Remember Whensday - Another Photo Flashback

After looking at this a little closer maybe I should have called this one Beauty and the Beast. The year must have been 1974 or 1975. I would have been a senior in high school, and since I was taking photography at the time I don't think I left the house without my trusty Yashica TL Electro X. What was my other hand holding onto? Why my absolutely adorable niece, that's who. I can tell you that this shot was taken in Olympia at the Legislative Building. Why walk down the steps when you can be a kid and go down the ramp instead? It would have been my Mom or Dad taking this shot. We were on the way to see my niece's daddy who at the time worked for The Department of Transportation in Olympia. Oh, and my niece.....she's married and has kids of her own now.

For more chances to "Remember Whensday" click the link below.

When Tonka Toys Grow Up

With spring already here (wet as it is), and summer on the way this is one place that is going to be seeing some business. They keep a pretty good supply of bark and other yard improvement supplies. When the wind is blowing you can get a whiff of this place from quite a ways away. Boy I'd like to climb in that thing and play for an hour or so.

Truckin' Like the Doo-Dah Man

Always keeping our eye peeled for classic VW's, this baby caught our eye about half a block after meeting up with these fellows. I figured the sepia would help take us all back in time.

P.S. I wish I would have taken a shot of the inside. There was just enough room for the driver to sit and that was it. The rest of the van was piled to the roof with stuff.

Rif-Raf of Olympia

Now before anybody takes offense over the title, let me tell you what led up to this photo. My wife, our oldest daughter and I went out to dinner Saturday evening. We headed downtown to McMenamin's Spar Cafe, an Olympia landmark. The atmosphere is comfortable, the food just as comfortable and delicious. After dinner we decided to walk off our full stomachs. We headed down one of the main drags for a few blocks, then crossed the street and started coming back toward our car. As we walked past this group one of them asked us if we had any spare change. I told them I didn't have any and asked if they could take a debit card. We all had a pretty good chuckle, then the fellow with the brown and white dog noticed the camera I was carrying. He said "Hey, do you want to take our picture?" I said sure, everybody get together and grab the dogs too. They all bunched up, struck a pose and this is the result. The same guy I mentioned earlier looked at the photo in the camera then said "You can call this The Rif-Raf of Olympia." A couple of handshakes and laughs later we were on our way. Thanks guys, today's post is all yours.

Back by Popular Demand - Here's Looking at You Kid

Here's one more shot of the "fountain froggies" at the Washington State Department of Health. You'd better watch out ladies......this one's blowing a kiss your way. He may be a prince in disguise you know.

Watery Wednesday - The Thinker

My wife spotted this cute as heck fountain quite some time back, but I just today managed to photograph it. It's sort of tucked in between a couple of buildings in a small courtyard at the Washington State Department of Health. There are three of these handsome fellows hanging around the pool.

For more Watery Wednesday shots click the link below.

The Evergreen State College-Don't Lecture Me

One last post from The Evergreen State College in Olympia. This round building houses several lecture rooms and doesn't seem to have any windows. I guess that's one way to keep your attention.

Art at Evergreen

Okay, part two of our visit to The Evergreen State College in Olympia. While checking out the campus Saturday I came across this area just outside an art building. Evidently this is where they have been doing some metal work. If you look through the mesh above the concrete wall, you might be able to see a bit of a large winged creature that must have been made there.

Tomorrow I'll show you another area on campus.

The Evergreen State College

After work today I took the short drive to The Evergreen State College, a public liberal arts and sciences college. Since it opened in 1971 it has worked extremely hard at being as self-sufficient and energy conscious as possible. The EPA recognized TESC as the top green power purchaser for 2008-2009 purchasing more green power than any other college in the Cascade Collegiate Conference. I'll be showing you more over the next couple of days but if you'd like to read more about this college you can visit their website here.

Can anyone help identify these interesting trees?

Guess What We Found?

Flowers weren't all we found last weekend at the conservatory in Tacoma. We never did see the little fellow that was supposed to be guarding the pot o' gold. He left in such a hurry that he lost his hat.

A big Happy St Patrick's Day to you all. I have an even better reason to celebrate. My wife and I were married two years ago today. I love you Krise!

