A Juicy Snowstorm Hits Western Washington Today & Tomorrow

The Skagit Valley Herald's Juicy Storm Report

I am currently snow-free in Texas missing what appears to already be the worst snowstorm of the new century in the Puget Sound lowlands of Washington.

I heard from Betty Jo Bouvier, in Sedro Woolley, this morning, telling me the snow was already deep, with the Sedro Woolley school district on a two hour delay, with instructions to stay tuned for changing conditions.

Within the two hour delay the Sedro Woolley school district cancelled classes, going into Snow Day mode.

I suspect much of Western Washington is in Snow Day mode today.

Danny Mercer, a National Weather Service meteorologist said, "It's a juicy storm. It's not going to be hit and miss. It's going to be filling in everywhere, picking up and being quite heavy everywhere.

It appears this storm has the potential to be of epic historical proportions not seen in Western Washington in a long time.

The mountains are expected to get a couple feet of new snow today, with another foot on Wednesday.

With deep snow piled up on the lowlands and deeper snow in the mountains, if a Banana Express Tropical Storm blows in, with a rapid melt, like has happened before, really bad flooding could be the result.

This storm is also bringing strong winds of 20 to 30 miles per hour, which will cause snow drifts. I have seen amazingly big snow drifts in northern Whatcom County, but never very tall snow drifts in the county to the south of Whatcom, that being Skagit County.

Going for a Ride in the Seattle World's Fair's Gayway

I was looking for photos of the Washington State Pavilion at the 1962 Seattle World's Fair, to no avail. All I found was photo of the big plastic ball known as the Bubbleator.

The Bubbleator lifted 100 people at a time into the Washington State Exhibit zone in what later became the Seattle Coliseum and even later became Key Arena.

Key Arena. Where the Seattle Supersonics played until Aubrey McClendon stole the team and moved it to Oklahoma City.

When passengers got onboard the Bubbleator either a spacey female voice would command them to "Please move to the rear of the Sphere", or space alien male voice would say, "Step to the rear of the Sphere."

Whilst looking for Seattle World's Fair images I came upon something I'd not heard before. I don't recollect that the carnival zone section of the Seattle World's Fair was known as the "GAYWAY."

I'm guessing one of the current meanings of the word "gay" did not mean what it means in 2011, way back in 1962.

After the fair closed and was morphed into the Seattle Center, carnival rides remained. I don't know at what point in time the carnival ride zone was renamed the "Fun Forest." I suspect this name change may have occurred at some point in time after the word "gay" took on a new meaning.

Looking for info about the Seattle Center's Fun Forest I learned that, "After nearly 50 years, the Fun Forest Amusement Park at the Seattle Center had its last day of operations on Jan. 2, 2011."

Apparently the Fun Forest is being replaced by a Chihuly Glass Exhibit .

I've long thought the Fun Forest looked real tacky, particularly after the EMP was added by it. So, I think the Seattle Center is well rid of the Fun Forest Gayway.

It Is Over A Quarter Of A Century Since Vancouver's Expo '86 Closed

In the picture you are looking at an abandoned floating McDonald's, docked in Burnaby's Burrard Inlet next to an oil refinery.

This abandoned floating McDonald's used to be known McBarge. McBarge's official name was Friendship 500.

Those who see McBarge nowadays call it McDerelict.

McDerelict, in its heyday, floated at Vancouver's Expo '86.

Expo 86's official name was the 1986 World Exposition on Transportation and Communication. Expo  '86 was a World's Fair that took place in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada from Friday May 2 until Monday, October 13, 1986.

It is hard to believe it is over a quarter of a century ago that Expo '86 closed.

I went to Expo '86 twice, both times in late September. The crowds were huge as the World's Fair neared its closing. I enjoyed both my visits to Expo '86, but both times I ended up with the worst headaches of my life. And the second visit, close to the closing, I found myself in the most pressing crowd situation I have ever been in.

On at least one of the visits I went on the McDonald's McBarge. I suspect I had a fish sandwich and a strawberry milkshake. And probably fries. McBarge was near the Malaysian where I had satay for the first time.

