Seattle is the 3rd Coolest City in America According to Forbes' Harris Poll

A few days ago Seattle woke up to find Men's Health ranking the town lower than other parts of the country, like Boise, Indianapolis, Columbus, Cincinnati and Salt Lake City, in terms of the degree to which citizens of Seattle partake in adult pro-creative activities, using such scientific criteria as condom sales and birth rates to determine their rankings.

Meanwhile, Forbes Magazine hired the Harris market research company to conduct a poll of Americans across the country to find out which of the nation's 40 largest metro areas the people consider "The Coolest."

New York City came in #1, followed by Las Vegas, with Seattle #3.

The entire list of Top Ten Cool Towns....

New York City

Las Vegas

Seattle

Chicago

San Francisco

Orlando

San Diego

Los Angeles

Miami

Washington, D.C.

Seattle is a cool town, one of my favorites. But, cooler than Los Angeles? Hollywood is in Los Angeles. Hollywood is pretty cool. It is easier to escape Seattle to something cool, like mountains, than it is in LA. Both have saltwater, but LA's saltwater has big warm surfable waves. Seattle is way more easy to get around in than Los Angeles, its downtown more concentrated, with the sports stadiums downtown. Both town's traffic is terrible, with LA's being a bit worse.

I remember way back when San Francisco was a cooler town than Seattle. I guess those days are behind us.

In Washington Drinking Smoked Salmon Flavored Vodka

I've never understood the point of flavored distilled adult beverages, like citrus flavored vodka, or peach flavored rum. Why not just mix in some citrus drink, like orange juice, into your vodka? Or peach juice into your rum?

There is a new flavored vodka that I really don't know how one would make your vodka this particular flavor, other than buying the flavored vodka.

I am talking about Alaska Distillery's Smoked Salmon Flavored Vodka.

Apparently once you have a Bloody Mary made with Smoked Salmon Flavored Vodka, you'll never want to return to boring, flavorless vodka.

It took several tries before Alaska Distillery successfully infused vodka with the essence of smoked salmon. Apparently early efforts were too oily.

Currently the only states in which you can buy Alaska Distillery's Smoked Salmon Flavored Vodka are where it is brewed, that being the state of Alaska. And Alaska's good friend and almost next door neighbor, that being the state of Washington.

I am currently in the state of Texas. Can it be long before some enterprising Texan comes up with Texas BBQ Flavored Vodka?

Sedro Woolley Founders' Day

I have been informed by the Wild Woman of Woolley, Betty Jo Bouvier, that this coming Saturday and Sunday is Founders' Day in Sedro-Woolley, Washington. That is September 11 and 12.

The Founders' Day poster you see on the right is from 2008, so the dates are wrong, but the events are pretty much the same, including the re-enactment of the Infamous Sedro-Woolley Great Bank Robbery of 1914.

In 2007 the re-enactment of the Infamous Sedro-Woolley Great Bank Robbery of 1914 had to be halted when it was discovered there were real bullets in the guns instead of blanks.

In 1914 the town marshal in Sedro=Woolley was Charles Villeneuve. In 2010 the great-great grandson of Charles Villeneuve, Chris Heck, will play the part of the marshal.

The Sedro-Woolley Founders' Day events are put together by the Sedro-Woolley Museum.

Founders’ Day Schedule of Events

Saturday, September 11th 2010

Founders’ Day Breakfast
8:00 am to 11:00 aaam – Senior Center, 715 Pacific St

Menu: Scrambled Eggs, biscuits & gravy, juice and coffee

(Proceeds benefit Sedro-Woolley Senior Center)

$5.00 per person

Museum Video’s – Video of the 1914 Bank Robbery

725 Murdock St

10:00 am to 11:00 am

Bank Robbery Reenactment

12 Noon, in front of the Sedro-Woolley Museum at Woodworth & Murdock

Museum Open House

1:00 pm to 4:00 pm

Honoring the Villeneuve Family

Sunday, September 12, 2010

Open Car Show

9:00 am to 4:00 pm

Riverfront Park

2212 River Rd

$10 registration fee – dash plaques for the first 350 cars.

Sponsored by JJ’s Cruisers

Community Picnic
11:00 am to 3:00 pm

Riverfront Park

Featuring: Hot Dog, Chips, Cookies & Pop

$3.00 Donation

The Gorge Amphitheatre in George Washington

You are looking at The Gorge by George, Washington.

George is a town. The Gorge is an Amphitheatre that can seat 25,000, give or take one or two, concert goers in a scenic outdoor venue overlooking the Columbia River Gorge.

The Gorge is considered to be one of the best, and most scenic ,concert venues in the World.

Most of the World's top acts have played at The Gorge, including Red Hot Chili Peppers, Aerosmith, Shania Twain, Ozzy Osbourne, John Mayer (John Mayer is back at The Gorge this weekend, Saturday, August 28), Van Halen, Rush, The Police, The Eagles, Pearl Jam, The Dave Matthews Band (Dave Matthews will be back in The Gorge Friday, Saturday and Sunday of Labor Day Weekend), David Bowie, KISS, Coldplay, Blink 182, Britney Spears and many many more.

Pearl Jam released a boxed set of their entire performances at The Gorge from 2005 to 2006, titled Live at the Gorge 05/06.

The Dave Matthews Band released a recording recorded at The Gorge, called The Gorge.

Brooks & Dunn's Only in America video was filmed at The Gorge.

