RETURN TO THE LAND OF THE LOST "HELLO"

Well, I have returned to the bowels of the Mysterious Mansion, back from a much needed vacation. This time it was off to the Central and Southern Coasts of Oregon. No TV and only local papers made it seem like I was light years away from the usual workaday world. I could learn to get real used to it.

After gorging myself all week on various things with fins and crustacean critters, I have to say for the record that my favorite new fish is . . . Sturgeon! Firm flesh, mild to medium flavor, not "fishy" or strong, I had it as both "Sturgeon and Chips" and as a filet, grilled with a mango chutney sauce. Yum!

So, I have returned to the once-fabled Land of the Shoegazer and to what I have newly dubbed as The Land of the Lost "Hello". Why? I have already noticed a remarkable difference between the city dwellers of the Seattle area and the shoreline denizens of the Oregon Coast. I did quite a bit of socializing with the locals during this trip and was pleasantly surprised to find how friendly and gregarious they all were. One might say they were much like the "salt of the earth" that one so often reads about.  Conversely, while a few people that I passed on my regular walking path my first day back have returned my "hello", so far not one has initiated the internationally-recognized greeting on their own. A by-produce of urbanization, perhaps? I have heard the term "provincial" used more than once.

Believe or not (and there's more in that phrase that you will see soon), a few opportunities presented themselves on my trip that I think are appropriate to include in this blog. How does a visit with dinosaurs, Dracula, Frankenstein, and The Fiji Mermaid sound? Stay tuned right here, and in the next few days, I will regale you with the revelations!