Things We Wish We'd Never Eaten #1: Voodoo Doughnuts

The inaugural edition of 'Things We Wish We'd Never Eaten' is dedicated to the Portland (Oregon) institution that is Voodoo Doughnut. I suspect this doughnuttery may, in fact, also be the only reason Daniel wanted so badly to visit Portland. He keeps mumbling something about an impressive bookstore, but I haven't seen one yet... So, onto business.

What goodness hides inside?

Froot Loops

Mini M&Ms

Daniel devouring a Maple Bacon

Ole' Dirty Bastard (Oreos, peanut butter etc)

The Voodoo (filled with jam)

So far I've had one bite of each and I'm not sure if I'll ever want to eat another doughnut. At the very least, there's something to be said for the delicious simplicity of an original glaze. Daniel, on the other hand, took to them with a different level of enthusiasm and now seems quite content.

Daniel post-VD

Til next time.

Lost Mountain Lodge

After being miserable bastards in Seattle, at least to begin with, a few days of relaxation and down time were sorely needed. We’d been eyeing off a place called Salish Lodge and Spa, east of Seattle, but it was too far out of our way. The problem was it sat on the edge of a waterfall and each room had a Jacuzzi bath with a view – how could we equal that? We found a suitable replacement in Sequim, to the north of the Olympic mountains, which seemed appropriate even though the cheapest room cost three times our nightly accommodation budget. Lost Mountain Lodge didn’t have a waterfall, but it was tucked out of the way, surrounded by forest and had a hot tub on the back porch which overlooked a whole lot of prettiness.

One view from the hot tub

Excuse the mess

It was just what we needed. Originally booked in for two nights, we organised a third upon arrival. This gave us two full days to relax as well as visit some of the local sights. It also allowed the time for an epic Monopoly battle which I, of course, won. This was, of course, followed by an equally epic tantrum from Daniel, who dislikes the fact I beat him at everything. The following picture is, sadly, a reconstruction – he threw the board across the room after I forced him to surrender.  

He should know that I even control his monopoly money

We were the only people in the Lodge the first night, and one of two couples the second and third. A chef comes in to make breakfast each morning - a continental spread of cereals and yoghurt, followed by three courses - a fruit course, a pastry course and a cooked course. Day 2 was the standout - a strawberry parfait, followed by an apple oat-bran muffin, followed by eggs benedict with smoked salmon, capers and asparagus. Needless to say we didn't have lunch once during our time in Sequim. And we really shouldn't have had dinner.

Daniel's Driving

I thought I'd had enough of the cheesy, alliterative post titles and was going to give you all a break from them. Then I changed my mind - you're stuck with them. For the next three months. 

I just want to backtrack for a minute and mention our travel day from Danvers, North Boston, to Seattle. At 0631 we were sat in our car, in the parking lot, pleased as punch. We were only one minute late, a new record by far, and according to our Tom Tom only thirty-five minutes away from the airport. If we arrived just after 0700 we'd have plenty of time to return the car and catch a shuttle to the terminal for our 0900 flight. All was good until we turned out of the car park and hit a wall of traffic - the fact that it was pitch black and pissing down with rain didn't help. After seventy-five minutes (and two trial separations and a near-divorce) we pulled into the car yard, jumped out into the rain and straight onto an empty shuttle bus which took us direct to our terminal. Crisis averted. Marriage counseling still necessary. The flight was then late off the tarmac so we arrived in Detroit with just enough time to make our connection. The plane was full of soldiers, most in uniform, which was kind of cool - it felt very American.

For the most part the driving is going well. I've got a few gray hairs now, but at least we returned the car in one piece. Some of the road rules over here are bizarre, mainly because we haven't yet figured them out. We still have no idea what to do at a 4-way stop-signed intersection. We just sit there looking like dumb tourists until someone waves us through or honks at us loudly enough. Our current car has California plates, so up in Washington that worked surprisingly well.

