Washington State History Museum

It was quite the blustery day around the Puget Sound, so we nixed our plans to walk at Chambers Bay for a visit to the Washington State History Museum in Tacoma.  I scored free tickets for Scott & I as part of the Museum Day Live! event hosted by the Smithsonian Magazine.  Neither of us had been to this museum before, which is located in a beautiful building right downtown.  It had a lot of interesting exhibits.  So much more fun to learn about history this way than from a book. 

A little bit of history I did know: Washington State was named after our first President, George Washington.  Something I didn't know: the state was almost named Columbia, but people rejected it because they thought it would be confused with the East Coast's "District of Columbia".  

I took some pictures, but flash was prohibited, so a lot of them didn't come out. 

View of the Museum of Glass during a short reprieve from the rain.

We stopped here for some yummy mini cupcakes before heading home.

Corey's Senior Photos

Still surreal that Corey is a senior this year!  Where has the time gone?  Got some great photos from her shoot a couple of weeks ago with Kristina (Poppi Photography) at the Queen Bee Cottage just outside of Olympia.  It had been cloudy that whole day until we showed up for the photo shoot.  Then the sun came out in all its glory.  We couldn't have asked for better weather!  I think the photos reflect her personality perfectly.  What a beautiful girl we have!

Yoh! Hike to Talapus & Olallie Lakes

Fun hike today with my Yoh! friends, Pam & Teresa, to Talapus & Olallie Lakes.  Such a beautiful area!  To see more pictures, click HERE.

Snoqualmie Falls

Today Jennifer, Clarissa & I traveled to Snoqualmie Falls for Jennifer's birthday celebration. She had never been to these falls.  The last time I was here only the upper falls viewing area was open.  Yesterday was the grand opening of the lower viewing area & today they opened up the trail to the river.  The falls were low, but still spectacular.  We lucked out & had dry weather even though the forecast called for thunderstorms.  The trail down to the river was really steep, but short, only about a half mile.  You couldn't see the falls from the bottom of the trail, but you could see the power plant & river.  Definitely worth a trip if you're in the area. 

Lots of spray from the falls & some mist made the Salish Lodge hard to see.

Clarissa and I.  She was smiling in the other picture, but it came out blurry..bummer.

Jennifer in the wilderness.