Girl About the World

My favorite teacher in elementary school had a sign we were all to abide by: “I will not masticate processed tree sap during the time I should be endeavoring in my intellectual pursuits.” Translation: Don’t chew gum in class. I took that lesson to heart and then some, and to this day, I rarely chew gum. A lot of folks near Seattle’s Market Theatre, however, don’t feel the same way.

Seattle's Gum Wall began in the 1990s and has grown in size (and germiness) since.

It all started in the 1990s when those waiting in line to get in the theater began sticking their gum to the wall. The city tried in vain to get rid of it a couple of times, but it’s now a bona fide tourist destination that made it to No. 2 on the list of TripAdvisor’s germiest world attractions.

I accidentally whipped my ponytail into the Gum Wall, which was not my best move.

I trekked there with my mom one evening (it’s in Post Alley, right below Pike Place Market), and although it was a bit smaller than I imagined it would be, there were still thousands upon thousands of pieces of colorful processed tree sap lining the bricks. Some people got creative, spelling messages and making designs. I even saw a pretty decent gum rendition of the Eiffel Tower. Yelpers are big fans, with more than 80 percent giving the Gum Wall four or five stars. I was a little skeeved out by the wall, yet it was still oddly intriguing. As for my mom’s assessment: “It’s gross, but a must-see for grossness, I guess.” What more can you say than that?

My mom enjoys her time in front of the Gum Wall.

Many believe that the older a whiskey is, the better it is. But that’s not necessarily true — the start-to-finish process has more to do with the quality of the liquor than simply age.

The same, then, could be said of a distillery: Age is nothing but a number. And Bainbridge Island’s Bainbridge Organic Distillers is proving that adage right. Although it’s only existed since 2009, the distillery is already making a mark on the world of Washington spirits with its Bainbridge Legacy Organic Vodka and soon-to-be-released Bainbridge Battle Point Whiskey.

Read more about this father-and-son-run distillery, one of the first in Washington state, in the current issue of WestSound Home & Garden. Not in the area? See the PDF here.

Check It Out:
9727 Coppertop Loop NE, Suite 101
Bainbridge Island, WA  98110
(206) 842-3184
www.bainbridgedistillers.com

In 2010, I moved halfway across the country, drove through six states, flew to many more, took two cruises, and visited eight countries in all. These 10 experiences encapsulated my year in travel:

1. Laguna Beach, California. I admit it: I watch too much of MTV’s reality TV. And while I avoided Laguna Beach in its early days, I eventually succumbed my senior year of college and have now seen every episode. So getting to stop by and sit at the same dinner table Lo was at when she had that terrible date while the rest of the gang was camping was way more exciting than it should’ve been. But exciting nonetheless!

2. The real Full House house, San Francisco, California. Continuing on my California and television theme, seeing the real Full House house (which is not one of the Painted Ladies across from Alamo Park) was the fulfillment of a dream of any good ’90s kid who loved TGIF.

3. The Blue Lagoon, Iceland. The icy blue water, the hazy mist, the volcanic rocks, a massaging waterfall — it all adds up to the Blue Lagoon, a mystical place that proved the perfect topper for my stay in Iceland.

4. Atlanta, Georgia. The only new U.S. state I made it to in 2010 (still 11 more to go!), Georgia has been on my list for a while now, and despite the sweltering July heat, I packed a ton into a less-than-three-day stay: Georgia Aquarium, CNN, The Colonnade, Centennial Olympic Park, Martin Luther King Jr. National Historic Site, The Varsity, The Flying Biscuit, and a cute vintage shop called My! My! My! Oh, and I made it to all my client meetings, too!

5. Dominica. Dominica is not an island I would drive around on. More than once, our tour bus came face to face with another on the narrow, winding roads, necessitating that someone backed up and just missed the edge of a cliff. But it’s said that Dominica is the only place Christopher Columbus would still recognize, and it was certainly beautiful in its rustic nature.

6. Seabrook, Washington. One of Washington state’s newest towns, Seabrook is a tiny beach community where the pace is a little slower. On a girls’ getaway with my family, we roasted marshmallows, hiked to the beach, cruised on old-fashioned bikes, and marveled at the adorableness that is this little village by the shore in the middle of nowhere.

7. The Celebrity Eclipse out of Miami. The latest ship from Celebrity’s Solstice class, the Eclipse, debuted this year, and it lives up to the hype. Elegant accommodations, fun entertainment, and more bars than you could visit in an evening make for a relaxing and classy floating escape.

8. Uppsala, Sweden. Learning about a different culture is one of the best parts of hopping a plane. I dedicated one day while in Uppsala to living like a typical Swede, which involved a traditional breakfast, recycling, fika, foraging for berries, and a trip to IKEA.

9. Dallas-Fort Worth, Texas. This may not count as traveling, given that I lived there, but as I was readying to depart Texas after four years, I fit in all my favorites and a few new things, plus I welcomed a steady stream of visitors. Strolling down Main Street in Grapevine, riding the mechanical bull at Gilley’s, reliving history at The Sixth Floor Museum, and entering the cowboy culture of Fort Worth will be missed.

10. The Winter Olympics, Vancouver, BC. I am a major Olympics buff who stays glued to the TV 24/7 during the Games every two years, so I was thrilled to attend my first one in person. After planning for almost two years, I couldn’t believe the time had actually come — and while it was exhausting, it was worth every sleepless minute.

I’m in the middle of house-hunting, and one thing I’m really craving is a community — I love those neighborhoods where you can walk to shops and restaurants, you actually know your neighbors, and the houses have personality. A few weeks ago, my mom saw an article in a magazine on Seabrook, Washington, and I knew I’d found one such place.

With my three cousins, sister, mom, and aunt in tow, I headed there this past weekend to check it out. Seabrook is on the Washington coast (for those familiar with the area, near Ocean Shores and Pacific Beach) and was founded in 2004 on the principles of New Urbanism, which champions walkable neighborhoods, mixed-use buildings, and sustainability. It’s the antithesis to urban sprawl.

It’s absolutely adorable — old-fashioned houses with big porches sit close to their neighbors, there are a number of community-use fire pits throughout for s’mores anytime you’d like, bicycles are available free of charge to cruise around on, and you can walk to the beach or anywhere else in town in less than 10 minutes. Of course, there’s not much yet to walk to, save the beach, a cafe, a grocery store, a pottery shop, and — well — that’s about it. As Seabrook expands, it’ll have a wine bar, coffee shop, theater, bowling alley, shops, and more, but houses aren’t built until someone asks for one, and businesses aren’t started until demand supports it. For now, Seabrook is largely a community of second homes used as vacation rentals. When all is said and done, they plan to have 1,000 homes (they’re at a little over 100 now).

While only 35 full-time residents and a two-plus-hour commute to the airport might keep me from packing my bags and calling it home, my family’s already planning to go back for a stay. Life is simpler in Seabrook, and that’s not a bad thing at all.