Made-in-Washington attractions broach one-of-a-kind destinations

July 2, 2011

By Warren Kagarise

Greetings from Washington

Washington, land of Sasquatch and a Space Needle, is distinct any other.

Evergreen State travelers can find kitchenware fit for King Kong, celebrations dedicated to unglamorous plantation line and roadside oddities pulled from a Ripley’s Believe It or Not! beam squirreled in corners nearby and far.

“Washington Curiosities” and “Washington Icons” author Harriet Baskas pronounced embankment explains during slightest some of a strangeness.

“You’re on a corner of a country, you’re out here and there’s still that colonize spirit,” she said.

Summertime offers a possibility to tour to unusual attractions not as apparent as Mount Rainier or Lake Chelan. Discover 10 attractions off a beaten trail — though certainly done in Washington.

Long Beach

World’s Largest Frying Pan

OK, so some-more than a half-dozen places in a United States explain a world’s largest frying pan, though a 9-foot, 6-inch hole incarnation in Long Beach, a city awash in traveller traps (Jake a Alligator Man, anyone?), is a contingency see.

Sequim

Sequim Lavender Festival, Jul 15-17

Turns out sun-splashed Sequim — severe continue is taboo in city due to a metropolitan bidding — binds a largest lavender-related eventuality on a continent. Come July, farms open for festivalgoers to collect perfumed blooms.

Longview

Nutty Narrows Bridge

Longview is, atonement a pun, nuts about squirrels. So, in a 1960s, a internal builder assembled a overpass for a nut-toting rodents. The cessation overpass spans 60 feet opposite a bustling thoroughfare. Townsfolk even accoutre a overpass for holidays. Oh, nuts.

Winlock

World’s Largest Egg

Winlock used to arrange as a vital egg writer and, decades ago, townsfolk erected a 1,200-pound egg to simulate a accomplishment. The community celebrates a scrambled and sunny-side-up birthright during a Egg Days Festival any summer.

Seattle

Hat n’ Boots

The humongous Hat n’ Boots in a Seattle park resembles Western wear left behind by Paul Bunyan. The rigging used to accoutre a Wild West-themed gas station. Now, a easy Hat ‘n’ Boots saddle adult inside Oxbow Park in South Seattle.

Maryhill

Stonehenge Memorial

Neolithic people did not build a appearing structure on a steep along a Columbia River and Druids did not reason tellurian sacrifices among a mill slabs. Instead, a relic honors Klickitat County soldiers mislaid in World War I.

Zillah

Teapot Dome

Standing 15 feet high and sporting a hoop and a spout, a not-so-little teapot-shaped structure is a former use station. Zillah skeleton to revive a teapot — built in a 1920s to criticism a domestic liaison — into a tourism information center.

Granger

Hisey Park

Tyrannosaurus rex roams Granger, a dot on a map in Yakima County. Starting in 1994, a city combined dinosaur sculptures — triceratops, pterosaurs and a like — in Hisey Park and other spots. Main Street even facilities a volcano-shaped restroom.

Walla Walla

Walla Walla Sweet Onion Festival, Jul 16-17

Georgia claims amiable Vidalia onions, Hawaii boasts mellow Maui onions though in Washington, Walla Walla honeyed onions power supreme. The lineup during this festival includes onion-inspired dishes — no word nonetheless on nominal exhale mints — and onion decorating à la Mr. Potato Head.

Pullman

The National Lentil Festival, Aug. 19-20

The artless lentil does not seem like much, a nutritious-but-blasé side plate from a Moosewood Cookbook, maybe. But Pullman is nestled among a rolling Palouse, home to one-third of a United States’ lentil prolongation — something value celebrating.

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