Fall City Days

The Domination of Eiler has been told that, for the health of its motor vehicle, the vehicle must be driven at least thirty miles at a time, once a month. Coincidentally and sadly, its local church allies believe in moving the summer worship schedule around so as not to waste the late morning on God when one could be at the lake. The Domination gets the message... Weekend road trip time!

The neighborhood of Snoqualmie-Washington (including nearby towns of Fall City and North Bend) has a brewery, a waterfall, a historical society, and a country inn to offer. All within bicycle range of each other, up and down a river valley. Good enough.

Country inn: Fall City Roadhouse and Inn. Bonus points for a full-service restaurant on premises. However, every room faces either a state highway, an all-night mini mart, or ventilation shafts which operate 7 am - 11 pm.

(bonus) Fall City Days Parade, 11 am Saturday! Apparently this day is their big day of the year. This would have worked out better if the Domination force hadn't been awake at 7 am for once. However, made time for Fall City pride. Unlike Bellingham, didn't crash the parade. But the Dominator hopes no journalist took a picture of him in the public massage booth. Many other fine photos were conquered... but these were later destroyed, in a mishap involving a phone call while the cell phone was serving as an active disk drive. So the world will have to imagine what a miniature truck-drawn Space Needle and a bunch of Cinderellas look like.

Waterfall: Snoqualmie Falls. The park there is built around hydropower, by Puget Sound Energy. Trails closed for industrial renovation for the next year. But viewing platforms open. Good enough.

Historical Museum: North Bend. Supposedly open 1-5 pm Saturday - Tuesday this time of year, and their Historical Society sent people to Fall City to let the public know. But actually locked tight today. It must be hard to get the volunteer staff in when there's a party down the valley.

Brewery: Snoqualmie Brewery and Taproom. Came through with Polish sausage and nitro pale ale.

(bonus) Snoqualmie Railway Museum (with four-mile train ride) and Snoqualmie Casino. Bypassed due to intermittent rain.

Bike ride: Pretty awesome. Fifteen miles, all flat, except for one mile gentle upgrade by the Falls. The Domination has spent decades training on gentle upgrades. The fast bike "Thunder Child" was the vehicle of choice. The Domination's electric hybrid car took this same route; downhill, the car was not only on electric motor the whole way, the motor was charging.

The Snoqualmie Valley of Washington is much like the Blackstone Valley of Massachusetts (www.h2g2.com/approved_entry/A618941/. ), only with mountains in the distance. Fall City is like East Douglas West, only with its own grocery store (and more bars!) because you can't just go five miles to the next town over... well, you could, but you don't. The population is a mix of nouveau-artsy (as in, look at our River Stone Sculpture!) and throwback (as in, which way's west?).

One good bike ride. One brewery. Barely any trophies, even photos. But church on Sunday. All hail the Domination!