Much of the day was spent in Tacoma where I got lots of good stuff. I kept thinking that I didn’t have enough blog material so I kept shooting oddball stuff. Turns out that I have more than I probably should post in the interests of sanity and getting some rest.

Some rain here and there but luckily most of it held off til just after dark. The dogs got to play in a variety of places: dirt, sand, and grass lots. I need to find a big, well-fenced dog park somewhere (i.e., make the time to research ones in upcoming Oregon) because Grem is not getting enough exercise. Nik is spoiled rotten with swimming every day. Fixie wishes we were home already. Grip has been very cranky (not enough sleep).

I’m hoping to wrap up Washington tomorrow. I was ahead of schedule until Seattle but now pretty much where I should be. Nearly the halfway mark at over 8,000 miles so far. I don’t know how many thousands of photos. Gas has been a little cheaper in the past couple days ($3.84 vs. $4-something). So I’m not sure if there has been a nationwide drop or if western Washington is just cheaper than the eastern half.

This was probably a former motel in Tacoma, now apartments. I love the rockwork. I saw some other similarly used rock so it must be a regional thing.

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This castle-like building is from Tacoma. I’d love to know what it was originally used for. Was it just a house, or a hotel or for another commercial use? There was a bay-like building to the right but the castle seems too big to have been an office.

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It’s nice to see these Travelodge signs reused — especially when they keep the plastic ballies. This is in Tacoma:

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Time for some junk food. I hit the Brown & Haley outlet store which is in a cute little round mid-century building next to their factory. They are the famous producers of Almond Roca but the Mountain Bar was their first creation.
https://www.brown-haley.com/ourstory.php

Cherry is not really my flavor so I can only give this a B-. They were out of the peanut butter which would have been my first pick,.

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The Almond Roca now comes in four other flavors. This should come in handy during the later long haul interstate stretches of the trip when I can use all the excitement I can get.

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Ranko’s Corner Drug Store in Tacoma has a spectacularly original exterior — as well as these neat interiors features as well. A nice wooden phone booth (sign said the phone was out of order though) and a fully-functioning post office. And a great sign over the drug counter. There were some old photos and it seems this place might have had a soda fountain/lunch counter at one time. But I think there was a previous location so I’m not sure. The exterior photos of the store are at my agilitynut Flickr stream here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/agilitynut/2779885063/

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I refuse to start a new section at my website as I’m already overwhelmed with what I’m working on now. But perhaps I’ll start a Flickr group for Civic Fountains. Here are a couple that caught my eye. A nice brutal concrete one in Tacoma (note the Woolworth in the background on the right):

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and another in Bremerton. This one was a tribute to a guy associated with the Lion’s Club:

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Washington has had a lot of old-school traffic signals. I’m particulary fond of their metal “Crosswalk” signs. They look like giant cowbells and are often very dented up from trucks passing underneath. The signs look pretty old to me (flaking paint). I’ll keep an eye out for a later photo. Here’s a nice example of some of the hanging lights:

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I’ve been seeing a lot of these topiary pine trees in Washington. They are so classically 1950s to my eye. This two were at a cleaners. Does anyone know what they are called?

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This Shriners’ sign is from Tacoma. I don’t think I’ve seen a plastic fez sign before:

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Bremerton had several of these trompe l’oeil murals downtown. One was a desert scene, this one a pine forest:

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In downtown Olympia, on the lawn right next to the Capitol Building, is a great double-sided totem pole from 1940. Here are a couple details:

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The Golden Gavel Motel in Olympia now has a more mundane name. However, they kept much of the old plastic sign and this wonderful little sculpture:

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One more photo before I hit the road. Suddenly, the rain has stopped and the sun is out. This is one of those nice old street clocks — but I’ve never seen one as elegant as this with lamps. There is also glass on all four sides so you can see the inner workings:

There were still quite a few time-consuming stops in Seattle that took up much of the day. Traffic was definitely better, especially downtown. But stops west and east of the city proved more complicated with zigzag-ing inefficient routes. Although things were very well planned out, it still took way more time than anticipated. The weather was not my friend either. For the first time on this trip, it rained. Not torrential enough to stop shooting. But it did make for dull compositions, grey backgrounds, and calling it a night a couple hours early. Better luck tomorrow.

One thing that surprised me about Seattle was the number of hills. There were some roller coaster drops where you had to keep your brakes on all the way down. In fact, I recall a street named appropriately Nob Hill (like San Francisco) in a neighborhood I was happy to only have a couple stops in. The views and houses were nice but I’m not into white knuckle driving. There were also lots of irritating hills where you were at a 45 degree and had to stop for a stop sign. Then you have to rev the engine back up to get beyond it and get going again (usually with scary oncoming traffic).

