Day 21: Olympia, WA to Seaside, OR

It rained most of the day. The sun came out dramatically for about an hour -- while I was driving so it didn't really help with the quality of the photos. At least it wasn't a high volume day as I was just finishing up widely spaced apart stops in the southwest corner of WA. I just hope I get some sun for the Portland stuff starting tomorrow since there will be tons of photos there. I'm pretty much done with WA now except for Vancouver which I'll get to right after Portland.

The best part of the day was running the dogs in Long Beach, WA on the beach. They had a blast and I guess the Pacific wasn't too cold for Nik. Grem really enjoyed chasing the taunting seagulls who would hover just a few feet over her head. Fixie enjoyed rolling in the sand and seaweed mix -- luckily there's no dead fish smell. Grip was ball-retrieving enthusiastically since I was packing cheddar cheese and it was dinner time.

Aberdeen had a lot of great street art. I guess you can do this in a small town. I'm sure in NYC stuff would either be stolen or vandalized:

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Some beautiful tree protectors and grates. I have to ask -- why do trees need so much protection in the Northwest?





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Another great tree grate from Raymond. It might be hard to tell from this photo but the metal leaves actually overlap one another. This discoloration was just the rain drying up (temporarily!).




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I saw a lot of these scary signs today in southwest WA. Yesterday, near Tacoma, the were "Volcanic Evacuation Route" signs. How common are these events? I guess I'll stick with NYC where we just have to worry about being obliterated by terrorist acts. Saves the bother and planning for evacuation.



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Cute little crowns and ballies at Crown Drug in Hoquiam:



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A cheery sign considering the subject matter -- from Longview:



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These abandoned gas storage tanks are from Long Beach. They probably won't be here much longer as they are behind a closed 76 station.







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Lastly, a neon sign from Astoria. Not all that much graphically, and I'm not sure how old it is, but it's still very pretty.