Theme Interrupted

We interrupt this "theme" of my trip for this important message from Jolina! (if you want to see Day 4 continued of my trip, scroll down)

Smiling Faces... Hey, that's a song!! (by the temptations, in case your interested)

Smiling faces, tell leaves..... (that's my pun... because the line goes... smiling faces tell lies )

Love the shot of Jenna looking thru the window.

The Temptations my friends:

Smiling faces sometimes .....

pretend to be your friend

Smiling faces show no traces of the evil that lurks within

Smiling faces, smiling faces sometimes....

They don't tell the truth uh

Smiling faces, smiling faces

Tell lies and I got proof

Still...My town, my trip

Still Day 4

After the Swamp Monster scare.... my dad and I went to the new branch library in Kennewick.
YES... I lead an exciting life!!

There are now 2....count 'em....two libraries in the town I grew up in.

Look at their "return" slots. In Winnemucca we have a "mail box" where EVERYTHING goes...except the media. You have to take that inside.

This is how they do the "reserved" books. They just line them up and you go and get your own. In Winnemucca, we call and they are kept in the back room for a few days until you can make it down.
Obviously we don't trust people to pick up their own book requests like this. LOL

And checking out? Holy Moly.
There is a big sign. And then.... you can do it yourself! You can just check yourself out.
It's express. The libraries are going express, just like the grocery stores.

And that was Day 4.....
I did not take pictures of our trip to Costco nor my sister-in-law, Sylvia, my mom and me, scrapbooking in the evening.
I probably should have. (cuz I know you find my life exciting)

My Town continued

When I was a kid, we were able to roam about our towns more than the kids of today are. We could be gone for hours and our mother's didn't worry about us.
Even when I had kids, I didn't let them roam for hours , or wait, I didn't let Luke or Dustin roam for hours.... I was AFRAID, but Marcus? Well, he did roam. He was my 3rd child and we lived in a small town, but none of my kids, no matter how far and wide a let them or didn't let them roam, had to deal with.....THE SWAMP MONSTER! The dreaded Swamp Monster, who put fear in the hearts and minds of every kid within a 5 mile radius of Zintel Canyon.
I lost my shoe once in a quick sand bog in Zintel Canyon....we think the Swamp Monster actually reached up and grabbed it and sucked it down into the muddy quagmire. It was a scary place.
I can't believe my mom let me play in it. For hours nonetheless!! Didn't she know? About the Swamp Monster?

Zintel Canyon is a....canyon about a half a mile from the house I grew up in. It begins at 7th street and ends at 27th street.
Sometime between when I was a kid worried about (but not enough to stay away from) the Swamp Monster and now, the parks and rec department in Kennewick has made the canyon into a "natural" park or greenway".
It is still very spooky at 6:00 a.m. when no one, NO ONE is around.
I got a bit spooked....as I knew there could be a serial killer lurking in the swamp.
Serial Killer or Swamp Monster. One was out to get me!!

Day #4 of my trip up north
I took an early morning walk thru the Home of the Swamp Monster, aka Zintel Canyon.

I approach the 7th street entrance. See those tennis courts across the street? Ahhh...my boyfriend Rich Stone (and Theda and her boyfriend Steve Bartlett) used to play tennis there early in the mornings.

But I am confused....where is this "trail?"

This is the trail I find....okay. A Sidewalk. I'm good. I'm not scared.

The sidewalk ends and a trail begins.... yikes....I turn around and this is what I'm leaving....

And this is what I'm headed into.

What fricking "greenway"? It looks like I'm headed into the home of the Swamp Monster.

Oh look, here is a bridge... a bridge over the muddy bog...which now looks like a clear running stream. Hmmm.....Interesting. I'll go over the bridge.

And what is this? A black topped path?

And concrete stools by the stream? Obviously, I didn't take the right path to begin with. LOL

And even benches.... benches all along the blacktopped path.

I'll sit and enjoy the quietness of the swamp. WAIT, I hear something..... THE SWAMP MONSTER...no...SERIAL KILLER....no.... bird in tree?

Hurry!! Run down the black topped path, quick as I could.... to the....sign that says "Trail Head". LOL

Ah, I'm safe...safe from the Swamp Monster AND the serial killer of Zintel Canyon. (who has yet to kill anyone... but I didn't want to be the first.)

Cherrie Lou Who said that my chances of running into a serial killer are great than that of running into the Swamp Monster.

I'm not so sure.... ????

