The Choo-Choo to Ice Cream

Today Ernie took his grandparents on a scenic ride on an antique train. We began our journey at the station in North Bend, WA.

Part way through our journey we made a stop at the Train Shed Exhibit Hall at the Railway History Campus. There were a lot of trains to see and learn about.

We hit the other station in Snoqualmie and then turned around.

Afterward we explored North Bend a bit. My parents were complaining about food costing too much in the Seattle area, which I suppose is not wrong. I took them to this little burger joint called Dairy Freeze which is the classic sort of Route 66 place. Afterwards they complained that this place was also too expensive. Ok.

The Evans Are Not What They Seem

Evan was familiar enough with the magic that is Twin Peaks that he agreed to let us drag him out to North Bend, Washington to see all of the filming locations.

We ate at Twede's Cafe.

The Xs in the Spanish... no gracias.

We checked out Ronette's Bridge and it's apparently quite the cool kid beach hangout. We saw several chillens jump right of the bridge into the water.

One location that I hadn't yet checked off my list was the Twin Peaks Police Department. It is now DirtFish Rally School where they teach you to Tokyo drift in the dust.

They even had a Twin Peaks police car out front.

The colors are now hideous but the exterior is largely the same otherwise.

It was closed but a peek through the window revealed Lucy's receptionist desk looks pretty intact as well on the left there.

This little guy was the Bookhouse in the show, where Twin Peaks’ secret society “The Bookhouse Boys” have their meetings.

Bang Bang Bar, more commonly known to Twin Peaks residents only as the Roadhouse

While we were creeping around the Roadhouse exterior we found a good patch of blackberries and had to take a foraging break.

Twin Peaks Sightseeing

We'd finally been in the Seattle area for two days in a row and now that everything was unpacked we were able to check out our surroundings a bit. The nearby towns of Snoqualmie, North Bend and Fall City are the primary filming locations for cult classic Twin Peaks' exterior footage.

It was strange being over here. This sort of environment with this sort of vibe is literally something out of a tv show or movie, and nothing like a place I ever dreamed of living. So not only were the places cool on their own but I feel like I had some small amount of ownership or something now that I lived nearby. I wasn't just a tourist here anymore.

Our first stop was Twede's Cafe.

In Twin Peaks it was known as the Double R Diner.

The place was packed and even had a bit of a wait. When I saw the in-FBI-costume tour guide standing out front I realized a lot of these people were here on a Twin Peaks tour. Not bad for a show that premiered in 1990.

The menu was pretty classic diner fare.

There was a ton of Twin Peaks memorabilia on the walls.

Biscuits and gravy is a kind of trash food that I will never get tired of eating.

I had to get a piece of pie before we left, not because I was still hungry but because according to FBI Special Agent Dale Cooper, "This must be where pies go when they die."

We quickly went on a hike of Mount Si before I died of pie poisoning.

The Salish Lodge & Spa near Snoqualmie Falls plays the show's Great Northern Hotel's exterior shots. There's another hotel in the area where they shot some of the interiors and I'm going to need to stay there!

The hotel was clearly in on the fun.

There was a scene where I think this Ronette Pulaski escaped a rape or something and then was like creepily half dead walking across this bridge. I looked way better on the bridge, not gonna lie.

I think these might be the twin peaks in question.

I think in the show the Roadhouse was kind of a rough bar but in reality it was a nice sort of restaurant and inn. We stopped for dinner.

Amazon Go is kind of wild. You sign up once then afterwards you can beep yourself in at an automatic gate, pick up whatever groceries you want, then just walk out with. The gillions of cameras everywhere know what you took and automatically charge you. The future is now!

I single handedly saved Central America with my recent trip to Honduras.