Everything's Coming Up Pumpkins

Thank you for letting me figure out technicalities.
I've enjoyed the sabbatical this month, but have been anxious to get back to my healthfully plugged-in ways.
Simply, I've been apart from you long enough to know what is good for me: time spent a little-less-online.

Because I really can't deny what is going on around here!
Sweet botanical decay is in the air. Leaves up an' going out in a Blaze of glory. Yes, Cool. And yet, everything takes on a warm and culminating glow.

And the home is all the more a comfort.
And I was also wondering,
Was it YOU that left the pumpkins on my step a few weeks ago?

Because I sure do appreciate a seasonal offering.

"How about you two? Do you know anything about this?

...You look like you know something..."

...I assume there were two small ones for a reason, and the girls packed them around like they were pets of the friendliest hue.

Pumpkins have seemed to be "cropping up" everywhere.
I love that.

And though I'm not one for the demonic and gouliest kinds of things, I do enjoy a good harvest.
A celebration of the end.

This is when I want to make resolutions, personally.
(Makes me want to can fruit, too.)

Okay, so almost. I did save the seeds...
I just hope to pass that Growing passion down the vine.

It's like: "What CAN'T we do?"

Yep. Everything's coming up pumpkins.

We're Baaack!

You Don't Know What You've Got 'Til it's Gone

I would like to post, but can't. Partly because I'm a perfectionist. Because my heart would break a little showing everyone pictures that I know I'd like to perfect.

I would like to post, but I'm up to my ears in frustration. And what is between my ears can only be identified as a very small peanut. Underneath a dust bunny. And I think a tumbleweed just blew by. If you know anything about Photoshop, why I can make adjustments in Camera Raw, and then in every other file or upload that jpg image is viewed as a washed-out sorry piece of photo poop, please email me. Facebook me.
Throw me a line.
*GLUG.*

The City of Destiny Tour and the Hurricane Ridge

Two things:
My dad jokes that when he comes to visit us here, in the far reaches of the Pacific Northwest, they are like the Beverly Hillbillies. It's like "the country folk in the big city."

They are indeed the Clampetts. And I think that is endearing, because hey-- I still feel like that, sometimes!
And I don't think there's a dern thing wrong with that.

2. As your tour guide, here's the scoop. Tacoma's nickname is "The City of Destiny." We've done the Seattle tour a few times with the Shawver's so when they came up for just a spell, we spent the day in Tacoma. And Tacoma is pretty brilliant in the fall.

Crisp and cool, but with a salty and mellow touch to the skin.
Plus, deuce nickel tre seems a little more sophisticated; holla.

...I think sometimes the industrial Tacoma makes Seattle look completely main stream.

There was only one problem.
We met them there on a Monday. Many things are closed on Mondays, come to find out. Including the car museum, the Promax shop, the Museum of Glass, you get the idea. So with the open attractions that took patronage, we played leap-frog with a school group exploring from New Zealand who found the same thing to be true about Mondays for tourists.

...Maybe the Monday wasn't a problem after all.
We had no trouble with any crowds or parking whatsoever.
Just the way the "Clampetts" like it.

We bought a large box plus a grocery bag of "miswraps" and "booboo's" from the Almond Roca Factory; a  charming idea. My husband's great-grandmother used to work there. And my family thought it was a good deal: they brought out my coveted Idaho potatoes and honey and they went home with chocolate.

This federal building used to be the Tacoma train station. It is like a tabernacle-city-relic.

Dale Chihuly, a Tacoma native with a patch over his eye, and world renowned glass artist, has changed the way I see things. 

He also has these pieces in one of the coolest government buildings I've ever been in.
Everything is remarkably over-sized.

Both art and architecture.

You can walk under this sky bridge exhibit down town. (Walk under the only other at the Bellagio Casino, Las Vegas.)

And Tacoma has even more history. And awesome place names like "Commencement Bay."
Stadium high school used to be a ritzy hotel.

Where's the football field? Down there. Duh. --I would be an awesome tour guide, right? Go right ahead and punt to that ocean liner!

There are still grand homes and cobble streets in some parts of town.

It was a beautiful T-town day.

There are parks in the area (Point Defiance).

And then we headed to Port Angeles.

Olympic National Park, aka my back yard.

The clearest day at the Hurricane Ridge look-out, ever. Lucky us! Seeing Mt. Baker, the Sequim Spit, and light reflecting off buildings on Vancouver Island (Canada).

It was a pleasant time. Sooo good to have them come! They even bought me a birthday cake.
This was easily the best picture I had of it.

Happy Trails, Shawvers!
Love Ya'll!