Lots of new experiences

All the firsts for me in the last month:
- first time to Vancouver: potentially nice city to live in but boring to visit
- first time to the Canadian Rockies: beautiful, particularly the different coloured lakes due to the rock flour ground up by the glaciers
- first time to Philadelphia: historical town but hot and humid!
- first Philly Cheese Steak: what's the big deal about these? They aren't so great!
- first time to Pittsburgh: also a nice city to live in but not a lot of tourist attractions
- first hummingbird - seen in Si-lam and Alicia's herbs. It was really big! I always thought they were really, really small.
- first county fair: the Yamhill County Fair in McMinnville, which according to Alicia was very traditional and hasn't moved with the times (certainly looked like the way county fairs from 100 years ago are described in the books I read as a kid)
- first rodeo: it was at the county fair. As with the bullfight in Madrid, cheap and little gets you mediocre performers - there were more misses than hits but I was impressed with the fact that cowgirls have a proper competition (skills-based, not beauty-based) and there was a competition where the cowboys throw themselves off their horses onto the calves to bring them down and under control.
- first monk-made fudge: the Brigittine monks (founded in the 1300s) are now extinct except for a monastery in Oregon (of all places!) where they make fudge as a sideline.
- first sweet potato fries: yum!