Category Archives: Travel

Dear daughter got hitched: Abbotsford-Huntington Border Cross and Guildford Town Centre

The State of Washington has 13 drivable border crossings across it’s 687 kilometres (427 miles) border with British Columbia, Canada and this is the Abbotsford-Huntington Border Crossing on highways WA Hwy 9 / BC Hwy 11. In the US it the city of Sumas and in British Columbia it is in Abbortsford. This is not the most direct border crossing, which is in Blaine, but dear daughter was convinced it was the quickest one. That might of been true if we hadn’t become lost. But it is a lovely countryside and worth seeing!

Our family made this trip for our dear daughter to marry what is now our dear son-in-law 🙂

Anyway the first day we realized that we forgot several basic things and off dear daughter and I went to Surrey’s nearby Guildford Town Centre to stop at Walmart (not my favorite store, but we needed a quick stop that had everything). The other photos show the Walmart’s escalator with a separate escalator for the carts and a couple of the art installations there.

Here is a video of the staircase waterfall.

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A smooch on Grays River Covered Bridge

Sometimes it is good to have a small, doable goal. My goal of the day was to take a photo of every working covered bridge in Washington State. The Grays River Covered Bridge in western Wahkiakum County, Washington is Washington State’s only such bridge, though there are several others that are not operational or not public. This bridge was constructed in 1905 to facilitate the horse and wagon traffic of nearby farms. The cover was added in 1908 to protect the wood trusses. It was placed on the national registry of historic places in 1971 and the historic nomination form can be found here. Over the years, the bridge fell into disrepair and was renovated and reconstructed in 1988 and rededicated in 1989. The bridge span is 155.5 feet and the height of the bridge is 22.5 feet. The bridge is part of the Ahlberg Park which is the site of an annual covered bridge festival. A much better photo and more information can be found in the Wikipedia article. It was raining so hard and for so long that I just couldn’t bring myself to go out in the wet field for the photographic shot! Though I did include a bonus photo of a nearby barn!

Dear husband remembered the tradition of covered bridges being kissing bridges and claimed a kiss mid-span. It use to be, back in the day of wagons, that young folks would take advantage of the privacy of the covered bridges for a kiss or two.

It has been about 10 years since I’ve been on a covered bridge, with the last one being Emily’s Bridge in Vermont. Vermont wins the contest for the state with the most covered bridges. I actually have a photo of that Vermont bridge from ten years ago.

Emily’s Bridge

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

DFW Airport – American

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I found that on the whole, DFW Airport (Dallas Fort Worth) has less public art than SeaTac Airport (Seattle Tacoma), though maybe I was just in the wrong terminal. I did find these great manikins though and thought I would share them here.  As you can see the Texas longhorn know how to dress in style 🙂

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The Barn on Highway 26


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Along Highway 26 between Colfax and Washtucna there is a barn I have often admired and today I pulled over and snapped the photo. Since I know nothing else about the barn, I’m including a photo from the other side of the mountains in North Bend and another random highway scene with a tree.

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The Puyallup River Bridge needs a home

imageThe Puyallup River Bridge isn’t over the Puyallup River. No that would be too easy. The steel tress bridge was built in 1925 and replaced in 2015 (90 years later). Now that the bridge has been relocated to an empty lot on the north side of Levee Road and the west side of Meridian (161) , the WSDOT is looking for to provide the bridge to another jurisdiction for different purpose such as a pedestrian or bicycle facility. If unsuccessful, WSDOT will recycle the steel. There is a marvelous time lapse video of the bridge being moved here.

My husband noticed the surplus bridge yesterday and just knew I’d like to see it. We parked right on the site and I walked along the side and for a short time underneath the structure.

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Puyallup River Bridge

Goodyear Blimp over University Place

Good Year BlimpI 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!

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Tacoma Avenue South Bridge

IMG_1223It seems like every time my family takes the Tacoma Avenue South Bridge, we wait for a traffic light. And if dear husband is in the car he starts griping about the bridge and how he hates it. He is convinced that it will go down in an earthquake. It’s to the point where even if he isn’t in the car, dear daughter and I will look at each other and say “I hate this bridge!”, but then we laugh.

It turns out dear husband is right (I hate when that happens!). According to a 5/25/13 article in the News Tribune, the Tacoma Avenue South over the NPRR (Northern Pacific Railroad) and South Tacoma Way has a sufficiency rating of 7. A rating of 100 means an entirely sufficient bridge, so 7 is really bad. In fact there is only one bridge in Pierce County that is worse and it is the SR 167 over the Puyallup River with a rating of 2. The Tacoma Avenue Bridge has two lanes and was constructed in 1930. It has a daily of over 10,000 vehicles.

Chris Larson, the city of Tacoma’s engineering division manager for public works, said the Tacoma Avenue South bridge will be closed for about 15 months starting in October 2014. The project is expected to cost $11.5 million, of which $11.2 million will come from state and federal grants.

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Read more here: http://www.thenewstribune.com/2014/07/11/3284880/demolition-of-pacific-avenue-bridge.html#storylink=cpy

The Union Station Link

13791347714_8808f6a6d5_bThe Union Station Link Stop is situated on the median on in the center of Pacific Avenue between South 19th and South 21st Street in the Museum District in proximity of the University of Washington, Tacoma Branch and Tacoma’s School of the Arts. Presently the Link runs 1.6 miles, though there are expansion plans. The public art in the foreground represents shipbuilding in the area’s past. Below is another photo of the station and a few other near by shots.

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Jin Rui

13321551764_8544a2b745_bTo celebrate Friday and dear daughter’s last day with us for a while we took the dogs to Thea’s Foss and took a photo of a traveling new place, the Jin Rui, a bulk carrier built in 2009 and flagged out of Hong Kong, China. This ship is on its way to South Korea and should arrive in about two weeks. Interestingly, I am writing this as I watch All is Lost, about a man (Robert Redford) lost at sea after his boat is damaged by a lose shipping container.

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Steilacoom Ferry Landing

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The Steilacoom-Anderson Island ferry has its primary ferry landing in Steilacoom. Ferries depart to Ketron Island and Anderson Island and previously McNeil Island. The ferry route is owned and operated by Pierce County. The first ferry went into service on April 1, 1922.