Travel Bug: An Evening 11 km Volksmarch in Mount Vernon, Washington

Today, we drove 250 miles on I-5 with a detour around Seattle on I-405. In Tacoma, I was quickly able to snap a picture of Mt. Rainier. It doesn't do it justice, but it's better than nothing.

Mt. Rainier as seen from I-5 in Tacoma, WA.

Traffic in Seattle was a mess. Only one lane of I-5 was open through downtown. Therefore, we went around on I-405. But I-405 had an accident with the resultant slowdown. We were happy to get around the Seattle metro area!

As we moved farther north, another huge peak revealed itself: Mt. Baker. It is completely covered in snow!

Mt. Baker in the Cascade Range.

Mt. Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest in back,
Snohomish River in front.

Beautiful tile art at the I-5 exit to Mt. Vernon.

After we set up on site #44 at Mount Vernon RV Park, I did two loads of laundry. The laundry room closed at 6 pm, but I was finished by 5:15 pm. We ate dinner and opted to do an 11 km Volksmarch of Mount Vernon, Washington, located on the Skagit River.

The town is named Mount Vernon in recognition of George Washington's Potomac River estate. It is known for its annual Tulip Festival Street Fair which is part of the Skagit Valley Tulip Festival. In addition to agriculture and tulips, tourism and a growing service industry support the local economy.

Our walk started at Ristretto's Coffee Lounge & Wine Bar in downtown Mount Vernon. We walked along the Skagit Riverwalk to Lion's Club Park.

Skagit Riverwalk in Mt. Vernon, Washington.

The smokestack below is a remnant of the former Carnation Milk Condensery built by Elbridge A. Stuart in 1906. The purpose of the condensery was to convert cow's milk which spoiled easily, into canned, condensed milk. The process included boiling off some of the water contained in the milk and adding sugar as a preservative to prepare the milk for canning. The process required huge amounts of steam to be released, and the smoke stack was built for that purpose. Today, the smokestack is a treasured symbol that pays tribute to the fertile farmlands and the beautiful tulip fields for which the Skagit Valley is so well known.

Tulip smokestack, Mt. Vernon, WA,
was created and painted by Esther
McLatchey in 1987; repainted in 2007.

We walked on city streets to the Kulshan Trail. The trail through the park was cool in the shade of huge fir trees. We turned off the trail at a large Oak Leaf Sculpture and entered neighborhood streets.

The route passed a cemetery, baseball field, school, multiple churches, and parks. Here are my impressions of this portion of the walk.

This husky loudly announced our presence.

A very upscale treehouse in a front yard.

This walking path passed the
cemetery and baseball field.

Immaculate Conception Roman Catholic Church.

Kiwanis Park below had a great kids' splash pad. It was full of moms and kids. There were plastic frogs on 3' tall poles. One of the moms was turning a frog, which sprayed water from its mouth, to soak her kid. They were all having a blast. My photos of the water feature were all blurry. Note: A much-needed restroom was available at the park!

It would be nice in the future to consider adding the Kiwanis Boardwalk Trail in Kiwanis Park to the Volksmarch.

I am standing next to "Butterfly," 2019.
Artist: Skagit Valley College Weld Club*.

[*The Weld Club is under the leadership of Mary Kuebelbeck, Nicholas Blodgett, Eddy Feliciano, and Kirus Krumins.]

The walk continued through more neighborhoods until we entered Hillcrest Park. This forested 30.75-acre park is located on a hill in the middle of Mount Vernon.

A gorgeous, ring-necked pheasant weather vane.

A carved sculpture at the entrance to
Hillcrest Park.

"Window," by Skagit Valley College Welding Club
with instructor Mary Kuebelbeck. Installed 2020.

The trail we took in Hillcrest Park.

There are tennis courts, pickleball courts, a playground, picnic tables, a lodge for special events, picnic shelters, restrooms, walking trails, gardens, a basketball court, and soccer and softball fields. A trail through the forest took us down the hill toward the historic downtown.

Mount Vernon water tower.

"Perrin's Herons," designed by Nancy O'Connor
and Mark Stender of Moon River Metal Works.

"Valley of Our Spirits," designed by
Jay Bowen**, a 20-foot metal sculpture
that rises over Mt. Vernon's Riverwalk.

[**Jay Bowen is a designer, local artist, and member of the Upper Skagit Tribe.]

The history of "Valley of Our Spirits" is interesting and worthy of a mention in my blog. This is from the online blog: JayBowen-art.com. Click on the link for the full history.

"Tulip Dance," by Jennifer Corio and Dave Frei.
[Photo by Bob Alton.]

Sculptures of a family of beavers in the
Riverwalk Plaza, Mt. Vernon, Washington.

A beautiful brick building on the Riverwalk
Plaza, Mount Vernon, Washington.

The light was fading, but there were murals to see. There weren't titles or artists on these murals, except for the big one, Rachel's HeART Art Camp Presents: "From these Waters," a program of Voices of the Children.***

Enjoy the creativity and beauty. Let's continue...

