The days are short and wet but there is plenty happening in Southwest Washington during January. No need to hunker down. Get out there and get involved!

January 2012 - It’s ALL happening at the 13 Fort Vancouver Regional Library District branches. Here is the FVRL January Schedule of Events.

Rusty Grape Vineyards

January 14 - Battle Ground Wine Loop – Noon to 5 p.m. This wine tour includes Heisen House Vineyards, Olequa Cellars and Rusty Grape Vineyards, where live music will start at 7 p.m. This will be a regular event on the second Saturdays of the month.

SOLD OUT! January 14 – The 2nd Annual Martin Luther King Breakfast will be held from 9 a.m. to 11 a.m. at the Red Lion at the Quay, 100 Columbia Street, in Vancouver. the event theme is The Collaborative Society. Featured speakers are Jaymes Winters, CEO Blue Leopard Capital; Sarah Mensah, SVP, Portland Trailblazers; and Dr. James Mason, Exec Director, Cultural Caregiving, Providence. There will also be musical performances by Deborah Kimbrough, Gail Thomas and Violinist Shania Watts. This year’s event promises to be as inspirational as the 2011 breakfast. The event is hosted by Mosaic Blueprint. To purchase a ticket, click here.

January 14-15 - Windless Kite Festival, Long Beach School Gymnasium, Washington and 4th St South. It doesn’t take a windy day to fly a kite. Demonstrations and competitions last two days.

Saturday January 14th
10 – 11:30 am Demonstration Show
2 – 3:30 pm Indoor Ballet Competition
3:30 – 5 pm Free Flying & Lessons for all ages

Sunday January 15th
11 – 12 am Indoor Hot Tricks
12 – 1:30 pm Demonstration Show
1:30 – 2:30 pm Grand Finale

The gym is open for participant practice, demonstrations, and indoor flying lessons Saturday and Sunday from 8am to 5pm except during Performance Times. Admission: Donation

The Blacksmith Shop at Fort Vancouver

January 21 – Fort Vancouver Lantern Tour - A lantern tour of the Fort gives you a true sense of what the long winter nights were like for John McLoughlin and his crew. Costumed interpreters are on site for this popular event. The cost is $10 for adults and $7 for children under 15 years of age. Reservations are required. To make a reservation, call the Fort Vancouver Visitor Center at 360-816-6230.

January 21-22 – First Long Beach Peninsula Razor Clam Dig of the Year! - Dates are always tentative but the Washington State Department of Fish and Wildlife has announced digs on evening tides at Long Beach, Twin Harbors, Copalis and Mocrocks. Licenses are required. No clamming is allowed before noon. Go here to read a past ZEST blog post on clamming. For details read the official WDFW announcement. Here are the rules and regulations.

January 21-22 - Antique and Collectible Show, Clark County Events Center. Saturday 9-6, Sunday 10-5 Admission is $6 – Good for both days. More than 400 booths of collectibles!

January 22 – Legends of Mexico-Leyendas de Mexico at 2 p.m. Columbia Theatre in Longview offers a delightful Rainy Day Series, which is family-friendly entertainment in the beautifully restored theatre. Nuestro Canto shares legends from all over Mexico and has composed music especially for the legends narrated during their performances. Tickets are only $5 and available here.

January 26-28 – Clark College Jazz Festival – This is the 50th year of the Clark College Jazz Festival! The Festival hosts more than 60 middle school and high school vocal and instrumental jazz ensembles in a three-day celebration of jazz. Gaiser Hall will be THE most musical site in Clark County during this renowned festival!

January 29 - 2nd Annual National Unpublished Writers’ Day Workshop at the Clark County Historical Museum. noon – 5 pm.

National Unpublished Writers’ Day is an annual event held in partnership between the Clark County Historical Museum, the Writing Center at Washington State University Vancouver, the Creative Media & Digital Culture Program at Washington State University Vancouver. The event highlights The Brautigan Library Collection at the Museum, Washington-born writer Richard Brautigan who conceived the idea for a library where anyone could contribute unpublished books, regardless of content or quality of writing, and all those folks who wish to create or communicate through writing.

The free event will feature a series of “creative stations” and workshops around the Museum, each offering different opportunities to learn or experience something associated with different aspects or kinds of writing.

