AND I'M OFF

Buen Viage and Hasta Luego

By this time tomorrow, I will be on my way to Buenos Aries, Argentina for a two week cruise south along the coast, through the Straits of Magellan and up the coast of Chile to Santiago. After that, I'll fly to Quito, Ecuador and the Galapagos Islands for a 7-day catamaran tour. As in the past, I will be unable to post to my WWDP blog, but you can follow me on FB when and if I am able to post photos and commentary of my travels.

Since I have yet to miss a first-of-the-month theme day, hopefully I'll find a way to post a photo of "where I belong."

FROM WALLA WALLA TO ALL POINTS EAST, WEST, NORTH & SOUTH

I'm in the Mood For . . . 

Happy Valentine's Day To You!

SELFIE SATURDAY

Learnin' the Ropes of a New-to-Me Mac

Take two steps forward, then one step back . . . frustration, tears, re-composure . . . success. I think I'm gonna like this.

ONE DOWN, FOUR TO GO

Chop 'Em Down

While I don't go so far as to call myself a "tree hugger," I do love trees. And Walla Walla is blessed with many old and beautiful trees. But as of this photo, there is one less tree in Walla Walla and in our yard with four more on the chopping block. 

This huge Maple was dying at the core due to a bad prune job by a scalawag tree man in 2007. So before it falls on our garage and house, we had it chopped down. As for the others, they are on a neighbor's property but seriously threaten ours, so down they must come. One is a deader-than-a-door-nail locust, and the other three are scrub Paradise trees, not worth much as far as landscaping trees go. 

ONE DE-CAF 16 OZ. MOCHA WITH NON-FAT MILK, PLEASE

Otherwise known as a "Niente" or "Why Bother?"

Coffee Cravings is a locally owned drive-through coffee shop serving hot and cold coffee drinks at two locations: 

1615 E. Isaacs and 801 W. Poplar.

Baristas busy at work

MORE COFFEE TO GO-GO

Dutch Bros. Coffee

This privately held drive-through coffee chain is headquartered in Grants Pass, Oregon.

At last count a total of 233 company-owned and franchise stores are located in seven states in the western USA. 

The Walla Walla store has been open for over four years.

Dutch Bros. was founded on February 3, 1992 by brothers Dane and Travis Boersma, third-generation dairy farmers in Grants Pass. 

They bought an espresso machine and experimented with a hundred pounds of coffee in their empty milk house.

After a month of handing out free samples to friends and family, the brothers began serving up mochas and lattes 

from a pushcart set up in downtown Grants Pass. They named their company 

Dutch Brothers Coffee Company, or Dutch Bros.

Over the next few years, permanent kiosks opened in other parts of Grants Pass, 

including a coffeehouse a few blocks from the original stand.

Dutch Bros. roasts all their own coffee, a three-bean blend sourced from 

direct relationships with plantations in El Salvador, Brazil and Colombia.

Flavored coffee drinks are made from ingredients such as Torani syrups, 

a blend of Dutch chocolate milk, Oregon Chai, Pacific soy milk, and Harney & Sons teas.

In October 2009, co-founder Dane Boersma died of Lou Gehrig's disease. 

In his honor, all locations annually donate one designated day's proceeds 

to the Muscular Distrophy Association.