It's northwest of Tacoma, across the Tacoma Narrows bridge. I'm sure we all remember seeing videos of the original Narrows bridge where it is twisting and rolling due to its instability. There are now two bridges--one northbound and one southbound. The northbound bridge is the older of the two, and even though its stability is greatly improved over its predecessor, there are still instructions to NOT change lanes while driving across it. We didn't.
The RV park was fine. We would have preferred paved sites, but since it didn't rain much while we were there, the level gravel was OK. The sites are built on a hill, so each row is on its own terrace.
Just down the road from the RV park, there is access to the Cushman Trail, a city-owned walking/biking trail. We enjoyed walking the paved trail with its many uphill/downhill slopes. The immediate 900' 10% grade uphill stretch got the lungs puffing, and the 1300' 8% grade stretch was a challenge, but we wish that we had access to just such a trail all the time.
Along the harbor in town, there are several restaurants and wine bars. One in particular, Morso, advertises that for every 1/4 inch rain that falls in a day, their happy hour is extended one hour. It didn't rain the day we were there, but after a couple of glasses of wine, we really didn't need any more.
We took a drive out to Mt. Rainier National Park. We chose the sunniest (or least cloudy, as it turned out) day to make the trip. The scenery on the way up to the visitor center in Paradise was lovely, as it has been in all the national parks we've visited. This picture was taken from the top of a waterfall looking down, just to be a little different from the many, many pictures we've taken along the way.
There is still so much snow toward the top of the mountain, it looks like winter. Now that school's out, we're seeing more families at the parks, and lots of kids were enjoying playing in the snow that day. We, too, couldn't resist walking out in the snow simply because it's been so long since we've had the chance.
The sunny day we had hoped for was simply not in the cards. We hung around the visitor center for a while hoping the clouds would lift long enough to get a quick picture of the summit. The best we could do was this picture of a postcard showing what it would have looked like on a clear day. We're including the actual picture we took as comparison.
We finally gave up and started making our way back down the mountain. After going less than a mile, we noticed that several people had made hurried stops at an overlook and were aiming their cameras in the direction of the peak. We stopped quickly too, saw the clouds finally lifting a little, and got the following pictures.
We visited Washington's capitol building in Olympia. What a difference from Oregon's capitol! While Oregon displays mostly practicality and functionality in their capitol, Washington presents quite a lavish display. There is marble EVERYWHERE, and is extremely ornate.
An explanation for the marked difference between the two states could be timing. Oregon's capitol was built during the Depression, and Washington's was built during the 20's--money, money, money. There were a lot of reporters milling around the capitol that day. Turns out the state legislature is having a very hard time agreeing on a budget, and the press was waiting for answers. How strange for a governing body to have such difficulty. Perhaps Washington State should look to Washington DC for guidance on how to work together and make good decisions on matters of importance. Hmmmm.
HeM's dad liked to imbibe a beer or two from time to time, and Olympia beer was one of his passing fancies. We were in Olympia, so we thought it would be fitting to find a bar and have an Olympia beer in his honor.
The beer in the picture, unfortunately, is not Olympia. It's a locally brewed pale ale. When we asked the waiter for an Olympia, he told us that they had none. In fact, he said, they have a hard time getting any Olympia given that it's now brewed in San Antonio. Our response: "SAN ANTONIO!? Git a rope!"
In looking for attractions in Tacoma that interested us, we settle on the Museum of Glass. This picture shows the museum and the associated 'bridge of glass'.
The exhibits in the museum featured Australian and Pacific Northwest artists.
There is active glass blowing at the museum as an educational tool. And there are exhibits of glass art that was created by local children. A couple of examples that were created by some 10-year-olds:
When we walked across the bridge of glass, we found some familiar work by Chihuly.
We had seen a large display of Chihuly's work when we were in Oklahoma City last year, and again in Mesa this spring. The bridge connects the glass museum to the state history museum and Union Station. Union Station is now longer operating, but is open for visiting. It has it's own collection of Chihuly glass.
And it has Washington's liberty bell replica that was ordered from France in 1950 by the US Department of Treasury. Each state, territory, and Washington DC received one of these replicas, and most of them are displayed near state capitol buildings. We've seen a couple of these bells in the other states we've visited, but there is something about Washington's bell that is special. You're allowed to ring it! HeM took liberal advantage of the liberty.
Northwest Washington has many attractions that neither of us have had any prior opportunities to experience. Our plan is to spend three weeks in this part of the state before beginning to move eastward. This ends the first of those three weeks. During week 2 we're going to focus on Seattle and its immediate surroundings. For convenience, we're moving to a park that's closer to Seattle. It will be a short trip--approximately 65 miles--so it will be an easy travel day.
No comments:
Post a Comment