Adventures abound for boys and girls in scouting groups
July 2, 2011
Dads are on the losing end of a tug-of-war against 16 Cub Scouts at Hans Jensen Park. By Greg Farrar.
Despite decades of history in America, Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts still endure narrow views of their efforts.
The girls are famous for their cookie sales, the boys for their camping trips. That sometimes plays against them.
“A common misconception is that all Girl Scouts do is sell cookies,” said Julie Wendell, with the Girl Scouts of East King County. “The leadership opportunities, travel experiences and wonderful programs offered by Girl Scouts go way beyond selling cookies.”
Similar troubles beset the boys.
“A misconception is that Boy Scouts is for suburban white kids. And we don’t do programs for people of other ethnic backgrounds, and that all we do is tie knots and go camping,” said Sharon Moulds, with the Chief Seattle Council of the Boy Scouts of America, which encompasses all of King County.
Come summertime, backyard beekeepers reap sweet rewards
July 2, 2011
Carniolan honeybees scamper in and out of a beehive after retrieving pollen from plants near beekeeper Peter Jarvis’ home. By Greg Farrar
The pastoral landscape surrounding Issaquah is not quite the biblical Promised Land, but the area is rich in honey (if not milk) as beekeepers set up hives in area backyards and barnyards.
The buzz resumes each spring and summer as the daytime temperature nudges past 60 degrees and dandelions start to poke from the sodden soil. Then, all summer long, honeybees use assembly-line efficiency to gather pollen, and produce beeswax and liquid gold — prizes for amateur apiarists, or beekeepers.
Honey aside, backyard beekeeping continues to gain popularity as organic and urban farming trends attain mainstream success; gardeners opt for a back-to-nature approach; and beekeepers establish hives to counteract colony collapse disorder, a mysterious phenomenon responsible for countless honeybee disappearances since 2006.
The anemic economy also made a difference, as people started to rely on honeybees and mason bees, another species, to pollinate kitchen gardens and orchards — both cheap food sources.
Jerry Good established a beehive on 6.5 acres in May Valley a few years ago, and tended to honeybees pollinating apple, cherry, pear and plum trees on the land.
Darigold puts the butter in famous butter crunch toffee
July 2, 2011
Confectioner Brown & Haley uses butter from the Darigold dairy in Issaquah for Almond Roca. By Greg Farrar
Inside each pink-and-gold tin, Almond Roca includes a fundamental ingredient: butter from Darigold in downtown Issaquah.
The longtime Tacoma confectioner Brown & Haley obtains butter — about 90 percent — for treats from Pacific Northwest dairies. From the local butter, about 90 percent originates at Darigold in Issaquah.
Brown & Haley CEO Pierson Clair said the arrangement includes benefits such as local job creation, reduced environmental impact and taste, a crucial factor in the confectionary industry.
“The flavor of the Issaquah butter is really, really good,” Clair said. “Almond Roca is all about quality. Darigold Issaquah butter is all about quality, and therefore, it’s just a perfect supplier for us.”
The beloved confection remains unchanged since 1923, when Harry Brown and J.C. Haley dreamed up Almond Roca. Company lore claims a librarian selected “roca” — Spanish for “rock” — for the name as a nod to the crunchy center.
Issa-what? What’s a city dweller called, anyhow?
July 2, 2011
Washingtonian is simple enough, although the name requires Evergreen State residents and D.C. dwellers to claim joint custody.
However, pinning a name on Issaquah residents is not so easy, in part because the moniker is so unusual. Moreover, state and municipal records do not contain any official demonym — or name for a resident from a particular place — for citizens, other than the self-explanatory nods to Issaquah residents.
Issaquahite? The name could pass for a reference to the 10 Lost Tribes of Israel. Issaquahian? The name sounds more suitable for a “Star Trek” alien species than a suburbanite.
The most common name used for residents is, in fact, Issaquahn.
The designation is indeed rooted in history.
Issaquahn, sometimes spelled Issaquahan, started to appear in newspaper accounts as early as 1927 and continued to crop up again during the 20th century, although the name faded as decades marched on.
Perhaps the time is nigh for a revival.
Ahoy! Explore a sunken forest in Lake Sammamish
July 2, 2011
Branches poke from a sunken forest in Lake Sammamish. By Paul Scott
The pillars rise from Lake Sammamish, as large as whalebones and faded to a ghostly gray.
Embedded in the lake near Timberlake Park is a submerged forest heaved into the lake during a long-ago landslide and earthquake.
Kayak Academy and Issaquah Paddle Sports owners Barb and George Gronseth point out the landmark on frequent kayaking expeditions around Lake Sammamish. The primeval stumps poking skyward elicit strange looks from outdoor enthusiasts.
“They never believe me when I tell them there was a landslide,” Barb Gronseth said.
