Olympia

Throughout my travels, I've had the opportunity to visit several centers of government, both state and national, in our country and others. In Olympia, the capitol of Washington, I found myself comparing everything to the Lone Star State's capitol in Austin. So we're all on the same page, let me first share a few thoughts about Austin.

I've visited the Texas State Capitol many times since living in Texas and have helped myself to both self-guided and guided tours of the building. The grounds sit amidst a bustling college-town metropolis and are beautifully manicured. Around the perimeter sit highly visible Texas State Troopers in patrol cars. They also roam the hallways on foot of the capitol building itself.

Whether playing Frisbee on the massive front lawn amidst state relics or rambling the halls of the building itself, there are always people at the Texas capitol. The building is clean, modern, and functional, housing all of the state's business offices either in the main rotunda or the underground expansion. Tour guides offer free guided tours during the week and are typically political science students at the University of Texas, which is within walking distance of the Capitol grounds.

Olympia, in contrast, is a quiet little city about 5% the size (in population) of Austin. While the Texas state capitol is an imposing edifice visible for miles, the Washington State Capitol is off the beaten path and definitely requires directions (or Vicki) to find. Luca and I made the trek from Renton in about an hour, and once we found it, the place was dead. There was so much available parking, we were a little apprehensive about where to park for fear there was some kind of prohibition about parking on the grounds. Driving right up to a point of interest and parking for free at the front door is not usually how I roll. Paying twenty bucks to park a mile away and be bused in is typically more my speed.

The first thing I immediately noticed (aside from the lack of any other people) was the absence of any police or security: no rent-a-cops, no state troopers, no local police. I guess if a crime is committed and no one is around to notice, it isn't really a crime in Olympia.

The second thing I noticed was the layout of the grounds. Unlike Austin, the Washington capitol grounds are like a compound. The main building sits in the middle of a cloister of other buildings that makes the area feel more like a college campus than a government site. We later found out on the tour that very little business actually takes place inside the main capitol building. In addition to the obligatory rotunda, there are four offices (one for the Governor, Lieutenant Governor, Treasurer, and Secretary of State), a Reception Room, and chambers for the Senate and House. That's it. All the other business takes place in surrounding buildings.

What Olympia may lack in bustle, it makes up for in the quality of the tour. Our guide was excellent. He didn't recite from a memorized script, he simply walked us to the three rooms on the tour and started talking about them. If anyone had a question, he answered it in detail. It was like he was giving us a tour of his own home. Here are the highlights:

1. State Reception Room
   This is where foreign dignitaries are received, constituent groups interact with their representatives, and the post-election ball is held when a new governor is elected. But the crown jewel of the room is the rare 42-star flag hanging in a case on the wall. The flag is rare because there never was an official 42-star U.S. flag in use. Washington became a state in November of 1889. The star is not officially added to the flag until July 4th following a state's admittance to the Union. Flag makers began preparing 42 star flags so they would be ready for July 4th, 1890. On July 3rd of that year, Idaho was admitted to the Union and the 43 star flag became the official U.S. flag the next day.
   
   
2. Bust of George Washington
   This brass bust was presented to the state in 1984 by the Mother Joseph Foundation. It is noteworthy because over the years his nose has been worn by students rubbing it for good luck. Hal got in on that action (as did Luca and I)
   
   
3. The Rotunda
   The entire rotunda is covered in beautiful Alaskan Tokeen marble, which has a bluish white color. All the light fixtures in the capitol were created by Tiffany and the contract was his last major effort before his death. Hanging from the cupola is the world's largest Tiffany chandelier. It weighs 10,000 pounds.

No excursion in the Pacific Northwest is complete without the f-word, so we left the capitol grounds and let Vicki be our guide. The neighborhood she guided us to looked a little sketchy but we did find our destination. As we drove by the establishment we could see plenty of folks getting head inside, so we decided to give it a go.

When I say sketchy, I mean there were train tracks literally running down the center of the street. This gave way to a slew of puns, as you might imagine, and ultimately we concluded the tracks must be abandoned as the street was about the width of four cars. With parking allowed on both sides of the street, we just couldn't see how the logistics of a train coming down the street would work with vehicle traffic. It turns out we were wrong. As we got our fermentation on (that f-word staple of the Pacific Northwest), we asked our waitress at the Fish Tale Brew Pub about the tracks. She actually had to ask a coworker, but it turns out the tracks are still active and freight trains come down the street daily. This is one place where double parking is definitely out of the question.

The beer at Fish Tale is all organic and overall, not bad, although the pulled-pork sandwich I had was better. The walls are adorned with overpriced for-sale artwork, presumably from a local artist. It's good stuff, but not triple digit good, especially for the size. What did impress us was the rows of shelves along a wall holding people's personal beer mugs. I guess sometimes you wanna' go to the side of the tracks where everyone knows your mug.

Sorry, I just couldn't resist.

