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Show ciam Wes mail 80' Seattle offers a wonderful vacation Hi cam; p.g. blab disco some fresh seafood at Ivars- tains Table. We did and it f- Of course, there are lots ; f places to eat in Seattle andse is the main stay of the area I: you'll like it. A ride to Volunteer Pi; Washington Park provide very good views of the city, '''-j long spiral staircase to classic old water towerin-i Park was worth it just toss15 from that picturesque po I All of the trip was wond; the ocean at Lincoln City, WM monoraU ride by the Space; And, eat your heart M weather was gorgeous w J way. Believe it or not, th'-j skies and warm (hot) W;j ' in Seattle and at the W--j f We could hardly believeit j We almost hated to i Fun is something youl"') to, after all. ( By MARCELLA WALKER There really is a Space Needle and Mt. St. Helens really did blow its cork. I know for sure because now I have been there. For the past 26 years, whenever we have taken a vacation, we have taken the children. This year we were faced with having to take a a vacation by ourselves because the children could not get off work and they didn't sound much like they wanted to go even if they could have gotten time off. Hey, it was wonderful. We have never been to Seattle, so we went. In fact, I had this idea in my head that Seattle was clear up to the northwest corner of Washington. It isn't. We have been to Portland, Ore. many times. I have scads of relatives who live there so it has been a favorite place to go since I was young. In all the times we have been there we have never been to Seattle. We stopped at the Mt. St. Helens National Monument on the way to Seattle. What an interesting place it is. We learned that the eruption in 1980 of Mt. St. Helens was just a small little blow off. It was nothing compared to some of the others down through the centuries. In 5,000 B. C, the mountain where all that remains now is Crater Lake in Oregon, erupted. It blew off all of the mountain. It is the biggest eruption anywhere to date. It even made Krakatoa and Vesuvius look like pikers by comparison. Mt. St. Helens is coming to life again. I mean, there is foliage coming up through the ash and the animals are coming back. Someday it will rebuild its cone and then, I suspect, someday it will blow up again. Our next door neighbors here in Pleasant Grove used to live in the Seattle area and they had given us a list of places to go and things to see. We did all but one of the things on the list, but the highlight of the whole thing to me was our trip on the ferry from Seattle to Victoria, British Columbia and back. The only bad thing was that we did I should correct her, but I didn't. I was most impressed with the begonias which were everywhere in every color imaginable, and the blossoms of the water lilies. They were so beautiful, it was hard to believe that they were real. But they were. In the gardens there is a waterfall, too. All I can say is, if you haven't . been, be sure to go soon. The tour of Victoria was great. The Parliament building, the Empress Hotel, the castle on the hill built by a coal magnate for his wife, and the harbor, were all of special interest. There just was not enough time to see everything. Back in Seattle, we went to the Underground City. This was the original part of town and was built right in the tidal basin. It was so low that it kept getting wet. People in those days were beginning to get the new contraption called the "Crapper", a device invented in-vented by a man named Crapper. It was the flush toilet. When the tide came in, it caused the sewer system to back up, right into people's houses, via the crapper. crap-per. This, of course, was only one of the reasons that the city eventually had to be built higher. The old buildings did remain and were the lower levels of some of the stores which were built along the road which had been raised. Ladders were used to go from the shops to the roadway for a long time, though.. This now is below what is known as Pioneer Square, a restored bit of downtown Seattle. Don't miss it when you go to Seattle. The waterfront in Seattle is wonderful. It is picturesque and perfectly safe to stroll along and look at all the boats and other sites. Many of the piers have been developed into shopping malls and the quaint little shops were a ball to visit. The "Old Curiosity Shoppe" with its mummies, two headed pig, shrunken heads, etc., interspersed with every imaginable gift and trinket to buy, was also very entertaining. en-tertaining. We were told to be sure and eat it in one day and it would have been better if we had stayed over in Victoria until the next day but we did not know that until we were there. We enjoyed the trip to Victoria. It is the first time either of us had sailed on a real ship and the first time either of us had been to Canada. The water was smooth as glass and you could hardly tell we were moving unless you watched the shore line. We had purchased tour tickets for the Butchart Gardens and a ride around the city. The tour took us to the gardens first. Many of you have already been there. It is gorgeous and if you haven't been then you should go. We walked through acres of flowers, shrubs, vines and trees that just took your breath away. It is all planted in what was once a limestone quarry. Mrs. Butchart wanted to beautify that horrible hole in the ground caused by the excavation ex-cavation of the limestone. She began to plant little vines and shrubs in all the nooks and crannies on the sides of the quarry. When the quarry was no longer used she began to plant flowers inside the immense hole. People gave her flowers to plant and soon the place began to be quite a sightseeing attraction. Now, with the Japanese gardens, the Italian gardens and the English rose garden, in addition to the gorgeous area where the quarry was, the sight is unbelieveable. As we passed a lovely plot of Hydrangeas, a passing tourist commented to her companion, "Look at those hyacinths." I felt like |
