Tag Archives: PNW

Weekend Adventuring in Olympia, Washington

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Check out the Olympia town in Washington State, when exploring the Pacific Northwest.

Olympia a wonderful stop, halfway between the Portland and Seattle cities, close to the 5 and one 101 freeway intersection. This area is also the best stop for food and a stretch when traveling the between the major cities in no particular hurry. You’ll find much to love for any length of time you spend here.

A few things special about Olympia. You will find much art around many corners, more notably upon the walls of allies and businesses. This brings much color and uniqueness to the area. There are also some fantastic sources for literature, with some bookstores I checked out (Browsers Book Store and Danger Room Comics Store). The variety of food is excellent, with the best of it from local businesses. Also, lots of vintage antiques are also visible and up for buying. In between and throughout, you may also notice multiple signs of social activism and awareness with Black Lives Matters signs, climate change awareness, and other messages of modern progressivism. Olympia shows character aplenty in its overall presentation.

For me, it was all about stepping out from the weekday work stress. With a friend as company, I went to explore, and seek interesting visuals, eats, and a little shopping. Olympia did not disappoint, as this was my second visit to the city. Last visit, I barely walked around. This time,we had no particular direction here, other than its main downtown center.

Here are some findings in pictures, with some more notes on the area..

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One of Olympia’s prominent buildings, the Old Capitol Building. It’s now the office home of the Superintendent of Public Instruction since 1906. Before in Sylvester Park, stands John Rankin Rogers..twice governor of Washington State, who believed in giving a fair education to “every poor son of the commonwealth.”

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Some up close sculpting on that building. Love the detail here..

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The charming outside of Darby’s Cafe and neighboring local businesses on a 5th avenue block. I love the random little deco touches upon this old building…

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The Capitol Theater across the street from Darby’s. I love the look of this old movie theater, and will look into seeing its inside in a future visit.

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The inside of Darby’s Cafe, to a wall of wild art…

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Above and around inside Darby’s Cafe, a tribute to the Wizard of Oz. The food was quite good too. I had a Brocco Burger (Broccoli, white cheddar, other good stuff) with fries (a bit too much they give) and a root beer float (root beer can be replaced with an alcoholic alternative). All quite good, and filling enough until my trip back to the Emerald City.

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Some art on the side of The Great Cuisine of India restaurant.  Many of the following pics are select examples of the overall mural art scene of the Olympia area.

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The Olympia Rafah Solidarity Mural. from About this from olympiarafahmural.org. “Four thousand sq. ft., interdisciplinary mural with over 200 participants from all over the world. Project celebrates and mourns Rachel Corrie through action. Rachel was born in Olympia and killed in Gaza when run over by an Israeli driven bulldozer in 2003. ORSMP mourns and celebrates the lives of all who struggle for justice.”

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Up close on a select section of the Rafah Mural..

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A mural inside the alley of next to the building of the Old School Pizzeria. A wonderful and very colorful tribute to the imagination..

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The best thing for us comic nerds out there, this old school tribute to the classic Marvel Comics. Located to the side of the Old School Pizzeria. I love this.

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The inside of the Old School Pizzeria is pretty awesome too. Lots of vintage nostalgia all around, and the pizza was pretty awesome too.

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Capitol Lake, with what I think is the Washington State House of Representatives capitol building.

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The lake itself is very serene, and calming for anyone who enjoys a nice walk in the park.

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That’s all for now on this amazing area of the Pacific Northwest. I will be back, with a look at other interesting signs and aspects of this interesting area.

– Orion T

Picture of Today 9/17/15, Tearing Down Yesterday..

Broken down, leaving memories behind.

These ruins are what’s left of the old Greyhound Central Bus Terminal in Downtown Seattle. The terminal first opened in 1928, and underwent many renovations and changes since. Here are some pictures. Click here, for some history and pictures of the former station.

