So Miss Significantly Other and me took a little ride on the wild side of Seattle (that would be the east side of Seattle, across Lake Washington even) to Carnation.

Carnation was named after the Carnation Dairy from whence the original Carnation Dilapidated Milk came from (which was dilapidated down in Kent). Actually, Carnation began as Tolt and changed its name when it found its cows to be contented. Apparently, this name change riled the cattle because Carnation changed its name back to Tolt in 1928. Not as content as its famed cows, Tolt changed its name back to Carnation (calling no takebacks this time) in 1951.

Anywho, Carnation is now home to not too damn much except Remlinger Farms (site will act weird in Firefox). So that's where we went.

Carnation is rural and as we sat at a table in the restaurant portion of RF, I began to spielify Miss S.O. with my "These are my people and this is where I'm from" routine.

Well, it's true. My mother's family is full of Leroys and Buds, a Spurgeon, Amoses and Rhodas, Rosemarys, Alices and Florences. Every summer when I was a kid was filled with trips to places in Sussex County New Jersey and East Central Pennsylvania that looked like sets from the movie "Deliverance". Essentially I come from cow shit, indirectly.

We had a couple of tasty slices of cherry pie and I had mine ala mode. Miranda was our server and she was really nice. I had asked for coffee and she had to come back to the table twice to advise me that it was going to be a while because the guy who makes it was on break. Don't you just love it? Something like that would piss me off in Seattle but out there, it was just kinda funny. Must be the people.

The area has a lot of what I call "side-Asians". The two white couples who sat at a table across from us each had an Asian baby. There were two or three Asian woman/white guy couples as well. Everyone elese was whitebread. So it was like whitebread with Asians on the side.

I was disappointed to see so many products on Remlinger's shelves that are 'Made exclusively for Remlinger Farms", rather than made by Remlinger Farms.

After pie we visited the North Bend outlet mall where I picked up some socks and a travel vest from Eddie Bauer. Normally, I won't shop at Eddie Bauer because, well, it's Eddie Bauer but they had some nice socks and a decent price on the vest. Now all I have to do is pick the stitches out of the logo block sewn on the left front pocket of the thing and discard it.

We passed Twede's which is a little restaraunt in North Bend, in the shadow of Mount Si, and which served up some "cherry pie and a damn fine cup of coffee" in the long-defunct but groundbreaking TV series Twin Peaks.

After that, there was a thirty-mile ride home...