Wyatt in the World

I think in Singapore it’s against the law to spit on the street. I hear they’re really strict about things like that. I wish it was the case here in the US. I wish people would get fined, like $500 for spitting in front of others. I know. That’s harsh, but I’m reacting because of what just happened.

I was in the office that I share with Whitney, my friend and business partner for WhitneyandWyatt.com. I was in process of posting a show to our site when this all went down.  In our office, our desks face the window, and the window faces a trail that people run, walk and bike on every day. Since it’s summer, there are tons of people. Maybe you’ve heard of it. The Burke Gilman Trail.

Today I just happened to look out the window at the exact second a man walked past and spit a big loogie towards the window. It was like karma. Somehow I was supposed to see him gather up whatever was in the back of his throat and expel it onto the sidewalk in front of me. My reaction was one of disgust. He saw me seeing him spit. He turned bright red with a look of chagrin. I laughed. He smiled. He walked on.  And there the spit sits on the sidewalk as runners jog past it, and bikers ride over it.

Sometimes you get sidetracked by spit.

I am in Sweden this week, and a couple of days ago I got a call from my friend and business partner, Whitney Keyes, saying that we are in the Seattle PI.  I knew that an article was due about us and our Web TV show, WhitneyandWyatt.com, because on our last shoot, we had a reporter and a photographer there observing and interviewing us.  What I did not expect was to be on the front page of the paper!

I immediately told Whitney and my sister to pick up copies of the paper, since I couldn’t be there in Seattle myself to bask in the glory of my 15 minutes of fame. I have received a few e-mails from friends and acquaintances, so that’s pretty cool.  Check out the article online: Women’s lifestyle talk show seeks its audience online

April 14, 2008

My husband Jan and I were planning a trip for him to run the ½ marathon in the Whidbey Island Marathon this past weekend, but then he hurt his back and was unable to train for several weeks. We still had this Bed & Breakfast (B&B) reservation for two nights for the weekend. Plus my mom, JB was visiting, so we called the B&B to see if they would be willing to trade us the two nights on the weekend for one night with two rooms on a Thursday night. Instead we’d head up that way for the Tulip Festival, since we were staying in the Mount Vernon area anyway. Everything worked out for our new plan, and we headed up to Mount Vernon with JB and my sister Dost, mid-morning on Thursday.

The weather was not cooperating for us. As a matter of fact, the weather has been pretty miserable for the spring. It’s definitely been on the colder side, so we weren’t expecting to see much by way of flowers.

We arrive in Mount Vernon, which is kind of the center of Skagit Valley. It’s right on the Skagit River. The drive up there is scenic and we’ve been through the town a fair amount of times on our way up to the San Juan Islands. It’s a sleeply little town, so this is the first time we’ve actually stopped in the town to do anything. We found a restaurant, called the Potter House and had a tasty lunch. Then we made our way to Rozeengarde, which was our first stop on our tour of tulips.

We were expecting to see lots of fields of tulips at Rozeengarde, but there weren’t any. We did see a big field of daffodils, which was kind of neat. But the only tulips they had were in the small gardens. You still had to pay an entry fee to get in. We did that and got some “Kodak moments”, then proceeded to buy fudge and caramel corn before we hit the road.

After our visit to Roozengarde, we decided it was time for a break, so we went to check into our B&B, called Queen of the Valley Inn in La Conner. Jan and I had visited La Conner once before. It’s a quaint little town with antique and gift shops on a river. It’s kind of a little artist’s community out there in the valley.

We checked into this really great old Victorian house built in 1908 by an oat farmer’s son for his wife. The house has the original wood fixtures and is in great shape. The innkeepers having been running the place for about 4 years, and they live in a house on the property behind the inn. This is a perfect set-up because you don’t feel like you’re intruding upon a stranger’s dwelling/living situation. The innkeepers were friendly and helpful, but not too in-your-face, since they didn’t actually live in the same house. Nice.

The house has been a B&B for 20 years, so it’s got history of lots of people staying in it. The top (third floor) which is now a suite, used to be a big hall where the previous owners of the day used to throw parties. Each room has a theme from somewhere in the world. We had the Africa room, so yes, lots of animal print. JB and Dost were in the West Indies room. Our room was on the first floor and overlooked a field. In the distance were daffodil fields, like someone spilled a big giant-sized bucket of yellow-gold paint onto the green field. Beyond that you could make out the Cascades, which still had snow on them. For dinner we headed into La Conner and ate at the Brewery, then we went back to hang out at the Queen.

The next morning, we had a great breakfast of Dutch Babys, bacon, orange juice and coffee. The view was gorgeous, as the oat farmer’s pink Victorian house sits across the road, and in the distance the snow capped Olympic mountains were in view. The time at the B&B certainly brought you back to an era gone by, when oats were what oil is today, and life was simpler and things probably not as crazy as they are now.

After breakfast, before heading home, we went to Tulip Town, where Dost and Jan refused to pay 5 bucks to see the (however manufactured) tulip fields in different colors. JB and I went in and got some photo ops, which was fun.

On our way back to Seattle, we hit the designer outlet mall on I-5 for an hour and half of retail therapy, before making our way home. It was a fun little getaway, which every now and then one should do, even if it’s just for a day.

I watched this film the other day at the Seattle International Film Festival. It is called Encounters at the End of the World by Werner Herzog. It’s about his trip, sponsored by the NSF, to the South Pole, and what and who he encounters there. My favorite quote from that film was from a Caterpillar driver who also happened to be a philosopher. He said that a lot of people that are at the South Pole are “full-time travelers and part-time workers.” Brilliant. That’s exactly what I want to be. Although maybe not as hard-core as some of the people in the film.

I’m definitely not the backpacking type. I like to experience the finer things in life when I travel, however I can travel on a budget. I’ve never stayed in a youth hostel in my entire life, though. Nor do I plan to stay in one.

Anyway, welcome to my blog. Here I will post journal entries and videos about my travels and my experiences as a filmmaker. I’m open to your comments and questions. Enjoy!