The dogs got to play at Alki Beach (West Seattle) in the drizzle. No, it wasn’t legal but nobody seemed to notice. I think we were concealed by the concrete seawall. I love it when the dogs shake off and get sand all over the van. To me, seeing sand in the crevices and carpeting for a few days is just a memento of the good times we’ve had.

Here’s a nifty dragon in Chinatown:

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This sign was in West Seattle. The moon is three-dimensional.

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Uh, something happened when I popped out of the van to take photos of something for a few minutes. I’m not sure who is responsible – most likely Grem who will eat just about anything. Must have been a drop of something that smelled good and then she just continued to eat up an important part below Seattle. Luckily, my printed maps were enough to get me through this area but it would have been easier with a better highway map.

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For a plastic sign, this one in Seatac has a lot of pizzazz:

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I really, really wanted to see the Rocket gas sign in Des Moines. Unfortunately, the Butler Bar & Grill where it was displayed is closed on Mondays. So I tried and tried but this is the best I could get through the window:

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I went to Maple Valley to check out the Lake Wilderness Lodge which had a great mid-century building. I took a bunch of shots but the place is too big to really carry well into photos. Very often that’s the case with great Art Deco buildings: too big to photo well. On the way back to the highway, I noticed these two fun places across the street from each other. The Maple Valley Library is probably a contemporary construction — although maybe it could be midcentury. Wonderful sloped roof with visible wood from the exterior — and equally great view of the trees from the inside. This person has some more photos of the place:
http://flickr.com/photos/kcls/sets/72157604370059682/

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And lastly, the Maple Valley Community Center across the street has this fun fence.

It was a frustrating and exhausting day. Tons of traffic — worst than L.A. or anywhere than I can think of. Getting across town is tricky with Aurora and I-5 creating all kinds of dead ends. One way streets. I hadn’t expected any of it since usually Sunday is a good day to city downtown areas. Usually they are ghost towns but it sure was hopping in Seattle. Something called Hempfest was also going on which I think compounded the volumes of cars and people. Anything near or around the Space Needle was a nightmare. I still have a short list of stuff to do downtown but hopefully the closed roads will be open.

I took the dogs to a dog park south of downtown, Dr. Jose Rizal park. It turned out to be pretty skanky. I didn’t see any dogs — just homeless people. There are homeless people all over Seattle unlike any place I’ve ever been. I had heard about Seattle’s teen runaways — so maybe they have just grown up? Most of them seemed to be middle-aged and many appeared under the influence of something. Vast parks in the city where they have taken up uninterruped residence. At the dog park, one woman was topless and using the dog fountain to bathe. But I threw Nik’s ball for awhile and kept a close eye on Grem since the fencing seemed suspect. I think Fix and Grip were a little creeped out by the place, too. Yeah, great views of the City but… Here are some reviews which I hadn’t read before going here:

http://www.yelp.com/biz/dr-jose-rizal-park-seattle

On with the photos! Here’s a nice detail on the side of MOHAI (the Musuem of History and Industry):

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A strange little bit of sculpture in Fremont. I don’t know if this corner with moonscape benches, a galactic sidewalk, and these orb-y things were affiliated with the Asteroid Cafe which is now gone. Are there any locals that can fill me in?

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I’m usually not a fan of “retro” (new stuff made to look old) but I really liked the signage at this vet’s office:

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More strange artwork in Ballard — anybody out there know more about it?

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Downtown, there was a jewelry store with this giant retro billboard. Note how the hand projects from the wall. I assume the ring sign is old and just updated a little.

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Some more stuff from downtown. A modern sign — finally, a companion for all those classic 1950s diving women signs:

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This business is from 1890 — and I’m pretty sure that’s when this stained glass (or is it leaded glass?) was created. The bulb sign above looks pretty old as well.

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And lastly, certainly, way too old for the website but another incredible old Richardsonian style building:

Yesterday morning, I finished up with the Canada list. Lots of neon signs and a few other things. Here’s one neon sign in Vancouover that won’t make it to the website. I thought it was pretty neat and reminded me of those “head shops” from long ago. The sign was lit the night before:

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This building in Vancouver had an incredible arched entrance:

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I had a couple other stops in Canada — an incredible carousel in Burnaby and what turned out to be only a so-so Streamline Moderne building in New Westminster. Then, I was all set to get going in Seattle. But the border crossing was horrendous. It was at least two hours mid-day Saturday. A woman at a convenience store just over the border, finally, said it is sometimes five or six hours. I really don’t get what was taking so long. For me, it was a couple quick quenstions and barely a glance at my dogs’ paperwork and my passport. I did take this one photo while waiting in line — a lot of reflection off the paperwork on my dash — but I’ll include it anyway.