Not Our Hire Car (Boston)

Sleepless in Seattle

We actually were sleepless in Seattle, because we stayed Thursday and Friday nights, in a hostel, and at 0200 Saturday morning the rest of our floor decided to hold an impromptu party in the hallway. At the same time a group of people on the street below us were in the middle of a similarly raucous gathering. It's Halloween on Monday night, you see, and it's much more fun to have the parties over the weekend. On that note, we're a little sad because the hostel is having it's Halloween party tonight, but we'll be staying in Sequim (pronounced Sqwim) at a posh and secluded and Halloween-party-less lodge. [I've just read that out to Daniel and he looked at me with a grimace and said "we've kind of messed up, haven't we?" Technically, that's the PG-13 version of what he said.] Never mind. Our bedroom has a view of the Space Needle, which makes being awake in the middle of the night slightly more enjoyable.

Our room

The view from our room

The lack of sleep was a particularly annoying because we hit a wall when we got to Seattle - we'd been going pretty hard the last few days in New England and were also short on sleep. The stressful journey here didn't help either. As a result, I don't think we've given Seattle the respect it's due - it really is a wonderland. Pine trees everywhere, mountain vistas and lots and lots of water.

Seattle dot points:

• The mountain backdrop of the city is so beautiful, but because of the weather we've only seen bits and pieces of it. They're almost mirage-like, and you can't decide whether the shadowy silhouettes are merely a figment of your imagination.
• There's homeless people everywhere, and they're all holding comical begging signs about how they need money for beer and hookers - it's a little cliche to be honest. Nonetheless, their plight is quite clearly problematic.
• There are as many hairdressers as homeless people. Daniel finally got a much-needed haircut.
• The bus system is very strange. Sometimes you pay as you get on, sometimes as you get off... They run off cables like trams.

Sub-Seattle

Seattle is a town built on water, and I don't just mean in the sense of its industry. When it was established it was built on soggy tide flats, mostly out of wood. In 1889 the center of town was destroyed by a fire, and the Seattleites seized the opportunity to build a better, non-wooden and less soggy city. I've ripped the following description from the website of Bill Speidel's Underground Tour (http://www.undergroundtour.com), which explains it all better than I can:

The city built retaining walls, eight feet or higher, on either side of the old streets, filled in the space between the walls, and paved over the fill to effectively raise the streets, making them one story higher than the old sidewalks that still ran alongside them. Building owners, eager to capitalize on an 1890s economic boom, quickly rebuilt on the old, low, muddy ground where they had been before, unmindful of the fact that their first floor display windows and lobbies soon would become basements. Eventually, sidewalks bridged the gap between the new streets and the second story of buildings, leaving hollow tunnels (as high as 35 feet in some places) between the old and new sidewalks, and creating the passageways of today’s Underground.

Spooky old chair

The Seattle Underground

Fascinating stuff and the tour itself was great. Except that each time we came up for air it was raining, and once again, we didn't have wet weather gear on. Apparently you can't teach two old dogs new tricks, even if they've been buying lots of expensive weather-appropriate clothing.

News of New Hampshire and Maine Madness

New Hampshire felt somewhat like a hillbilly version of Vermont. Lots of lakes, tiny towns, pretty little winding roads with moose crossing signs. Apparently the hunting movement in NH is doing well, though, because the only moose we saw was inside an outlet shop, stuffed, having been shot dead by a thirteen year old girl some years ago. This thing was the size of a Clydesdale, and that's not including the antlers.

Lies

We spent the middle of the day at the Canterbury Shaker Village. You can read about the village and the Shakers themselves here, if you're so inclined. We had lunch there too, and tried out a couple of old, original Shaker recipes for pot roast and chicken pie - amazing.

Canterbury Shaker Village

From there we drove into Sanford, Maine, where we had a room booked at a Super 8. McDonald's for dinner and the most unbelievably good Maine ice-cream for dessert (we never managed to get any in Vermont). Danny was grumpy but a random late-night trip to Walmart cheered him up considerably. The next day we drove out, had pancakes the size of hubcaps for breakfast (with REAL maple syrup) at a small local restaurant in Kennebunkport, before exploring the coast a little.

Maine Beach

Maine Beach

Our final New England destination was Salem, Massachusetts. We went to the Witch Museum and got chased down the main street by a zombie. All boxes ticked, I think. Halloween was only a few days away, and the atmosphere was incredible - we should have spent more time there, but we were absolutely exhausted and had an early flight the next morning.