With one day left of the Washington and Oregon discovery part of this early fall trip, we spent the morning resting and reorganizing clothes, travel accessories, and “toys” for the Alaska Inward Passage cruise. Kay washed clothes, and we both repacked. Ralph and Debra took us on an auto tour of the Washington state capitol campus in Olympia; it is a large complex of many buildings, and kept very neat and clean. We then visited the Olympia Farmers Market where lots of vegetables, fruits, and assorted handmade items. 

From the Farmers Market it was off to the seafood market for dinner ingredients: oysters for eating raw and for frying, Dungeness crabs, mussels. 

And then it was off to one last hike, Mima Mounds Natural Area Preserve in Thurston County, Washington, near Olympia. Mima mounds are low, flattened, circular to oval, domelike, natural mounds that are composed of loose, unstratified, often gravelly sediment that looks like a ski slope with lots of moguls. These mounds range in diameter from about 10 feet to more than 150 feet; in height about 1 foot to greater than 6 feet; and in density from several to greater than 16 mounds per acre. Theories for the origin of these mounds vary, but there is no consensus among scientists. Have any of you heard of Mima mounds?

Debra, with assistance from Kay and Ralph, prepared a fantastic seafood dinner and Ralph paired the perfect wines to accompany this feast. She also made incredibly good sourdough cinnamon rolls/sticky buns. Did I say they were tasty! Now, we know how kings ate.