This guy was doing a booming business working the line of cars. He had two stacked coolers filled with water and ice cream. He passed out laminated poster-sized signs to cars filled with families to make their choices.

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Once we finally got to Seattle, I only had a couple hours of shoting time left. Nothing bloggy during that time. Then we went to a dog park in Seattle to round out the day. It was huge with good fencing and a beach. Some decent-sized waves on Lake Washington and Nik wowed the crowds with his fearlessness for da ballie. But away from the water, Nik and Grem were way too occupied by whatever critters were on the other sides of the fencing. Grem found a hole at one point and luckily I retrieved her pretty quickly before she took off. But then she was obsessed with digging at the base of the fencing and nearly dug through a couple times. Too stressful for me. Everybody got lots of exercise which was good after being stuck in the van way longer than normal. Here’s a link to what you’ll find at Magnuson Park’s off-leash dog area:
http://www.explorerdog.com/offleash/magnuson.htm

It was slow-going north of Seattle. Lots of traffic, some road detours and big distances between stuff. I went to see a lot of mid-century stuff that I had on my list from various sources but most of them were not quite appealing enough for me so I didn’t shoot them. I hope I don’t regret it some day.

One such place was the Bellevue Botanical Gardens Visitor Center (aka the Shorts House) which was built in 1956. While it doesn’t look like much from the outside, I really liked the inside which had a lot of skylights and glass.

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While I was at the Gardens, I came upon some other things including these odd rock sculptures:

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and this neat flowing fountain:

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I forgot to include this photo yesterday of a postcard that I bought. It shows the packing label for Snookum. See my agilitynut Flickr photo & video to the Wenatchee sign:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/agilitynut/2764075253/

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I went to Snohomish (though the signs say Maltby) to shoot a giant coffee cup. Just behind it was a complex with a restaurant and antique/gift shops. There were some really neat signs including this killer Colonel Sanders weathervane:

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Here’s a fun sign for a store in Lynnwood called “Wide Shoes Only”. My feet are a little on the wide side so I’m sympathetic. They called them “surfer feet” where I grew up in Southern California. Seems going around barefoot all the time encourages the feet to grow wider.

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I’ve never heard of or seen a Gull gas station before. I assume this was a very small local chain (or maybe it was just this one station in Burlington for all I know):

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I had heard that there was a restored Shell gas station in Langley, BC. I asked around quite a bit when I got to town and no one had heard of it. Then I spotted a bunch of restored English sports cars and figured someone there might know. Sure enough, one guy drew me a map and I was on my way. Turns out, it wasn’t a restored station at all but rather a replica of one in a residential neighborhood. I couldn’t really get close enough to “Memory Lane” to take more photos of it without walking right up the driveway and I was already arousing the suspicions of neighbors. So I left it at this since it was getting dark anyway and I had a lot of other stops to make. I couldn’t tell if this building was used as a house or just a massive garage for the guy’s collection.

Today, I covered stuff from Yakima to Issaquah — two great Native American names. The terrain was once again pretty rugged until we got to the Wenatchee mountains. Then there were forests of pine trees – finally! We’re approaching the 9,000 mile mark and not even halfway through this trip. My credit card bill is going to be scary. Gas has been $3.99 – $4.09 per gallon lately.

I forgot to include this photo from yesterday. I don’t know how old this KFC building is but I haven’t seen one like it in ages. It’s probably the same vintage (1970s?) as all those mansard roofed McDonald’s that are still everywhere. This is from Richland, WA:

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Another rarity — a still operating Color Tile store in Yakima:

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This building in Yakima intrigued me. I don’t know what it was originally used for but there were also a couple similarly designed smaller buildings in back that make me think this was a restaurant and motel complex at one time. Although I suppose it could have just been a shopping village. Regardless, very pretty roofs and details:

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Here’s a unique and densely decorated house in Ellensburg known as Dick and Jane’s Spot. 10,000 bottle caps and reflectors went into it and there are pieces from 40 different artists:
http://www.reflectorart.com/spot/index.html

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I hope they never repaint this old building:

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This marquee sign stood in the middle of nowhere in Quincy. It probably advertised for a drive-in or a movie theatre or possibly even a shopping center. All that’s there now behind it is pavement, trucks and scruffy vegetation.

