The Salty Denizens of Salem

We continued our McMenamins passport quest to apparently go to every single last friggin bar and grill in Oregon.

I believe we were planning on going to Boon's Treasury in Salem, OR initially but there was some sort of kerfuffle. I think maybe their hours stated that they should be open, but we tried to go in and they said to come back later because they were understaffed. I want to say I asked for a stamp at that point and they said no. So at this point I was mad at them. We did come back later for the stamp but we did not buy anything from them.

Well since we were already in Salem we killed the necessary time by checking out the state capitol building's exterior grounds.

They have one of those budget-looking capitol buildings that doesn't have a dome. Sad.

They apparently had a respectable-looking capitol that burned down in 1935.

They do have a giant golden hatchet man which recovers some of the lost points.

McMenamins Thompson Brewery & Public House was also in Salem and the workers there weren't jerks so things went smoothly. It's been interesting ordering the same southwest salad over and over at the same restaurant chain and seeing the still pretty considerable variation in quality. Salad I think is hard because you need such fresh ingredients.

We hit McMenamins Lighthouse Brewpub in Lincoln City, OR and ate my passport-earned free "Cannonball O' Chowder: our freshly made clam chowder in a toasty sourdough bread bowl".

Down Springfield Memory Lane

I made my obligatory pilgrimage from St. Louis to Springfield to see the family.

Even famous people barely survive a visit to St. Louis.

I was surprised to see my mom had framed a photo I gave her of us hanging out with the Maasai in Kenya.

My parents are creatures of habit and love eating at Westwoods Lodge.

I think this dish sums up the vibe at this place.

Back at their house President Biden was on TV being interviewed at the Oval Office. I was especially interested because I was making preparations to interview Lydia at the Oval in just a few days.

My longtime friend Danny was down to hang so we bounced around town a bit for various fun times.

Downtown Springfield had been spruced up a bit in parts since I'd been there last.

The Old State Capitol looked like it was being renovated.

The top of the Hilton used to have this martini bar that was our crew's idea of the fanciest night out. I only went up there a couple times. It's not a Hilton anymore and the bar is long gone.

Garlic Garlic Everywhere

In my never ending quest to entertain my parents, today we drove pretty far out of town to Chehalis, Washington to see the Garlic Fest & Craft Show. 

The fact that we moved so far away from home is kind of fun because there are a lot of new agricultural products out here. Who doesn't like garlic?

Even the local vampires are on board.

They were sold out of garlic ice cream which was very sad, but they did have garlic fries and garlic ears, which were like a savory version of the elephant ear.

Tom even bought some garlic to take home and plant in his yard.

On our way back north we passed through Olympia so I figured we should give the capitol building a gander.

I learned a lot of fun Washington State trivia.

We found a fun little place to take a walk in Brewery Park at Tumwater Falls. First of all let's address the elephant in the room: Tumwater does sound like a child's explanation of diarrhea. No, I don't know why they named it that.

In addition to being a fun walk, the park is also the site of the now derelict Olympic Brewery. Every time I see an abandoned brewery I think how lucky St. Louis is to have such a vibrant and historic Anheuser-Busch.

We hit McMenamins Spar Cafe for dinner.

I can't get enough of the artwork in these places. It's all so quirky.

Like what the hell is this thing?

Back in Kirkland, Mom and Tom entered the Matrix via the Meta Quest 2 we recently acquired.

I finally finished Elden Ring on Xbox Series X. I checked my total play time on this thing two weeks ago and it said 7 days 5 hours. I didn't check it again. Killing god has a certain sense of accomplishment that comes with it, I must say.