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After stuffing our u-haul, husband and I headed east and spent a relaxing, in-lawed week. I think I slept enough to balance out the shortage of sleep during the hectic school year. We spent a lot of time in the sun, catching up, reading and enjoying the dry hot summer of eastern Washington. We had a really nice thunderstorm one day and the sun was out immediately afterwards. I was just thinking about how much I missed hearing thunder and seeing downpours of rain and we got our fill. We took a side trip to see Tofu Phil, of Small Planet Tofu. His headquarters is in husband’s hometown and I met Tofu Phil once upon a time at VegFest in Seattle. I mentioned my in-laws to him at the food fest and of course he knows them; small town. Who would have thought a town on the border of Idaho would have a fabulous tofu factory? Phil was nice enough to give us a tour one day and we got to see all the machinery and mini assembly lines. I can’t believe he pumps out all that tofu in such a small place. It seems like a LOT of work. He has a handful of employees and the equipment was really neat, a lot from old dairies and defunct soymilk/tofu factories (hooray for eBay). He used a pneumatic press to press the curds together, that must be the secret in his dense, cheeselike tofu. Phil used to be an engineer and it really showed in his design of the plant. I really liked seeing the factory, and it reinforced my desire to not start my own tofu factory. Too much machinery to keep track of and the details of everyday production to marketing. I think I could work for a place like that, but I’d hate to be responsible for all of it alone. How would I make time for circus? He did have some labels on a table for new flavors to come, but I think we need to petition stores to carry them: Lemongrass Ginger and Green Tea excited me the most.

We had some quality in-law time. We played some Euchre, drank some of my father in law’s homebrew and had two family picnics. Luckily, brother in law was between climbing trips and stayed with us for a few days with his girlfriend. I enjoyed getting to know her better and catching up with my new extended family.