20 Hours in Winthrop. Hiding Out in the Old West.
Pacific Northwest Travelog 17
Winthrop, WA. Thursday, 6 July 2017. 3:30pm.
We've been in tiny Winthrop, Washington for about 20 hours now. That's about 10 hours longer than expected, thanks to our car breaking down last night. After getting it towed to a repair shop this morning- and being told that it could be 5 days before they even start to work on it!- we decided to make ourselves comfortable in town this afternoon.
We spent a few hours downtown. "Downtown" is a relative term, here. Winthrop's downtown is only two blocks long. But it's a very touristy place as the buildings have been maintained in the Old West style of the late 1800s. Most have wooden facades, and the sidewalks are wooden, too.
The Old West shtick here is reminscent of Old Town Sacramento. But here the old timey-ness is more genuine. Winthrop was never a weatlhy town like Sacramento and has never enjoyed a massive redevelopment effort to spruce things up. It's frankly crude, like most Old West towns were.
We ate lunch along this Old West strip. Prices everywhere were expensive. The architecture may be crude small-town but the prices are set for affluent big-city travelers.
Oddly we found a Yucután, Mexico style restaurant. Hawk mostly cared about indulging with a rich virgin piña colada while I ordered the region's classic dish, cochinita pibil. It was decent but not as good as when I had the same dish in Yucután. Good news: that meant I didn't feel like I had to kill the cook.
After lunch we wandered around shops in the small downtown. The most interesting was a glass shop with a live glass blower working in an open workshop. I engaged him in gentle questions about his craft and profession while he worked on creating colorful glass pitchers.
The balance of this afternoon we've been back at the lodge taking it easy. We've laid outside by the river for a few hours, Hawk on a hammock and me on a lounge chair. It's very relaxing here. Even though the temperature is climbing toward 100F (38C) this afternoon there's a cool breeze right next to this mountain snow-fed river. Being in the shade helps, too.
It's unusual that I'm able to enjoy relaxing like this. I've written before about how this isn't my style of vacation. I prefer going, seeing, and doing to sitting and relaxing. But in this case I don't have much of a choice. Sitting and relaxing right now is how I'm making the best of a bad situation.
Along with sitting and relaxing I'm also hiding. I'm hiding from my job search. One company is trying to make me a job offer. I want them to make me a job offer. I'll probably accept it. But right now I just can't even.
Yesterday my excuse was I was off the grid for most of the day. Today I can't even focus on job seeking. I tried to make time to talk to the prospective employer on the phone this morning but then I got distracted by pleading with the auto mechanic to please look at our car sooner than 6 days from now. Since then I just can't focus on anything serious. I need to gain traction on what's happening with this crumbling vacation first. And yes, it is falling apart, even as I write. Sitting out here by the river is simply how I avoid worrying about it- or anything else- for a few hours.
Next: the mechanic throws in the towel. 😨
Winthrop, WA. Thursday, 6 July 2017. 3:30pm.
We've been in tiny Winthrop, Washington for about 20 hours now. That's about 10 hours longer than expected, thanks to our car breaking down last night. After getting it towed to a repair shop this morning- and being told that it could be 5 days before they even start to work on it!- we decided to make ourselves comfortable in town this afternoon.
We spent a few hours downtown. "Downtown" is a relative term, here. Winthrop's downtown is only two blocks long. But it's a very touristy place as the buildings have been maintained in the Old West style of the late 1800s. Most have wooden facades, and the sidewalks are wooden, too.
The Old West shtick here is reminscent of Old Town Sacramento. But here the old timey-ness is more genuine. Winthrop was never a weatlhy town like Sacramento and has never enjoyed a massive redevelopment effort to spruce things up. It's frankly crude, like most Old West towns were.
We ate lunch along this Old West strip. Prices everywhere were expensive. The architecture may be crude small-town but the prices are set for affluent big-city travelers.
Oddly we found a Yucután, Mexico style restaurant. Hawk mostly cared about indulging with a rich virgin piña colada while I ordered the region's classic dish, cochinita pibil. It was decent but not as good as when I had the same dish in Yucután. Good news: that meant I didn't feel like I had to kill the cook.
After lunch we wandered around shops in the small downtown. The most interesting was a glass shop with a live glass blower working in an open workshop. I engaged him in gentle questions about his craft and profession while he worked on creating colorful glass pitchers.
The balance of this afternoon we've been back at the lodge taking it easy. We've laid outside by the river for a few hours, Hawk on a hammock and me on a lounge chair. It's very relaxing here. Even though the temperature is climbing toward 100F (38C) this afternoon there's a cool breeze right next to this mountain snow-fed river. Being in the shade helps, too.
It's unusual that I'm able to enjoy relaxing like this. I've written before about how this isn't my style of vacation. I prefer going, seeing, and doing to sitting and relaxing. But in this case I don't have much of a choice. Sitting and relaxing right now is how I'm making the best of a bad situation.
Along with sitting and relaxing I'm also hiding. I'm hiding from my job search. One company is trying to make me a job offer. I want them to make me a job offer. I'll probably accept it. But right now I just can't even.
Yesterday my excuse was I was off the grid for most of the day. Today I can't even focus on job seeking. I tried to make time to talk to the prospective employer on the phone this morning but then I got distracted by pleading with the auto mechanic to please look at our car sooner than 6 days from now. Since then I just can't focus on anything serious. I need to gain traction on what's happening with this crumbling vacation first. And yes, it is falling apart, even as I write. Sitting out here by the river is simply how I avoid worrying about it- or anything else- for a few hours.
Next: the mechanic throws in the towel. 😨