In its place will be a new fancy hotel, towering as Seattle’s highest for those rich folk seeking a temporary stay in the Downtown. Meanwhile, the Greyhound bus service has a new location for Seattle, in the south SoDo region close to the Century location. New memories will build from both, bringing more layers to the ever-changing history of this great city.

– Orion T

Picture of Today 9/12/15, Through the Early Morning..

 

Further north as the morning rises..

I am on a bus heading north,

Somewhere between Seattle and Bellingham..

– Orion T

Picture of Today 9/7/15, Halo above the Emerald City..

  

Coming home after a long pointless walk, I noticed a large circular phenomenon in the sky..

I think it’s an ice halo. I hear these occasionally happen around here in the Pacific Northwest, then dissipate quickly. I wasted no time, and took this shot with my tablet thing. I tried to get to the waterfront for a better, more open shot. But soon, it was gone (about 15 min later).

Here’s a bit more from Wikipedia on ice halos, because Im not going to pretend I really know this stuff..

“Among the most well known halos is the 22° halo, often just called “halo”, which appears as a large ring around the Sun or Moon with a radius of about 22° (roughly the width of an outstretched hand at arm’s length). The ice crystals that cause the 22° halo are oriented semi-randomly in the atmosphere, in contrast to the horizontal orientation required for some other halos such as sun dogs and light pillars. As a result of the optical properties of the ice crystals involved, no light is reflected towards the inside of the ring, leaving the sky noticeably darker than the sky around it, and giving it the impression of a “hole in the sky”.[2] The 22° halo is not to be confused with the corona, which is a different optical phenomenon caused by water droplets rather than ice crystals, and which has the appearance of a multicolored disk rather than a ring.”

– Orion T

Carkeek Park Adventures, Part 2

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Now turning the wayback machine to the last weekend, and continuation from my Part 1 adventures posted days ago..

So here I was at the beach of Carkeek Park, after an hourly hike (prolonged because I kept stopping to look for birds to photograph). I was hoping for a beach less crowded than the Golden Gardens of nearby Ballard, where I can catch up on some reading in a peaceful non-interrupted setting. This beach had less people, but also less land.

Then, those hazy skies intensified from the distant brush fires. But, the air had a weird, good feel to it. I would imagine for a moment, this was like some alien planet from Star Trek or something. Not sure what the feeling was, but I enjoyed the somewhat surreal atmosphere.

Also, my camera had plenty of battery life left. So, I snapped some pics at times. Here are the best of them..

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Before the beach, i came across this artsy piano crosswalk. There seemed to be no specific purpose to this, being that playful hopping on this would put one in danger from the sharp turn around the corner from coming vehicles.. But, I like it..

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Also before the beach, a massive railroad. A freight train would come through every now and then. Just wait..

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The bridge over the railroad. I was hoping to capture a shot of this with less people on it.

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The southern part of the beach, with many rocks during the low tide. The birds gather, left alone by the humans…

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A passing boat under the hazy sky. The sun coming through gave the water an eerie effect at times..

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I hit up a thrift store on my way here, and brought an early last century music dictionary there. Interesting read, as I love to learn obscure stuff..

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I also got this book of science fiction short stories from an author I never heard of. I love the cover. Some of the stories inside were quite good..

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Someone doing a bit of fishing out there, I think.

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And hey there, here comes the train!

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That’s all for now. I enjoyed this small little adventure in two parts. I hope you did too.

– Orion T

Carkeek Park Adventures, Part 1

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A weekend adventure outside the concrete jungle life..

This time at Carkeek Park, a small 220 acre woodland to the north of the Ballard district of Seattle. The area has much greatness hidden through its joggable trails; wetlands, orchards, grass picnic areas, and a beach with so much more. But for me it had a lot of peace and quiet, which I needed for much of this weekend.

