(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.)
Apologies for the late contest results this week; yesterday was my girlfriend’s birthday, and the deluge of entries was especially huge this week, along with the heavily researched main Dish. Here’s a quick followup from last week’s winner, who clinched the prize with proximity — more than 500 miles from the actual window:
Ha! That’s a pretty funny way to win. I’ll take the two free years, and thank you!
This next sleuth is a-goin home:
I AM SO PISSED OFF YOU GUYS!!! (said in the voice of Cartman)
I did not have much time for the contest last week, but I was in the right country when I gave up my search. I decided not to submit my entry because I did not think the country alone would be a worthwhile entry, and I figured the super-sleuths would at least get the right location.
Well, stupid me. I have been so focused on getting the right window that I didn’t even think that all of the super-sleuths would have been prior winners and ineligible for the prize. So I would have won last week based on the proximity rule!!! Lesson learned.
The Alaskan globetrotter is also kicking himself:
I’m a little perturbed about missing last week’s contest; I took a look but didn’t feel anything in my gut to initiate the search and then never followed up. That is no excuse, of course, and I generally like hard weeks, especially if they are overseas. My agitation mostly comes because this was another Type 1 error (been there, didn’t recognize the clues), even after I had once spent the better part of a week in suburban San José (albeit in the hills on the other side of the valley in Alajuelita).
Still, it would have been a good week to rap about ecotourism options, as Costa Rica has done many things right (most notably designating 28% of its land area in national refuges, parks, and forests — over twice the percent the US has protected). For completeness, if I had figured out the View, I’d have recounted a day trip we took with the kids (aged 4 and 10) on our last day of the trip. Las Paz Waterfalls Gardens is private and a bit over-developed, but it has several nice falls on a pleasant but easy family hiking circuit, and a few wildlife rehab projects to visit as well. It’s about an hour from the View location:
The kids liked the hike and falls, but when quizzed, the memories that stick were the zoo-like components of the development: a butterfly garden, aviary with fearless hummingbirds, and up-close encounters with some baby sloths. My own Tao of Travel (to riff on Paul Theroux’s idea) generally would avoid anything that includes entrapped wildlife, but you make these compromises when you have your own sub-adults to entertain. This place’s version of mass ecotourism (while still plainly a contradiction in terms) is at least located in a natural geography and draws tourists’ attention on its natural features, wildlife, and conservation.
One more frustrated followup:
We’re in a bit of a malaise here at Team Bellevue, feeling a bit rotten about missing last week’s window. Worse, one of us (the author of this entry) has been in the Juan Santamaria Airport a half dozen times — and didn’t recognize it, so there’s been some wallowing here.
From a previous winner Down Under:
Last week’s window had me stumped, partly because it reminded me so much of some suburban areas in my home country of Australia. That should have tipped me off, though, as I had the same sense a couple of months back when I was in Costa Rica … staying in the Marriott hotel in Belen … but no, not THAT Marriott hotel in Belen — the other one, which is about 500m as the crow flies. While it’s not an authentic old monastery, it’s built very much in that style (as opposed to the more modern AC Marriott up the road). I even took a potential VFYW pic (but I’m guessing its moment may have passed):
One more followup, and another window view, comes from the CO/NJ super-champ:
You must have laughed when you saw my mug on the LinkedIn screenshot sent in by another sleuth. I certainly did. (Notice I never did get a reply to my query, so it didn’t really help.) Anyway, thanks for not giving me a red card, and thanks for blurring out my name!
By the way, that LinkedIn title of mine is now officially retired — or I should say, I am! My last day of full time work was a week ago Thursday. I decided to retire to devote myself full-time to the VFYW contest.
Just kidding. Although I will enjoy getting to solve the puzzles with a bit more leisure. In about a year’s time, this CO/NJ sleuth will be returning to the state from which he came: CO. I will celebrate THAT transition by sending you a candidate view from our new house.
Meanwhile, I’m including here a photo I took back in October that I have been meaning to send. It is from my buddy’s condo in Lincoln Park, Chicago. I thought it threaded the line nicely between challenging and gettable:
A sleuth in DC scrutinizes the Truman pics I posted last week:
I have no idea where the view is this week, but I know that Andrew and Truman are sitting in Meridian Hill/Malcolm X Park (middle photo) and the left and right photos were taken at the southeast corner of Euclid and 16th Streets, NW, looking north.