I remember being sort of embarrassed by how bad the United States Pavilion was. It was all about the space program and somehow managed to be sort of boring. I remember riding the skyride that crossed the fairgrounds, with a couple Canadians in the capsule with me. When they realized I was American they asked what I thought of the fair. Very impressive, I told them, but I'm sort of embarrassed by how bad the American Pavilion is. The Canadians acted all pleased that I was being so honest about the American Pavilion and told me a lot of Canadians were disappointed by the American Pavilion, but liked the Washington, Oregon and California Pavilions.

I thought the same thing. The Pavilions that the west coast states built for Expo '86 were much better than the U.S. Pavilion.

In the Washington Pavilion you entered through a shower of stars, leading to a tunnel through which you rode a moving sidewalk called a Travolator, fitting with the Transportation theme of the Expo. As you traveled the Travolator movie scenes of Washington passed you by. Eventually you ended up in an exhibit hall called Discovery Place.

I found the Soviet Union Pavilion to be interesting. The Soviets showed a movie all about how peaceful the Soviets were. I don't remember if they were still in Afghanistan at the time. The Canadians cheered the Soviet movie. My American point of view saw the movie differently. I remember the Soviet Union Pavilion at Expo '74 in Spokane as being much more sinister, what with a huge Lenin head greeting you at the entry.

The Pacific Northwest has had 3 World's Fairs. Each of them successful. Vancouver's was by far the biggest. Spokane's the smallest.

Both Seattle's Century 21 World's Fair and Vancouver's Expo '86 had monorails. Seattle's still exists. Vancouver's was dismantled after the fair and shipped to England to be re-assembled at a theme park called Alton Towers.

Ironically, Vancouver's monorail was much more useful than Seattle's. Vancouver's took you all over the fairgrounds. Seattle's monorail just went, and still goes, back and forth from Seattle Center to the heart of downtown Seattle at Westlake Center, about a one mile ride.

After Expo '86 much of what was constructed for the fair remained in use, with the False Creek zone of the fairgrounds being developed for multi-uses. It seems like keeping the Expo '86 monorail in Vancouver would have been a good thing.

The era of World's Fairs in the United States seems to have come to an end. Was it the dud in New Orleans or the one in Knoxville that discouraged other towns from going to the bother? I don't know if the world's fair in San Antonio was a dud or not. I do know the Texans built a tower, like the Space Needle, with a revolving restaurant at the top, called the Tower of the Americas.

I also know that on those rare days when it is not cloudy the view from the Space Needle's revolving restaurant is a bit more scenic than the view from the Tower of the Americas,

Skagit Valley Berry-Dairy & Loggerodeo Kiddie Parades From Long Ago

That is my sister holding Yogi Bear over head. My sister is in Sedro-Woolley. At the end of the Sedro-Woolley Loggerodeo Kiddie's Parade.

When we were little kids my mom and dad had themselves a real good time building floats for us kids to parade on.

I remember one year my brother and I were Fred Flintstone and Barney Rubble with my sister being Wilma. My dad made a very well done Flintstone mobile which my brother and I pulled while my sister rode.

Weeks before being Yogi Bear in the Sedro-Woolley parade we were on the same float in the Burlington Berry-Dairy Day's Kiddie Parade.

Actually, if I'm remembering correctly, I think at that point in time the kid floats were part of the main parade, not a separate Kiddie's Parade, in Burlington.

Several of our neighbors also made floats for their kids. We all kept our floats secret until the unveiling on parade day.

There were prizes given to the floaters. Us kids took it for granted that we would win. And we did.

The first Berry Dairy parade I was in it was not on a float. Mom and dad decorated my bike. I have a picture of me and that bike and a couple other floats.

The last float that I remember was a HUGE Strawberry. My youngest sister, at the time, til another sister came along several years later, was dressed like a princess, sitting on top of the HUGE Strawberry. I can find no photo of this float.

None of us kids, except for my little sister, were on the HUGE Strawberry float. My dad was inside the HUGE Strawberry, pushing it, creating puzzlement among the parade watchers as to what was motoring that HUGE Strawberry.

If I remember right it was the HUGE Strawberry float  that was the float that had trouble getting over the railroad tracks that crossed the parade route.