I also took pictures (below)

I stayed on mostly two trails, The Piper Trail to my destination, and the South Ridge on my return trip. Most of these trails are easy and friendly for the casual hiker or jogger. The signs aren’t always at all the fork splits, so it might be good to have a printed map. This is not so much for getting lost, but to make sure you reach the right destination point, or to leave where you walked in (I took the bus here).

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Soon on the Piper Trail, the Piper Orchard. A series of fruit and nut trees planted over 100 years ago by the Piper Family. There are bags tied around the fruits, with signs kindly asking people not to take.

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Lots of moss here in the late summer. I love seeing moss on trees.

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A creek where salmon are known to travel, in the past at least. The running water keeps me calm.

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My favorite thing about woodland hikes, the odd tree formations and collapses. One could just let their imaginations run wild with this.

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I also love to see some crazy root action when on the upper trails. This was on the South Ridge trail after an upward crawl.

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Half a tree..

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I wanted to capture some pics of birds here. I can hear them all about up high. But here I think, the birds are shy and keep their distance from the constant humans passing through. I can hear many, see nothing. But, I enjoyed what I had anyway..

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A variety of life, and some death.

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Still no birds, and not much in sects either. But I had plenty for the imagination..

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Not a medium park trail unless someone leaves a visible message somewhere..

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The end, or beginning of things. This was my destination and rest area, the beach area of Carkeek Park. I am immediately reminded from the sky of the wildfires throughout the Pacific Northwest, causing this hazy sky. More on that, as I will post pics and notes of that in Part 2, coming soon.

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  – Orion T

Weekend Pic Fun at the NW Folklife Festival 2015

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Good times!!

The 2015 Pacific Northwest Folklife Festival brought much joy to the many festive folk attending in Seattle, this Memorial Day weekend. Much of this was in thanks to the monetary support from the visitors, business donors and merchants. Further support was also in part to volunteers, who also made this wonderful event possible. For me, it was just relaxing and sampling of new and exotic musical and dance talents (while tipping many in appreciation). There was something for everyone here, I felt. And for that, I had to see what everyone had.

I took some pictures with notes, featured below..

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Near the International Fountain, there was a drum (mostly) circle. Beats combined created a nice fusion, mostly of a constant tribal pattern calling many to the center to shake and dance wildly.

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Many got their motions on, some with fantastic visual attire and style.

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There were some big stages, where some larger acts took place. I was drawn to the jazzy stuff. This is M9, a Romani-style brass band, from the local area. I enjoyed their music.

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One of my favorite things about the Folklife Festival are the surprise sidewalk performances. You just have to be at the right place, at the right time to discover and enjoy something new and exciting. For this year, it was a mix of some Celtic (not sure) and country ho-down fun. I meant to ask more info on this group. I hope to see them again someday.

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I noticed many sidewalk performers had their dogs with them, which I think added a lot of charm to the overall atmosphere.

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Another favorite sidewalk performance. I was hoping to get a name, but couldn’t hold out until the full act was over to ask. The steel drum (I think) produced a cool Caribbean beat when tapped, combined with the stepping of the speaker he sat on it. The effect was a hypnotic awesome rhythm.

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Some fantastic locking and popping happened here. Loved this, as these sick moves brought me back to my early years on the streets of San Francisco.

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Not sure what dancing this is. There was some fiddle music from the stage at this time, and the line moved all around.

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Not all was music. Some fun came from people finding their own ways to share the delight.

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Anthony Briscoe and his band Down North brought some serious fire to the Saturday Night, fuming with a combo of rock, R&B, and soul.

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I didn’t catch the name of the guest guitarist who Anthony brought on stage for one jam, but daaamn, he was good.

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More drums!

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More dancin!

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Festivals are not complete without some crazy food choices.

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Not that it ever really gets hot here in Seattle, but the trees make for great shade and atmosphere.

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Overall, a lot of cheer from many. I was happy to be a part of all this. Thanks again to the PNW Folklife Festival and all involved, for making this happen.

– Orion T