Dog Skeleton

We found this yesterday while shopping and I laughed so hard I had to stop walking down the isle. It so fits our Halloween decor!

Maryhill Museum

Mom and Dad stayed here for a few days on their way down to Arizona and during their stay we went to see the new wing at the Maryhill museum. All of us have been to the museum before, but the exhibits change and the grounds are beautiful.

Looking west from the observation deck, the Maryhill Vineyards are visible.

The sky remains hazy from the wildfires burning around the state.

We enjoy looking at the sculptures located around the grounds. The artist for Diana's Stag is Joseph Warren from Portland, Oregon. He assembled the stag using tools and gears found at an abandoned mine.

I could not find information about this statue, but it reminded me of Sasquatch.

Dixie Jewett from Dayton, Oregon created Merriweather. She spent 14 years as an Alaska bush pilot and knows horses well. She now works with a variety of scrap metal items to produce larger-than-life horses. Each horse takes several months to complete. Susan noticed that the horse even has eye lashes.

Andre Dignimont was one of the designers asked to work for the Theatre de la Mode in 1945. He was most involved with the French literary circle of the period. Maryhill has a display replicating the Palais Royal and clothes of the period.

At the time of the French Revolution and the First Empire, stylish women went to the Palais to purchase elegant new fashions, which they paraded around the garden while exchanging the latest political news and gossip.

We wanted to see what we would look like in some of the designs.

The museum has an extensive display of Native American goods. This Parade Bag from the 1940's is constructed of glass beads, buckskin and cotton cloth. Plateau peoples refer to large, showy, beaded bags as "parade bags" because their handles loop over the front horn of a woman's saddle when she rides a decorated horse in a parade or other public event.

Wedding veils of this type are unique to the Middle Columbia River region. Young women wore them after coming of age. They are most commonly associated with betrothals and wedding ceremonies.

After enjoying the museum we drove to Bingen so Mom and Dad could taste the pizza at Solstice, which they enjoyed very much!

Sunrise in September

There were several fires burning in central Washington during the months of August and September, which created some spectacular sunrises and sunsets. I took these pictures of the sun rising, the last week of September, while walking the dogs at the middle school track.

Even though the pictures do not capture all the colors that were visible, I still thought they turned out pretty good.

Central Washington Fair

Susan and I went to the Central Washington State Fair today and these are some of the things that captured my attention.  The theme this year is Fair Fever-Catch it!
Isn't this cake just adorable?

Can you imagine being this talented with an Etch-a-Sketch?

This grange display was just too cute. Notice the emesis basins, beds and even the IV bottle. How clever!

This grange display won all kinds of awards. We loved the path made from seeds and the painting on the back wall.

I loved to play Monopoly as a kid and I thought the car was really cute.

This pumpkin won the grand prize weighing in at 378 pounds. There is more than size to the judging because there were heavier pumpkins there that did not win.

I have always liked the images made from seeds and grains.

Look at the size of this tobacco plant, especially the leaves.

Even with all the smoke in the air, many people were out enjoying the fair today.

Spokane Visit

A trip down memory lane - I was in Spokane last week visiting Sandy, a childhood friend that I had not seen for many years.  We grew up living right next door to each other until we were 12 years old.  I have not been to Spokane for a very long time so Sandy and I spent several hours visiting our old stomping grounds.  We had a blast!  The highlight of the week was Ziplining in Wallace Idaho at Silver Streak Zipline Tours. What an experience!

The guides get you all suited up at the home base in Wallace. Then you climb into a large truck for the ride up to the ziplines.

 

Sandy is all geared up and ready to go.

Nick and Ian were our guides for the afternoon. The entire process takes about two hours and you ride 6 different lines.

Sandy is getting hooked up to the trolley that you hang onto with your hands while zipping down the line. 

 Sandy has just stepped off the platform.

 

 

Sandy is approaching the platform and is getting ready to grab the orange line, which is part of the braking system. The last line is a dual line where you can race the person next to you. Sandy and I are approaching the platform.

The longest zip line is 1100 feet and you reach speeds of 50-60 MPH.

The views of the surrounding mountain ranges and of Wallace were spectacular.

 

Beer is provided at the end as a reward for finishing the trip.

 

We went to Riverfront Park and rode the historic Looff Carousel.  As far as we can remember there was not one child on the carousel during this ride, but there was an entire football team on board.

The Spokane Falls are pretty low right now, but we still had fun riding the new gondolas.

I took the next few photos around Riverfront Park.  

The famous garbage eating goat from the 1974 Worlds Fair, and yes, he is still eating. 

We took a drive up Mt. Spokane and visited several harvest businesses in Greenbluff. We stopped and took this photo while driving up the mountain. The road has not changed one bit. 

The road to the newest lodge was blocked off so I could only get a photo of the runs and the old lodge. the Vista House can be seen in the top right corner of the photo.

We also spent a few hours visiting our old neighborhood and checking out some of the houses that friends and family have lived in.  This is the house my family lived in until I was in the 6th grade.
 

This is the backyard of the same house but showing the garage my Dad built.

This is the house, right next door to the one above, where Sandy lived through high school.

Dale and MaryAnn Moll lived in this house, a few doors down from our house.

My grandmother on my Mom's side lived in this house on Cleveland for many, many years.

Mom and Dad moved into this house on Juliann Drive in 1966.  The house is just a couple of blocks 

from Whitworth University.

This was my house on Hughes Drive off County Homes Blvd.

I took Sandy on her first Geocaching adventure and she found a cache!  We had a great time catching up with each other after all these years.