Hike of the Week
Capitol Lake and Tumwater Falls get our vote as the most scenic parks within the city limits of Olympia. Both offer impressive scenery and historical points of interest, including the old Olympia Brewing Co., established in the early 1900s. You can visit both parks in a day and enjoy a variety of scenes, ranging from segmented Tumwater Falls to the quiet waters of Capitol Lake with the state capitol rising above.
By Karen Sykes | December 23, 2004
WALLA WALLA — American Indians named it Walla Walla, "place of many waters," but it's wine that's bringing the visitors to this town of about 30,000, once best known for its funny name and for a tear-free variety of onion.
By Beverly Beyette | December 23, 2004
"There is a plume of moisture entrained in the system."
What to most might be bewildering weather-speak from an official government forecast is poetry to author David Laskin's ears. A self-professed rain nut, Laskin lives for the Northwest's famed drippiness.
By Kathryn True | December 23, 2004
Take a Walk
Location: Tacoma.
Length: About two miles.
Level of difficulty: Flat-to-gentle, packed gravel trails and paved paths.
By Cathy McDonald | December 23, 2004
BELFAIR -- Lots of hikers hang up their boots when snow buries the mountains every fall, and they whine all winter about how much they miss leaving tracks on trails.
Offer them no sympathy. Do not listen to them whimper.
Some of us must hike, year-round, and when the high country is frozen, we don't stop walking.
We just hike small.
By Greg Johnston | December 23, 2004
Short Trips
LEAVENWORTH -- I read last week in the Sonnenschein Auf Leavenworth, the official guide to Washington's only Bavarian theme town, that the Arts and Entertainment Network last year named Leavenworth "Ultimate Holiday Town USA." The small town nestled in the ultimate alpine setting at the foot of the Cascades beat out the likes of country western theme town Branson, Mo.
By Jeff Larsen | December 23, 2004
