(For the View From Your Window contest, the results below exceed the content limit for Substack’s email service, so to ensure that you see the full results, click the headline above.)
Highlights from this week’s write-up:
The birthplace of Greenpeace
Silent but deadly buses
Stories of straight sleuths going into gay bars
A film comedy in which a cop tries to get killed in the line of duty
Two actors who took their box-office failures in comedic stride
I am absolutely stunned to hear I won. Every week I anxiously await the latest view … only to be depressed by the “another week, stumped again” reality — and then having to wait a week to see the answer but hugely entertained by all the correct guesses and stories. Seriously, your VFYW write-up and Nellie Bowles’ “TGIF” make my Friday. Both just terrific reads. The depth of knowledge and experiences of your readers is fascinating to me.
I will most definitely take the VFYW book, and every person who steps into my house will not only see it but will be forced to hear the story behind it (probably mostly fiction, but my house, my book, my story). Thanks so much for keeping us entertained … I know it’s a ton of work on your end.
But encouraging emails like that one refuel my tank, so thank you! Here’s a quick followup from our super-sleuth in Grand Ledge:
Since I just read the write-up on Uruguay, it reminded me that I had picked Uruguay for my “countries of South America” report in 7th grade. I should go there!
Send pics! A previous winner writes, “I thought this might be cute as a possible VFYW”:
Another cute view comes from our super-sleuth in Alexandria:
Greetings from Montenegro! Brett and I are here for a hiking blowout for our 40th wedding anniversary … whew, time flies fast; I can’t believe we’ve been together for that long. The view is from our window of the little place in Zabljak we’re renting a few days in the Durmitor National Park, up in the northern part of the country. I figured this view would be too tough for the contest, since there aren’t many clues, but it maybe good for a filler view:
I should go there. On to this week’s view, our super-sleuth in Sherman Oaks writes:
At first glance I really could not see much in the way of clues. The architecture reminded me of the West Coast, with its mix of modern and mid-century modern construction. The low green hills in the background make it look like So. Cal or even the Pacific Northwest. You managed to blur out most of the logos and license plates but for a lonely red E or F on the gas station.
My first clue was the blue gas pumps and the word written on them. It starts with an S and I immediately thought of Synergy, which I know only as a utility company up north and not as a gasoline station brand. But I googled Synergy Gas stations and there came up a list of independent gas stations that get their gas from Synergy — only a few in California and none starting with the letter E.
I went up north to Oregon and Washington and the same thing, except there was one Esso gas station — but it was in a remote part of the state. Looking at the red logo I knew I found at least the name of the station.
That he did, and so did Alexandria:
This week’s view was difficult for me, since I can’t read the signs and I’m too dumb to know the triangulation tricks. But I noticed a monarch butterfly mural near the, I’m guessing, Esso station. I’m supposing that the monarch butterfly might have some significance to this city, so I initially thought to check on cities in northern Mexico.
Apparently there are no Esso stations in the US or Mexico anymore, so that got shot down, but there are some in Colombia. So I began a grim tour of Esso stations in Baranquilla and Bogota … no luck. Also, the license plates aren’t right: in Colombia, the private plates are black on yellow, and the public plates are black on white. This view seems to display the opposite color scheme.
Time to give up and get hiking :) Happy Memorial Day!
The Esso station was also crucial for our super-sleuth in Brookline:
Whenever we have an urban view in a temperate climate with a bunch of newish high rises and tree-covered mountains nearby, my mind jumps immediately to [city redacted]. Although most weeks I’m wrong and need to put on my sleuthing cap, this week I felt the VFYW deities were being gentle with my addled brain. And since I was just visiting this city in March, my V-dar is still properly calibrated.
Among the multiple paths to the solution, I went the gas station route, as I recognized the red trim and first letter “E” as being an ESSO location:
The Riverwoods super-sleuth has a “WAG” for Richmond, VA. Here’s our super-sleuth in Brookland:
At first I was frustrated by the low resolution of this VFYW, limiting my ability to zoom in and guess at some street or business name. So let’s start with the gas station right in front of us. Expertly cropped for the VFYW, at first it looks like an Exxon station, but … that’s not an X. So, Esso?
That’s a brand I’ve heard of, but I don’t know if I’ve seen one in the US, and this scene has a very US-like vibe. Really reminds me of the San Diego scene in contest #505. Unlike Goodyear from #507, Esso has a useful station-locator tool. In North America, their presence is in [country redacted].
Our super-sleuth on the UWS got stumped:
It’s a beautiful city: that’s my entire entry! Too many things going on here. Will do better next week …
From a previous winner:
There’s an Arctic Glacier ice vending machine, so this is not Europe:
Given the wide roads, I thought initially we were in an American city.
But it’s not. Spotting another clue at the gas station is our super-sleuth in Durham, UK:
This week it took me a while to convince myself that we were in an English-speaking country; somehow the distant mountains made me think to Brazil or Mexico. But once I’d got over that, [country redacted] seemed a good next bet, and searching Google for the yellow-and-white minibus confirmed it.
That minibus is identified by our super-sleuth in Yakima:
The yellow-and-white buses belong to HandyDART, an accessible door-to-door ride share service operated by TransLink, the metro transportation network for [city redacted]:
Yet another clue is spotted by our self-described ski nerd:
My eyes quickly landed on the peak in the distance, which looked like a ski area:
The trees were too dense to be in the US Rockies, Sierra, or Southwest (e.g. Salt Lake City, Denver, Reno, or Las Vegas), and the ski area was too close to be Calgary. And I remember seeing a little ski area from [city redacted] when I was there on my honeymoon two decades ago.
Also squinting at the horizon is our super-sleuth in Roberts Creek:
Wow! I didn’t expect to see my hometown anytime soon on the view, but there it is. Needless to say I identified it right away, from the view of the north shore mountains with the peaks of the Lions just poking over the eastern ridge of Cypress Mountain:
Here’s what the Lions look like up close, with the yellow line showing the approximate location of the hiking trail:
I’ve climbed the West Peak several times in my youth. It’s a scramble but not a technical climb like the East Peak. Here’s a picture of a much younger version of myself climbing the last portion in 1994:
I was born in this city and spent most of my life there, but I moved up the coast about 12 years ago to escape from the crazy traffic and crowds. The FIFA World Cup is starting in a couple of weeks, so it will probably become a real zoo.
Yet another clue is identified by our super-sleuth in San Mateo:
This week the building at the right-middle of the VFYW — with the Fountainhead Pub and the Monogram “M” logo — was all that was needed to identify the location. So this week’s Reimagined will do away with most of the extraneous detail and focus on the blue/white/red building:
Revealing the right country is a long-time sleuth:
Here’s my thought process, more or less:
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