Category: Washington State

The Smith Tower – Seattle, Washington

On By mvschulzeIn 1910's, 1980's, Adventure, Art, Buildings, Exploring, Family, Observation, Perspectives, Photography, Pondering, Seattle, Sky Scrapper, Summer, Travel, Vacation, Washington State6 Comments

At forty-two stories, 462′ (141 m,) the Smith Tower was the tallest building in Seattle for fifty-five years, 1914 to 1969. On a vacation some years ago, we enjoyed the history of that building and climbing to the observation level near the top.

From the NW corner,  eleven-year old Steve stands before the Seattle Space Needle seen here to the north.

                      Eastern Elliot Bay forms the waterfront of Seattle.

And the view south is the old King Dome, which we thoroughly toured earlier, with the King Street Train Station (with tower) and I-5 in the distance to the left, here looking south

         Thanks for viewing, zoom in for a closer look and comments are always welcome. M 🙂

Swiss Army Knife meets Mt. St. Helens

On By mvschulzeIn 1980's, driving, Explore, Family, Geology, History, Mt. St. Helens, National;Parks, Photo, Photography, Pondering, Telephoto, Travel, Vacation, Volcano, Washington StateLeave a comment

         Lately, I seem to be hung up on Swiss Army Knives. See here.  Originally, in that post, I wanted to compare the enormous display with my real knife. Unfortunately,  I couldn’t find the knife. But …here it is. I had used it as contrast to the ash from the Mt. St. Helens explosion, nine years earlier.  The two pictures below, from our vacation in August, 1989, were taken on the banks of the Toutle River some 30 miles downstream from the catastrophic event which literally blew the top off the mountain.

ABOVE: A few miles east of the Mt. St. Helens Visitor Center in Washington State, Rt. 504 crosses the Toutle River, (located near “Toutle” on the satellite image below.)  BELOW: Topless Mt. St. Helens is visible from Interstate 5, about 35 miles away.


                    The Visitor Center is between “Castle Rock,” and “Toutle.

                     Thanks for viewing, and zoom in for a closer look. M 🙂