[caption id="attachment_1719" align="alignleft" width="200" caption="Me at Merchants (one last time)"]<a href="http://www.karolinkabulgaria.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/12/img_1728.jpg"><img class="size-medium wp-image-1719" title="Me at Merchants " src="http://www.karolinkabulgaria.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/12/img_1728.jpg?w=200" alt="" width="200" height="300" /></a>[/caption]

There's a piece of me that would like to think that things will stay the same in Walla Walla forever.  I like the idea of a nice little town with a handful of elementary schools two middle schools and a high school with football on Friday night. This said, I also like the idea of coming home and wine tasting--something that was nearly unimaginable 10 years ago when I graduated from high school.  So it's not that I actually want or expect that things will never change, it's just that I like the idea of a thriving small town with a vibrant downtown.

But things do change, and while Walla Walla is lucky enough to be a small town and to still be thriving something that's becoming more and more uncommon, I have to prepare myself for the fact that nothing stays the same forever.  So now I must say goodbye to Merchants.  Merchants is (was) a deli/bakery/coffee shop not far from the intersection of Main Street and First Street--a shop at the heart of our little downtown.  My dAd tells me Merchants has been for sale for five years. Thus, I am sure this sale has come as a relief to the owner but for the rest of us, it's come as a blow. On Sunday, it was announced that Merchants is closing shop.  Merchants will be no more (as of Thursday).  The space has been purchased by another local restaurant T. Maccarone's an Italian place.  It's unclear to me what the thrust of the new shop/space/cafe/restaurant will be but it's not as if the Merchants storefront will sit empty on Main Street--it just won't be Merchants any more.

So earlier this week, still in a foodcoma from Christmas, my family and I popped into Merchants for a final cinnamon roll and a coffee. The cinnamon roll was delicious--as usual but the experience was bittersweet.  It was a reminder that no matter how much you'd like things to stay the same they can't.  Merchants was an institution downtown but luckily for us Merchants didn't make Walla Walla, Walla Walla.  Good-bye, good-bye.