The Pam Cam #2

No thumbs up.

It's the law.

No thumbs up, originally uploaded by Adventures of Pam & Frank.

Why not just have a "thumbs down" sign?

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Many wishing bridges between P-Town and Seattle

Many wishing bridges between P-Town and Seattle, originally uploaded by Adventures of Pam & Frank.

A wishing bridge is any bridge with overhead trusses. When you drive over one of these bridges, you're supposed to put your hand on the ceiling of your vehicle and make a wish. There are at least a half dozen wishing bridges up the I-5 corridor from Portland, OR to Seattle, WA, starting with a mile long (?) wishing bridge crossing the Columbia River at the state line. This long bridge connects Portland to Vancouver. See if you can put down your coffee long enough to make a wish at each bridge.

I wished that Rachel would stop being so annoying. Unfortunately, I wished it out loud so it didn't come true.

Toutle. Pronounced Tootle.

Toutle. Pronounced Tootle., originally uploaded by Adventures of Pam & Frank.

When Mt. St. Helens blew, the biggest landslide in recorded history sent millions of tons of mud and timber and debris into the Toutle Valley, choking the Toutle River, taking out bridges, homes, and killing 56 people. More than 15 years later, there are still rivers of mud and ash debris left behind around the banks of the river.

The name Toutle seems oddly and darkly humorous, given its recent history with regards to the volcano. To quote David Johnson's last words as Mt. St. Helens erupted only 6 miles away from where he was monitoring the volcano, "Vancouver! Vancouver! This is it!"
Well David, Toutle-oo, goodbye.

Beautiful rolling hills

Beautiful rolling hills, originally uploaded by Adventures of Pam & Frank.

This former flatlander loves the terrain up in Washington.

Throwing another log on the ...pizza?

Throwing another log on the ...pizza?, originally uploaded by Adventures of Pam & Frank.

Pizza made in a wood fired ovens is a very special treat. If you've never had a wood fired pizza, you are missing out big time. And I mean BIG time.

Wood fired pizza has a crispy crust with a tantalizing smoky flavor that tastes so right with pizza toppings. Traditional toppings are great on wood fired pizza but the more esoteric or gourmet toppings (like jerk chicken or artichokes) are un-believeable.

It smelled so good, walking by this vendor at the Bellevue farmers' market but the line was long and we needed to hit the road... I haven't seen a wood fired pizza since leaving Minneapolis almost 6 years ago. It's one of the foods I miss most.

Meanwhile, I checked out the back of this gal's shirt and found them at: www.veracipizza.com

Hope I can find them around here again.
Soon.

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Wood fired pizza at the farmers market

Wood fired pizza at the farmers market, originally uploaded by Adventures of Pam & Frank.

Check it out.
A portable wood fired pizza oven - on wheels.
Portable.
Wow.

Road trip to Seattle

This last week Rachel flew out to the farm for the summer.
Frank wasn't able to get the day off work, and so I asked my friend Andi to join us as co-pilot.

Here are the pictures from our one day trip up to Seattle and back.

We put about 35 pictures on the camera and 500 miles on the car that day.

We can't show you mile by mile, nor would you really want to see it, but we'll post at least a picture a day. Check back often to watch our big one-day road trip unfold.
Here are the first two:

Rachel's new hat, originally uploaded by Adventures of Pam & Frank.

This is Rachel and she's the reason for the trip. Rachel will be flying from the SeaTac Airport and spending the summer with the grandparents in Wisconsin.

Meet our other co-pilot, Andi, originally uploaded by Adventures of Pam & Frank.

Andi is a good friend from work. On this trip we discovered we have the same eclectic taste in music, we both like easy going road trip meandering to see where we end up, and we were able to keep the conversation interesting all the way up to Seattle and all the way home. That's 11 hours we spent together (minus 1:45 at the airport when they wouldn't give her a pass to go back to the gate with Rachel and me.)

I think she had a good time.
I had a great time and will definitely be asking her if she wants to go on other road trips.

A pipe smokin' dude and his Critter-In-A-Filebox

My friend Andi and I were walking through a park in Bellevue, Washington when we smelled a weird sweel smell. Turns out it was this guy, sitting on some wood and smoking a pipe.

As we walked past, he muttered something incoherent to us.
I looked at Andi and whispered, "What was that?"

When we got into the car, parked right behind the guy, she pointed out that the pipe smoking guy had an animal in the file box.

Just then a little face peeped out of the hole.
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Stopit! Just stopit!!

Stopit! Just stopit!!, originally uploaded by Adventures of Pam & Frank.

Aren't kids great fun??

We were at TGIFriday's not too long ago and Rachel had a strawberry lemonade. Chunks of strawberries got stuck on the bottom of the glass, so she use using her straw to chop up the mass of crushed ice so she could 'schlook' the last of the berries up into her straw.

Yah, 'schlook!' is the sould it makes when suction pulls the glob up the straw.
The next sound is 'glunk - ack!' as the strawberry hits the back of her throat and goes down the wrong pipe.

So anyway, we're waiting for the cooks to hunt down the cow and start making our hamburgers (30 minutes for a burger? and the restaurant is not busy?) she's banging her straw into the glass.

"Shk-shk-shk-shk-shk!
Shk-shk-shk-shk-shk-shk-shk-shk-shk-shk-shk-shk-!
Shk-shk-shk-shk-shk-shk-shk-shk-shk-!
Shk-shk-shk-!"

Until finally,
"WILLYOUSTOPIT!!?"

She looked up at me and smiled. "shk-shk-shk-"

I gave her the look. "Kid, I'm hungry and you're driving me nuts."

"shk-shk-shk-shk-shk-shk-shk-shk-shk-" faster than before.
"shk-shk-shk-shk-shk-shk-shk-shk-shk-shk-shk-shk-shk-shk-shk-shk-shk-shk-shk-shk-shk-shk-shk-shk-shk-shk-shk-shk-shk-shk-shk-shk-shk-shk-shk-shk-shk-shk-shk-shk-shk-shk-shk-shk-shk-"

Frank just sat there and stared at us, amused. "Don't look at me," he said, "I'm not bothered by the noise."

I gave both the annoying kid and Deaf husband "The Look" as the waiter arrived and asked the annoying kid, "Would you like another drink and a fresh straw?"

something worth photographing

something worth photographing, originally uploaded by Adventures of Pam & Frank.

Note: this picture is blurry because I was giggling. Yes, I'm guilty of giggling at these shenanigans.

At TGIFriday's, Frank ordered Buffalo Wings. The kitchen was hunting down the cow to make our burgers, so Frank made a little teepee in the ramekin out of left over chicken bones.

While I aimed my camera to take a picture of his architectural masterpiece, he decided to give me something worth photographing.

Nice, Frank.

You're just weird.