Puyallup Fair

Sunday afternoon, September 25, my Aunt Cathy and I went to the Puyallup Fair.   Instead of trying to find parking near the fair grounds, we rode a bus to the fairgrounds.  The rain started to sprinkle by the time the bus arrived at the fairgrounds.   By the time we bought our tickets it was raining hard.  Neither of us had brought a rain jacket.  We waited and waited... and waited... for the rain to end.  Finally we left the shelter near the ticket booth and went inside the fairgrounds.  IKEA was giving away large plastic bags away and Cathy and I each took one to use as an umbrella.

The buildings were at the opposite end of the fairgrounds.  We were very wet by the time we got inside the first building.   Wouldn't you know it... it quit raining a few minutes after we got inside the building. 

For lunch Cathy and I each ate an Earthquake burger and shared an order of fries.  As you can see the fries are cooked in a glob.

Seeing the high school students artwork on display brought back memories of my high school art classes.

The yellow ducks have grown up since I attended fairs when I was a kid.

I wish they had this when I was a kid!

Cathy and I watched several "mutton busting" contests including the final contest that crowned a winner for the Puyallup Fair.

If I remember right, the contest was open to kids age 6 and younger, and who weighed 60 lbs or less.  The contest is just like the grown up bronco riding.  The goal was to stay on the animal at least 6 seconds and officials score your ride based on how difficult it was to stay on the animal.  If you had a wild animal and stayed on you could score high.

Here is "Buster" warming up the crowd before the contest started.

As you can see, the top three riders were girls.  They look puny but, boy, could they hold onto the sheep!  Sometimes the handlers had to pull them off the sheep after their six seconds had passed.

Mutton Busting video 2:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tnm5vtCsims

Mutton Busting video 3: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d6e7ESClGLw


After the mutton busting contest, Cathy and I went over and watched the kid's tractor pulling contest. The contest was for kids 12 and younger.  To make it fair between the older and younger kids, the amount of weight they had to pull was based on their age.  The older kids pulled more weight.

Tractor pull video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IhMIRVE9_MU

Even though the fair was located in Western Washington near a large population base, the fair still had a small town, ag-based, arts and crafts feel to it.

All in all a nice day at the fair even if we got wet in the beginning. By the end of the fair we had dried out.

Alaskan cruise: return

The cruise ship was docked in Seattle when Tammy and I got out of bed Saturday, September 24.  After eating breakfast we left the ship around 9:30 am.  There weren't many passengers on the ship when we left.  The final departure time for people to be staged off the ship was 10 am.  The ship felt odd and lifeless with so few people on it.

My uncle Curt paid for the limo service to have a town car drive us from the ship to his place.  Tammy accidentally packed the limo company's phone number in her luggage that was picked up overnight so it would be ready for her to get once we left the ship.  So she had to call Curt in the morning to get the limo company's phone number.  When she called the limo company she discovered the driver was already at the dock and was driving circling around looking for us.  We told him we wouldn't be off the ship for another 90 minutes or so.

Finding our luggage wasn't hard.  Waiting for our town car to arrive took a while as there were so many vehicles and people waiting to be picked up.


Tammy left for home Sunday morning.  I left Monday afternoon after having breakfast with my uncle Larry and aunt Diane.  Larry took me to the Tacoma train station.  Larry had overestimated the amount of time it would take us to get to the train station so we arrived plenty early.   That turned out to be good as the train between Portland, Oregon and Seattle was delayed.  So that I would be on time for the train leaving from Seattle, the Amtrak official put me on a Trailways bus going to Seattle.

There were four of us, including the driver, on the large bus.  Talking with one young woman I learned she was taking the bus all the way to Spokane.  She wasn't taking the train from Seattle as the Department of Corrections would only pay for a bus trip.  I never asked where she came from and why.

It was overcast and raining and I read during the journey.  Just outside of Seattle the driver slammed on the brakes and shouted "No! No!  No!  No!  No!" as the bus slid on the wet pavement.  The traffic in our lane of the freeway had stopped suddenly and the bus slid and slid as we were going downhill when the driver slammed on the brakes.

A red car was stopped in front of us and I watched as the car got closer and closer and then disappeared below the bus's front window.  I thought we had stopped just in time only to feel a bump as we slid into the car.

