Happy Together Tour 2014 Hits Jackpot At Snoqualmie Casino

No summer is complete, in my opinion, without watching an outdoor concert, and to lead this season off, we headed East to Snoqualmie to watch the Turtles and a group of guests on this year's version of the Happy Together Tour.  A young at heart crowd  was singing, clapping, and dancing to songs bringing back memories of a first date, prom, graduation, or lunchtime on the oldies station. 
The concert started off with Gary Lewis And the Playboys, a mega hit maker in the 60s until Lewis went in the Army, squashing his career.  Mitch Ryder was next doing classics like "Devil With The Blue Dress On".  Mark Farner (bottom picture in blue shirt), once the lead singer of Grand Funk, took the stage, he looked older in years, but young in spirit, moving across the platform like a teenager.  An artist I hadn't heard of, Chuck Negron, was better known as a member of 1970s  hit machine 3 Dog Night, (middle picture) sang a sample of  the Dog's great hits.
Rounding out the show was the headline group, The Turtles.  Howard Kaylan and Mark Volman have lead the band and have been it's mouthpiece since it's inceptions.  They combine memorable hits like "Eleanor" "She'd Rather Be With Me", and the rock classic, "Happy Together" with a Smothers Brothers type comedy shtick that made them a popular booking on mainstream variety shows of the 1960s.
Next week, we "journey" to the White River Amphitheatre to see Journey and Steve Miller in concert.

LeBron Going Back To Cleveland

NBA all star Lebron James has announced that he is returning to the Cleveland Cavaliers.  You can check details here.

Cool Things To Ship At The UPS Store In Crossroads

We were able to pick up this pinball machine at it's location in Bellevue which we had crated  and shipped by freight to San Francisco.  For information on Pick Ups for packing and shipping around around the Bellevue-Redmond area, call 425-746-6880

More Great Pictures From The Needle

A couple more pictures from last night.

Dining At The Needle

Deb and I celebrated our 19th anniversary last night with dinner at Sky City, the restaurant at the top of the Space Needle.  Although the Needle is well over 50 years old, it retains it shows little signs of age. 
The seating area of the restaurant rotates a making a full 360 degree rotation every 47 minutes. 
The original name of the restaurant was "The Eye Of The Needle" It was known for having prices as high as it's 500 foot altitude.  Today, the prices are about equal to any fine restaurant in the area.
The views from the restaurant were stunning.    When we finished, we walked up to the observation deck.  It was crowded with tourists from all over the world.   There was a mini-museum there with historical pictures and artifacts.  There is a gift shop at the base. 
We had our rehearsal dinner at the skyline dining area (the new addition to the needle at 100 feet, built in 1982) in 1995 and we had been to the observation deck many times.  It was however Deb's first time to the Restaurant and my first time since going there with a couple buddies in 1978.  We thank Deb's Grandma for giving us a gift card for Sky City.

Seager Makes All Star Squad

It has been announced that Mariner 3rd baseman Kyle Seager will play in his first All Star Game.  Seager is hitting .274 and has been a defensive stalwart for the M's.  He joins teammates Robinson Cano and Felix Hernandez on this year's squad..

Walla Walla TV Memories--Uncle Jimmy's Clubhouse

Walla Walla did not have a TV station, but we did have stations from Tri Cities and Spokane.  Eventually with the advent of Cable, we were able to get Seattle and Vancouver, BC.  One of the more memorable children shows was Uncle Jimmy's Clubhouse.  We saw it on KEPR, out of Pasco. It actually originated from KIMA in Yakima.  Children would appear on the show on or near their birthday.   If a child was not able to be on the show their name would be read from the birthday book.  Sponsored by Darigold, a regional milk distributor, one lucky child got to drive a miniature milk truck.  Uncle Jimmy was Jimmy Nolan, a WSU grad who had worked at KUJ in Walla Walla in 1940.  He would host the show, as well as do news at the station from mid 1950s to the late 70s.