She carries a tazer. Or a gun. at all walking times. I probably should have.

Now I'll walk up the hill towards home.

This is the house I grew up in. My bedroom is at the end of the house...you can see the window thru the juniper bush. My boyfriend Rich Stone came to see me and "tapped" at my window to kiss me good night, once. Ahhhh....

This is in my parents back yard. You really don't see telephone and electrical wires like that anymore, except in old neighborhoods.

Rich and I are always amazed by the wires. Even tho they've always been there. The squirrels run across them all the time.

My Town

I really fell behind.... in telling you about my week in Washington.

Day 3.
The day LeAnne (my practical sister....not that she's all that practical..LOL.... but Rich's sisters are the closest thing I have to sisters....so they are practically my sisters )
I'm really lucky that way.

I sent some of you a picture of this already.
My dad is having some health issues and Rich's mom had a stint (her 5th) put in her artery while I was up north.
so on day 3, LeAnne and I went to see "Up", which we loved.
They gave us 3-d glasses, but I understand they don't always. Here in Winnemcucca, they don't give them out.
BUT I thought it would be great if I took a picture of LeAnne and I in our 3-D glasses...... so here we are in the bathroom at the movie theater, trying to get a picture of ourselves.
The bathroom really was a good place to be, since we laughed ourselves silly and almost peed our pants.
We needed some comic relief!! And we got it. (in ourselves)

Theda liked the movie:
We (Sarah, Aaron, John and I) to see this w/o 3D for John's bday. It was a great movie.

Lisa:
too funny Debbie. You did not say if you liked the movie.......I am wanting to see it, I love the clips from it

me/debbie:
it is here now, in Winnemucca. I can loan you my 3-D glasses!!!
I really liked the movie.

Up North continued

Day #2
After going to see the dermatologist for my mom's skin cancer---which she had removed 7 weeks ago and it still isn't' healing, we I took a walk thru a "demonstration" garden. It was by the new library. Kennewick (the town I grew up in) now has 2 libraries.
The demonstration garden was a really neat little walk (right by a park), where they had TONS of roses. Beautiful roses...and I am not a huge rose fan.
The garden also had demonstrations of "butterfly gardens" and "Children's Gardens".

It was just a nice little afternoon stroll.....

Day #2 of the trip up north.

There's my mom!

My trip up north

My trip up north.....

I just found out!! They are going to tear down the back half of the first shopping center I ever went to!
I grew up in the Tri-Cities, Washington. There were "3" cities connected by bridges over rivers. Where the Columbia, Snake and Yakima rivers all meet and mingle.
I love where I grew up. I love the memories I have of growing up.
One of those memories was going to Richland to the Uptown shopping center. This was before there was ever a "mall" built in the Tri-cities, in the 1960's. We would go to the UPTOWN shopping center to Newberry's, the old 5 and dime store.
(whatever happened to "5 and dime stores?" and....what did 5 and dime mean? ) They had a soda fountain. (sigh) and a pet section.
The Uptown shopping center was the home of JCPenneys (each town had their own) until the mall was built and they closed down each small individual store.

The Uptown Shopping Center (way, way after it's glory days---geez, the glory days were over 40 years ago LOL )

And....the Tahitian Room. oooooohhhhhhhhhhhh.....fancy, mysterious, grown-up cocktail place, that it was. It seemed very "Frank Sinatra-ish" to me--- very "Rat Pack-ish". (It's still there...I took a picture. I have a thing about signs)
I have fond memories of cocktails, ice clinking in glasses, women in cat eye glasses, cigarettes with lip-stick marks, laughter and "dancing"...yes, dancing. My parents had "dance" parties in the basement, where they and their friends got together and had cocktails and dance parties.
My brother and I would sit on the stairs and listen to their music and their laughter until we were shooed off to bed.
I have fond memories of Chinese restaurants too. I guess we must have eaten out at Chinese restaurants a lot. They were fancy and mysterious and curious. There was always a lot of velvet and hidden cubbies/rooms in the restaurants of the 1960's.

And....and...and THE SPUDNUT SHOP. A donut shop, where they make the donuts from potato flour. A bit of History on the Spudnuts, click here.

We were a nuclear town...or towns, as it was.
There are still a few remaining logos from the 60's and 70's haning around.....some things are still named "Atomic" (the Atomic Lanes was our bowling alley) and the Atom was a big logo of the Uptown Shopping Center.

Never fear.... I'll share more of my trip up north tomorrow....

to be continued..........