Check out all the pictures from my trip by clicking a gallery below:

From Everett

From Eugene

Why The Hell It's Taking So Long To Write About Olympia

I've been back home in Texas now for over a week. It's always good to be home. Having said that, let me share with you what I've come home to, and why it's taken so long to tell you about my trip to Olympia, which I did finally take. If you'd rather just read about that, wait until the next update and just skip this one. Understand that you'll miss a near-death experience story if you do.

The story begins with me trying to be smart. In favorable traffic conditions, Everett is about an hour away from SEA-TAC airport. My flight home was scheduled to depart at 7:30AM Thursday morning, so to avoid waking up at o'dark hundred, I switched hotels Wednesday night. For those of you that don't travel that often, let me break down the hierarchy of Marriott properties for you.

Up at the top of the Marriott food chain are Marriott-branded properties (places that actually have "Marriott" in their name) and the Ritz-Carlton. Below that are places like the Renaissance where you've dropped the Marriott name, but you're still in luxury vacation mode. The next level down is for the business traveler. Topping that list I'd say is the Residence Inn. Geared for the extended stay traveler, RI's have separate sleeping and working/lounging rooms and full kitchens. Below that is the Springhill Suites brand, a notch below the RI. Then we get to the Towneplace Suites. This is where I stayed in Everett and it's a mini-version of what the RI and SS offer. Unfortunately none of those brands had vacancy near the airport for Wednesday night and I was thus demoted to Courtyard. This is the Motel 6 of the Marriott chain--not that there's anything wrong with that. Marriott just opened a brand spanking new Courtyard here in San Antonio by Sea World where we used to live. It looks like a great place to stay. Unfortunately, the Courtyard Southcenter in Tukwila is in desperate need of renovation (read: avoid this hotel if at all possible). So much for brand loyalty.

I made it to my airplane without incident, except for the minor annoyance of not being able to use the self-serve check in kiosk. I figured the computer just didn't like me that day since, as I boarded the aircraft, the gate agent had to key in my ticket manually. I was flying Alaska Airlines for this leg of my trip and my aircraft was a new 737 featuring Alaska livery from 75 years ago, in celebration of Alaska Airline's 75th anniversary. I thought this was pretty cool and as I settled in for takeoff I took notice of the very creative Alaska Airlines timeline painted on the overhead storage bins and stretching the length of the aircraft. Suddenly I became aware of some activity about ten rows in front of me. A passenger vomited. That's always a nice way to start a flight, puking before you even leave the gate. For the next thirty minutes our departure was delayed while flight attendants took a full medical history from the man right there in the aisle. I thought this was a bit ironic considering I can't get into a private room with a doctor without signing what seems like half a dozen HIPAA forms. The attendants relayed the information to a doctor on the phone and finally removed the man and his wife from the aircraft for further examination.

The delay ended up only costing us about fifteen minutes by the time we arrived in Dallas. I had plenty of time to get to my new gate and wait for my American Airlines departure to San Antonio. I don't usually fly trip segments on multiple airlines, but this is what came up as the "least cost option" to the company that met my "business requirements"--which of course is the guidance we're admonished to follow by the travel accounting gods in corporate America. That's the last time I pay attention to that advice, and now I have the receipts to prove it. When I tried to board the aircraft with my "boarding pass" I was told it wasn't actually a boarding pass. Apparently three weeks prior when I changed my flight from Friday to Thursday, my good friends at the travel company changed my Alaska segment but never completed the change for my American trip from Dallas to San Antonio. I had to fork over an extra two hundred bucks to get them to let me on the plane and now I was "that guy" that you see rushing to his seat after holding up the entire airplane because he didn't have his shit together. For the record, the flight was already boarding late. By the time all was said and done, I could have flown two round trips to Seattle with what I--that is, what the company--spent on airfare.

The damage to my kitchen ceiling was not as severe as I feared and I decided the repair, mostly cosmetic, could wait. Instead, on late Monday afternoon I undertook the task of mowing the now very scraggly lawn. After my first pass with the tractor, I noticed a more pungent than usual odor of gasoline. I usually spill a few drops when refueling, as I'd just done, but this was really strong. As I started the second pass, I looked down and noticed some fluid by my foot. I thought this was odd, so I stopped the mower, left the engine running, and climbed off the seat to see where the liquid was coming from. As I bent down, I noticed a small leak on the very bottom of the fuel tank.

My first thought was environmental: "Great, a fuel spill. This is going to kill my grass."

My second thought was financial: "Crap, I just filled the tank, how am I going to save the rest of the fuel so it doesn't all go to waste?"

My third thought was more practical, and it overcame the first three: "Holy shit, that's dripping down onto the hot, running engine! EVERYONE PANIC, WE'RE ALL GOING TO DIE!"

I shut off the engine and ran like a madman to get the hose. My wife was across the street talking to the neighbor. I must have looked pretty funny because now I had their attention and they shouted at me to find out what was wrong.