Heh, bingo. Moving on to this week’s view, here’s the super-sleuth in Chevy Chase:
I opened the email this week and thought DO NOT LOOK, DO NOT LOOK; YOU DO NOT HAVE TIME FOR THIS. I looked.
You just had to go and throw us a bone after last week’s brutality. Oh, well. It didn’t take too long.
From a previous winner:
The flag rule still applies: whenever you clearly see a flag in a VFYW, you can be sure that you’re not in the place it represents. So no, we aren’t in Texas.
From the beginning of another entry:
Born and raised in Appalachia, and man, did I ever think I could be looking at my hometown with this one. Texas Roadhouse. Nondescript office complex. Winter trees. And, yes, a Chevy bought from Toyota of Kingsport. So this is East Tennessee, right? Hmmm. If so, what’s that cathedral-type structure doing in the background?
Gottem:
Definitely not in Kingsport, TN — which does in fact have a Texas Roadhouse. Yes, I fell for the bait.
Another gets creative:
What’s the deal with these two MFers? Just chillin’ in their cars like they don't know each other. Definitely sus.
Seems like we have a couple of possible backstories here:
Recently widowed, looking for action at LA Fitness. Met on a geriatric version of Tinder (how about Ember? <— send me seed money for more startup ideas.) They’re about to hook up at the hotel, post-workout. They’re texting the grandkids, “MeeMaw is going to be late for your game. Sorry sweetie, Grams needs to lay flat on her back after her workout.” In the other car, PeePaw is getting ready with a blue pill and jamming to swing music.
Recently divorced couple who still have their family gym membership and are super pissed that they showed up at the same time for the Silver Senior workout class. Now it’s a standoff to see who goes in first, and if hands will be thrown by the other. It’s a stand-off at the savannah watering hole in the middle of the dry season, watching from the corner of their eyes, waiting for an attack. They both need what they came for, but who dares make the first move? Tension.
They don’t know each other and are about to start their New Year’s resolution workout. Yup, that’s probably it — but so boring.
Another looks at the dumpster:
Thanks so much for the contest this week! The VFYW is my favorite email of the week. I am one member of a Finnish-American expat couple living in Europe, writing (I think?) my third entry to this contest. Looking at this week’s view made me nostalgic for all of those vast American parking-lot mall sprawls, so I thought I would give it a go. I immediately recognized the WM logo on the dumpster as the “Waste Management” company that is prevalent throughout the Northeastern US, because a friend of mine went to Ward Melville High School in Long Island, and their rivals and disgruntled students used to call it “Waste Management High School” (actually I think it’s a pretty nice school).
The super-sleuth in San Mateo tries to pretty up the scene:
Given our recent attention to impressionistic art at Maison Fournaise, I thought this week to provide a stylization of our VFYW contest image:
Pretty cool, and it’s probably not from Gemini, which would’ve put a chick in it and made her gay:
Another detail:
I’m in Northern B.C., so I’m not too familiar with Texas Roadhouse or PODS storage. I blithely thought you were handing us an incredibly simple one this week until I looked at the two company websites and realized they are so widespread.
A previous winner notes, “The Texas Roadhouse chain is only in 10 countries outside the USA, but the sign on the wall saying ‘ ... across America’ suggested that the branch was inside the USA.” Another confirms the right country:
After struggling a lot last week with a picture I couldn’t place, I was relieved to see something guessable for a more amateur participant like me. And the proximity win last week also convinced me to make more submissions even when I have very little idea where something is. So when I saw this photo, I was thankful to get a shot at it. Browsing the adjacent parking with lots of pricey pickup trucks, I knew it was in the US somewhere. “Lots of cars,” I thought to myself, panning around the photo. “That must have been a lot of work for Chris to obscure every last licen...” — but I saw one that was missed. Maybe this was a bone for folks like me, maybe not.
Maybe it was a false false flag. Or maybe I’m a bonehead. Another sleuth unblurs a clue:
This next sleuth didn’t need to scrutinize any clues to get the right state:
I have been a reader and follower for the last 15 years, and I have been playing this game without ever putting in a guess even if I thought I had it because ... well, I’ve seen how crazy the submissions get. But this one I just had to send in for.
When I saw the picture I immediately thought:
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