off
The Wallace
A
web 0.9 blog...
Spring
& Summer 2008
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8.23.2008
Long Beach Kite festival
Took a long weekend and drove down to the coast for the kite festival...
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7.4.2008
4th of July at John & Sally's on Lake Union...
There's nothing like a front row seat to one of the largest fireworks
shows in the Northwest.
I took my kayak this year and spent
a
couple hours paddling around in the maze of boats coming in to view the
show. What a zoo.
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5.24.2008
Spotted something that looked out of place on the bluff
above Ebey's
Landing...
A
cactus in Western Washington? Sounds weird but it's
not
really out of place at all... Whidbey Island is in the rain
shadow of the Olympic mountains and this area near Coupeville receives
an average of only 18 to 20 inches (460 to 510 mm) of rain per year.
Prickly-Pear cactus actually grow here and you can find them
in
several spots on the bluff between Ebby's landing and Partridge Point.
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5.14.2008
I did a double take when I drove by Jeff and Scott
starting work on restoring the old Dodge building in Clinton...
Reminded me of the Mario Brothers - Donkey Kong game... All
this
needs is someone to stand on top in a gorilla suit.
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4.30.2008
Happy Birthday, www !
15 years ago today the world wide web protocols were
released, for free, by CERN.
I guess the age explains allot...
It's still a teenager.
Click
here for more info...
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4.20.2008
We decided to take a break from chores and took a walk up to the
"erratic" in Saratoga Woods. Dropped off long ago by a retreating
glacier (technically the Puget Lobe of the Cordillerian Ice sheet) this
house size bolder is nestled in the middle of the woods just a few
miles from home.
The only way I could get the whole thing in frame was to
use a
16mm fish-eye lens. I would love to have this rock in the backyard...
If it would only fit.
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4.19.2008
At home
talking to brother Jon on Skype. He's
about to head out to lead the afternoon Fiery
Furnace
hike for the park service. He leads this trip a couple times
a
week during the peak season. Here's a picture one of the
tourists
sent him... Jon is in the middle giving his presentation to
the
hikers in Fiery Canyon...
Fiery
Furnace Canyon - Photo
by Hans & Trudy Kosmer
More of their photos are here
4.12.2008
We met Max for lunch and after the obligatory trip to the
store
to stock him up with food, said goodbye and headed east on 90
for
the trip home. Stopped in Roslyn just for a quick
look...
Roslyn is
still the same old place. Not much
change in
town but there's a lot of development in the surrounding area.
The one thing they do have is a good brewery! The
old radio
station prop from the series Northern Exposure is still set up on the
main street... The turn table, records and Mic all look like it did
from when they filmed the last episode... The town wouldn't
be
the same without the Roslyn Cafe and The Brick...
Topped off the day having Dinner with Esther in Redmond
and caught the 8:30 PM ferry for home.
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4.11.2008
We spent a
couple more hours in Leavenworth.
Found an
interesting shop called Jubilee Global Gifts founded and managed by
John & Mary Schramm. The shop was founded 13 years
ago and as
a member of the Fair Trade Federation deals in art and hand crafted
goods from developing countries around the world. All the
proceeds from the shop go to several organizations in the area
including Habitat for humanity. There are several volunteers
that
run the store, but John & Mary are there 90 percent of the
time.
The building owner has donated the space for 13 years - quite a
generous donation. The shop is on the second floor so I have
to
wonder how many people make the climb to check it out. The
sign
on the door frame says it all... " Come on Up - The exercise
is
good for you."
After
a quick
lunch we headed over Blewit Pass on 97 and stopped in the town of
Liberty. Liberty was almost a ghost town the last time I was
here
in the late 70's. It looks like it has some new life, but
with a
lot of old mining junk.
Why
does a Pug cross the road...? 
To check
out the Beaver dam on the other side...
The
beavers were working on the tree in the center photo - when it comes
down it will probably block the main road...
Arrived late afternoon in Ellensburg... Max
finished
classes about 4:30 and we met Max and Bridget for dinner, then took a
walk around campus.
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4.10.2008
Ellen is on
Spring break this week so we decided to get off the rock
for a couple days and headed over Highway 2 to Leavenworth with the
Pug. The trip over Stevens pass was un-eventful but man there
is
still a bunch of snow at the ski area (which is scheduled to
close
for the season on Sunday...). There's enough snow to run for another
month at least...
If you go
to
Leavenworth anytime soon be prepared for dusty streets and lots of
construction noise because they have a couple of the main streets torn
up with heavy equipment flying around everywhere. If the wind
is
blowing there's plenty of dust; everything is pretty dirty.
Parking was also interesting even on a Thursday...
I imagine
the merchants aren't real happy but I took a look at the new "master
plan" for the city and it looks pretty cool...
Still way too many dried flower and shit shops for my taste but looks
like it will be quite an improvement and a bit more upscale.
I
will say there is plenty
of wine in this town but what happened to the Brewery?
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