Indeed, the state Department of Natural Resources detailed the ancient earthquake on the nearby Seattle Fault — a shallow seismic zone stretched along the interstate from Puget Sound and east through lakes Washington and Sammamish. Geologists determined a major earthquake about 1,000 years ago dislodged old-growth forest from a hillside. The shifting land collapsed and slid into the lake.
Excuse me? Uncover fertile dirt behind Poo Poo Point’s name
July 2, 2011
The collection at the Issaquah Train Depot includes a steam donkey. File
The poo poo referenced in Poo Poo Point is not destined for the bathroom.
Instead, the designation for a ridge on Tiger Mountain nods to logging.
Loggers used a winch called a steam donkey to haul logs through Tiger Mountain forests to a loading point.
“There was a steam whistle set up that they would blow before they started pulling these logs through the forest at high speed, which was dangerous,” Issaquah History Museums Executive Director Erica Maniez said.
The high-pitched whistle on the steam donkey emitted a “poo poo” sound.
(The history museums’ collection includes a steam donkey parked outside the restored Issaquah Train Depot.)
Maniez said Poo Poo Point is a contemporary designation. The late William Longwell Jr., a longtime Issaquah Alps Trails Club member, described the tale behind Poo Poo Point in a guide to Tiger Mountain trails.
Still, uttering “Poo Poo Point” prompts giggles from outsiders and recent transplants.
2011 Winter Issaquah Living
February 15, 2011
Broadway beckons Village Theatre musicals
February 15, 2011
Musicals nurtured at Issaquah theater charm audiences and rack up awards in the Big Apple
Tony Award-winning actress Alice Ripley (center, seated) leads the ‘Next to Normal’ cast in a performance at the Arena Stage, the musical’s last stop before debuting on Broadway. By Joan Marcus
The brick-and-glass theater along a fashionable street in Oslo, Norway, seems like a strange place to re-create Yankee suburbia.
Onstage, “Next to Normal” — a rock musical fostered in Issaquah — is about to be performed. The story about a suburban — and quite American — family straining against mental illness has been translated into Norwegian for the international premiere.
The debut last September marked a milestone for the musical. “Next to Normal” had already stormed Broadway — earning Tony Awards and the 2010 Pulitzer Prize for Drama in the process.
Before the accolades and Oslo, “Next to Normal” emerged in a Village Theatre program designed to foster original musicals.
The long-running program has cemented the reputation of the downtown Issaquah playhouse as a cradle for Broadway.
Village Theatre cultivated “Next to Normal” and the jukebox musical “Million Dollar Quartet” from unpolished ideas to splashy Broadway musicals in recent years.
Blast off into outer space — without ever leaving the Eastside
February 15, 2011
A viewing audience reclines in theater seats to view the Milky Way galaxy projected on the Willard Geer Planetarium dome at Bellevue College. By Greg Farrar
Bellevue College offers excursions into the cosmos from the comfort of a planetarium seat
There are a thousand ways Armageddon could destroy life on earth, and all without the help of aliens.
During its 220-million-year rotation around the Milky Way, our sun could pass through a giant dust cloud, blocking the sun’s rays to earth and triggering an ice age that could last thousands of years. Or, a nearby star could die in a supernova explosion. Its energy could burn a hole in the ozone layer, exposing us to the sun’s radiation — rays that would fry everything in their path.
Both of these and more are covered in “Violent Universe, Catastrophes of the Cosmo,” narrated by Patrick Stewart — a movie that literally surrounds the viewer at Bellevue College’s Willard Geer Planetarium.
The college has much to brag about when it comes to its planetarium. Former physics instructor Willard Geer, who helped invent the color TV, provided the impetus for starting the planetarium during his years at the school, from 1968-75.
Up, up and away: Evergreen State peaks challenge climbers
February 15, 2011
John Junke, a supervisor at the Issaquah REI, poses at the summit of Mount Rainier. Contributed
Mount Rainier and other Evergreen State peaks challenge climbers of all skill levels
For skiing, go to Colorado. For surfing, grab a ticket to Hawaii. For mountaineering? You don’t have to go anywhere; you’re in Washington state — a veritable Mecca of peaks that many consider one of the best climbing locales in the country.
“You could spend the rest of your life in the Olympics and Cascades and not have climbed every peak,” said 60-year-old Joe Horiskey, a longtime climbing guide with RMI Expeditions. “There are so many rarely climbed peaks out there. I’ve been climbing for decades and haven’t even scratched the North Cascades personally.”
But just because you can do Tiger Mountain or Mount Si in your sleep doesn’t mean you’re ready for the big boys. And however tempting it might be to charge up Mount Baker in hiking boots and a fleece, there’s a certain amount of training necessary to make sure you get to the summit and then home safely to brag about your adventure to friends and family.
That training is a small investment in exchange for the experience of being on top of the world, said John Junke, a climber and supervisor at the Issaquah REI. Junke vividly recalls the site of the sun cresting over the horizon early in the morning on his first Mount Rainier climb.