A number of these murals are in a street art alley.

Street art on the side of a Thai restaurant
in Mt. Vernon, Washington.

Street art on the side of a Thai restaurant
in Mt. Vernon, Washington

Cool brick and rock work.

Tulip engraved in a crosswalk.

"Grandpa and Me," by sculptor
Tracy Powell, 2005. Jasper Gates and
his grandson John Knox.

Most of the following mural is included in "From these Waters." I will include descriptions of the scenes.

***Rachel's heART is a program of Voices of the Children, held at YMCA OASIS Daylight Center [Mount Vernon, Washington], and is run in memory of Rachel Damski who escaped the holocaust as a teenager and migrated to the United States to start a new life and offer her family a safe environment to grow and prosper. At 80 years old, she began to paint for the first time. It benefited her life in indescribable ways and released trauma that she had been carrying in her psyche for several decades. She passed away in 2020 leaving a legacy and a dream that everyone, especially youth, would have the opportunity to benefit from the gifts of painting and creative expression. Hence, this inspiring camp is called Rachel's heART!

The mural is broken into parts with identifying numbers.

Each number represents a part of the mural.

This is reference #1. See below.

1. Reference to Rachel Damski (Germany) - Started painting at age 80. Her love for her children, this country, and the power of art is inspiration for this piece and it is dedicated to her memory.

2. Steam train - Reference to more than 40,000 Chinese immigrants who laid the tracks for the Transcontinental Railroad - the first East Coast to West Coast railway.

3. Logger - With seemingly endless stands of old-growth timber, Mount Vernon founders prospered by selling logs to the Bellingham Mill Company which provided steady work for new settlers.

#1, #2 and #3 - see above.
The logger is high up in the tree.

A street art fence perpendicular to "From
these Waters."

6. (ship - top left) - Reference to Norwegian settlers to the Skagit Valley, many of whom were fishermen.

7. Audrey Hepburn (Belgium) - Devoted much of her later life to UNICEF and was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom for her work as a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador.

8. Mayan Calendar - A reference to indigenous populations from Mexico and Central America.

9. Windmills - References to Dutch settlers to the Skagit Valley. At one time, Skagit Valley farmland was dotted with these windmills.

10. Fish - Reference to our local Native populations. The land we are standing on was once Skagit tribal fishing ground. It is for this reason the mural is titled From these Waters.

11. Farmworkers - Reference to our Latino population, some are farmworkers, who help drive our local economy. Others own businesses and employ more than 94,000 people statewide.

#6-#11.

12. Woman in yellow (at the bottom) - Maria (Oaxaca, Triqui) - Skagit Valley farmworker painted by local artist, Alfred Currier, for more than 20 years.

13. Sputnik (by Einstein's mouth) - The first artificial satellite and a reference to the local Russian population in the Skagit Valley.

14. Albert Einstein (Germany) - Best known for his Theory of Relativity, he received the Nobel Prize in Physics and his discoveries advanced quantum theory.

15. Horses - A reference to Ben Hur, symbolic of the contribution of the many Hollywood moguls who immigrated from Europe.

16. Log jam (under the windbreak) - Reference to the earliest recorded, non-Native settlers in Mount Vernon, Jasper Gates and Joseph Dwelley, who likely stopped here because they couldn't get farther upriver.

18. Native horse - Working alongside the other horses, this one is unbridled, representing the freedom native peoples should possess in the land they initially inhabited.

19. San Juan Islands (above the horses) - Originally inhabited by peoples of the Coast Salish ethnolinguistic group, again paying homage to indigenous peoples and our beautiful landscape.

20. Nawal el Saadawi (Egypt) (on horseback) - Feminist, writer, physician, and psychiatrist, she is founder of the Arab Association for Human Rights, imprisoned in Egypt, and taught at the University of Washington.

#12-16, #18-20.

17. Yoko Ono (Japan) - Artist, peace activist, singer, songwriter, feminist.
John Lennon (England) - Singer, songwriter, activist.

#17 - Yoko Ono and John Lennon.

21. Rock and Roll Hall of Fame - Reference to Architect I. M. Pei (China) who designed this building, the inverted Pyramids at the Louvre, and many other well-known buildings worldwide.

#21 - Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland.

22. Charlie Chaplin (England) - John Rankin, US House of Representatives, said, "Chaplin's very life in Hollywood is detrimental to the moral fabric of America." Why?

#22 - Charlie Chapin (Bob snuck
in there, too!).

23. Legson Kayira (Malawi) - Walked barefoot across Africa in an attempt to reach the USA to further his education. Studied at SVC and UW and became a writer - I Will Try is most well-known.

24. Sandbags - As Mount Vernon developed along the Skagit River, growing rapidly with the logging industry, the need to protect against floodwaters was a yearly ritual in town.

#23 Legson Kayira &
#24 Sandbags.

4. John Muir (Scotland) - A naturalist, author, environmental philosopher, glaciologist and early advocate for the preservation of wilderness in the United States.