what about the plastic animals?

Aberdeen's Finest

The Olympic Inn of Aberdeen.  I stayed here solely because of the sign.  It turned out to be quiet, clean and had a slightly better than average continental breakfast.

The Endangered Orange County Government Center

The Orange County Government Center in Goshen has the dubious honor of being placed on the World Monument Fund's 2012 Watch List of cultural heritage sites that are endangered.  The government center, which has been on these pages before, has suffered from poor maintenance over the years.  Flood damage from Hurricane Irene has closed the center indefinitely.  The Orange County Executive would really like to demolish this building and put up a new one.  A local group disagrees and wants to save the architecturally significant buildng.

Gray Leaves

It's time for the leaves to start changing colors.  I've been seeing these gray leaves in Morningside Park the past few days.  I think they are some sort of birch.  These leaves go from green to yellow to gray almost as soon as they fall from the tree.

Last year I scanned dozens and dozens of leaves between October 18th and December 5th.  For whatever reason I never put any of those scans online.  Some of those scans were really elaborate and need to see the light of day!

Thank You Raymond Kiwanis and Port of Willapa Harbor

Google Maps says it takes only an hour to drive from Long Beach to Raymond, Washington.  The time stamps on my camera show an hour-and-nine-minutes elapsed between my last Long Beach photo and the first Raymond photo.  But, I must say, my bladder was registering a much longer trip.  Seeing this port-a-potty sitting in a roadside "park" just before I got to Raymond was one of the most beautiful sights on the entire trip.

Raymond seemed a bit odd to me.  Route 101 was clumsily widened at some time.  I say clumsily because the highway is now wide enough to cut off the residential and commercial districts from one another, but not wide enough to have enough property for businesses along the highway.  However, as I was to learn a few days later it was at a house party in Raymond that Nirvana played their first show.

Long Beach, Big Frying Pan and Jake

There is a giant frying pan standing off the main drag of Long Beach, Washington pining for the days when it was the world's largest.  Across the street is Marsh's Free Museum, which is most famous for being the home of Jake, one of the world's most beloved half-man, half-alligator creatures.  Marsh's has just about everything inside.  In addition to the two-headed calf there is an eight-legged lamb.  Every purchase comes with a free sea shell.  It must have been a slow day when I was there because they gave me eight shells when I bought a couple of postcards.

Clam Guns!

They take their clam hunting seriously in Ilwaco, Washington.