of them. (Maybe more, if folks from other branches of the family that I'm not as familiar with--we're a big clan.) Kind of a cute place; the rooms are all decorated differently, with nice quilts instead of cheap "hotel-style" bedspreads, and knotted-pine bed frames. My only complaint was that the air conditioner of my cousin's room (right next to ours) sounded like an aging Mack truck with aspirations of astronautics winding up for take off. We did not turn on the AC in our room.
Dinner Friday night was take-out from a little "Mexicatessan" called La Ultima. Think taco stand, but with higher quality food made on site. The proprietor was really (REALLY) friendly, and happy to go through the entire menu in great detail, telling us where the ingredients came from, who made the bread, who cooked the chicken, etc. He generally gave the impression that we could have anything we wanted, whether it was on the menu or not, and if they didn't have it, he'd send his daughter out to get it for us. We wonder, actually, if he did this--when we first asked, he said that they didn't have tortilla chips right now; but would be adding nachos to the menu soon and we were always welcome to come back. But when he packed up our order, there was a box of tortilla chips. The food was quite good; I'd definitely go back if it wasn't such a stupid-long drive from here.
Saturday morning, we were awakened by our rowdy damn neighbors (that'd be the grandparents) and the fact that there was not much in the way of sound-proofing around the door connecting our rooms. We complained to the manager, who laughed at us as we were all checking out together. We went over to Whistler's for breakfast. Can't say as I'm terribly impressed with the new cook; my hash browns were a bit scorched in areas, and otherwise the food was acceptable but not outstanding. Service here, in sharp contrast to La Ultima, was only what was asked for; if you didn't specify, it didn't happen. For example: I asked if they had blueberries instead of strawberries to put on french toast or waffles. Waitress said "no, I'm sorry". And then brought out blueberry syrup with my cousin's pancakes. Apparently it didn't occur to her to add "we don't have fresh berries, but we do have blueberry syrup" to the end of the "no, I'm sorry". Ah well.
Hit a garage sale with mom before the main event Saturday afternoon and picked up some books I'd been looking for (But No Elephants and a few of the "Little Miss/Mr" books), then got milkshakes at Sully's in Loomis. Not hard to find, if you can find Loomis, that is. Sully's is one of 3 businesses in town, if you count the post office as a business. It burned down a while back and was just rebuilt, so everything is shiny and new and still smells like construction. Milkshakes were definitely required, as it was quite hot out and we'd packed appropriate clothes for the weather we had at home Thursday, which was soggy and windy and cold. Oops.
We stayed at a little place called The Junction; this is a motel, laundromat, and gas station all in one. There are a total of 8 motel rooms, and my family descending on the town took up at least half of them. (Maybe more, if folks from other branches of the family that I'm not as familiar with--we're a big clan.) Kind of a cute place; the rooms are all decorated differently, with nice quilts instead of cheap "hotel-style" bedspreads, and knotted-pine bed frames. My only complaint was that the air conditioner of my cousin's room (right next to ours) sounded like an aging Mack truck with aspirations of astronautics winding up for take off. We did not turn on the AC in our room.
Dinner Friday night was take-out from a little "Mexicatessan" called La Ultima. Think taco stand, but with higher quality food made on site. The proprietor was really (REALLY) friendly, and happy to go through the entire menu in great detail, telling us where the ingredients came from, who made the bread, who cooked the chicken, etc. He generally gave the impression that we could have anything we wanted, whether it was on the menu or not, and if they didn't have it, he'd send his daughter out to get it for us. We wonder, actually, if he did this--when we first asked, he said that they didn't have tortilla chips right now; but would be adding nachos to the menu soon and we were always welcome to come back. But when he packed up our order, there was a box of tortilla chips. The food was quite good; I'd definitely go back if it wasn't such a stupid-long drive from here.
Saturday morning, we were awakened by our rowdy damn neighbors (that'd be the grandparents) and the fact that there was not much in the way of sound-proofing around the door connecting our rooms. We complained to the manager, who laughed at us as we were all checking out together. We went over to Whistler's for breakfast. Can't say as I'm terribly impressed with the new cook; my hash browns were a bit scorched in areas, and otherwise the food was acceptable but not outstanding. Service here, in sharp contrast to La Ultima, was only what was asked for; if you didn't specify, it didn't happen. For example: I asked if they had blueberries instead of strawberries to put on french toast or waffles. Waitress said "no, I'm sorry". And then brought out blueberry syrup with my cousin's pancakes. Apparently it didn't occur to her to add "we don't have fresh berries, but we do have blueberry syrup" to the end of the "no, I'm sorry". Ah well.
Hit a garage sale with mom before the main event Saturday afternoon and picked up some books I'd been looking for (But No Elephants and a few of the "Little Miss/Mr" books), then got milkshakes at Sully's in Loomis. Not hard to find, if you can find Loomis, that is. Sully's is one of 3 businesses in town, if you count the post office as a business. It burned down a while back and was just rebuilt, so everything is shiny and new and still smells like construction. Milkshakes were definitely required, as it was quite hot out and we'd packed appropriate clothes for the weather we had at home Thursday, which was soggy and windy and cold. Oops.
