Travels

Interesting notes from the weekend - first weekend completely out of town since the move.

- Washington has a pretty if quiet state capitol (Olympia) - the requisite large stone building surrounded by a large city park - neat main street with small coffee shops.

- Dancing Goats coffee gives away the burlap coffee bags in which their beans arrive in exchange for a $1 donation to a local childrens' charity - we thought that was neat and now have a huge burlap sack - will be useful for protecting the trunk of the car when carrying home potting soil and such this weekend.

- Portland is a neat place - same general northwest-y character as Seattle - very eco-conscious, walkable, pro independent business, pro local food - just on what feels to be about half the scale of Seattle. It also is much cleaner and better organized for the difference in scale. Also - their Pearl District is a great example of new urbanist planning and execution in the US. Not only for the design but the fact that it's all about the same age, less than 10 years old in this case - props to their urban planning department for being able to completely level and redevelop a whole city (warehouse) district in such a short time. For that reason though it looks very similar to the post WW2 districts in Germany - 6-10 story flats with shops at street level. Hopefully it ages as well as those have. My current neighborhood in Seattle could learn a lot from their example.

- Gosser beer - find it at Clyde Common in downtown Portland - only place I've yet found it. It's one of the major Austrian brews. Tasty.

- Best recent music find - Helio Sequence - Keep Your Eyes Ahead album - interesting sound, and surprisingly upbeat for music from this region.