When you live in a small town you sometimes just want to get out of it and go anywhere else, even if for just a few hours. Being kind of in the middle of nowhere, there are few towns within reach that have things we would all like to see or do that we haven't already done to death. We recently went to Yakima (chosen simply because we had never been), and while we loved the arboretum and an old bookstore that was warmed with a wood stove and steeped in incense, we didn't find much else. I would have been happy with the drive and seeing somewhere new, but our teen was disappointed it didn't have more to offer.
Sometimes just going beyond the edge of town is nice, too, and last weekend's snow and fog made for a magical, quiet landscape. The snow all melted with yesterday's warm downpours, and today it is sunny and 59 degrees. Perhaps our coldest days are behind us now.