The bus stopped.  As the driver was asking if we were ok the woman in the red car drove off.  What? Where's she going? She was lost in traffic before she signaled and pulled over to the right shoulder.  The car that had been in front of her car pulled off the road behind her and the bus then moved to the shoulder behind them.  We were delayed as everyone looked their vehicles over, exchanged insurance information and took photos of the vehicles.  No one appeared to be hurt.

I felt sorry for the bus driver as he seemed to be a real nice guy.  He had been allowing for plenty of room in front of the bus to the vehicles ahead of the bus.  But I think it was a combination of the traffic stopping, and suddenly, plus the wet pavement and being on a downhill section.  Take any of the elements away and the bus would not have hit the car.

After the accident another young woman came from the back of the bus up to the front where the other woman and I were sitting.   She was traveling with her baby daughter who was sleeping.  She was also going to Spokane by bus.  Both women seemed nice, but neither were the sharpest stick in the woodpile.

Because I was way early at the Tacoma train station, this delay didn't hurt.  I was still at the Seattle train station well before the train left.

Our train car was a little over half full but I was able to get two seats for myself.  This was good as I had came down with a cold the day I left the cruise ship.  The cold was serious by the time I took the train home.  I slept good on the train only waking up a little before the train arrived in Whitefish.

And then I was home as my neighbor Jan came and got me.  Once home I slept most of the day as I was still suffering from my cold.

Alaskan cruise: Day 7 - sunset

The sun was setting by the time we returned to the ship.

Near the ship was a long walkway.   Even though we had walked all around Victoria, we walked out in the walkway to watch the setting sun and see the ship from another angle.

The bright light in the middle at the top of the ship is a large outdoor movie screen.  Tammy and I never watched any movies there as the weather was so poor much of the time.

Alaskan cruise: Day 7 - Downtown Victoria

The Empress Hotel.

Curt told me the name of the leaning tree, but I forgot it.

Pedestrian street.

On the pedestrian street we saw a handful of vendors.  While we sat and rested, this fellow who sold leather belts, packed up his supplies and tent (just like the white tent on the right side of the photo).  He put everything into these boxes and bags.  He then loaded them into his cart, attached the cart to his bicycle, then headed for home.

Manscape spa?  No thanks.

This is a men's bathroom on a city street corner.  There is only a urinal inside.

The entrance to Chinatown.  There is not a whole lot of interesting stores on this street.  The entrance and some nearby statues were more interesting.  The Red Dragon photo I took when I visited Victoria in 2008.  I tried to take a similar photo this year but either a wino was loitering near the statue and sneakily filling a can with liquor from a bottle in his backpack, or later a woman was videotaping her kids climbing on the statue.

Street art for money.  On another street I saw three young men sitting and laying on the sidewalk with a homemade cardboard sign saying "Need money for weed".  I didn't get their photo as I didn't want to be obliged them to give them money.

This character was sleeping.  I love his beard.

In 2008 I was fooled by this "statue".  At the time I muttered about Victoria appropriating a symbol of the American West - a cowgirl - for a statue when they should instead have had a sailor statue or something similar.  Then the statue moved.  This was street art and this is how she made money.

I had told Tammy the story of the cowgirl and how I was fooled.  This year as we walked by the "statue" in the following photos Tammy asked me if this was a statue or a person like the 'cowgirl'.  I looked as I walked by, and seeing no strings on the guitar, came to the conclusion this was a statue.  Tammy kept an eye on the statue and saw that it moved from a standing position to this sitting position.  Fool me once, shame on you.  Fool me twice, shame on me.  I should have known better.  And what does having or not having strings on a guitar have to do with it being a statue?  Duh.

People wanted to contribute but didn't know where to put the money. They would walk up to him and ask him.  He would slightly motion to the open guitar hole with a couple fingers.

On our harbor walk back to the ship Tammy and I passed this cute little car.

Alaskan cruise: Day 7 - Totem Poles

Inside Beacon Hill Park is the world's tallest totem pole at 127 ft 7 inches. It was carved from a single tree in 1956.  The black base at the bottom is 6 feet tall.  I know, I stood next to it for a photo.

Just outside Beacon Hill Park, on the way to downtown, is the Victoria Thunderbird Park.  Tammy and I looked at some of the totem poles there. 

Someone else's photo that shows the context of my previous photos.

Alaskan cruise: Day 7 - Beacon Hill Park

According to my Uncle Curt, the green tree is called a monkey tree.

We came across several peacocks sitting high up a large tree with smooth bark.

Lots of ponds with ducks are in the park.

The Park looked to have a small mini-golf course.