"No problem, just a small fuel leak!" I shouted back as I ran back with the hose to wash down the tractor.

To think, I could have been killed! At least the beer break came early that night.

So while it's always good to be home, it's not always great to come home.

Post Script: This update would have gone out yesterday, August 23rd, but as I was preparing to publish, my wife called from the parking lot of Barnes & Noble to tell me the car wouldn't start--dead battery.

Touring Seattle: Chittenden Locks and Pike Place Market

Well, I didn't quite make it to Olympia to visit the capital last weekend. Due to a...let's call it a timing issue...the trip was postponed until tomorrow (as the weekend has arrived once again!). In true TRS fashion though, the diversion was overcome and a plan B quickly concocted. After a long lunch with fellow Road Scholar Luca and his girlfriend Tabi, we drove to Ballard, a suburban Seattle neighborhood north of downtown near the Sound. Ballard is home to the Hiram M. Chittenden Locks and the Carl S. English, Jr. Botanical Gardens.

Unlike many parks and beaches with tourist appeal, the locks and gardens are run not by Parks and Recreation but by the Army Corps of Engineers. They offer free, guided public tours of the locks and gardens. The tour was fantastic. Free is always good and our guide was friendly, knowledgeable, and sensitive to what visitors are typically interested in knowing. It was a busy weekend with great weather, so there was a lot of activity at the locks which we got to observe while the tour guide gave her spiel and answered questions. I won't do the tour justice, but here are a few highlights about the history and current operation of the locks.

Hiram Chittenden was an engineer with the Army Corps of Engineers at the turn of the century (the 1900s not the 2000s). As you might imagine, around that time the logging industry, the railroads, and the discovery of gold in California and the Klondike all contributed to an increase of population and industry in the Pacific Northwest. Due to geography and nascent railroad development, transporting goods such as logs from inland Washington to Seattle was a lengthy and tedious process. Chittenden decided there must be a better way and developed plans for a system of locks and a dam to connect Puget Sound with Lake Washington and allow for better flood control of a region saturated with rivers.

The result was a ship canal still in use today that allows vessels from kayaks to cruise ships to pass from Puget Sound, a saltwater body of water, to the fresh waters of Lake Washington approximately ten feet above the sound. The construction of the locks and dam changed the natural drainage route for freshwater out of Lake Washington, blocking the spawning runs of pacific salmon. To preserve the salmon runs, a fish ladder was also constructed to allow the salmon a series of 21 "steps" on their swim upstream to lay their eggs. The ladder provides the fish a means to swim up shore without the dangers of lock travel, such as boat propellers and birds of prey. There is a viewing area at the 18th step that allows visitors to see the salmon making their way up the ladder. Luca captured a brief video on his iPhone:

The locks are gravity fed, meaning no power is required to move water from one section to another.

1. Ships moving from Lake Washington to Puget Sound enter the lock from the lake. The gate and freshwater release valve is closed, sealing off water flow from Lake Washington into the lock.
   
2. A lower release valve is opened allowing water to flow out of the lock into the Sound, lowering the ships to sea level. When the water level is equalized, the lower gate is opened.
   
3. Once the ships clear out of the lock, ships traveling into Lake Washington enter the lock and the lower gate and release valve is closed behind them.
   
4. The release valve at the other end of the lock opens, allowing fresh water from Lake Washington into the lock, raising the water level--and the ships--to the level of the lake.
   
5. The gates are opened and the process repeats.
   

Wikipedia has some great descriptions and graphics showing the operation of the locks and the fish ladder:Click Here

Today I left work early and joined the LMC for lunch downtown at Pike Place Market. In all the trips I've made to Seattle, I've never actually been to Pike Street...until today. In true Seattle form, it took us the better part of an hour to get from Everett to the Convention Center, seven blocks from Pike Street Market.

Once there, we made the obligatory trek to the original Starbucks, took the photo and were on our way. I'm sure the marketplace has a fascinating history, but today was not about exploring it. We snapped our photo, scarfed down a bratwurst, and walked through the marketplace as it stands today. It's mostly home to runaway consumerism with touristy trinkets of all shapes and sizes; everything from flowers and fresh fruit to paintings, keychains, and T-shirts. There are a couple fish markets and I'm told they still famously toss fish off of trucks and over counters, but we didn't witness that on this lunch excursion. The place was packed to the gills--pardon the pun--with people of ALL kinds. This place is San Francisco on steroids as far as diversity, and I mean diversity of every kind. Like the guy with no teeth on the corner of Pike and Second holding up a sign advertising "Kissing Lessons".

Seriously.

I would have taken a picture, but there was no way I was putting myself in a position to have to give that guy a tip. Interpret that however you want.

Tomorrow, it's off to Olympia and a visit to the Washington State Capitol. No really, I mean it this time.