Category Archives: Seasonal

The Cinnamon Roll Lady

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The North Cascades Highway or State Route 20 is the northernmost route across the Cascade Mountain Range in Washington. It affords travelers a wide array of beautiful vistas and is part of the Cascade Loop, a 400-mile driving tour through the Cascades. This highway is only open from April through November, because of the intense avalanche danger the rest of the year.

Tootsie Clark, who is well into her 90’s now, has for many years performed the same ritual every year on opening day of the North Cascades Highway. She gets up at 2 a.m. and sets to making her famous cinnamon rolls. When she has enough ready she packs them into her car and travels to the beginning of the highway where she passes them out to all the drivers waiting for the road to open.  

Tootsie's cinnamon rolls with whiskey sauce and frosting

These cinnamon rolls can be ordered by the rest of us at The Eatery restaurant in Rockport, where Tootsie still helps out in the kitchen. But don’t go for breakfast thinking you can order a roll off the menu and have it delivered to your table. No, you must reserve these sweet treats the night before for breakfast the next day, due to their extreme popularity.

Besides serving good, tasty food, The Eatery houses many items indicative of the history of the area. That was Tootsie’s idea – to make it a museum and a restaurant.

Delightful Diablo Dam Boat Tour

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Last weekend, my husband and I took the Skagit Tour on Diablo Lake, located just off the North Cascades Highway near Newhalem. I remembered taking the same trip in my tweens and it stuck with me. Then it combined a ride up a pulley contraption, a boat tour and a farm-style chicken lunch where you passed around platters of chicken and bowls of mashed potatoes (even then that was my favorite part).

Diablo Dam

 

I’ve been wanting to go again to see if it was how I remembered it. Because Diablo Dam and two other dams in the area create the majority of the power for Seattle City Light, they had always handled the tours before. Then last year, the economy forced them to cancel for the year. This year Seattle City Light partnered with the North Cascades Institute and the North Cascades National Park to bring the tours back.

The day begins with a healthy buffet lunch, organic salad makings, soups, macaroni and cheese, plus a variety of desserts. After a short orientation by one of the park rangers, you’re free to wander the grounds, check out the gift shop or hike down to the boat launch. I visited the gift shop and found out a mama black bear and her two cubs had been sited on the property just four days before. I sincerely hoped I didn’t meet up with her.

We boarded the Alice Ross III (she’s had two predecessors) at 1 p.m. for the narrated boat tour of Diablo Dam, which was built in 1920 and Diablo Lake. We passed by two islands – one named Deer Island, because deer actually swim out to it to sample the grass and another named Monkey Island.

Ranger Lauren telling us about Monkey Island and other stories

J.D. Ross was the supervisor of Seattle City Light when Diablo, Ross and Gorge Dam were built. The story has it that he was quite a showman. So he populated one of the islands with monkeys and when the boat tour went by passengers saw monkeys swinging through the trees. In no way is this a climate monkeys like so every night a zookeeper had to take them to a warm place to sleep. Now the monkeys are gone.

When you go on this tour, you’ll hear lots more stories like the one about Monkey Island. I highly recommend it as informative, educational and above all, very pleasurable. It’s not the same tour of my childhood, but it’s still a very good one.

Getting Cherry-ed

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Everyone knows we grow apples here and then there’s the espresso stands – with one on every corner, you’d think they were mating. But did you know we’re one of the nation’s largest producers of cherries?

Actually we are the number one producer of cherries with California running second.

This past weekend I was privileged to go on a tour of a packing plant, an orchard and to savor some very delicious foods made with cherries. My favorite, of course – biting into a dark, red sweet cherry and savoring that first squirt of juice on my tongue. The cherry pies tasted mighty good, too.

Kate McDermott teaching cherry pie making.

Kate McDermott gave us a most informative and clever pie making lesson to launch our tour.

“Chill all your ingredients prior to creating the dough and putting the pie together, and you chill out, too,” says McDermott.

She also places a personal intention into every crust she makes and then lets the dough know she’s in charge. That may be why my pie dough never turned out before.

“Making a pie is like a meditation for me,” says McDermott, whose pie making tools all have a story behind them.

After a delectable and delightful dessert of cherry pie and ripe cherries, our group dined at Blueacre Seafood in Seattle.

I have never seen a Dungeness Crab as large as the one they served. Someone else ordered it and made our entire table jealous.

Dugeness Crab to die for

Fair and Festival Season

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A train that took people around the outskirts of Meeker Days

We just started fair and festival season in Washington and last week my husband and I attended Meeker Days in Puyallup. Billed as the largest festival in Pierce County, it certainly lived up to its name. You’d walk down a main street lined with booths only to find all the cross streets also full of vendors just about as far as the eye can see. They had a building full of exhibits, also. And live entertainment, lots of food, a beer garden and a car show. There could have been more, but my feet started talking to me and telling me to sit down so I didn’t cover all the territory.

