On Taking the Bolt Bus to Portland

We’ve had Bolt Bus service in the Pacific Northwest for a little over a year now. The line runs nonstop to Portland from Seattle, making it possibly the most efficient way to visit our hipster neighbors to the south. It’s cheap, comfortable, fast, and has some nice amenities. There’s a toilet cabinet at the back …


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Fog

There’s a park down on the water, about a mile from my house and it’s full of towering cedar and spruce trees. When I drove into our neighborhood, I could just see the tops of the trees poking through the fog and I could not see the water at all, so thick was the blanket …


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Winter Garden

I had the flu during the spring planting season and summer was busy with work so I never did get a garden in. But I’m making up for it this fall. The first round of kale seedlings — and the beets — are appearing, they’re just about ready to be thinned. And I put in …


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Undersea Critters at the Seattle Aquarium

“Aren’t you pretty?” the woman cooed. “Look at you, you’re the sweetest thing!” She pressed her hand up against the glass, simulating contact. “Oh, you sweet thing!” she said. “They’re not usually this social,” said the volunteer. “This one’s got quite the personality. She’s very curious. Usually, they hide, they’re solitary by nature. But this …


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Sunday at The Experience Music Project

I’ve been to the Experience Music Project only once before and with a very specific goal in mind: see Ernie. The EMP was having a Muppets retrospective. There was a lot of cool early Jim Hensen artwork and two things that made me surprisingly emotional — Ernie and Cookie Monster. They were big and they …


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Saturday at the Zoo

I know lots of people who hate zoos, won’t visit them, no way, no how. I am ambivalent. It is exciting to be able to get a good close look at animals that most people never see outside their television. But it is also hard to look at the critters and consider where they “should” …


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