The HUGE Strawberry float was to be the last float my mom and dad built. I suspect this was the last because  it was the most complicated to build, hardest to move. And there was that railroad track incident.

I wonder if there are pictures in existence of the Flintstone and HUGE Strawberry floats?

As the decades passed the Kiddie's Parades became much more mundane. I don't know if, in this century, Sedro-Woolley and Burlington still have Kiddie Parades.

Why is Mercer Island one of North America's Most Charming Islands?

Mercer Island: Home to Fantastic Fall Foliage

Every once in awhile I will read a list in a magazine, or online along the line of "Best", "Biggest", Most Fun", "Smartest' or some other attribute with the list pointing to what someone by some criteria decides deserves to be on the list.

This happened today whilst reading Fox News online, in a story titled "North America's Most Charming Fall Islands."

The premise of the list of islands is set up with the following paragraph...

Come autumn, Mother Nature's dazzling palette is the No. 1 roadside attraction. While it's great fun to drive through a forest of gold-and-crimson trees, sometimes you need a rest from the hair-trigger braking that's required on packed country roads. In an effort to minimize stress, we sought out places where you can see fabulous fall foliage without the crowds. These 12 dreamy islands have forest vistas interrupted only by sailboats, farm stands, and lighthouses.

Most of the Charming Islands I've never heard of.

The islands in the article are Vancouver Island, British Columbia; Heart Island, Alexandria Bay, New York; Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia; Sheffield Island, Norwalk, Connecticut; Monhegan Island, Port Clyde, Maine; Dufferin Islands, Niagara Falls, Canada; Assateague Island, Eastern Shore, Virginia; Grand Isle, Lake Champlain, Vermont; Mackinac Island, Michigan....

And Mercer Island, Washington.

Mercer Island?

This article is recommending going to Mercer Island to view fall foliage away from packed county roads? With forest vistas interrupted only by sailboats, farm stands and lighthouses?

Below is how the Fox News article described Mercer Island...

MERCER ISLAND, King County, Wash. Enjoy the perfume of fresh cider and the spice of organic pumpkin pie from restaurants serving locally sourced food. Color-seekers in Washington State often head to Mercer Island, across from Seattle in Lake Washington, for its rare autumnal palette of changing leaves. This island of 6.2 square miles was once a retreat for the wealthy and has since become an upper-middle-class community of about 22,000 residents. Yellow-and-gold hues set the tone along the bike trails that crisscross the region. Find the best foliage in 113-acre Pioneer Park on the southern side of the island, where you're likely to see tamarack, vine-maple, red-alder, and Pacific-dogwood trees. The island's restaurant community, with its organic country cred, is a huge draw. Case in point is Bennett's Pure Food Bistro, whose meals contain ingredients sourced regionally and prepared without artificial additives. The menu changes seasonally, but at any given time you can expect to find fresh seafood straight from the waters off the coast of Alaska and vegetables foraged from Washington State. 7650 SE 27th St., bennettsbistro.com, entrées from $14.

Mercer Island is a very nice location. If you are fortunate enough to live there it usually indicates you are very well off. Mercer Island is the most populated island in a lake in the United States.

I am sure there are some nice trees on Mercer Island. I've pedaled my bike across Mercer Island a time or two. I have driven all over Mercer Island. I do not remember ever thinking, wow, look at the colorful leaves on that tree.

Now, Whidbey Island, that's another story. Whidbey Island is a little less than 170 square miles, size-wise, compared to Mercer Island's slightly more than 6 square miles. Whidbey Island has a population of almost 60,000 compared to Mercer Island's 22,000. Obviously the population density is much greater on Mercer Island.

Which Island do you think you'd see a lot fewer people on as you drove around looking at leaves? You guessed right. Whidbey. Not only that, on Whidbey Island you will actually find some forest vistas and lighthouses. On both islands you will be seeing the sailboats the article mentioned. Whidbey Island has the added charm of a lot of rhododendrons, blooming colorful in the spring. And ferry boats to and from the island. And Deception Pass Bridge to take you off the north end of the island to another island, called Fidalgo, from whence you can find another bridge to take you to the mainland.

