Due to a death in the family, we had to head over to Eastern Washington for a few days. There’s not really much interesting to report from that endeavor — since we had to clean out an apartment as a result of this, I managed to get some very nice decorations for my apartment at no cost, and some of them were created by family members. Death is, of course, always a sad and harrowing affair, but I found some small enjoyment in exploring and finding things that I appreciated.

While we were there, we had dinner at one of the top (if not the top) restaurants in Walla Walla, Whitehouse-Crawford. I dare say it’s one of the best in Washington. Anyway, I ordered the following:

Salad: Warm spinach salad with smoked trout, bacon, grilled onions, and mustard vinaigrette

Entree: Grilled Thundering Hooves Farm burger with bacon, Cougar Gold cheese, mustard aioli, and fried onions

Dessert was a huckleberry mousse with some other stuff added in — very good. Unfortunately, the description isn’t on the web site, so I can’t quote the menu verbatim on that one.

The hamburger was to die for. Probably the best hamburger I’ve ever had — very rich in flavors, but not overly pretentious (if that adjective can be applied to a hamburger!). Cougar Gold cheese is produced by Washington State University, and is exceedingly rare and hard to get. They only produce it about once a year. Incredibly popular and delicious. I’ve had it maybe twice in my whole life.

Enough about dinner.

On the way out of Walla Walla going west, there’s a wind farm run by Pacific Power, which I’ve had the chance to visit in the past. The windmills are huge, the blades a couple stories high, and these appear very large even from a mile or two away. They’re awesome to stand next to, with nearly constant wind blowing around us and threatening to bowl you over. The view coming west today was quite pretty, since we were leaving in the morning hours and the sun was rising low out of the east.

I did manage to finish another one of my class books today — that makes two out of 10 completed. With any luck, that’ll be closer to four by the time school starts.