Old Town Tacoma, Washington

We have driven past here for years and only have seen the Tacoma Dome. Along with the ultra modern Chihuly Museum of Glass, the old Tacoma Train Station across the “Bridge of Glass” is a refreshing sight; old opulence puts concrete and glass to shame.

The trains still roll down the rails but no longer stop, the massive building is now home to the Federal Courthouse since the station was closed in 1984.

The "Bridge of Glass" is full of Chihuly's work, this is looking up as you walk across.

Chihuly's Museum of Glass

Connie had been wanting to go to the Chihuly Museum of Glass for years. Thursday morning we drove to Fox Island where our friends Dean and Diane are staying (read "What a site" on this blog). Cara the wonderdog needed a playday with her old friend Poco Kleinsmith; Connie and I needed some alone time (the museum takes a dim view of dogs inside).
The museum's Hot Shop has room for several furnaces, artists (from around the world) and a gallery for visitors. The room was hot and full of activity, a furnace door would open, a pole would be inserted and would emerge with a red hot glowing orb of molten glass. The worker would place the pole onto two supports and continuously turn it while beginning to shape the orb with wooden ladles just brought out of a bucket of water. Several other tools would be used and the piece would from time to time be reinserted into the furnace.
We have watched this process performed at the factories that make Kosta Boda in Sweden, Waterford in Ireland and the Corning Glass Museum in New York, using the same technique. For our money the Corning Museum was far and away the best.
The Tacoma Dome and an artistic bridge added to the beauty of the high dollar marina next door to the museum.
Cross the bridge from the museum to the old Railroad Station and you will see more of Chihuly's art work than in the museum, and it is free.


Keep reading the next blog for more.......







 

What a site!

Dean and Diane wake up to this! Puget Sound in the foreground and Mt. Rainier surrounded by blue sky in the background. You think this is great? Just walk down the concrete steps to a large pier that juts out into the water for fishing, crabbing or just watching the tide change. All this for just opening a gate in the morning and closing it at night; gosh, I'm tired just thinking about it, aren't you?

Will work for site.

Well we survived our first weekend at wrrrrrrk. Dare I say we liked it? Except for the “having to be there” we had fun getting to know some of the “locals”; many come up to us and say how great it is that we are the new Assistant Managers and that they have heard such good things about us. Feeling wanted makes our tasks easier and seems to lighten the load. Not that what we do is difficult.
Connie has the hardest job, she is in charge of the office and has to learn how to check in new arrivals, check out those leaving, take in money, balance the books and a myriad of things that are required to run an RV park. She also has to interact with the lease holders, board members, volunteers, advisors and phone calls; some of the aforementioned good and some not so much.
We must sort and distribute mail for the 175 lease holders; that in itself is a job.
My duties entail driving around in my golf cart checking to see what spaces are unoccupied, making sure there are no water leaks or other disasters, moving garbage bags from the club house to the dump and my favorite job operating the backhoe. We have a diesel tractor with a backhoe (boys toy) and I use it to tamp down the garbage bags in our three dumpsters. So far I have managed to not damage anything. I also make sure the bathrooms have paper products as required, and clean up any spills or litter (I let them know I do not do toilets). At 5:00 I close the sheds and garage (man caves). The sheds contain a wood working shop, metal shop, paint storage, tractors, lawn and garden implements, wood chippers, chain saws, Gas and diesel storage tanks. If we had McGyver here we could easily build a nuclear power plant.
Volunteers do most physical labor jobs in the park, they form committees to do regular maintenance, cutting down trees, planting flower beds, mowing lawns, cleaning the streets, painting, repairing, you name it, they do it. So, if I find something that is a problem I let them know and they come out and fix it.

Buddy can you spare a dime?

As Alfred E. Newman may have opined “What, me work?

Well it is a sad story; here we are on Social Security and Medicare working in an RV (trailer) park and going to bingo on Wednesdays. I suppose next it will be food stamps and “Will work for food” signs. We have changed Cara’s name to “Killer” in hopes of getting her guard dog duty, it only pays dog biscuits but I understand with a little hot sauce they are not bad. By the way, do you have any change you can spare?

We are really having a ball here, lots of nice people, beautiful COOL environment. After seven years of letting our brains idle in neutral it will be good to put them in gear and let out the clutch.

Extra, Extra, read all about it!

Big news bulletin …………………..Beckes’ working………………. Stop …………..at Escapee Park…….. stop……………..Oh No!

Yes, you heard it here first. Connie and I are the new Assistant Managers here at Coho Evergreen Park.

I had received an e-mail Saturday asking if we were still interested in the job. This morning as we were literally pulling out to head to Seaside, the managers took us aside and wanted to let us know what a great job this is. CB and I decided that even though we could have gone down the coast for free camping @ TTNs, this was too good to pass up. We will take over for the managers on Saturday and Sundays. Connie will be in the office; I will park RVs coming in and roam the park in my golf cart, checking to make sure there are no leaks of major proportions or catastrophes that need immediate attention. I don’t fix the problem I just make sure the job gets done by the appropriate maintenance person.

For this we get a free space, electricity, propane and $6.50 an hour, what is not to like? Maybe next week we will tell you!

hot rod parade

Coho Days here in the park includes this hot rod parade after dinning on bisquits and gravy. Life is good. We will be leaving here tomorrow for Seaside on the Oregon Coast.

Timing is everything

Here we are getting ready to leave Evergreen Coho Park on Monday. A few months ago I saw an add for assistant manager's for this park and I sent in a resume, would you believe I just received an e-mail asking me if I would be interested in being the assistant manager for the rest of the summer! Go figure!

flip for pancakes

Pancakes are one of my favorite things, a few months ago I went to a pancake breakfast at the fire house in Festival, those firemen should not be allowed around food, the cakes were white and tasted like cardboard. Yesterday we had a pancake breakfast here at Coho Evergreen Escapee RV Park, Rachael the cook just had her ninetieth birthday! Her pancakes were some of the best I have ever had, golden brown, tasting of buttermilk and butter, fluffy with the edges a little crispy, it was almost a sin to put syrup on them.

Last night after dinner we took Cara out to the dog run; she ran with the pack and had a ball. We all miss Harry, but we know he is better off.

Today we awoke to a light rain, CB is going to high tea with Dianne and the girls here at the park, last year she and Fran had a ball. They were served by some of the girls husbands dressed in their finery. The food was good, plentiful and free!

The high tea is the start of Coho Days, a week full of activities. Everyday will be hot dogs for lunch, yeah!