16th Annual 50+ Connections Expo in Vancouver, WA

I attended the 16th Annual 50+ Connections Expo from 11:00am to 4:00pm today at the Hilton Hotel and Convention Center in downtown Vancouver, Washington.  The 50+ Connections Expo featured more than 120 exhibitors offering services, ideas, and resources available for a active, healthy, independent life-style.   I attended three presentations by Discovery Tours.  I entered many exhibitors drawings and took some great giveaways for geocaching.  I also entered a drawing for a seven day Mississippi River Cruise for two. The lobby was filled with the sounds of Micheal Kissinger Jazz Quartet. 

2012 Clark County PUD Home and Garden Idea Fair

I worked from 9:00am to noon at NatureScaping's Wildlife Botanical Garden Booth at the 21st Annual Clark Public Utilities Home and Garden Idea Fair at the Clark County Fairgrounds on Friday.  After my shift I strolled past displays of energy-saving home improvements, entering a few drawings.

 

On Saturday morning I enjoyed meeting the children who came by the Wildlife Botanical Garden's Booth to get their "passports" stamped.  The NatureScaping  stamp was a blue hummingbird.  

Washington Association of Landscape Professionals built elaborate displays inside the event center to give homeowners some ideas of what they can do with their lawns and gardens.  They also had master gardeners and other educators come in to talk to people.  Some topics covered by guest educators included how to keep and care for chickens, goats and bees, tips for first-time homebuyers, growing food in small spaces and suggestions to improve home energy efficiency.

The farmers market area had a selection of locally produced products: artisan breads, fresh cut flowers, roasted nuts, vegetables, honey, wild mushrooms and smoked fish, among other things.  There were also a number of booths outside selling a variety of foods: Hawaiian Style Foods: Yakisoba Noodles & Lemon Chicken; Mesquite BBQ Chicken & Ribs with Baked Beans, Cole Slaw, Corn and Roll; and Halibut Fish & Chips.  

"Bretz's Flood: The Remarkable Story of a Rebel Geologist and the World's Greatest Flood"  Sasquatch Books, 2008

Author John Soennichsen delivers a vivid portrait of the man whose pioneering work began by accident, when a 1921 summer field trip to the Cascade Mountains fell through. Instead, J Harlen Bretz, a former science teacher at Franklin High School in Seattle and then a professor at U of W and later the University of Chicago, led his students on foot through the Washington Scablands around Spokane, and returned every summer after with his students and family to map, measure, and record the unique terrain-including the gigantic "ship" of eroded basalt at Grand Coulee, the dried remains of the world's largest waterfall (now known as Dry Falls) and the dramatic coulees, gullies and deserts.

Bretz's conclusions, of a land scoured in a virtual instant by a flood of unprecedented scale, met with intense opposition (largely from those who never observed the Scablands in person). Only over time, and with the advent of aerial and satellite photography, were Bretz's ideas confirmed; it is now known that glacial Lake Missoula drained dozens of times, each time unleashing a vast flood across the Pacific Northwest. I am half way though Soennichsen's book and finding it very informative and engaging. 

I traveled with the Marshall Center group yesterday on the Portland Spirit from Portland, Oregon to Astoria, Oregon.  I called the Portland Spirit office to book the cruise however it was completely sold out.  So I called Marshall Center to learn that they had one opening which  I quickly booked.  

We loaded two vans at 6:00am and departed Marshall Center at 6:30am.  We boarded the Portland Spirit a few blocks south of OMSI after 7:00am.  They took my photograph which turned out fairly well.  The Portland Spirit has two luxurious enclosed decks that seat 340 guests plus two outer decks.  I took a window seat on the port side of the ship.  

We traveled south up the Willamette River past Ross Island and then turned north to the Columbia River.  We had a buffet breakfast and lunch with choice of desserts - chocolate chip cookies, lemon cake, cheesecake and chocolate cake.  I briefly visited the wheelhouse.  I spent a lot of time on the main or upper decks enjoying the scenery and wildlife.  There was a fat sea lion that swam alongside the ship when we were docked in Astoria.  We boarded large buses for the journey back to Portland.  

RMS Titanic Afternoon Tea, Meadowlark Tearoom, Vancouver, Washington

This afternoon Sharon Harbeck's Meadowlark Tea Room in Vancouver's Uptown Neighborhood was transformed into the 1912 Edwardian Era. More than 60 people attended; many were dressed in elaborate costumes - a few were quite outstanding.

The tables were set with white tablecloths, china and long stemmed red roses. The special RMS Titanic Tea was a blend of four classic teas by Harney & Sons similar to the blend served aboard the ship. The eight-course meal was inspired by the last dinner served aboard the Titanic.

A String Quartet played tunes of the time which made conversation rather difficult. A Naval Officer, Alexander MacKenzie, as Capt. Edward Smith narrated the events as they occurred during the voyage of the ill-fated Titanic.

At the conclusion of the RMS Titanic Afternoon Tea we all stood. Each guest had received a boarding pass bearing the name of an actual Titanic passenger. As the names of the passengers were read of the persons who did not survive they sat down. It was truly moving to look around to see who did not make it. I, as Mrs Karolina Byström, age 42, second class passenger, was rescued by the Carpathia. However my daughter Catherine, as Mrs Anna Sigrid Maria Danbom, age 28, third class passenger, died in the sinking.

Ice Age Floods Institute Field Trip, April 7, 2012

Geologist Lloyd DeKay led our trip from The Dalles, OR to White Salmon, WA and back to The Dalles, OR exploring wonders of the gorge on both sides of the mighty Columbia River including features attributed to the Missoula floods (15,000-18,000 years ago) such as eddy bars, hydraulic dams, glacial erratics, gravel bars, kolk ponds, and erosional features.

We also saw ancient flood deposits dated at 600,000 years old, 14.5 million-year-old pillow basalts, synclines, anticlines, and even vertical lava beds resulting from folding; gravel and sand deposits from an ancient channel of the Columbia, topped by Missoula flood deposits and next to deposits from a lahar that roared down Mt. Hood and temporarily dammed the river.

We went on a guided hike to see She-Who-Watches and other Native American petroglyphs some saved from the backwaters of The Dalles Dam. We went on a shorter hike to see the window at Catherine Creek (the glacial erratic was behind the window and not visible). We took a quick drive earlier in the day through Schreiner Farms, a African mini-safari, to see the camels, zebras, bisons, and more. Back at the Columbia Gorge Discovery Center I went on a walk around the Center to get photos and coordinates.

Canadian Money Saga

I went to First Independent in downtown Vancouver to get $35.00 Canadian Money. First Indy wanted $15 to order the money. They recommended I go to Pioneer Courthouse Square Visitor Info or the Airport. Since I was taking a bus or train to Vancouver BC I had no reason to pick up money at the Airport so I rode MAX to Pioneer Courthouse Square. The Info Center did not change money. They recommended I go across the street to Wells Fargo. Wells Fargo said they would charge a $5.00 fee for the $35.00 however if I had an account there would be no charge for the money exchange. So I deposited $100.00 in a new account. I got seven $5.00 Canadian bills. And daily Wells Fargo e-mails which I finally blocked. Now I just have to figure out a way to get some coins. Buy a candy bar or pack of gum at the Vancouver BC hotel gift shop?