For the first time in two decades, I'm consistently too busy during my work day to surf - including visits to Unfogged, which were always a highlight. Crunch time, brought on by some serious miscalculations by management, has been pretty much constant since early December.

So I've returned to even more lurker than usual status for the time being; hopefully we'll claw our way out. (Honestly, most of the team seemed to be exiting the tunnel until a Good Friday resignation; hopefully we'll get back to reasonable schedules for all soon.)

We're planning a June trip to Seattle, Vancouver, Vancouver Island, and Whistler. Anyone have thoughts on can't miss/don't bother things to do, places to eat, etc?

Try the salmon.

2: I made a trip out there to visit Tim's family. His great aunt is in Victoria, and a different set of his Dad's cousins are in a subway suburb of Vancouver, Burnaby. Vancouver Island was my favorite part of the trip. Everyone says Buthcart gardens is the place to go on Vancouver Island, but it's almost too much. I've heard nice things about the Butterfly garden. I went to Hayley Castle/ Royal Roads University, but it was too late to visit their gardens. If I ever go back, I want to see them. The afternoon tea at Butchart was really good. I think the restaurant is liked by locals, but you'd better be a member if you want to make it a regular stop, because they charge you the full admission to eat there. Red Fish/ Blue Fish, a stand in the wharf in Victoria is amazing.

We got dragged into going to Whistler and taking a tram up the mountain by Tim's Dad's cousins. I didn't feel like it was worth it Really expensive and just a generic ski village. There are other mountains that are closer. The most annoying thing (after we chipped in for a van rental and spent a lot of money on the tram) was hearing on the ride back how much they enjoyed the spot that was closer in.

I really like Olympic National Park, even if it's a little inconvenient from Seattle. Especially the part on the far side along the ocean. Even saw wild sea otters from the beach once. Both Seattle and Vancouver have excellent aquariums (though you'd have to really like aquariums to go to two on one trip). Generally speaking (and global warming has screwed this up a bit) Seattle in the summer just has absolutely amazing weather, which means if you like going to a baseball game it's a great city for it (at least if this is later in June, my experience in Seattle is mostly in July). The Orca watching trip I took from Victoria was excellent.

2: our mutual friends who just moved to Olympia!

It's certainly not worth a trip, but the sign when you drive into Aberdeen is pretty great.

I like to remember that there was a time when a "come as you are" party was a merry way to party with your hair in curlers, or wearing oil-stained jeans from the garage, and was a merry gimmick for an impromptu get together. Old people sure were quaint.

For the five years we lived in western Washington, a summer kayaking trip in the San Juans was the best four days of each and every year. We'd rent kayaks in Seattle, throw em on the roof, drive to Anacortes, take the ferry to Orcas and paddle from there and camp on islands. I was lucky enough to have some cousins and contacts on various forbidden islands but there's public camping on several islands out there, too.

2: My kid recently asked me if we could visit Vancouver just to go to the Bunny Cafe.

If you have more than one kid, you need to worry about this cafe.

Whistler's locked in because the friends we're going with have hotel reservations rescheduled from earlier in the year that they have to use. (They were planning to go skiing but had an expired passport snafu.)

We were definitely thinking about kayaking. We're not going to schlep camping gear, though, so it would be day trips.

Bellingham's nice. I've spent a lot of time in the Seattle airport but very little in the city itself so I don't have much to offer there.

There's a train right from the airport into Seattle.

You can't do that here.

That is, you can't take a train from the Pittsburgh Airport to Pittsburgh. You can take a train from Pittsburgh to Seattle if you allow for connections and have great patience.

I have actually taken that train into Seattle from the airport, but I didn't stay very long.

You aren't supposed to stay long on the train.

|| Bleg: Vanity Fair: subscribe/not? $8/1 year special. |>

How do they know the year is going to be special?

13: Bellingham is nice, or was 21 years ago when I last went to visit my eccentric aunt there. Sign on a wall as you drive in says WELCOME TO BELLINGHAM, CITY OF SUBDUED EXCITEMENT. Lots of bookshops.

For $8, do it.

21: "Subdued Excitement" is fantastic.

That's what she said, but not very convincingly.

19: definitely - https://www.vanityfair.com/contributor/william-langewiesche

"Donald Trump held in contempt for not complying with New York subpoena
On Monday, New York Judge Arthur F. Engoron held former president Donald Trump in contempt for failing to comply with a subpoena related to state attorney general Letitia James' investigation into the Trump Organization. Trump was ordered to turn over materials sought by James and will be fined $10,000 per day until he does so, according to The New York Times."

What happens when he doesn't pay? I've lost all belief in accountability and consequences.

That's a pretty small fine for the magnitude of what is being concealed.

23: we take pride in it :)

[Sir Kraab, if you're going to be passing through and want recommendations feel free to ask HG for my email address].

I would definitely recommend getting Dim Sum in either Seattle (our favorite is Jade Garden) or Richmond (Kirin Starlight is our standard because you can usually get a table fairly quickly. Sun Sui Wah is also good). Vancouver Chinatown can also be a fun place to wander around.

2: Adjust your angle just by like twenty degrees and you'll hit Oakland. I have many recommendations regarding Oakland, not even including "do not live here."

I keep forgetting that my cousin lives in Oakland. The California one.

The answer to my earlier ABBA question was "Gimme, Gimme, Gimme."

This question.

I have been getting various ABBA songs stuck in my head ever since you asked but I would never have guessed that one. Is that a flute? I think my memory-hearing combo must have gone off the rails at some point

It's an old synth (not so old at the time, I guess), but with a flute-y patch/sound.

I did say "flute-like".

Apologies for the poorly-aimed ear worm.

Well, looks like we may have crossed the final hurdle towards buying the Big House. (Previous occupants include, I have just learned, and I promise you I am not making this up, Black Sabbath.)

Random spam has re-upped this rather charming old thread: www.unfogged.com/archives/comments_16402.html

37: Sounds great. Good luck.

38 that is a great thread

37 good chance there is some very old LSD hidden in some forgotten place somewhere in there

and a DARK SECRET.

Which will turn out to be a radio nobody ever paid the BBC fee for.

37: The whole band? They all lived together there?

35: I can't hear high frequencies so I think my brain just fills in generic synth/string/noise for high pitches and then I make vague assumptions about the instrument based on the mood of the song. Only slow gentle songs have flutes, that's my policy. (I 100% can't tell the difference between a flute or a violin or a synth or a vocal solo, I should not have tried to help you with this question)

I'm just bad with that kind of stuff even though my hearing is fine.

44: they did a gig there once.