Lion Dance from the FVRL 2010 Chinese New Year Celebration

January 29 – Chinese New Year Celebration – 2:30 p.m. to 4 p.m. – Vancouver Community Library – Gung Hay Fat Choy! The new downtown library will be the site of this year’s lively Chinese New Year celebration in Vancouver. This is a wonderfully colorful, all-ages festival that will include Chinese New Year customs and history. Performances include singing, dancing, martial arts demonstration, Gu Zheng (Chinese musical instrument) and lion dance, which will be performed by the Portland Lee’s Association Lion Dance Team. Craft activities are available on Level 3 after the program. ZEST visited the 2010 Chinese New Year Celebration and had a great time! For more information, call 699-8831.

January 28-29 – Vancouver Symphony Orchestra – Vancouver’s excellent symphony features offers acclaimed violinist Francisco Garcia-Fullana playing he Sibelius Violin Concerto. The symphony will also perform Eugen Onegin: Polonaise by Tchaikovsky and Symphony No. 3 by Tchaikovsky with the passionate Salvador Brotons conducting. The Saturday performance is at 2 p.m. and Sunday evening’s concert begins at 7 p.m. at the Skyview Concert Hall. Individual tickets are available here. Better yet, buy the new three concert package!

I only went out for a walk and finally concluded to stay out till sundown, for going out, I found, was really going in. ~John Muir

December 26, 2011. The weather is gray and thick with the usual probability of rain. With the passing of another Christmas (accompanied by too many cookies and glasses of rumified eggnog) and singing of Auld Lang Syne coming up, it’s a good day for a walk.

We’re back from Iceland where it was stunningly beautiful but too frigid to do much serious hiking. In our own backyard is the Ridgefield National Wildlife Refuge. Friends of the Ridgefield Wildlife Refuge also has an excellent Web site. No need for a passport or phrase book. A bird list is helpful, however. Ditto for waterproof boots (in case you accidently hike in the soupy grasslands like we did) and binoculars.

The route to the Refuge passes through the town of Ridgefield, which offers an excellent coffee break, either coming or going, at the Old Liberty Theater. About two miles down the road is the parking lot and the trailhead for the Carty Unit.

The Refuge has more than 5,000 acres under the Pacific Flyway. It’s an interstate highway for migrating waterfowl like trumpeter and tundra swans, sandhill cranes and seven sub-species of geese. Egrets and great blue herons linger year-round. This is the area where, in November 1805, Captain William Clark recorded a sleepless night in his journal due to the all-night cacophony of waterfowl.

Reading about the historic site at the trailhead.

After paying the $3 per party entrance fee at the parking lot, hiking in the Carty Unit begins with displays about the Cathlapotle Plankhouse, which has been re-created in the Refuge. Lewis and Clark documented 14 plankhouses in 1805. The Plankhouse is closed in winter but the exterior is visible.

The Cathlapotle Plankhouse

The Refuge offers straight trails and loops, which wind past stunning white oak trees wrapped in feathery lichen. Young ferns nurse in the air on branches covered in moss. Doug fir trees and spruce complete the woods which are heaped with native plants like Oregon grape and another checklist of understory plants.

A few photos of the Refuge:

The start of the trail.

A good hike for families.

Birdwatching in the grassland.

Ducks and a lone heron.

Ferns in the air.

Teasel.

Massive beaver lodge.

Egret on the hunt.

In flight.

One of the resident songbirds.

Green on green in the understory.

A surreal feathery world of moss and lichen.

It’s time to remember 2011 and celebrate 2012. In the words of John Muir, “In every walk with nature one receives far more than he seeks.” May you have many encounters with nature in the New Year.

It’s 7 a.m. on a Saturday morning. Most Southwest Washington residents are snoozing. Not so for Sam, Buddy and Jesse. Ditto for Pink and Gidget. The Ross Off-Leash Dog Recreation Area in Vancouver is animated with wide-awake canines and, of course, their owners.

The 8-acre park is managed by DOGPAW, the Dog Owners Group for Park Access in Washington. The group’s Mission is “to work with dog owners and the community at large to promote awareness and acceptance and to increase the availability for safe off leash areas for dogs in Clark County.” Located on BPA Complex grounds at NE Ross St and NE 15th Ave, the park offers a large, hilly off leash area with walking trail and collection of benches, plus an adjacent park for smaller dogs.