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In the late afternoon, we went to a legitimate and wonderful dog park in Redmond. The dogs had a blast. Though Nik is limping a bit now on his front right leg from wiping out a few times while running on soft dirt yesterday. Marymoor Park has 35 acres of off-leash trails through meadows and lots of river access. It claims to be the largest dog park in the state. I found out afterwards that it has free wi-fi, too. Here’s a map that gives you a sense of the park’s size and organization:
http://www.soda.org/map.html

I’m probably going to continue posting to this blog in the morning rather than when I’m fried at night. My memory might be a bit more blurred but my sentence structure should be better.

Another perfectly wonderful day. Many, many miles — most of it farmland and more desolate looking areas. Parts of it reminded me of central California with the rolling, grass-less hills and desert heat. There were lots of jaggedy rock faces mixed in with big lakes.

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The dogs got lots of running, sniffing and water time. The wake in the foreground here was created by Nik chasing down his ballie which is just ahead of him to his right (bright orange).

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And here’s a shot of Grem who’s swimming back from retrieving some Goldfish crackers:

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In Grand Coulee, there was a great bit of roadside folk art. There are about 100 whirligigs made from all kinds of stuff.

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The Bamboo Shoot restaurant in Ephrata had a nice sign and interesting building:

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Also in Ephrata, I couldn’t resist shooting this restored car. I’ve always loved the name “Duster” — maybe I’ll name my next van after this. Lime green is also one of my favorite colors.

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Loved the name of this supermarket in Ritzville:

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And lastly, I noticed this at the Howard Amon Park playground in Richland, WA. This climb-able rock with hand-holds sure seems a little high-risk to me give our liability-obsessed culture. Even though there is mulch below, the kids could still land pretty hard or bang themselves on the rock on way down. Some idiots might even try jumping off the top or pushing a pal off. The big climb-able fishes that I was there to shoot for the website were made of concrete. I could easily see kids doinking their heads on them pretty hard while goofing around.

I’m trying desperately to catch-up with my postings here. So desperate in fact, that I’m getting a late start in shoting to do this before it becomes hopeless. All it took was one night of socializing to throw things completely off track.

Despite falling behind on the blog, I’m now officially a day and a half ahead of schedule. Things have really been going smoothly. I’ve had two oil changes so that means more than 6,000 miles thus far. The weather has been perfect for picture-taking. I’ve been keeping the dogs entertained & well-exercised. Nik and Grem actually look fitter than when we’re home — if that’s possible.

I finished up with Idaho for a bit and crossed over to Oregon. The landscape continued to be a vast sea of yellow (wheat?). Now that I’m in eastern Washington, things have gotten somewhat greener and I’m seeing pine trees. There have been lots of cute towns in the past couple days that I would really have liked to explore. But this trip has to be pretty superficial — mostly just banging through some main streets and the things on my list.

Baker City, OR was one such town — interesting old buildings and probably great signs just around corners that I didn’t have time to go down. Lots of references (historical markers & business names) in Oregon to the Oregon Trail and Lewis & Clark. Here’s a nice motel in Baker City:

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and the inexplicable crown sign over the Oregon Trail Cleaners:

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Here’s more from Baker City — a turn-of-the-century looking, still-operating stationery store:

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A great building — the identification up top says “Marble Works”:

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A Masonic Temple globe sign. Sometimes this sun is not a good thing — the glare on the white globes washed out the detail & means it won’t make it to the website:

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Here are some more artsy figures. These people are from Melody Mufflers in Walla Walla, WA. I only shot some of them. They were really fun and well done:

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Yesterday, we were mostly in Spokane and then in the afternoon scooted over to ID for some “must sees”. Here’s another little behind the scenes look at what goes into these trips. The stack of printed maps and lists I brought with me was about two feet tall. Each state or section is binder clipped and cities with multiple stops are paper clipped. The less thinking and organizing I have to do while traveling the better. Sometimes my maps are simple — just one place with enough road detail to get me there easily from the interstate or the previous place:

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Other times, major cities especially, the stops are laid out on a single page so it’s easy to visualize and navigate. It might seem hard to read but I just focus on the dots to knock things out in the most efficient way, working in the direction of the next page’s stop(s).

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There’s also “the list” (info about the places, the address, and other notes) which is organized geographically as well. It keeps me on track when I’m baffled by my own handwriting or order on these maps. Here’s a done page with notes that will go back into the computer file when I get home and help me write the descriptions for stuff when I’m inserting these places at the website.