Mariner Fans Seeing Improvements

The Mariners are at 48 wins and 39 losses, third in the American League West.  After the Seahawks won the Super Bowl, it was widely thought that the M's, which had been off the Seattle sports radar for almost a decade, would stumble through another long hopeless season.  This year however, it is clear that the years of futilitty may soon be over. The M's have been hanging in, even after a couple of losing streaks and have even shown some power at the plate. 
So, my conclusion is that we should enjoy the season improvements and not worry about the chance for a late season fade.  The M's face the White Sox today to conclude a three game series in the Windy City.

Happy 4th Of July

4th Of July With Seattle Radio Icon Pat O'Day

Celebrating the 4th Of July. Seattle Style

Beautiful Summer Night In Maple Valley

We love eating dinner out on the deck in the summer.  This was taken just as the sun was setting, my favorite time.

Area Temperature Shoots Up

Puget Sound area temperatures are expected to cool to the upper 70s today.  The thermometer hit 94 yesterday breaking records for that date.  It  was a busy day at our store, so there was not much chance to get a break from the heat.  Luckily, air conditioning was working properly.

THE CHASE by Janet Evanovich & Lee Goldberg (Commercial)

What I'm reading now.  This summer beach read is actually better than The Heist, the first Evanovich Goldberg best seller.

The Turtles Bring Act To Area

They were on every teen show in the 60s.  Los Angeles based band, The Turtles, are coming to the Snoqualmie Casino on July 11th.  For information on the show, go to www.snocasino.com .  The two leaders of the group, Howard Kaylan and Mark Volman, were also part of the Mothers Of Invention group, led by Frank Zappa. 

The group was mentioned in passing by The Boss, Bruce Springsteen during the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame induction of the E Street Band.

If that doesn't do it for you, the concert will also feature such living legends as Mitch Ryder, Gary Lewis And The Playboys, Mark Farner and much more.

Howard Kaylan makes his home in the Seattle area.

Sheryl Crow - Summer Day

Another Great Summer Song

Hope For World Class Local Area Athlete

We should be proud to have Hope Solo living in the area, she is a two time Olympic gold medal winner.  She is a lifelong Washington state resident, growing up in Richland, attending the University of Washington and playing for the hometown Seattle Reign Women's Soccer team.  She is considered one of the best goalkeepers in the game.  She was also a contestant on Dancing With The Stars, one of the few if any contestants to clearly identify with the Seattle area.
With a very easy to remember name and being a top female athlete comes challenges, incidents that would maybe be unnoticed by news media become big stories when a well known figure is involved.  We are saddened to hear of Hope's current troubles and hope (no pun intended) that she can get proper support to give this story a happy ending.

End Of An Era At Temple B'Nai Torah

Rabbi James Mirel lead his last Shabbat service this weekend.  Mirel is retiring after holding the positiion of senior rabbi at Temple B'Nai Torah for 29 years.
We met Rabbi Mirel after our engagement in 1994, I was not affiliated with any temple  and approached him to see about officiating at our  ucoming wedding.  We attended a Friday night service at the temple, then located on Mercer Island and was inspired by the welcomeness and the spirituality.  As things turned out, we had a different rabbi, along with a minister offiate at our wedding, but I knew that we would join TBT,  which would soon move to the Crossroads area of Bellevue.
Rabbi Mirel would fly to Walla Walla in 2009 to officiate at my brother's wedding.

Summer Breeze - Seals & Croft #1 Hit(1972)

It's Summer!

More Spokane

We were only in Spokane for a couple of days, but had so much fun, it generated at least 4 blog posts. My cousin took this picture of me going down the slide at the Red Lion Hotel swimming pool.  This was Saturday afternoon, right after getting out of the convention.  Refreshments are served poolside.

The Vietnam War Memorial--Spokane

While walking through Riverfront Park in Spokane, I came across a beautiful statue.  It was the Vietnam War Memorial dedicated to the soldiers from the area who lost their lives in the conflict.