Let the Staycation begin...

stay·ca·tion

ˌstāˈkāSHn/

noun

informal

1. a vacation spent in one's home country rather than abroad, or one spent at home and involving day trips to local attractions.

I am am back from a quick trip to Oregon for a Memorial Service and a short visit with my parents and sister so it is time to commence with our STAYCATION plans for the remainder of my Spring Break. Don and I had hoped to vacation in some warm, sunny resort villa in California or Arizona but got no nibbles whatsoever on our RCI search. It is probably just as well, with Carly traveling to her graduate school interviews someone needs to be home to tend to our disabled dog. Don and I are planning a series of short day trips.

What will we do on our day trips? We hope to visit sites in Western Washington which are weird or curious. I found the book Washington Curiosities: Quirky Characters, Roadside oddities, and Other Offbeat Stuff in my library when I was completing my inventory of nonfiction books. In it are descriptions of all kinds of weird things to see around the state. Some of the things are natural phenomenons like the Mima Mounds near Tumwater just south of here. Other things relate to landmarks created in a by-gone era like the Java Jive, which is a building made to look like a coffee pot in Tacoma or the Bicycle Tree on Vashon island. While other things listed in the book relate to events which happen once a year like the Slug Fest at Northwest Trek Wildlife Park which happens in June.

So we are off to explore the weird and the quirky of our state. We may visit the Freemont Troll, shop in Ye Olde Curiosity Shoppe, take a coffee tour of an island, get a photo next to a gum wall, drink a pint of beer in a dive bar (Java Jive), and peruse a documents museum which has been right under of noses all these years without us knowing it was there. Who knows? We may find more odd things than those listed in the book...I'm guessing more are listed on the Internet. I will update this blog daily as to the weird and wonderful sites we find on our Staycation. So STAY tuned!