________  ________  ________
   2018-05-08                                   /        \/        \/    /   \
                                               /       __/         /_       _/
   The day  after the  barcade adventure  at  /        _/         /         /
Vidiot was pretty much a  write-off  for me,  \_______/_\___/____/\___/____/_
the drinks  left me a  little  hung over but    /        \/        \/    /   \
then   night  as   a  whole  just   left  me   /        _/         /_       _/
completely  drained  uninterested  in  doing  /-        /        _/         /
anything but snacking and watching TV.        \________/\________/\___/____/

   The  day after that  we had  a plan to pick  up the mother-in-law, see some
family and bring her  over to  hang  with  us  a  while. It ended  up being  a
disaster haha, let me explain.

   My mother-in-law has anxiety, I often talk about having anxiety but hers is
next-level and if you were to ask my opinion, borderline schizophrenia. Add to
that that  she's quite immature and it's basically a time bomb any time we see
her.  We  got lucky when we saw her earlier this trip,  she was in pretty high
spirits  and everyone  got  along.  It  did  take my  wife  and  father-in-law
basically rolling up on her unannounced and extracting her from her trailer to
get to that point but all's well that ends well.

   The same  strategy this time didn't work  as well; we rolled up to pick her
up and she wasn't answering the door.  When she  finally answered she said she
was in the shower which maybe was true but we weren't quiet about knocking and
were  even banging on her  bedroom window  and a  trailer,  even a double-wide
isn't that big that you wouldn't hear is hammering.

   One  we finally got  rolling  with her  I  thought we'd be  cool  but after
hanging out with her aunt and uncle for a while she worked herself up, freaked
out, yelled at everyone and everything then ditched us.

   It is what it is but I really feel  for my  partner, she just  wants to see
her mom and every time we try it turns into a constant shit-fight.

   Anyway, enough about  that. The day  after  that  headache, the next day we
just went for a cruise to chill out. Well, mostly chill  out. When  you get my
father-in-law  and  my  grandma-in-law in  the same  place  they  just  bicker
endlessly hahaha, so it was still pretty stressfully off and on. We did get to
see lots of beautiful Washington though! We  went out past Tiger Mountain  and
through Snoqualmie  and  North Bend, in the shadow of  Mt.  Si, then  home via
Issaquah. I really don't have  the words to express how beautiful this part of
the country is and, with the tall trees how close and cozy everything feels.

   Our original plan was to check out a  tourist  farm, which would  have been
nice but  they're closed until mid-May so that fizzled  out, we'd also planned
to go to Chick-fil-A on the way home but we realized it  was a Sunday so oops.
As a plan B, since we'd already checked out Snoqualmie falls and Salish Lodge,
we figured  we'd hit up Twede's in North Bend for  late lunch for a Twin Peaks
trifecta.

   We'd been there before last time we were here and it was a real experience,
this time around somewhat  less  so. The  food  was still  pretty good,  their
French  dip is one of the best I've had, but the service was super sketchy, it
honestly felt like there  was no one running the show, it was just kid goofing
off. As  an experience though, if you're a Twin  Peaks fan definitely check it
out, there's lots of memorabilia on the walls and stuff and it IS the Double R
diner but, I dunno, I feel like it'd be nicer if they either embraced the Twin
Peaks appeal better or if they just ran it as a normal diner better. The merch
isn't even that great, they had better  Twin  Peaks stuff at Snoqualmie falls,
although  it  was all so expensive. Let me  tell ya,  when  you  see  a  place
charging $10 for a  keychain you've seen on  AliExpress for $1.50 it makes you
pretty reluctant to spend any money there.

   Fun  fact, there's a place  called Hobart  in this part of the  state and a
bunch of the streets in North Bend also have names that are Australian cities,
it's pretty funny.

   After we ate we rolled  back home and  checked out Issaquah - it's a really
pretty town, I like  it a lot. North Bend  was ok too but Issaquah felt really
friendly and comfy. We didn't do much, just  drove  around town and scoped  it
out.  We also  swung by  the landing spot for local paragliders  and saw a few
come in, all in all it was a pretty neat way to spend a warm afternoon.



EOF