The owners may be walking the dogs, but the dogs are exercising their masters, too. Many a dog owner has gotten in shape following his or her hound up and down the hilly park. Some walk the 3/4 mile loop multiple times for a human workout.

So who is out there?

Bruce and Sam

Sam

Don and Pink

Pink

Buddies

7:30 a.m. - Surrounded by dogs

Pink and Gidget, who longingly looks out from the small dog area

Where are the sheep?

Hanging out in the flowers

Kings and queen of the bark dust hill

Buddy of Buddy and Bosco

Bosco looking for friends

Love in the dog park: Bosco finds Sparky

8 a.m. - More canines and companions hit the trail

Pure joy...

“The reason a dog has so many friends is that he wags his tail instead of his tongue.” (author unknown)

Enough said.

“Dance, even if you have nowhere to do it but your living room.” Kurt Vonnegut

Where do preconceived notions come from? I recently started thinking about the plethora of ballrooms and big band dances of the 1930s, 40s and 50s. I thought of generations of couples spending their Saturday nights jitterbugging, doing swing, forming line dances… My own parents met at the Tromar Ballroom in Des Moines. I wouldn’t even be here without a dancing couple who met for the first time on a cold January night in Iowa! It seemed like that was all gone.

I was so wrong.

When I saw the poster for the Senior Prom at Vancouver’s Luepke Center, I thought, “That is so nice. Once a year, our older generation can relive the past.”

Senior Prom at the Luepke Center in Vancouver

Once a year? Hah! Some of the participants graciously set me straight.

Dance lives at Luepke Center. There are monthly Sunday afternoon dances with live music. That’s just the start. Evening dances are held, too. And, my informants pointed out, there are more dances on Mondays, Wednesdays and Thursdays at 10:15 am. No wonder there is a permanent disco ball hung at Luepke Center. On top of that, there are afternoon dances at Firstenburg Community Center. I’m exhausted thinking about it. When do these people rest?!

Ready for action

So back to the Senior Prom. Forget the stretch limos and prom court. This event was about the dancing. “There are a lot of people who didn’t get to go to their senior prom,” Barbara told me. “This means a lot. We have a lot of fun.”

The evening began with local celebrity hosts serving dinner fixed by Clark County Skill Center youth. Corsages were distributed. Prom photos were taken.

Dinner at the prom

Guest server Kelly Punteney

Guest servers Vicki Vanneman and Larry Smith

Formal portraits

Skill Center chefs

Corsages

Dessert

And then, do not get in the way, the music started…

Let the dancing begin

Burning off dinner

Polished dancers take the floor

Dancing to the Stardusters

Pure joy

The tuxes and formal dresses may be put away until next year’s prom, but not the dancing shoes. This generation won’t be hanging them up soon.

Can it really be the second half of the year? Where did the first half go? Now that the weather is drier and warmer (we hope), there are LOTS of opportunities to celebrate the summer. Here are a few to consider for the FIVE weekends in July:

July 4 - There are WAY too many events happening to cover the 4th of July celebrations. Vancouver is famous for its massive 4th at the Fort. Just about every Southwest Washington community has an event. Pick one!

Johnny Limbo and the Lugnuts

July 8-9 – North Bonneville Gorge Days Head out SR14 to North Bonneville for a Friday Night Sock Hop, Hot Rod Cruise and BBQ. Saturday features a Pancake Breakfast and is followed by a full day of food, arts & crafts and a free concert in the park featuring Johnny Limbo & The Lugnuts.

July 8-10 – Amboy Territorial Days Celebration – Three days of everything from pancake breakfasts to lawn mower races to a community parade to a logging show and more. Visit the Web site for a complete schedule.

July 9th – Magenta Improv Theater (MIT) presents its own version of “Whose Line is it Anyway…” This downtown Vancouver theater group really knows how to have fun with family-friendly events.

July 15-17 – Battle Ground Harvest Days - The event features a parade, lawnmower races, carnival rides, a beer garden, a root beer garden, musical entertainment, dances, bingo, talent show, chili cooking contest, ballroom fest, food. What more could you want?

Hot rods and classic cars line Main Street

July 16 – Cruisin’ the Gut – Classic cars and their passionate drivers cruise from the Dairy Queen in Uptown Village to 6th and Main in Downtown. Take a lawn chair and stake out a viewing point along the route.

