Washington - Day 14 - zipping through the metro area

Bay View State Park, Bayview

Tuesday, 14 June 2022

today's route

I'd wanted very much to stop in both Tacoma and Seattle and see the places I'd lived before and places I'd been to before.  But I found almost no campgrounds in the metro area and finally decided to just skate on through as quickly as the traffic would allow.  Google said today's drive would take 3 hours, not counting traffic and rest stops, so I left the state park just before 8:00, thinking that would let me miss rush hour traffic all along the way.  And I guess that was right because, though there was plenty of traffic, it never got too bad.

I passed the Skokomish Tribal Center, and the Skokomish River.  I've been showing the Indian tribes as I come to them to show what a strong force they still are, and how dominant they once were in this area.

I skirted the end of the Hood Canal (it was obvious), passed Shelton, and went back to Olympia.  I'd decided to stop at a gas station I knew had a currently-reasonable price for gas that was less than a half mile from Deschutes Parkway where I could give Dext one last walk before starting the northward trek.  And that's what we did.

At the gas station ($5.29/gallon), I finally managed to get a photo I've wanted ever since I got to California.

That's where I first encountered this kind of hose and this kind of nozzle.  I assumed it had some special air quality protection feature, because the nozzle wraps around the opening for the gas tank, which I'm sure keeps the fumes from fuming.  And that hose is made of some different material that I guess is also protective in some way.  I found those all over California and I've found them in Washington too.  I don't know about Oregon because, of course, I wasn't allowed to pump my own gas, though I suppose at least western Oregon might have them.

Then Dext and I went down the hill to the parkway and Capitol Lake, and I got a photo I failed to get when we were there before.

WA State Capitol overlooking Capitol Lake.

I think those are Sitka roses in the foreground.  They look like the kind I saw in Alaska, but I can't reliably tell one kind of rose from another.

We once again joined I-5 heading north.  I saw a WA license plate that read: CHRG.  I'm sure it meant something to the owner.

I passed the turning for the Nisqually Indian Tribe and its Fortune Casino.  I passed the Billy Frank Jr. Nisqually National Wildlife Refuge on the Nisqually River.  Billy Frank was still alive when I lived here, though he's no longer with us, and he was a legend in his own time.  You may remember the Boldt Decision (if you're in commercial fishing or live in the Pacific Northwest you probably do), named for the federal judge who wrote the decision in 1974.  

The case had been brought by Billy Frank and tribal fishermen, and the judge ruled that the tribes in Washington (the judge's jurisdiction) were entitled to half the fish available for harvest each year, instead of the tiny fraction they had been allocated.  The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the ruling and the US Supreme Court refused to take the appeal.  The State of WA refused to enforce the order so Judge Boldt ordered the US Coast Guard and federal agencies to enforce it.  That action was appealed and again the tribes won; the Supremes said everybody gets a fair share of the fish and the judge has the authority to enforce his rulings.  There's a full explanation of the decision, its background and its aftermath in this Wikipedia article.   https://en.wikipedia.org/United-States-v.-Washington  Anyway, that's who Billy Frank is and it's partly why the Wildlife Refuge was named for him.  A formidable force.

I passed Ft. Lewis (Army) and McChord Field (Air Force).  The military is an important presence in the Tacoma area.  I still remember driving with Momma, who was visiting me, on our way to Seattle on September 11, 2001, and seeing the seriously long line of cars waiting to get into Fort Lewis and wondering what was up.  Then we passed Tacoma Mall and saw that the parking lot of this large and very busy mall was almost empty.  It wasn't until I got to the dry cleaners I was still using in Seattle that the owner told me what had happened, and that's when I turned on the radio.  What a strange time that was.

I passed Puyallup Tribal lands, and the turn to the town of Puyallup.  (That's pronounced "pew-AL-up" - another lesson I learned early on.

Then came the towns of Fife, Milton, Federal Way, Tukwila.  All places I remember but had completely forgotten.  

I passed the Muckleshoot Reservation, followed by the Rhododendron Species Garden.  This would be a good time of year to visit there.  They call themselves the world's largest display of rhodies in a public garden and say they have one of the world's largest collection of rhodie species - more than 700 of the 1000+ species to be found world-wide in the wild.  That's a place I wanted to visit when I lived here and never got around to.  But I will, just not today.

I was surprised to find in south Seattle what looked like a monorail, going about the business of providing mass transportation.  When I looked it up, I learned that there's still just the one monorail - from Seattle Center (where the Space Needle is) to downtown Seattle.  What I saw was an extension of the new light rail system that goes at least to SeaTac Airport.  I hadn't heard about that and think it's way past time for something like that.  Dallas has managed to create an excellent light rail system that extends to several suburbs, so I don't know why other large cities can't do it too.

