Olympia’s Harbor Days is held Labor Day Weekend (Friday evening through Sunday) and is always fun. My favorite part is seeing all the vintage tugboats, several of which were available for tour. My least favorite part was when the largest tug sounded its horn right next to me and almost gave me a heart attack! But is was funny later 🙂 There was some great entertainment including music and a juggler. More information can be found here.
Flying back to Washington from Texas, we followed the sunset for about two hours. I was really surprised at how long we kept up.
So Mom and I were on our way to the lovely Granbury Beach and took the shortcut through the parking lot of what use to be Krogers on Highway 377. One couldn’t help but to notice the white pickup truck with the two large confederate flags pulling into the parking lot and it was joined by other pickup trucks with various flags: confederate, the yellow confederate flag with the snake on it, the Texas flag and the US flag. I did snap a few discrete photos and then went on my way to the beach for an evening swim. An hour later we again went by and there were more trucks and some cars and a couple of dozen folks standing around talking. Perhaps like minded people? Mostly young and all Caucasian (as far as I could tell). I have to say that it made me uncomfortable.
Wikipedia tells me that the racial makeup of Granbury as of the last census was 93.75% White and .71% African American.
On Mother’s Day 2015 the parking lot next to Brookshires collapsed into a sinkhole and athorities have been working on the repair ever since. The incessant rains that month were the cause of the 8′ storm drain collapsing, which in turn caused the sinkhole which drained into Lake Granbury/Brazos River. To see the sinkhole was it was and other photos of the flooding problems caused by the rains, check here. The Google map capture below shows the site before collapse. I suspect that Brookshires is no longer using their drive through pharmacy.
Once a year, the Tacoma Historical Society, Tacoma Cemetery and the Fort Nisqually Living History Museum join forces to produce a Living History Tour. Each historical reenactor is from the Fort Nisqually Time Travelers and has assumed the role of a Tacoma citizen in the time period around World War I. This is the 7th tour and the first that I remember that photography was allowed as long as we waited until the end of each talk and didn’t bother the actors.
The list of those represented is here. Thanks to Tacoma Weekly!
I believe the tour is full for today, but you can contact the Tacoma Historical Society to double check. And make a note to go next year 🙂
I hadn’t seen the Good Year Blimp in years, but there it was flying over University Place during the U.S. Open. This photo was taken on June 18th and it is the very best that my camera could do on full zoom.
There are three Goodyear blimps in the fleet and I suspect that this one is the Spirit of America, which is based out of Carson, California. More information on this particular blimp can be found here. The official Goodyear Blimp website has a great deal more information about these wonderful, helium filled flight machines. They have a regularly updated Facebook page too!
Thea Park hosted dragon boat races today and dear husband and I managed to see the very end of it. Not the racing part, but there was still a group receiving awards and a booth or two. I wandered on to the dock to see the new still dragon boats, their dragon heads being safely stowed.
The Seahawks are going to the Superbowl once again and their flag is flying proudly over Gilcrest Auto Center on South Tacoma Way in Tacoma.
First Night 2014 Tacoma was a joy! One of the Live Spectacles was this year’s World Record Attempt, the Largest Gathering of Brides Blowing Bubbles at One Time! We also watched the opening parade, Stephanie Jackson (love her), Uncle Bonsai (every year we go) and strolled the entire length of the event several times. We caught the link to Freighthouse Square and made it back home in time to bang some pots and pans (sorry neighbor people!).
Zoolights at has a new tiger light and its spectacular. We had a perfect Zoolights evening, not too cold, no rain and light crowds. While we were there, we checked out the aquarium and of course the other lights.