July 16 – “Nights in White Salmon” Art and Wine Fusion – Downtown White Salmon will be transformed into a car-free, lively Street Fair with artists, local wines and beers, kid friendship activities, a salmon cook-off, five regional bands and lots of shops and galleries.

Trout Lake Festival of the Arts - Photo by Kira Fogerty

July 16 – 17 – Trout Lake Festival of the Arts - Fifty-five artists are jury selected to display fine art in the rustic barn, outdoors, or garden setting. In addition to the art, visitors enjoy continuous live music, an outstanding variety of foods, local brews and wine. There is no admission fee and plenty of free parking. And Mt. Adams will provide a stunning back drop!

The new Vancouver Community Library photo © 2011 Benjamin Benschneider All rights Reserved.

July 17 – Grand Opening of the Vancouver Community Library - Be still, my heart, our new Vancouver Community Library is opening! The event starts with speeches at 1 p.m., following by the ribbon cutting at about 1:40 p.m. and a fabulous library to explore, including an amazing 4,000 sf Early Learning Center, until 6 p.m. This is a WONDERFUL addition to downtown Vancouver and will be open seven days a week!

July 20-24 - SandSations Sand Sculpture Contest - Long Beach. Free lessons on Friday followed by a beach bonfire. Four hours of sculpting on Saturday.

July 22-23 – Camas Days – Games for kids, arts and crafts booths, and the famous Wine & Microbrew Street with live, musical entertainment.

July 23 – Sip and Stroll – This great walking wine tour will feature local wineries and microbrews, served in the shops of Uptown Village. Hough Foundation is the beneficiary. Fun event!

July 28-30 – Ho`ike and Hawaiian Festival - “Three days of aloha,” sponsored by Ke Kukui Foundation. A special performance of the historical drama”Ka Lei Maile Ali`i: The Queen’s Women” will be offered at 10am. Thousands attend this colorful festival for the Hapa Haole music, competitions, dancing, food and more.

Girls rule the roost on the Coop du Jour Tour

Ready to hit the road? Thanks to guest blogger, Joe Laing of El Monte RV Rentals for providing this post:

Southwest Washington is made for touring. You’ll want to begin your tour with Vancouver – just as if you were an early American pioneer exiting the Oregon Trail. In Vancouver, you can begin your journey with a dose of history at the Fort Vancouver National Historic Site.

Baking hardtack at Fort Vancouver

To get here (from the south), take I-5, exit 1-C (Mill Plain Boulevard), drive east, and follow the signs. Fort Vancouver was once the center of the British Hudson Bay Company’s network of fur trading posts. But it also became the site of the region’s first hospital, school, mill, and shipbuilding. Today, the site encompasses the Fort Vancouver National Historic Reserve, where you can go on guided tours. Next to the Fort, Pearson Air Museum is also well-worth a visit.

Once you’re in Vancouver, you really can’t leave until you’ve taken the time to drive east along the Columbia River Gorge Scenic Byway, from Washougal (just east of Vancouver) to Maryhill, unless you really did just come from Oregon and spent time there along Oregon’s Historic Columbia River Highway, which runs parallel to it on the other side of the river. You’ll need to budget at least a day for this trip, however, as it will take you more than two hours of driving time to reach Maryhill, and another two hours to return to the Vancouver area. But what a beautiful and relaxing drive! Once you reach Maryhill, you can visit the Maryhill Museum of Art, or, if you are a wine connosieur, the famous Maryhill Winery.

The stunning terrace at Maryhill Winery

If you arrive in a summer month, you may manage to make it to one of Maryhill Winery’s summer concerts. (The 2011 season will feature Yes & Styx, Gipsy Kings, and Michael McDonald & Boz Scaggs.) Maryhill is also the site of a World War I memorial which was built as an exact replica of Stonehenge.

You may want to plan on camping in Maryhill, at Columbia Hills State Park, which is RV-friendly, so that you can take your time and explore the area, perhaps making short trips across the river, as well. Columbia Hills is well worth your time – you’ll be able to see ancient Native American petroglyphs and walk the Tamani Pesh-wa Trail. There are more than 12 miles of hiking trails here, and you can also go boating, sailboarding, rock climbing, swimming, or even play horseshoes. At night, take some time to observe the night sky – this is a beautiful area in which to see the stars.

