A Day Off

All work and no play makes for a dull life.  Today we played.

When I left my sister Laurie after the family Christmas party she said let's get together before your surgery.  Well, you know how that goes.  Good intentions and all that.  So I emailed her a couple of weeks ago with an empty week on our calendar and told her to pick a day.  She and Arnie live in Winlock, about an hour and 45 minutes away from Seattle.  We agreed to meet in the middle, in Olympia,  at the Falls Terrace Restaurant,  for lunch.

This was the view from our table.

 We had a lovely lunch and good visiting, and then we went for a walk in Tumwater Park, along the Deschutes River, where the river cascades over Upper and Lower Falls.  

This was an early settling place in Oregon Territory before Oregon and Washington became states.  The falls supplied power for mills and industry.

 The large building in the background (above) is the now abandoned Olympia Brewery, which functioned here for many years.  The brewery whistle at shift changes regulated the neighborhood's coming and goings.  Tom lived in this neighborhood as a young child.  Construction of the noisy freeway above, drowned out down below by the rushing water, took out his old home a few years after they moved.

Tom and Arn walked and talked.

So did Laurie and I.

After our stroll, we had about an hour before Laurie and Arn had to go pick up grandsons from school.  They live here in Olympia.  We spent the time at an antique mall looking for treasures.

 I found some Shiny-Brites for Far Side.  I admit that I didn't know what these were a few weeks ago.  Just another example of how we learn from our blog friends.  Sorry.  I didn't buy them and ship them to you in 'Minnesnowda'. 

I also found a cache of McCoy pottery, but I resisted.  I already have many of these and now I restrict myself to a few on my "must have" list.  None of these were those.

Laurie and Arn went off to pick up grand kids and we hit another antique mall before ending up at a Starbucks for a refresher.

Then we went across the street and strolled around the grounds of the Old Capitol Building.

It now houses the Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction, the headquarters for Washington State Public Schools.  

On the grounds is a monument to John Rankin Rogers, an early governor and a champion of free public education. 

As it says here, he was the author of the Barefoot School Boy Law.  His favorite quote is very timely right now as our nation struggles to maintain our middle class and pull others up. 
I would make it impossible for the covetous and avaricious to utterly impoverish the poor. The rich can take care of themselves.