Sometimes the best getaway is close to home, very close to home. Downtown Camas is only 20 minutes from our house.  For a weekend in November, it was a perfect escape to shop, eat and celebrate our wedding anniversary at the new Camas Hotel. (More details on this lovely inn later.)

Friday Night 7 p.m. K’Syrah Catering Wine and Bistro 212 NE 4th Avenue. K’Syrah is offering a tasting of Thanksgiving wines – perfect for the Friday night before the all the holiday gluttony begins. For $10 per person, we taste five excellent wines – Mercer Pinot Gris 2008, Primarius Pinot Noir 2007, La Quercia Montepulciano 2008, Ridge Three Valleys 2007 and Terre Gaie Sparkling white wine. We like them all but, darn, have to make a choice. We select the sparkling wine to offer with the dessert course on Thanksgiving. K’Syrah also offers three-course fixed price dinners on Friday nights. Menus are posted in the Web site.

Saturday Morning 10 a.m. There are a LOT of shops to explore so we start with a hearty breakfast at Natalia’s Cafe, 437 NE 4th Avenue. My veggie scramble with home potatoes is very good but Gary’s strawberry blintzes with whipped cream wins the best breakfast prizes for taste and presentation. Don’t miss the photo.

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Often the best shops are the smallest in size. Yvonne Edes and the folks at Shanti Yoga Center (800 Franklin, Suite 204, in downtown Vancouver) have transformed a room at the yoga studio into a lovely space of items that, in the words of the shopkeepers, “feed your soul.”

As you step into the shop, you will find charming displays of jewelry, statues, scarves and wall hangings. New petroleum and lead-free candles scented with essential oils and 2010 calendars have recently arrived. More then 300 CDs are available and the bookshelves are well-stocked with tomes to support a yoga practice and other related topics.

Tea aficionados will appreciate more than two dozen Yogi Tea choices as well as various other medicinal teas. The Shanti Shop collection also includes yoga supplies like mats and bolsters plus incense, journals and tealights. Have a friend who could use some support? This is a perfect place to find inspirational messages in cards and small wallhangings.

Yvonne and Shanti’s other wonderful instructors offer yoga classes for all levels seven days a week at the center. The shop is only open a half hour before and after each class or event (or by appointment) so check the class schedule for open hours. Extended hours are planned for the future. Better yet, take a class! Then find a personal gift at the shop for taking good care of yourself.

Sometimes you just have to put on your dancing shoes and hit the streets.  That happened in September when Main Street closed to traffic and opened to live music and lots of movement during Vancouver’s First Friday Artwalk.

Vancouver’s Downtown Association President Lee Couthard reported that 800 revelers participated during the evening event. From the 6th Street Gallery, Firehouse Glass and the Magenta Theater costume sale on lower Main Street up to North Bank and Angst, and spots in-between, galleries and restaurants were very busy.

The next First Friday Artwalk will be held on October 2 starting with a reception from 5 to 7 pm at Columbia Credit Union. Galleries will be open from 5 to 9 pm. Come ready to view and buy art, have dinner, see your neighbors. There is a LOT happening in downtown Vancouver!

The Sunday New York Times features 36 Hours in… (Paris, Bangkok, Nairobi, fill in the blank) each week but has yet to spend 36 hours in a Southwest Washington community. This is the first in a series to do just that.

Vancouver’s Uptown Village feels like a small town center with way more to see, do and eat than 36 hours allows. But we tried to squeeze in a LOT during a HOT July weekend. Just a few blocks from our home, this historic business district of shops, restaurants, bars and a fine local museum is a great way to spend time. Out of towners will find the Briar Rose Inn within walking distance.

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