Sailboarding on the Columbia River

On the way to or from Maryhill, depending on your schedule, stop in Stevenson at the Columbia Gorge Interpretive Center Museum. This is the place to go if you have an RV full of fidgety kids. In addition to the museum’s extensive indoor historical exhibits, kids can climb into a historic diesel locomotive outside. In addition, you may want to take time to see the Bridge of the Gods, the third oldest bridge on the Columbia River.

Columbia Gorge Interpretive Center

Leaving Vancouver again (or leaving the first time, if you choose to skip the trip to Maryhill), drive north on I-5 and take exit 14 (Pioneer St./Washington 501 W) for Ridgefield, where you can visit the Ridgefield National Wildlife Refuge. Here you will find not only a beautiful flood plain habitat (watch for sandhill cranes!), but also the townsite of Cathlapotle, which was visited by Lewis and Clark in 1806.

Cathlapotle Plankhouse

You can hike through the refuge or take the four-mile car tour. [Don't miss this ZEST post by Sarah Coomber on hiking with children in the refuge.]

Getting back on I-5, head for Silver Lake (get off at exit 49, Castle Rock). If you enjoy fishing or hiking, you may want to spend some time here, and camp at Seaquest State Park. To reach the visitor center, head east on 504, but don’t limit yourself to Sequest’s own visitor center – if you continue east, you’ll reach the Mount St. Helens Forest Learning Center. If you’d like an alternate route to Mount St. Helens, you can exit I-5 at exit 21 near Woodland, but that route won’t take you to the visitor’s center. The center is inside the blast zone from the 1980 Mount St. Helens eruption, and includes an outdoor volcano playground and indoor virtual helicopter tour.

After May 15, when the road opens, you can proceed to the Johnston Ridge Visitor Center and Johnston Ridge Observatory.

The Road to Mount St. Helens

You can hike and climb in the Mount St. Helens area, but you will need to reserve a pass in advance, and you are required to stick to the trail. If you are old enough to remember the eruption, the trail will be amazing enough! If you aren’t old enough to remember the eruption, or would like a refresher, watch some archival footage before you get there. For a map of trails in the area, click here. If you are lucky enough to climb to the top of the crater, bring a dust mask – there is still occasional ashfall, and it isn’t good for your lungs.

From the Mount St. Helens area, you’ll want to head for the coast so you can see the sights that Lewis and Clark saw when they reached the Pacific. Head south again on I-5, but this time take highway 30 west toward the ocean. It will take you an hour or two to reach the Lewis and Clark National Historic Park, near Chinook. Continuing along the coast to Long Beach, Washington, about 200 feet above the surf itself, at Cape Disappointment State Park, you can visit the Lewis and Clark Interpretive Center.

The Lewis and Clark Interpretive Center

View from the Interpretive Center

Take as much time as you can to enjoy this beautiful area, where you can beachcomb, hike, and relax. You can camp at Cape Disappointment overnight.

Continuing north to Ilwaco, you can visit the Willapa National Wildlife Refuge, where you can see fresh and saltwater marshes and tidal estuaries. This is the place to go if you enjoy birdwatching – you can see pelicans, murrelets, bald eagles, great blue herons, and many other waterfowl and marsh birds.

Maybe you will have had enough driving by this point in your trip, but if you feel you just can’t leave Washington State without a trip to Mount Rainier, Washington’s highest peak, you can certainly make it – and it’s a glorious way to end your trip. Leaving the coast, get back onto I-5, exit at 68 (Morton/Yakima), and take US-12 E to WA-123 N. From here on east to Mount Rainier, the roads are closed seasonally, so check the dates when you plan your trip. Check the road status here. If you are taking the time to make the trip to Mount Rainier, plan on camping in the park and give yourself plenty of time to enjoy all that it has to offer.

You won’t want to leave Southwest Washington, so make sure that you give yourself plenty of time to poke around along the way-you’ll discover your own favorite locations and meet some of the friendliest people in the Pacific Northwest!

About the Author

Joe Laing is the Marketing Director for El Monte RV Rentals. For other great RV camping vacation ideas see the Monty’s Musings RV Camping Blog or the new
Monty’s RV Vacation Photo / Picture Gallery.