Keith Urban will also be at The Gorge, with The Dave Matthews Band, this coming Saturday, August 28. Brad Paisley shows up at The Gorge September 11, the 9th Anniversary of 9/11.

The Gorge is also home to an annual Memorial Day Weekend event called the Sasquatch! Music Festival presented by the House of Blues, with a focus on indie rock bands, with some alternative rock, hip hop and comedy acts thrown in. Headliners from past Sasquatch! Music Festivals include Jane's Addiction, Nine Inch Nails, R.E.M., Coldplay, the Beastie Boys, Beck, Ben Harper, Bjork, among others.,

Among the scenic attributes for which The Gorge is popular, concert goers also like the terraced lawn seating and the reliably good weather.

Seattle One of the 10 Best Cities for the Next Decade

Kiplinger Magazine conducted a search for the top cities in America poised to boom in the next decade, evaluating cities for growth and growth potential.

Kiplinger found that some U.S. cities may have been slowed by the Great Recession, but, though slowed, they still have managed to thrive by "lifting good old American innovation to new levels."

Seattle was #2 on Kiplinger's list of the Top Ten Towns ready to boom in the next decade.

The #1 city lifting good old American innovation to new levels is Austin, Texas. Apparently Austin has a high fun factor, despite not having some of the fun things Seattle has, like a Space Needle, Monorail, Pike Place Market, Ferries, Cruise Ships.

Austin has no team in the NFL or the major baseball leagues.

Seattle is surrounded by water and mountains. Austin does have a lake. And hills.

In the article titled "10 Best Cities for the Next Decade" this is part of what Kiplinger had to say about Seattle...

"Rain City? We'd say Brain City. Home to a well-educated workforce, a world-class research university, über innovators Microsoft, Amazon and Boeing, and a host of risk-taking, garage-tinkering entrepreneurs, Seattle crackles with creative energy. "We only have two products here: smart people and great ideas," says Mark Emmert, president of the University of Washington.

Seattle is revising its tax, zoning and permit policies to make them more business-friendly, says Johnson. Meanwhile, this sophisticated Pacific Rim city has other qualities to recommend it, including great food, a glorious setting, an outdoorsy culture, enough rain to keep the locals' complexions looking dewy -- and, yeah, plenty of smart people."

Rounding out the Top 10, after Austin and Seattle are...

3. Washington, D.C.
4. Boulder, Colorado
5. Salt Lake City, Utah
6. Rochester, Minnesota
7. Des Moines, Iowa
8. Burlington, Vermont
9. West Hartford, Connecticut
10. Topeka, Kansas

Northwest Exposure Not In The Northwest

You may be thinking this sign painted on the side of a building is maybe in Roslyn, Washington, with Roslyn playing Cicely, Alaska on the CBS hit TV show called Northern Exposure.

Well, you would be wrong if you thought this sign is in Rosyln.

You will not find this sign in Washington, or any of the other Northwest states, not in Idaho, not in Oregon.

You will find this sign in Oklahoma. I was driving backroads in Oklahoma, making my way from Turner Falls Park to the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex.

I stopped at a convenience store in a town about 20 miles east of Turner Falls, about 40 miles north of the most northern part of Lake Texoma. The name of the town is Sulphur. When I exited my car I was surprised to see the Seattle Space Needle on the building next to the convenience store.

The sign says "Northwest Exposure, An Oasis, Home of Lee's Drum On Arts & Crafts." With one more word I can not make out.

I thought the two items in the lower right might be muffins, maybe they are drums. In addition to the Space Needle other Northwest iconic type images, on the sign, are a mountain that could be Rainier. A coffee cup. In the coffee cups sailboats sail. With a bald eagle in flight. There are a lot of bald eagles in Washington, but they are not an image one associates with Washington.

Upon first glance I assumed this was a defunct coffee espresso stand of the sort that overpopulates Washington. I assumed this due to the big coffee cup in the middle of the sign. But the coffee cup is not filled with coffee, it's filled with blue water. And sail boats.

The mystery of the Northwest Exposure in Sulphur, Oklahoma, will likely never be solved.

Cascade Days This Weekend in Concrete in the Skagit Valley

This weekend, Saturday, August 21 and Sunday, August 22, the annual Cascade Days takes place in the heart of the Cascade Mountains in the Skagit Valley town known as Concrete.

Hundreds of ducks waddling in the rubber duck races is one of the more popular parts of Cascade Days.

There is also a pie eating and watermelon eating contest.

Along with a pet talent show, firemen's muster, logging show and classic cars.

Cascade Days Schedule

SATURDAY, August 21

9 to 11 a.m. — Parade line-up; west end of Main Street

11 a.m. — Parade; Main Street

1 p.m. — Parade awards; corner of Main and Baker streets

12:30 to 4 p.m. — Classic car show; Main Street

1 to 2:30 p.m. — Firemen’s muster; Town Park

1 to 4 p.m. — Kids’ activities/games, fish tank, entertainment; Town Park

2:30 to 4:30 p.m. — Log show; Town Park

5 p.m. — Duck race; Main Street

7 to 11 p.m. — Cascade Ramblers; American Legion

SUNDAY, August 22

(All events take place in Town Park)

9 a.m. to 5 p.m. — Information booths

10 a.m. to 1 p.m. — Entertainment

11 a.m. to noon — Pet Pride and Talent Show

12:30 to 1 p.m. — Pie-eating contest

2 to 3 p.m. — Watermelon-eating contest

3 to 3:30 p.m. — Jams and Jellies judging

3:30 p.m. — Button Drawing