One of the vendors sold bird houses with swimming pools. Lucky birds.

I love the fairs and festivals we have around here. For some reason all the best ones usually fall on the same weekend and I’m not sure why that is. They are just good old-fashioned fun.

Here are some of my favorites and when they take place this year:

Kent Cornucopia Days, Kent. July 7-10:  Dragon boat races, a run, crafts and more.

Capital Lakefair, Olympia. July 13-17:  Carnival, entertainment and food with a Candyland theme this year.  

Sequim Lavender Festival, Sequim. July 15-17. Self-guided tours of farms, a street fair and all things lavender.  

Bellevue Arts Museum Arts and Fair, Bellevue. July 29-31. Live entertainment, hands-on kid’s activities and lots of outdoor art.  

Morton Loggers’ Jubilee, Morton. August 11-14. We celebrate everything here including lawn mower racing and lumberjack skills.  

Auburn Good Ol’ Days, Auburn. August 12-14. School reunions, a fun run, car show and a honey bucket building contest.  

Tacoma Maritime Fest, Tacoma. August 27-28. Boat building, awesome harbor boat tours, live music and Almond Roca.

What is your favorite fair or festival and why?

Northwest Trek: Where Everyday is Different

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One of my favorite outings has got to be Northwest Trek, our 725-acre wildlife park. On any given day you may spot bighorn sheep, deer, Roosevelt elk, caribou, mountain goats, bison or other animals in their natural habitat. This is not a zoo, by any means.                                            

Instead, you hop on a tram that navigates roads through lakes trails and meadows that are home to more than 200 free-roaming North American animals. You’ll only see the animals that feel like being seen that day. But some of them often block the path of the tram to get a closer look at you.

Every season brings a different look to the landscaping as well as to the animals that might be visible. With spring comes lush greenery and baby animal season, in summer the calves and fawns are much more prevalent, come fall and you’ll hear bugling as that’s considered rutting or breeding season and in winter the place is quiet and even muted should snow decide to fall.

 

Besides the wildlife viewable from the tram, grizzlies, black bears, wolves, bobcats, lynx, cougars, owls and more have taken up residence in some very natural exhibits.

Events ‘r us should be the nickname for Northwest Trek, because something is always going on. Next up is Trek Trails Weekend on June 4 and 5 where they open their newly renovated trail system. Along with that, the staff has come up with a Quest-like scavenger hunt. Follow clues to find letters and when done, unscramble the letters to discover a surprise at the end.

My Favorite Farmers Markets

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The local farmers’ market season has officially arrived. Nothing tastes better than freshly plucked vegetables and fruits so I look forward to this time all winter. Although I’ve not been to all the markets the state offers, and there are a ton of them, I do have my favorites locally.

Pottery at the Olympia Farmers Market 

Farmers Market of Olympia:  About an hour south of Tacoma and well worth the drive. Besides produce, vendors regularly sell meat, seafood, eggs, baked goods, herbs, cut flowers, plants and honey. Local artisans and live entertainment make this market the biggest and it’s open Thursdays through Sundays and is under cover.

Porctor Market flowers

Proctor Farmers Market in Tacoma opens the earliest of them all in March. Add cheese and grass-fed meats to the regular market bounty and you should visit this market at least once. Located in a very walkable and fun neighborhood, you’ll want to spend extra time in the boutiques and grab a bite at one of the many restaurants. Saturdays 9 a.m.-2 p.m.

South Whidbey Farmers Market:  In its 40th year, locals gather here for chatting and shopping. Their 11-acre sustainable agriculture campus allows you to view their on-site growing operations, which features an earthen pizza oven, gardens, orchard and a native plant nursery. Sundays from 11:30 a.m.-3:30 p.m.

Remlinger Farms in Carnation is much more than a market. Besides the produce and the u-pick fields, their family fun park offers steam train rides, pony rides, farm animals and live entertainment. Market open everyday from 9:30 a.m.-6 p.m.

All of the above markets are open now. We have others that don’t start business until June. I will talk about those then.

Celebrate Cinco de Mayo

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I wholeheartedly advocate celebrating this national holiday with either a margarita or sangria toast, which you can do at your favorite Mexican restaurant. Azteca Restaurants continues the celebration through Mother’s Day on Sunday. But locally we also have some other innovative ways to honor this day.

Ground will be broken today for the new South Park Bridge, located at 14th Ave. South and Dallas St. in Seattle. The community has taken this opportunity to share a giant piñata, hold other festivities while local businesses offer samples of their cuisines. The event is from 1:30 p.m. to 9 p.m. Don’t forget the old bridge is gone, so you must access South Park from Highway 99 South and the First Avenue Bridge.

