Daryl 
Odessa is a small town of 896 in central Washington that may be best known for its Deutschesfest thanks to the Volga Germans that moved here a century ago and named it after Odessa, Ukraine. According to the Odessa Wikipedia page, one of the highlights is Polka music is provided by the Oom Pas and … Read more
We almost drove past this town of 429 people on State Route 28, but at the last minute, I thought “let’s see what’s here,” and I’m glad we did! There’s not much going on in Harrington but for history buffs, there’s something to it. Driving down Harrington’s “main street” also known as North 3rd Street, … Read more
Cascade PBS (nee KCTS, Crosscut, Cascade Public Media) has a fantastic short-form show about fascinating history, mystery, and peculiarities of the Pacific Northwest. As a Cascade PBS sustaining member, I was invited to a sneak leak (that’s a typo but I’m going with it, lol) of the upcoming seasons at their Seattle HQ. See Pat … Read more
Here’s some vintage neon signs we’ve spotted around (mostly) the west!
October 6th after work we dropped off the 4Runner at the Concrete Beach at Magnuson, and then loaded the canoe on the hilariously small Crosstrek to drive the few blocks down to our local Lake City Beach Park for a one-way paddle. This was the first year we paddled anything from Lake City, and the … Read more
I love looking at Google Earth satellite images of far-away and remote places and dream about what it would be like to explore these isolated corners of the earth. Here are some musings about aviating in the Aleutian islands of Alaska. Akutan Akutan is a small fishing village, population ~1500 in the Aleutian islands northeast … Read more
While reading Jay Spenser’s highly recommended “The Airplane: How Ideas Gave Us Wings,” I learned that motorcycle and aviation pioneer Glenn Curtiss was the first seaplane pilot and considered the father of Naval Aviation! Of course, having recently earned my Airplane Single Engine Sea (seaplane) rating, I was thrilled to learn this! Curtiss was the … Read more
Got a couple days of “SDP” in last week on Lake Washington! The winds had some waves going so there was no way I was going to try to stand up, not to mention having a 70-pound DEG on the boat with me!
I bought a canoe! $150 for this old 17-foot Coleman! I’ve only been on a canoe THREE times in the last 25+ years since leaving Missouri where we used to go canoeing in the Ozark’s almost every weekend. Just a few days later we took it for its inaugural trip on the Lake Sammamish “River” … Read more
Here’s an alphabetical list of some airports that are potentially great for camping in the PNW. In addition to those, I leave you with a list of ones that are less desirable and the reasons I think as much, in case you’re wondering. In all cases, get yourself some earplugs from Loop, you might need … Read more
Katt and I last did “the Puyallup” soon after we started dating over a decade ago, and we went back in 2025 to check it out!
General Aviation lost another Seattle-area airport with the recent closure of the private Wax Orchards (WA69) strip located on Vashon Island here. 47.400182,-122.499415 I’m not a long-term local so I never got to fly into Wax Orchards or know any stories about it. Do you? If so please leave a comment below!! Air Nav archived … Read more
Here’s a list of selected soft-field runways available to the public in Washington state. Airports participating in Fly Washington Passport stamp are listed in bold. Runway surface is “TURF” unless otherwise indicated. Region Airport ID Runway length Elevation Northwest Bandera State 4W0 2344 x 100 1636 (Southwest) Cedars North W58 1960 x 50 275 Olympic … Read more
List of Seattle “area” venues by maximum seating/standing capacity:
This page contains lists of the shortest runways in Washington State by several variables: Note: Public on this page means publicly-available, whether the airport is publicly or privately owned. Shortest paved public runways in Washington state by Available Landing Distance (ALD) Rank Airport Runway Available Landing Distance (in feet) 1 First Air Field (W16) Monroe … Read more
After years of driving through Kenmore on the way to and from work, and years of watching the Beavers and Otters head back to base every evening, I finally did it- for my 53rd birthday I decided to pursue my seaplane rating, officially Private Pilot Airplane Single Engine Sea (ASES) at Kenmore, the most well-known … Read more
This, our third ski and soak vacation after our honeymoon to Iceland, and Montana with Brian and Caitlin. We skipped last year (2024) but were back to our old tricks, this time in central Oregon. For this ski and soak, we skied Willamette Pass and Ski Hoodoo and soaked at the natural McCreedie Hot Springs … Read more
Katt’s earliest memories were as a toddler on Kodiak Island where her dad was stationed in the Coast Guard, but had never been back. We decided to “break the mold” by doing a four-day trip to Anchorage in February 2025. Anchorage – Day 1 On day one we flew non-stop on Alaska Air to Anchorage, … Read more
US Highpoint #38! Eagle Mountain, Minnesota lies at 2,301 feet MSL and is ranked #37 in elevation among US Highpoints. I took advantage of a work trip to Mayo Clinic in Rochester MN to fly from MSP up to Duluth and then drive to the Eagle Mountain trailhead in January. Fortunately, the road to the … Read more