Chihuli at Seymour

I realized that even though I've shown you other photos of both the Seymour Conservatory and Dale Chihuly's amazing glass art I realized I hadn't posted one of our favorites. I'm going to show you one more amazing find from the conservatory in tomorrow's post that I'm sure you'll find very appropriate for the day.

When Life Hands You Lemons

Squeeze it in their eye and run like heck! No, no, no.......That's not what I meant. I meant to say grab your camera and photograph it. This sourpuss of a fruit hangs in the Seymour Conservatory in Wright Park in Tacoma. A little factoid. This tree is 65 years old. I'd say it's not looking too bad for it's age.

Scenic Sunday - Restoration in Progress

A view of a portion of the Nisqually Delta. What you see is part of a major reclamation project. Every one of those white pipes you see is a hand planting of some indigenous form of vegetation. I first told you about this project back in April 2009. In the distance you can see the Olympic Mountain Range.

Monochrome Weekend - Water Trails

This taken from atop the 4th Avenue Bridge in downtown Olympia.

Click the link below to see more monochrome beauty.

Dinner and a Song

One of those hectic evenings tonight. It's what happens when you have kids. Running around to do after work, then our oldest daughter had another concert at her high school. By the time it was over we didn't feel like cooking so off we headed to Plaza Jalisco for some of their delicious Mexican food. This painting is on one of the walls there.

Ruby Tuesday - Some Days You're The Dog,

Intended to at least bring a little chuckle to your day.

For more Ruby Tuesday photos click on the link below.

Monochrome Weekend - Stuck in the Mud

One of the many things that turned up when they drained Capitol Lake recently.

See the world in a different light over at The Monochrome Weekend.

Scenic Sunday - Take a Stroll

Another one of the trails we enjoy walking. This paved trail connects Tumwater Historical Park with the loop around Capitol Lake. A nice peaceful place to walk.

For more Scenic Sunday shots click the link below.

Combination Plate

How handy can you get? Stop in, have something pierced, have a smoke, then stroll next door for a burrito. What a way to spend the day.

Seen in downtown Olympia (as if this surprises you.)

SkyWatch Friday - Black & Blue

The nice days have been sort of hit and miss around here lately. While taking a drive around Capitol Lake the other day this scene caught my eye. I hope everyone has a simply wonderful weekend.

For more SkyWatch Friday photos click the link below.

Watery Wednesday - Fish & Flowers

As you can tell from various previous posts such as here and here, The Seymour Conservatory in Tacoma is one of our favorite places to go every couple of months or so. The theme and flowers change about that often and it is always a great place to photograph. One area that doesn't change is the fish pond. It's been there for many years. It's just one more thing that makes the Conservatory such a relaxing place.

For more Watery Wednesday shots click the link below.

The Project

It all started so simple. My wife calls and says "Hey I spotted a neat old Volkswagen Squareback for sale. I think it'd be a great first car for our oldest daughter." So I went with her to go look it over. The more I looked, the more I liked it. We came home and talked to our daughter about it for a while. Once we determined that it didn't seem like a car she was really interested in I latched on. Yesterday afternoon we bought it and today they delivered it. It's a 1970 Volkswagen 1600 Type III. It's a solid old car with minimal rust. It's not running right now but that doesn't matter to me at all. The car is coming apart anyway. It'll be going through a fairly complete restoration in the coming months. I'll probably post a shot every once in a while to show the progress. This is going to be fun!

I believe this should look pretty familiar to Chuck and Kim in Seattle. Chuck posted a photo of a car like this just the other day and it happened to belong to a friend of Kim's.

Theme Day - Passageway

Here we are at the start of a new month, which means another CDPB Theme Day. For this month's theme "passageway" we're revisiting a place I've already taken you a couple of times. This is the entry to the Hotel Olympian, a grand old building in downtown Olympia. Not only did I show you the outside here, we even took you to dinner at The Urban Onion here, and showed you what they do with you if you complain about the food here. Besides those things if you look straight ahead at the signs you'll see there's a Christian Science Reading Room downstairs to the right, and there's a small bookstore immediately to the left. Now, if you look upstairs at the far end you'll see several sets of doors. Those doors lead you to a good sized dance floor where they not only hold dances on a regular basis, you can also take lessons up there. I believe my wife is going to take me up there one of these days.

Please click on the link below to view other passageways.

Click here to view thumbnails for all participants