Swimsuit shopping made easy

If you're in the market for a swimsuit and you're a woman, I'm very sorry. It's such a painful and traumatic thing to do isn't it? That's why I hadn't bought a new swimsuit in over six years (with the exception of my triathlon swimsuit, which is really neat but looks kinda dorky on the beach). But next week we are off to vacation in the midwest at a lakeside reunion, where I will most likely need a swimsuit. Plus, some friends here in Seattle just bought a house with a pool and having a pool in Seattle is such an anomaly that I will probably find myself in it at some point just to say it happened. 

So I grit my teeth and set out on a swimsuit expedition. The catalogs are no help at all. You can't tell anything from a catalog especially when it's so totally important as a swimsuit. So we ventured out to The Mall and hit every store that might have a swimsuit and you know where I hit jackpot?

Old Navy.

Not coincidentally this is where I bought my last two swimsuits six years ago (and they are still intact although I can't say I've worn them a whole lot). 

Old Navy is so great. They find a good generic cut that looks good on everyone and then they mass produce it in a zillion different interesting modern patterns and sell it at a price that doesn't make you freak out since you know you're only going to wear it about 5 times. Plus they don't seem to run out all of a sudden after spring break like everyone else does (who can even think about buying a swimsuit in March? Obviously everyone).

Old Navy, you are my hero.

The Viewpoint Inn

Over Memorial Day Weekend the Studly Hubby took it upon himself to arrange for us to go on a weekend getaway-vacation to Oregon.

We stayed at the Viewpoint Inn, a very old beautiful building that has been turned into a restaurant and bed and breakfast.

This is the back of the Viewpoint Inn which faces towards the Columbia River Valley gorge. The first floor is the restaurant and the second floor are the rooms for overnight guests. Our room was the one on the far left.

The Viewpoint Inn also happens to be where the ending of the movie Twilight was filmed.

A snapshot taken between scenes of the two stars of Twilight at the Viewpoint Inn. In the background you can see glimpses of the fabulous view, which is also seen in the movie.

The lawn of the Viewpoint Inn is the kind of place you could hang out all day. They serve drinks and limited appetizers to people on the lawn and leave it open for anyone to stop by and enjoy (while we were there many people did this, but it is a big lawn and generally not crowded)

Some of the original props from the movie like the Monte Cristo arch were kept as a souvenir but instead of leaving it in the center of the lawn as it was in the movie (as shown below) they tactfully put it on the side of the lawn nearest the road so tourists can go shriek and jump around it without interfering with the tranquility that the rest of the guests enjoyed.

Although it was a fantastic coincidence that this was the site where they filmed part of Twilight (and the wait staff told us some great stories when they weren't busy), the Studly Hubby picked this spot because of its great location (near Portland, the waterfalls, and Mount Hood) and also because of its beautiful view, which we thoroughly enjoyed. The rooms were very classy and made us feel spoiled, but were not very private - we shared bathrooms with the other overnight guests AND the restaurant guests, they were constantly giving tours through the entire place, and there was actually a shared door between our room and the room next to us (with a 2-inch crack under it). But they served amazing food, we met some memorable people, and we had a fantastic time. We enjoyed nature (we drove around and up Mount Hood, hiked to a lookout over the Columbia River Valley gorge, and sprawled on the lawn every chance we could), we ate their amazing food and saw the gleaming kitchen of a four-star restaurant during the off hours (overnight guests have the run of the place when everyone else has left). At night we went into Portland and drank local beer and got caught up on movies we haven't seen at a great dollar theater (that serves... local beer!). 

When we got back we watched Twilight again. It was even worse the second time, and the scene filmed at the Viewpoint was rather short (although very beautiful). However the Studly Hubby watched it all the way through with me and didn't even complain, which is really something.

This is NOT an abandoned blog

My goal is to keep posting even if the blog posts become fewer and fewer. This time I can't even blame Facebook - my status was left unchanged for so long that it finally defaulted to nothing, and I have 66 requests stacked up that I haven't dealt with. I've just plain been busy. What have I been doing?

I'm not sure.

Let's see.... (figures tapping on forehead, memories being recalled, chocolate cake being eaten for an energy source, aha! I remember now)

Working, socializing, vacationing, socializing, and working. Last weekend we hung out on a friend's sailboat all afternoon Saturday, then went to a movie Saturday night and the Studly Hubby was so excited he forgot to eat dinner then felt sick at the movie theater. The weekend before Memorial Day weekend we went to a Whiskey party that was actually quite a well attended event (which meant LOTS of whiskey to try... and I found one that I like, which happens to be $200 a bottle, the Johnny Walker Blue). This weekend we went to a BBQ at a friend's house on Saturday afternoon. In between all that we've listened to some live music (Builders and the Butchers, our favorite West Coast band, and the Mates of State, another great band from the West Coast), I joined a Saturday morning yoga class, we helped a friend move waaaaay out to Mountlake Terrace, and we visited with several good midwest friends, one was in town for a conference (yay Katy, we missed you and were so happy to see you!) and the others live in town but we somehow only rarely hook up.

So it's been a very busy spring. But I am happy to report that it's been a really fun spring. Next week the Studly Hubby and I are taking off for a week-long trip to the midwest which includes a weekend at the Lake of the Ozarks - I was so excited I bought TWO swimsuits (see above post).

Hope you are all having a good spring too, and you haven't given up on me! I will try to post again before too long.