On Thursday I made a quick stop at Bartell’s Drugs at 2700 Bridgeport Way West for sundry items. Bartell’s Drug Company was created in 1890 in Seattle. There are 58 stores, all in Western Washington. It is the oldest family owned drug store chain in the nation.
End of the Line by Ilan Averbuch represents the golden spike at the end of the railroad tracks and indeed the South Tacoma Station at South 54th and Washington Streets was the end of the Sounder line for a while. The artwork stands 6′ tall. While I was there, the Sounder came by, so I took that photo too 🙂
In April 2013 the Weekly Volcano organized a contest to establish the best sandwich in the South Sound. Sixty four restaurants entered. The winner was Oliver Sandwiches’ Lobster Sandwich (pictured above). Oliver’s Sandwiches is located at 900 Meridian Avenue East in Milton. Dear husband and I shared the lobster sandwich and could readily see how it became the winner.
I was driving down Meridian in the South Hill area of Puyallup when I decided to turn around. My turn ended up being the entrance to the Paul Bunyan Rifle and Sportsman’s Club at 17902 Meridian East, Puyallup, WA. The club was founded in 1945 and the land purchased from Weyerhauser Timber Company in 1946. There website is here.
Sculptor Larry Anderson created The Second Touch bronze art in the hospital near Mary Bridge Hospital. It commemorates the 100th anniversary of Tacoma Public Hospital. Larry Anderson also created the Trilogy piece in Wright’s Park, the Tacoma Fallen Firemen Memorial, New Beginnings outside the Union Station and many others.
On Wednesday I was in Kent and stopped to enjoy the day at Mill Creek Earthworks Park at 742 East Titus, Kent, WA. It was a lovely day and there were baby ducks! The park had good and bad to it.
The Good:
The Bad:
So the good out ways the bad and I’d love to go visit again.
Last Monday dear daughter and I were traveling westbound across Washington State. I knew that I wanted to get over the I-90 Snoqualmie pass through the Cascade Mountains before 7 because I wanted the daylight and they were threatening long delays after that for avalanche control. By 6 we were stopping in Thorp. I filled up the tank and dear daughter ran into the Thorp Fruit and Antique Mall for snacks and a weather advisory. We had just passed a sign that said traction advisory and I thought that didn’t sound good. The guy in Thorp pulled up the WSDOT traffic cam for dear daughter and it did show snow falling, but he said we could make it. We had no chain or snow tires. After a few miles we had snow and soon after that it was sticking to the road. Soon we couldn’t see the road and we were down to two lanes. Trucks passing sent waves of icy snow onto my car. And then the trucks were required to chain up. Just before the summit, I passed a sign requiring traction tires, but alas no tire store to purchase them! We crept to the summit at about 30 mph and then started downhill. That was worse! Cars were fishtailing and going about 15 mph. At one point I lost control, crossed a lane and nosed into a snowbank. I looked around (thank goodness it was still daylight) and the guy behind me was also in the snowbank and the guy in front of me was all over the road. Really, at that point one has to keep going or plan to sleep in a really cold car worrying about another vehicle slamming into you. I backed up, practiced my deep breathing and kept crawling along. Finally the road cleared and suddenly it was over. The photos show the relatively flat part before it got bad.
Snoqualmie Pass began as Native American foot trails used for hunting game and gathering plants. In 1865 a wagon road was made to entice settlers to Seattle. In 1884 it became a toll road. The first car went over the pass in 1905 and by 1915 there was a new two lane road. It wasn’t until 1931 that the road was kept open all year round. In the 1950s and 1960s it was expanded to a four lane road (2 in each direction) and renamed to I-90 to be reflective to the national highway system.
In 1960 my dad was part of the crew of the USS Triton, a Navy nuclear-powered submarine that was the first vessel to circumnavigate the world submerged. The trip, which followed the first circumnavigation of Ferdinand Magellan, began on February 25, 1960 under the command of Captain Edward Beach. The voyage covered 26,723 nautical miles and took 60 days with an average speed of 21Â mph).
On Sunday dear daughter and I stopped at the USS Triton Submarine Park in Richland, Washington. The purpose of the park is “to establish a permanent park in north Richland in recognition of all the decommissioned reactor cores off-loaded at the Port’s barge slip, transported and stored at the Hanford Site”. The park, which was dedicated November 10, 2011, features the conning tower of the Triton.
Lazy F Camp and Retreat Center at 16170 Manastash Rd  Ellensburg, WA 98926 is indeed restful and lovely. I spent a couple of nights there enjoying the community we created and the lovely camp center. It was unusually warm, though of course cool at night. I stayed in a cabin just like the one in the photo. There is a charming river through the property and a labyrinth. http://www.lazyfcamp.org/
Practically every time I go through Ellensburg, I stop at the Thorp Fruit and Antique Mall at 410 Gladmar Road, Thorp. We usually stop for a coffee drink and maybe some cheese or a sweet. The lower level is full of local produce and specialty items and the upper level has antiques. The family run business began in 1944.
