American Adventure

Washington (Olympia)

Thank you so much to Lee and Norine Dent of Olympia, WA

Starting on September 10, 2002, 1:45:16 PM

Before I went to my cousin's house in Olympia I stopped in Everett and spent the day there. These first pictures are at the Snohomish River with Mt. Baker off in the background in the first image.

A nice park there along the river showed even more fall colors. Now I believe that these are a result of a lack of water and not the coming of winter. I shouldn't be concerned, should I?

I headed down to Olympia and off in the distance, through the haze, along the side of the freeway, (Interstate 5) you can see Mt. Rainier. At 14,410 feet, Mt. Rainier is the tallest peak in Washington state and can be seen for hundreds of miles (on a clear day).

My cousin, Lee took me around Olympia for a nice tour of the city and area. I got this blue herring while watching the salmon swim around.

Olympia is actually the state capitol. The Capitol building is currently under repairs from the damage sustained in an earthquake that happened over a year ago.

We went to a salmon hatchery to se if we could see the fish jumping but I guess it must have been their day off. I did get to see some neat waterfalls along the river.

Artesian water flows through these small creeks that deposit into the river. Right along the river is the old Olympia Brewing company that had been bought out by Miller. Olympia Beer had become popular many years ago advertising the fact that it was made from the artesian water.

"The Glow" Take a look at your shadow in the water. Look at the way the light shimmers around your shadow in the water. It sometimes almost looks like you are glowing or the water is radiating from your shadow. Or it might have just been me. I didn't notice anybody else's shadow glowing and shimmering.

At the fish hatchery they had a stone there with ancient carvings on it. It was called a petroglyph. This stone was discovered on the Hartstine Island, wherever that is. It is said that the carvings are definitely pre-white man and probably from the Lower Puget Sound Indians.

Here you can see some of the Chinook Salmon that they had waiting in the tanks for milking. As it is called is not quite as humane as it sounds. They actually catch and cut the fish open, take out the eggs of the females and the fluid from the males and mix them all together to fertilize the eggs. Then, after hatching, they release the young back into the rivers to begin the process again. I'm sure that more details of this process can be found on the web. Go find out and send me the information.

Now its on the the Olympic Peninsula and most likely some more beautiful scenery.