From Paris to Bear country – A series – Part 2

Tasting rooms…

More tasting rooms

One strip mall. Four (out of many) wine tasting rooms. Food option? A Mexican chain restaurant.

Tourist buses traveling from Seattle are a common sight these days. To accommodate the influx of vehicles, the city of Woodin[ville] has extensively remodeled a major intersection. Three consecutive roundabouts were built over a year ago. Not just any roundabouts, mind you, award-winning ones! Sadly, you risk your life every time you drive through them because some people don’t seem to notice the 200+ “Yield” signs strategically located all over the roundabouts. A logical conclusion is that Yield signs are not part of drivers’ Ed. classes in the United States.

Three award-winning roundabouts: Safer from above?

The largest of the three Woodinville roundabouts, nicknamed “Stonehenge” by a friend

I would argue that the worst possible time to use the new Woodin[ville] roundabouts is on Sunday afternoons, when the wine-tasting crowds get back in their car and try to get home. These guys are dangerous because 1. They are, by then, officially buzzed. 2. They have no clue how to drive on a roundabout 3. They are s.t.a.r.v.i.n.g. and can only think about one thing: “What did we leave in the fridge?”

As I explained at the beginning of this post, food options are limited in town so the poor out-of-towners’ best bet is to head home and have left-overs. But wait: There is hope after all. Look what I found today, and this one is opening downtown. In-cro-ya-ble!

Big Fish Grill, we will have you, whatever you are!

I apologize if the previous post was a bit more uplifting than this story. Who would not want to visit the amazing Woodin[ville] outdoors scene I depicted? It was straight out of Little House on the Prairie, non?

“What about those bears you mentioned in the title?” you ask.

Let’s just say this is an episode that would not have happened in this French girl’s old Parisian neighborhood. A couple of weeks ago, a bear was spotted in a nearby town, then at a local junior high.The school was evacuated as the sheriff searched the premises, shotgun in hand (this part alone must have delighted 8th and 9th grade boys.)

Finally, the bear was captured. How? It was chased up a tree by a 3lb teacup poodle named “Little Schmoopie.” You don’t believe me, do you? Do you think I am like Garrison Keillor, making up stories? Look it up if you don’t believe me. It’s all here. If it is in the media then it must be true, n’est-ce-pas?

A bientôt,