Make a mask with Amaranta Ibarra-Sandys at the Douglass-Truth Branch of the Seattle Public Library from 4 p.m.-6 p.m. The address is:  2300 Yesler Way in Seattle.

El Centro de la Raza boasts free admission to their Cinco de Mayo event today from 5:30 p.m.-8:30 p.m. It features food for sale, arts and crafts, dance and musical performances.

If you want to run off all that good food you eat today, sign up for the Cinco de Mayo Half-Marathon and 8K in Snoqualmie this Saturday, May 7.

Emerald Downs Open for the Season

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Our horse racing track, Emerald Downs  in Auburn, opened this month for the season. It’s a fun, fabulous way to spend the day whether you’re into gambling or not. You can just enjoy the outdoors, the beautiful thoroughbred animals and people watch, if you like.

The track always has different promotions going on from Family Day to free admission for seniors, to tee-shirt giveaways and more. Free outdoor children’s activities are offered on weekends, weather permitting. Next Saturday, May 7th, you can go to Emerald Downs and watch the Kentucky Derby if you like.

Here are some other dates to put on your calendar:

  • June 19, free caps for Father’s Day
  • July 23, Wiener Dog Races
  • August 20, you can run the same mile the ponies do

 

Emerald Downs opened in 1996. The track, a one-mile oval in the shadow of Mount Rainier, makes this a most scenic spot on a sunny day.

 

If you do place a wager or two on the horses, it’s always fun to pick them by their names. After all Royal Wedding did win a race on the same day as “The Royal Wedding.”

Sure Signs of Spring

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Daffodil Princesses

The weather isn’t always the best indicator of spring in the Pacific Northwest. So I have my own personal signs that the season has begun. The first is when I see a pair of tennis shoes strung of the overhead wires – I wish I could see the teens while they attempt this fete. Second, is the smell of backyard barbecuing and my third tell is the start of neighborhood parades. Parade season, if you will, has officially launched.

Yesterday we watched the Daffodil Parade as more than 100 entries walked, marched, danced and played musical instruments along the parade route on Main Street in Sumner.                             

Kita and Elias taking in the parade

This parade is the only one in the country that travels to four different cities on the same day. First, the parade travels along Pacific Avenue in Tacoma, then it moves to Puyallup, from there to Sumner and the last leg is in Orting.

Clowns, pirates, horses, cars, bagpipers, marching bands and buses filled the streets of the different Pierce County communities to the delight of children of all ages. Parade entries came from as far as Penticton, British Columbia and Astoria, Oregon. Of course, as the name indicates, the floats were adorned with bright yellow daffodils and daffodils were passed out to the parade goers. The festival atmosphere almost has to make you smile. 

A friendly Seafair pirate

Upcoming parades in 2011 include:
May 7: Washington State Apple Blossom in Wenatchee
May 21: Rhododendron Festival in Port Townsend
May 28: Ski to Sea in Bellingham
June 4: Farmer’s Day in Lynden
June 18: Berry Dairy Days in Burlington

July 4: Independence Day celebration parades in Blaine, Everett, Sedro Woolley and Tumwater
July 16: Capital Lakefair Twilight in Olympia

Does your community have a unique parade? I would love to hear about it.

The Tacoma Waterfront Beckons

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Tacoma waterfront from Ruston Way

Yesterday we got a break from the grayness and a tiny taste of spring. Boy was it ever yummy – kind of like a big dollop of plain hot fudge or a juicy Dungeness crab leg. We grabbed the chance to take advantage of the sun shining down on us Tacomans and walked the waterfront along Ruston Way. Mother Nature made a mighty beautiful landscape there and others have helped it along with parks, sidewalks, restaurants and a hotel.

The Silver Cloud Inn, the hotel at one end of the popular walk, offers 90 waterfront rooms. Talk about a perfect place for a Staycation. Rooms come with breakfast, high-speed internet and complimentary parking. No more than three miles from most of Tacoma’s attractions, the Inn is definitely centrally located. But you wouldn’t have to leave the waterfront if you didn’t want to.

Silver Cloud Inn

If you’re not able to spend the night on the waterfront, at least eat. Restaurants about along Ruston Way and there’s not a bad one in the bunch. The Lobster Shop, Duke’s, Katy Downs, The Ram, Shenanigan’s and Harbor Lights all serve lunch or dinner or both.

If you’re walking along the waterfront with a dog or two, you’ll fit right in. Joggers, roller bladders and bicyclists also share the path with pedestrians.

The weather didn’t last, but the sunlit waters of yesterday still shine vividly in my memory. Hopefully, I won’t have to wait long for another sunny day and a walk along the shore of Commencement Bay.

C.I. Shenanigans on Ruston Way.