I found the Far Side - at the Manhattan Project

I grew up in Richland, Washington which is where part of the Manhattan Project occurred.  In fact, the world's first nuclear reactor was built here.  And before you ask...no, I don't glow in the dark (at least not that much! HA).

The NPS started having tours out to "the site" as it is locally called.  I was especially interested because my father worked out at "the site" for decades and I was never able to go see where he worked or even hear about much of what he did. This reactor was long defunct before we arrived in Richland but it still gave me an idea of what my Dad worked on.  

The B-Reactor

My Mom and I at the reactor front

After a 45 minute drive out into the desert we arrived at the B-Reactor.  The reactor was developed by Dr. Fermi in Chicago.  Materials came from Oakridge, Tennessee to Richland and then once the uranium was made in plutonium it was delivered to Los Alamos, New Mexico.

I wonder what this knob does?!

This made me laugh - one of my favorite finds.  A hacksaw with a serious extender.  

As a female engineer I was looking for the female influence for developing this technology.  Well, of the 40,000 employees only 4,000 were women.  They were mostly used for safety parades where managers would pick a "Queen of Safety" and the guys would attend to see who was selected.  I'll admit this sounds (is) sexist.  That being said a really cool thing I learned was that the second in line for the technology development was a woman physicist - Leona Woods Marshall who was Dr. Fermi's grad student.  In fact, when they built the reactor there wasn't even a woman's restroom but the men respected her so much they took the last stall and made a bathroom just for her.  While it doesn't negate the Queen of Safety, it did make me proud of Leona and her technical input and fortitude  to working with all those men back in the 1940's.  

Queen of Safety

The same people who built the reactor wrote this sign...makes you think twice?!

It was really neat to see the wall where the uranium was loaded with all of the cooling piping, the control room and the complexity of this big technical advancement.  It certainly wasn't optimized but the fact that it worked was amazing.  And, while there I found "the far side." Sorry Mr. Larsen! 

For more information on the tour you can go to the national park service Manhattan Project.

Rainy Day in Seattle at Pike Place Market

I’m sure the title comes as no surprise to anyone who has been to Seattle before.  It rains all the time.  Okay, not all the time.  But most of the time!  And this isn’t just from visiting once or twice and having bad weather luck – I lived there for almost a decade! 

That being said I do think Seattle has some really fun and cool things to do.  Recently I went back after having not gone for many years and spent a day downtown.  I’ll have to admit that while I lived in Seattle I only went downtown a handful of times.  Between parking issues and traffic congestion it wasn’t high on anyone’s list very often! 

Rainy day in Seattle (I know - its really just a mist but this is actually a good viewing day!)

So, on a rainy afternoon it’s always fun to walk Pike Place Market.  Its covered so you are out of the elements but it is has a liveliness about it– of course this liveliness doesn’t start until about 10am and ends by 5pm so be aware.

You can't miss taking a picture of this neon sign!

The top floor has the iconic flower stalls, produce stalls and fish markets.  You can literally eat your way through the market by tasting all the samples the market has to offer.  Some of my favorites are the chucker cherries or the fresh apples and grapes from Washington.  You can also taste flavored olive oils or jams and everything in between.  While some things are on the “wild” side like some super-hot pepper jellies there isn’t anything like a Chinese food market with their bugs and stinky tofu (see post Taiwan - Part 2:  Top 10 of Taipei).  These foods are all safe to eat and won’t make you grimace even!  While the seafood certainly has a distinct smell it’s nothing like stinky tofu.

Yes, this does smell a bit!

This however does NOT - yum!

The next levels contain the fun "stuff".  There are old book stores, curious shops from way back when and nothing more than I can describe them as junk stores.  All these stores have been there for as long as I can remember.  As a result, when you drop to the lower levels you get a very distinct smell I call Pike Place market smell.  It is a cross of humidity laden books with inches of dust and a bit of staleness thrown into it.  That really makes you want to go doesn’t it?  It actually isn’t horrible but you are certainly aware of it as you play inside the magic shop or comb through old newspapers and magazines from the early 1900’s for sale.  It certainly creates a sense of authenticity to some of the shops!

While snacking is always fun you can’t leave Pike Place market without a couple of items.

1.        A pastry of some sort.  There are several little shops with breads, donuts and other goodies that make you salivate.  In fact, if you are there right at 10am you can get day old goodies for a steal of deal.
2.       Fish-n-chips.  There are several restaurants which have fish-n-chips and they are all good.  Not only are they fresh but most of the restaurants have a great view out across the sound.  If you are blessed enough to have the clouds lift you can watch ferries go back and forth across the Puget Sound and even look into the distance and see the Olympic mountain range.

Fish-n-chips. Hmmmmm!

So, if by chance you are in Seattle and it is raining then still run down and enjoy your day at Pike Place Market.

You can look at other pictures in the Photo Gallery By Location.  You can also view all my pictures in my Public Gallery.

Fish On! in Washington

For the past couple of years I have been fortunate enough to head up to the homeland (well, one of my homelands) and go fishing for a weekend.  This homeland happens to be Tri-Cities, Washington where the mighty Columbia , Snake and Yakima Rivers all meet.  When people drive by the Tri-Cities they quite honestly don't think much of the city.  In fact, most people really poo-poo the whole region.  It used to really bother me growing up.  I'm okay with it now because the city is growing a lot anyways and more people means congestion and this hidden gem being found.  I realize there is a lot of sagebrush, rattlesnakes, and ticks (see picture below).  But hey,...my parents complain if you have to wait for more than 2 cars at an intersection!  It's a great place with lots of water activities and fertile soil thanks to Mt. St. Helen's blowing up a few years (decades) ago.  Heck, there's even deer and some really cool big barges that go up and down the river!

 An oil barge on the Columbia River

A few deer besides ticks and rattlers!

In October the weather was mild, sunny, and beautiful.  One of the fun things I always remember about this part of the world is that in the fall cobwebs float by all the time.  As a kid I didn't care for them, especially when walking home from school! But now, I think they are fascinating as they float and shimmer in mid-air.  I have never encountered this phenomenon elsewhere.  Well, the cobwebs were floating by all weekend! 

We fished not far from where I grew up on the Columbia River.  Most people go up to what is called "the Reach" at this time of year so you can catch a really, really big king salmon.  We've done that in past years but it is a long (but beautiful) boat ride up to the free-flowing part of the river and there tends to be a gazillion people.  Really, even in the small town with no more than 2 cars at an intersection.  Instead, everyone is out in the same small area of the river.  So, we took a more laid back approach and hit McNary Dam.  The fish aren't as big but they are more plentiful.

Fishing was really good.  We caught many fish each day.  Steelhead and salmon tend to be a one or two per day sort of event so it was great to reel in a lot!  The only problem is that we had a few issues with the pole setup and had to let several go (ok, we lost them but hey you can't land everyone of these bad big boys) on the first day.   Thereafter we did much better.  The freezers are full.

Ya!  One of the many...

Fishing goes on until dark and the sunsets on McNary Dam are truly spectacular.  I've put several in the picture gallery for viewing pleasure or purchase (CLICK HERE -SCROLL to "UNITED STATES").