life's simple pleasures

Today was a beautiful day weather wise in the Pacific Northwest, and a completely free day on my calendar, so I decided to explore a bit of my new state (Washington). I was born in the other Washington, grew up in Maryland and spent most of my adulthood in Oregon. Washington State therefore is new ground for exploration.

I decided to start with the Ocean. Along the way, I drove through the town of Aberdeen - famous to fans of grunge music as the hometown of Kurt Cobain. The "Welcome to Aberdeen" signs says "Come As You Are" at the bottom. Is that a reference to the Nirvana Song of the same name I wonder? Or was the sign there when Kurt was a boy, hence the song? Or no correlation at all? A quick internet search told me that, indeed, the sign is Aberdeen's tribute to Kurt. Albeit a fairly obscure tribute to be sure.*

I continued on to the town of Ocean Shores. Walked on the beach - which oddly enough is also a state highway, and so if you walk on the beach you have to share the beach with SUVs, horses and dune buggy type contraptions. Not very relaxing, truth be told.

So I wandered around the town a bit before I drove back home. And then I found it .... an arcade. Would they have it, I wondered? So I wandered in, pinball machines, video games, air hockey, and there, tucked in the corner, was my game. Skee Ball. Actually, it was a version of Skee Ball called Ice Ball, but it was close enough to fit my purposes. You see, I LOVE skee ball, a love that I learned as a young girl from the Skee Ball Queen herself, my mother. I played a few round of skee ball, earned oodles of tickets, and then found a nice brother and sister duo to give my tickets to. Then I headed home.

All in all, a nice day of exploring.


*Update on the sign - I was intrigued, so I poked around some more. Apparently, the sign just went up 4 years ago on the 11th Annviersary of Kurt's death. Which means he died 15 years ago. Wow, that's hard to believe. Also, as I commented above, it is a fairly obscure tribute. Apparently, that's on purpose, as I read on the Kurt Cobain Memorial Committee website:

"After getting feedback from Kurt's fans across the world, we settled on 'Come As You Are' because it had dual meanings," said committee co-chairman Jeff Burlingame, arts and entertainment editor for The Daily World. "Nirvana fans will understand the significance, yet it's vague and appropriate enough that the meaning is applicable to everyone.