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Terwilliger Hot Spring is great. Rather than fight its popularity, the forest service helps to maintain the spring. A day use fee helps pay for cleaning and upkeep.
As I ride my bike, I am in solitude, much of the way, so I enjoy the socialization of hot springs if I find them.
There are many good looking naked men there; I notice that being a gay man myself. Most of the people are not gay, but people tend to be mellow and fairly open minded at places like this. There are both men and women at the spring. Even if one were totally blind, and couldn't see all the attractive people, the conversations, around the pools, are far more interesting than what one would likely hear in a bar.
One of the attractive people, I met, was a young city council person from back east. He was out west visiting friends. Too bad he was just leaving as I got there, but it's all in the role of the dice. There were many other interesting people and topics tumbling around in the fresh air.
It seems easy to join in to any of several conversations taking place around the pools. Find out where people have been traveling, who is planning to move to Oregon, what someone thinks of their career plans, why someone decided to quit their high profile computer job.
I even met someone from Bellingham there; someone I haven't seen since even though he lives near me. Interesting how one can meet at a hot spring, but not in normal life.
From my letters in Bellingham Herald, late 1990s
Call it Nudeworking instead of Networking
The Whatcom County Council was foolish when it voted to ban nude sunbathing at Teddy Bear Cove near Bellingham. In this fast-paced society; nude beaches could be replacing the corner store as the place where people stop and visit.
When I was on a bicycle trip around Washington and Oregon; last summer; I found that nude hot springs and saunas were among the best spots to visit with local people. At times they seemed like the only places where conversation was longer than the quick "thank you" after something is sold at a cash register.
Near Eugene; Ore. I visited a wonderful place called Terwilliger Hot Spring. It is jointly maintained by the U.S. Forest service and a volunteer citizen group called "Friends of the Hot Spring."
At times it seemed like the only place I got to see people outside their automobiles. Friendly visits at the spring gave me a better feel for the people of that area than I would have received if all I had seen of the people was their cars zipping past me on the road all day.
Instead of networking; this experience could be called "nudeworking."
Designed by Frank Loyd Wright. A view of the inside stairwell showing the colored glass blocks used for ambient lighting.
Dutch postcard by Rubinstein. Photo: publicity still for Pietje Bell/Peter Bell (Maria Peters, 2002) featuring Quinten Schram and Frensch de Groot. Caption: Pietje and Sproet.
Pietje Bell/Peter Bell (Maria Peters, 2002) is a Dutch family film, based on the popular Pietje Bell books of Chris van Abkoude about a boy who always gets into trouble. Pietje was played by the director’s son, the then 10-years old Quinten Schram, and the film became a box-office hit in the Netherlands.
The Pietje Bell children's books were written by the Dutch writer Chris van Abkoude. He wrote the first book of the series in 1914. Pietje Bell is situated in the city of Rotterdam during the early 20th Century. Pietje (Little Peter) is the son of cheerful shoemaker Bell and is a scamp with a heart of gold. The boy and his 'Robin Hood'-type gang of the Black Hand repeatedly end up in trouble. Pietje does not want to be naughty but tries to make people laugh. This always goes wrong. Piet's sister Martha is engaged and later married to Paul Velinga (Rick Engelkes), son of a distinguished family. He's about the only one who understands the boy. Pietje’s big enemies are the chemist Geelman (Arjan Ederveen) and his son Joseph (Stijn Westenend). When the chemist complains to father Bell (Felix Strategier) about Pietje’s brutality (he has called Geelman ‘bald head’, for example), Pietje’s father can only laugh about it.
Chris van Abkoude’s stories about Pietje have been adapted to film twice. The first adaptation was De Avonturen van Pietje Bell/The Aventures of Pietje Bell, directed by Henk van der Linden in 1964. The latest adaptation is made by Maria Peters, who is responsible for both the script and the direction. She was previously responsible for the filming of Kruimeltje/Little Crumb (1998), another classic children’s book by Chris van Abkoude. Both films were produced by Hans Pos and Dave Schram, Maria’s husband. The lead role of Pietje was played by their son Quinten Schram (1992). Branko Collin at IMDb: “nice images, good adventure, so-so acting of the leads and sometimes irksome dialogue. The Rotterdam of the 1920s was convincingly portrayed. There was a cartoonesque feel to the decor, which made it easier to focus on the story.” The film was a box office hit. Pietje Bell received a Golden Film (75,000 visitors) and a Platinum Film (200,000 visitors) in 2002. The next year, a sequel followed, made by the same team: Pietje Bell II: De jacht op de tsarenkroon/Peter Bell II: The Hunt for the Czar Crown (Maria Peters, 2003). That same year, composer Ruud Bos adapted the novel into a musical called Pietje Bell - De Musical.
Sources: Wikipedia and IMDb.