I saw a road sign warning of "Variable Speed Zone Ahead."  And after passing the Boeing airplane plant, I saw what that meant: signs showed the speed limit going down to 60 mph, then 55, then 50 and so forth, until I saw another sign warning of "heavy merging traffic" and "slow traffic ahead" and lowering the limit again to 35 mph.  And the traffic was heavy but I don't remember that it ever got truly clogged, which is what I'd been afraid of.

I'd wanted to take a route into town that I used to take all the time when I lived in the Queen Anne district, using Highway 99 which runs past the famous Pike Place Market (among other places).  But I learned that it's since been converted from an elevated road into a long tunnel (and you know how I feel about tunnels) and that it's become a toll road (which I also abhor).  So I stuck with I-5.

I passed the Bridge to West Seattle, and saw the Seattle skyline, which I love.  I passed the Smith Tower, which I didn't see a sign for but remembered very well on my own.

Smith Tower (on the left)

When it was built in 1914, it was the tallest building west of the Mississippi River.  I once went to a Christmas party up in the tower - what a view we had.  It's still in use, and I'm so glad no one had the bright idea to knock it down for another one of those glass towers that create a bad glare when the sun's angle is right.

I passed the University of Washington and the turn for the Woodland Park Zoo.  I was an especially frequent visitor to the zoo after their first baby elephant was born.  I even bought a poster of her peering out under her momma's tummy.  She was adorable, and we were all in mourning for her when she died at age 6 in 2007.  I left the state the next year and wonder now about any subconscious connection.

Near Northgate Mall, I saw an enormous pedestrian walkway (I guess it was) that crossed all lanes of the interstate so people could get to a metro stop.  And the farther north I went, the more I saw signs of extending the light rail system to the suburbs.

I had hoped to find someplace along the road that I recognized where we could stop for a break but had been concentrating so hard on the traffic that I wasn't able to think of that.  Finally, in desperation, I got off the road in Shoreline where a sign said I'd find a Safeway.  I didn't need groceries particularly, but I figured I could get something as a sort of rent for parking long enough to let Dext out and eat some lunch.  

On the way there I passed the Buddha Jewel Monastery, who say they're temporarily closed due to construction (I guess that rail system) and Covid.  

Nearby I saw the Shoreline Free Methodist Church.  I learned online that these "free Methodists" are evangelical, which makes me a little nervous, since these days it seems those calling themselves evangelicals adhere to beliefs that don't match what I'd always learned Jesus taught.  But what do I know.

I came to more familiar towns: Lynnwood, Everett, Mukilteo - another port of the Whidbey Island Ferry.  Everett, by the way, is home to Naval Station Everett, which is the homeport for Carrier Strike Group 11, which they claim is "the single most powerful mobile force in the world."

I heard a story on the radio about the town of Point Roberts, a victim of international line-drawing.  It's a little piece of land that sticks south of the 45th Parallel, the line drawn in the 1783 Treaty of Paris.  So being south of that line puts it in US territory, but it's connected only to Canada, and to get there from the US you have to go through Canada.  Which is exactly where the problem came during the pandemic.  The border slammed shut.  Point Roberts, they said, relies entirely on British Columbia.  That's where their electricity, water, septic system pump-out, supplies and customers come from.  BC citizens own 75% of the property in Point Roberts.  The town explains that "technically, British Columbia owns us, we just didn't give them the keys."  Canadian citizens liked to go there to buy goods they either couldn't get or couldn't afford in Canada, and Point Roberts was happy to supply them.  But all commerce came to a screeching halt when the border closed and they've been in a world of hurt.  What they're trying to get is (I think) a "free port status" that would ease a lot of the regulations that the US has put on them without giving them any of the benefits of ordinary citizenship (sort of).  Strange situation.

I passed the Tulalip Indian Reservation and casino.  And then the Stillaguamish Tribal Center near the Stillaguamish River and their Angel of the Winds casino.  That was followed after a bit by the Swinomish Tribe.

Then farmland began and I came to a sign saying "Welcome to Skagit Valley Agricultural Scenic Corridor."  I passed a business that advertised "Fresh Pressed Apple Cider Daily."

We crossed the Skagit river and turned off the highway at Burlington.  A sign told me I would be just missing the Berry Dairy Days celebration this weekend, back after the pandemic.  They planned a grand parade and a strawberry shortcake booth and like that.  Sounds like delicious fun and I'm sorry my timing was off.

I passed acres of cropland with bee boxes nearby.

We crossed No Name Creek - complete with a sign telling us that's what the name was.

The state park was just outside the tiny town of Bayview, est. 1884, they say.  That 3-hour drive (per Google) took me just less than 6 hours, which is about what I'd expected.