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Back to the real photos. Here’s a place in Spokane that surely must have had a neat pagoda tiled roof at one time:

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A neat mid-century building in Spokane — the International Union of Operating Engineers:

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There were some fancy tree grates in downtown Spokane. I don’t think we have these back in New York City:

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Also downtown Spokane, there were these neat busts of local important men and women:

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Let’s wrap up with three signs from Spokane. Although this teriyaki sign is just a plastic thing, there are so many shapes and I find its busy-ness appealing. I bet the top spun at one time.

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An old, towering Safeway sign. The new Safeway is further south with modern signage while this one hangs on. It’s probably awaiting repainting by another business.

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This crunched sign is on the lot of Spokane Boys (a garden supply & produce place). It looks like this sign has been hit more than a few times by passing trucks. The middle, rectangular part must have rotated. I wish I could have gotten a better shot of it but it was rush hour and I was taking my life in my hands balancing on the median strip. Washingtonians aren’t used to jaywalkers and it causes all kinds of worry.

Tonight, I had the good fortune to get together with fellow Flickr-ite (Roadsidepictures) that I hadn’t met before. What was supposed to be a half hour break, turned into a fun all-nighter — so this blog posting is a day late.

I got a lot done in Idaho. The predetermined stops mostly hugged the interstate, with a couple of time-consuming exceptions. The weather, once again, was hot but otherwise perfect. At night a cool breeze came in and it was really a lovely relief.

For years, I had wanted to see dinosaur in Bliss, ID (a photo of it over at the agilitynut Flickr account). He stands next to this rock & gift shop which looks like it’s been closed for years.

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Across the street, the Oxbow Cafe is also now closed. According to Roadsidepictures, there was a food poisoning incident and that did them in.

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Still standing next to the former restaurant, there is a smaller dinosaur. After taking my photos of him, I noticed that he seemed to be smiling at Sparkle & the kids. The rock shop is visible in the background with the bigger dinosaur at the far right.

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Next to the boarded up Oxbow, there’s a gas station still hanging on. These storage tanks are located behind it:

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In Boise, I noticed this Jack in the Box. I’ve never seen one like it before. I don’t know if it’s a new style or just something uniquely created for this location.

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One of Fixie’s endearing habits is letting me know when she needs petting by waving at me. She only ever does this in the van. It’s a very slow motion wave coupled with a desperate expression.

I covered a lot of ground today — so much so that I’m now ahead of schedule. I even made decent inroads into the Idaho list. There was incredibly varied terrain from Montana to Idaho: mountains, pine trees, jagged rock formations, rivers — everything from lush forest to dry desert-looking sections. Idaho looked dry but was just as humid as back home in NYC. It was around 90 degrees everywhere we went.

The dogs got to run and swim in a bunch of spots. Nik scratched and bruised his underside and legs pretty bad hopping around in the rocky streams chasing his ball. I’ll have to be more careful about where we play in the water. The dogs have developed a new fascination for gopher holes which seem to be everywhere. Luckily, they haven’t found any actual gophers yet.

Livingston, MT is a cute little town with a lot to look at. There were lots of old painted wall signs as well as great neon signs.

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Interesting architecture of all eras in Livingston as well. Here’s a possible gas station in the foreground with more painted wall signs above:

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Also in town, one of these nifty plastic Coca-Cola signs with the “floating” shapes (I don’t know how else to describe it). There must have been some sort of restaurant here previously or else the current tenant installed the sign here and changed the name on it.

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This one also from Livingston. I’ve seen these car washes around lately — they must have been a regional chain:

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I stocked up on road snacks for diversions on the long stretches of driving. I was surprised to find the Elvis version of Reese’s peanut butter cups this far north. The Spud was positively gross. Maybe it only sells to tourists like me. The marshmallow consistency was bland and icky. It went straight to the dogs after two bites. They thought it was great.

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Here’s one of the things Nik does to entertain himself on the long, boring stretches of highway. He hunts for stuff in the van and then presents it to me on my shoulder. It’s amazing what he can balance there. It’s his way of asking me to THROW IT! and start a manic retrieving game. I use the headrests in the back seat as my goal post (yes, at 75 mph). If I score, it means he sometimes has to dig around for awhile as the thrown object might have gone under something or gotten stuck. This is what remains of a Diet Coke cap.

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This handyman sign appeared at a hardware store in Ashton, ID. I guess the psychedelic background is a wood pattern?

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Idaho has great neon signs everywhere — some beautifully preserved and others nicely weathered. This one is from Rigby, where I assume there is no subway.

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I’d heard of Blue Bell gas stations, but this was the first one (and so far the only one) I’ve seen myself:

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And lastly from today’s grab bag — a shot from Pocatello’s Union Pacific train station. Though train stations are not something I usually shoot, this one had a lot of nice details including these nice shields: