Lacey, Washington

We spent almost two weeks in Lacey, WA for S*M*A*R*T events. Lacey is a really nice place, and I even considered moving there once upon a time in a previous life, but it's obvious a lot of other folks think it's nice, too (read: it's heavily populated). Now that I'm retired, I prefer less congestion, small populations, country roads and a minimum of chain stores and restaurants. Although there are a few things I like to buy at Super Wal-Marts, it's a lot more fun to seek out the local goods, farmer's markets, and specialty shops and restaurants.

The S*M*A*R*T (Special Military Active Retired Travel) Club is mostly a social club for RVing retired military people. The annual Muster is held in different locations, and various groups such as Nomads and Full-timers hold pre- and sometimes post-rallies. We reconnected with some friends and met lots of new friends, and enjoyed the time spent in this area.

We learned that one of the benefits of belonging to SMART is being able to participate in caravans (tours) at very low prices. Because the club is non-profit, the caravans are priced only to cover costs, not to make a profit. We attended a meeting to discuss caravans, and to consider volunteering as tail-gunners. In the process, we decided to offer to lead a caravan to the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. We'll probably not be able to get plans finished for summer 2010, but more likely 2011. There seems to be a lot of interest in this tour. Since the UP is a favorite place for us, we'll enjoy planning to share it with others.

Here are some photos from the time we spent in Lacey. This first one shows how closely we were parked in the RV Park. The park was built for original Airstream trailers, with no slides. That's us at the far left. We were on the end, so we didn't have a problem getting our awning out, but some others did, in the 16' wide sites.

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The RV park is quite large and is part of an Airstream owners community. Mobile homes vary in size and condition. Here's one of the nicer ones, with a well-manicured lawn, two Airstreams, a golf cart and 3 other vehicles.

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This is one example of several homes needing a little more TLC. At least the plants look nice.

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Several places bore For Sale signs. But only Airstream owners are allowed to buy into the community, so that narrows the potential for home sellers.

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We saw lots of different kinds of Airstreams: trailers and motorhomes of all sizes. Two traditional trailers are in this photo.

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Here's a "Squarestream" motorhome (and a trailer).

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A nice, new, compact Class B+.

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And a triple-axle lonnnnng trailer.

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SMART members are very patriotic. Their motto is "Seeing the County We Defended." You could see flags everywhere.

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There were a lot of patriotic shirts, too, but I didn't get any photos of them. Even though I've seen red/white/blue shirts before, the proliferation of them at this rally was amazing. And there were lots of stars-and-stripes caps, tote bags, table decorations, etc.

One day several of us drove (or took a bus) to Seattle, about an hour north, to do some touring. We visited Pioneer Square and took a tour of Seattle Underground.

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Quoting from Wikipedia:
"The Seattle Underground is a network of underground passageways and basements in downtown Seattle, Washington, United States that was ground level at the city's origin in the mid-1800s. After the streets were elevated these spaces fell into disuse, but have become a tourist attraction in recent decades...
Seattle's first buildings were wooden. In 1889, a cabinetmaker accidentally overturned and ignited a glue pot. An attempt to extinguish it with water spread the burning grease-based glue. The fire chief was out of town, and although the volunteer fire department responded they made the mistake of trying to use too many hoses at once. They never recovered from the subsequent drop in water pressure, and the Great Seattle Fire destroyed 25 city blocks.
While a destructive fire was not unusual for the time, the response of the city leaders was. Instead of rebuilding the city as it was before, they made two strategic decisions: that all new buildings must be of stone or brick, insurance against a similar disaster in the future; and to regrade the streets one to two stories higher than the original street grade. Pioneer Square had originally been built mostly on filled-in tidelands and, as a consequence, it often flooded. The new street level also assisted in ensuring that gravity-assisted flush toilets that funneled into Elliott Bay did not back up at high tide.
For the regrade, the streets were lined with concrete walls that formed narrow alleyways between the walls and the buildings on both sides of the street, with a wide "alley" where the street was. The naturally steep hillsides were used, and through a series of sluices material was washed into the wide "alleys", raising the streets to the desired new level, generally 12 feet higher than before, in some places nearly 30 feet."

You can continue to research this story online by Googling "Seattle Underground" if you wish. Here are some photos I took on the tour. All of these were originally at street level.

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Note: this is a toilet and sink from a bathroom, probably in a hotel. For more info on how early Seattle residents handled sewage, do more research. Warning: it's not a pretty story!

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The fire was so hot, it warped the rails.

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Here's a skylight from the underground side, with moss and mold.

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The same skylight at street level.

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An early bathtub.

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In the museum, this display is a very fancy example of what some call Thomas Clapper's invention. (There's a debate on that -- do some research.)

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Since this blog is getting quite long, I'll end with one photo of a fave of mine: Jumbo Sea Scallops, as big as my fist. This is from the Pike Place Market, a wonderful place to buy fresh fruit, veggies, flowers and seafood. And you can be entertained by various performers on the street, too. Go to my Picasa Web album for lots more photos.

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