There are no ferry boats to Mercer Island. But there is a very cool floating bridge that will take you to Seattle. Where you can also find some colorful fall foliage.

Did Butch Cassidy Escape Bolivia To Die In Spokane Washington?

For years there have been those who claim that Robert Leroy Parker, also known as Butch Cassidy, bearing a striking resemblance to the late Paul Newman, was not killed in a shootout in Bolivia in 1908.

The Butch Cassidy Bolivian Death naysayers insist Butch managed to escape the Bolivian Cavalry, changed his name to William T. Phillips, moved to Spokane, where he worked as a machinist, living 29 years past his alleged Bolivian death, to die in 1937.

How Butch and Sundance met their end has always had an element of mystery attached to it. Mystery or myth.

What historians generally agree on is that Robert Leroy Parker was born in Beaver, Utah in 1866. The Parkers were a Mormon family, with 13 kids, of which Butch was the oldest. Butch Cassidy's first bank holdup took place high in the mountains of Colorado, in Telluride. After that Butch holed up with cattle rustlers in Johnson County in Wyoming at a place that came to be known as the Hole in the Wall. Butch moved on before the start of the infamous 1892 Johnson County War between homesteader and cattle barons.

After Butch left Johnson County he was caught by the law, serving a year and a half in the Wyoming Territorial Prison in Laramie. Butch's crime was being in possession of three stolen horses. After Butch got out of prison he spent the next 20 years holding up banks and trains with the Sundance Kid and the Hole in the Wall Gang.

And now a rare books collector claims he has a manuscript with provides fresh evidence that Robert Leroy Parker survived Bolivia and moved to Spokane, where, as William T. Phillips, he penned a 200 page tale titled "Bandit Invincible: The Story of Butch Cassidy." This manuscript is dated as having been written in 1934 and is twice as long as a previous known iteration written by William T. Phillips.

In 1991 what were believed to be the bones of Butch Cassidy and Harry Longabaugh, also known as the Sundance Kid, were exhumed from their resting place in San Vicente, Bolivia. DNA testing proved the bones were not those of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.

"Bandit Invincible" claims that the Sundance Kid did die in the shootout with the Bolivian Calvary. Butch somehow managed to escape and make his way to France where he had appearance altering plastic surgery in Paris. Eventually Butch made his way back to America to Wyoming to reunite with his old girlfriend. "Bandit Invincible" does not identify the old girlfriend as Etta Place.

William T. Phillips had no offspring. Phillips was cremated. So, there is no known DNA to test against any known Butch Cassidy DNA.

So, was Spokane, Washington the final hideout for Butch Cassidy? Seems like no one can say for sure, though there are plenty of skeptics, along with plenty who think there is a lot of evidence that William T. Phillips is Butch Cassidy.

My best guess is the movie Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid got it right. Butch and Sundance died in Bolivia. I am often wrong.

Endangered Pygmy Rabbits are Back Breeding in the Columbia Basin

That is not a baby rabbit I am holding in my hands. What it is is a Columbia Basin Pygmy Rabbit.

The Columbia Basin Pygmy Rabbits are an endangered species.

Until recently it had been 10 years since Columbia Basin Pygmy Rabbits reproduced in their native habitat.

This past spring, Pygmy Rabbits bred in the Oregon Zoo were moved back to their native habit, on a wildlife reserve near Ephrata, Washington.

Wildlife managers have confirmed several litters of Pygmy Rabbit babies in the 6 acre wildlife reserve. Baby Pygmy Rabbits are called kits.

Previous efforts to return Pygmy Rabbits to their native habitat have failed. Pygmy Rabbits have a tough time in the wild, existing pretty much at the bottom of the food chain.

And Pygmy Rabbit moms are not Mother Nature's best mothers. After giving birth in a burrow the Pygmy Rabbit mother back fills the burrow, then takes off, returning once a day to uncover the burrow, yanking the kits to the surface, nursing them, then putting the kits back in the burrow, then sealing it up again.

Until this spring's successful breeding in the wild it is believed there were no Columbia Basin Pygmy Rabbits left in the wild.

I wonder if Pygmy Rabbits make good pets?