Olympia Family Theatre

Olympia Family Theatre

In 2006, two friends got together filled with inspiration to develop an areas where all age groups in the community can come together and enjoy themselves. That was when Jen Ryle and Samantha Chandler decided to create the Olympia Family Theatre bringing their commitment, love for theatre and passion to life. The Olympia Family Theatre started out small, gathering their friends for assistance and together they built this theatre from the ground up.

The Olympia Family Theatre is a registered organization by the state and works towards the aim of creating the best quality of theatre experiences that can be provided to the audience. To this day, the Olympic Family Theatre has produced more than 45 plays on their main stage, participated in three world premieres and have gone out of their way to contribute to the educational experiences for all age groups. The Olympic Family Theatre has also managed to grow so massively that enables them to provide tuition and scholarships towards their educational programs and participate in giveaways of almost 250 tickets annually. These free tickets are usually provided to the people in the community who dedicate their time to serve the youth and families in the city.

The main objective of the Olympia Family Theatre is to create a loving environment where ideas can run wild, instilling confidence into young minds. The programs offered at the theatre aims at teaching children how to think creatively and to be responsible, building them up towards their futures. The Olympia Family Theatre also provides educational programs to motivate the participation of teamwork, recognizing integrity and embedding self-esteem within the youth.

Although the theatre has only recently launched in 2006, they have strived for the stars and achieving is what they have conquered. The Olympia Family Theatre has so much to offer to their community including main stage stories, creative camps and workshops, ‘Let’s Play, Daytime Shows’ and ‘On the Move’. The mainstage stories consist of having five annual plays that will include two musicals and a play with youth artists, enabling family fun time and for the young to showcase their talents. The creative camps and workshops are programs that were created to develop youth that aspire to be actors, through the help of weekend classes. The ‘Let’s Play, Daytime Shows’ are the shows that are produced on a month to month basis that usually revolve around stories based on fairytales or folk tales. Finally ‘On the Move’ is the Olympia Family Theatre touring performance, where the shows will be brought to life within schools or community groups.

If inspiration did not stop there, Olympia Family Theatre has taken on a collaboration with Apple Tree Productions to promote games, celebrations and performances. The Apple Tree Productions was launched by Heidi Fredericks and Collen Powers. They had originally worked within children’s theatre for many years and when Capital Playhouse closed down, these young women found a need to fill the gap for children’s theatre, therefore launching their production company. The idea was launched after the Kids at Play program had shut down and these two women started to receive multiple phone calls from parents wondering if they would continue to do solo plays. With the creation of Apple Tree Productions, it gives children a platform and safe haven to contribute towards their passions and grow into artists of the theatre. It comes as no surprise that Olympia Family Theatre would participate and collaborate with Apple Tree Productions, given the similar objectives of the theatres.

It is always encouraged to dream big and dreaming big is what the founders of Olympia Family Theatre have accomplished. Who would have thought two inspiring young ladies would bring to life art, theatre and inspiration of youth growth into a community in Washington State. The development of such projects creates different platforms and forms of entertainment within the community and gives younger generations the sense to get motivated and to discover new paths that they can take in their lives. It is safe to say, that following your dreams may actually pay off in the end with positivity and the trust in your passion.

Seattle Science Center

Seattle Science Center

       Last week, I went to Seattle city to visit Seattle Science Center. My friend, Ali, was with me of course; because I told him to come with me and he wanted to. When I was driving in the highway, we listened to some music then we talked about which restaurant we would go for our dinner. At that moment I thought about going to an Arabian restaurant, but he suggested going to an Italian one instead of going to the Arabian restaurant. Then we stopped at a gas station to get some snacks and fuel for the car. Next, we continued our way to go to Seattle. When we reached at Seattle Science Center, we bought two tickets to be able to get in there. Actually, the seller advised us to get a map for the center. Then we took the map and headed to an aquarium first and we participated in feeding the fish. After that, we went to a tropical butterfly house. Actually, we expected to see a huge number of butterflies. Unfortunately, we only saw a few number of them. However, the place was so amazing and we enjoyed watching the butterflies. At that time, we were very hungry so we decided to go to the Italian restaurant and have our dinner there.    

Olympic National Park

Olympic National Park

Olympic National Park is a United States national park located in the state of Washington. My trip with my friends to Olympic National Park was full of adventure last year. The volatile nature of weather in Washington State can make tourism industries unpredictable and therefore unreliable, so the first thing we did is checking the weather. Olympic National Park is one of the best places that enables you to explore the forests also you can explore the different animals and plants. Also you can take a tour through some of the mountains. The Olympic mountains, lakes and forests are some natural features at Olympic National Park. Some ecosystems in Olympic National Park are the forests and lakes. Moreover, the rivers and glaciers which retain water.

Although Olympic National Park has many landscapes, you have to be caution of wild animals like bears and mountain lions. Most of Americans spend their free time there camping, on the contrary, my friends refused doing that because existence of savage animals and volatile weather. In fact, I didn’t blame them because I was scared like them. This doesn’t mean that Olympic National Park is not suitable for camping, but there is no guarantee that you will not face probably something scare you.

EMP Museum

EMP Museum

EMP museum which located in Seattle is in one of the most modern buildings. It is one of the favorite places for music lovers. It is not only for music lovers, but also for tourists. Honestly, you can't find like this museum in Saudi Arabia and the reason why that music is something is prohibited there. This spring, I went to a trip with Saint Martin's University to EMP museum. Despite we had a lot of fun there, seating in traffic was aggravating.

However, ultimately we reached EMP museum. The most beautiful thing in the first place is when I saw is the huge violin which was placed in the center hall. I spent most of my time listening to the music which played in a private room. Furthermore, you can listen to the music while you walk around or you can sit and watch many shows about the history of music and listen to what famous singers say.  It is sufficient if you being there even if you are outside the museum you can spend your time seeing that wonderful design and at the same time Space Needle will be closer.

Mount Rainier National Park

Mount Rainier National Park

At Mount Rainier National Park, they have tons of different activities that you can do. Summer 2015, my sister and I were there.  Although there are many things to do there, the biggest thing there we did was hiking, and I attribute this to the fact that there are tons of different trails that we can walk. The longest trail is the Wonderland Trail it is 93 miles long. There are a lot of things we can do as a family there like tour working farm and wildlife parks and take a ride on a classic steam engine train. Some other things we did is cycling, actually there are many routes you can take on your bicycle, fishing there are a lot of lakes you can go fishing in. these things in our country almost absent because of hot weather.  You can also go horseback riding there but you have to bring your own horse.

Some of the fall and winter activities that you can do are mushroom hunting and huckleberry picking

 there are the most popular things to do during the fall. Some of the things to do during the winter

are cross-country skiing and walk through the snowshoe trails. In fact, Mount Rainier is home to

many species of birds. Based on that, many people go to it and embrace the opportunity to see these

kinds of beautiful birds. Indeed, nothing would be better than spending our time in a place that we

don’t have like it in Saudi Arabia. 

Northwest Trek Wildlife Park

Northwest Trek Wildlife Park

Three weeks ago, I went with my friends to Northwest Trek Wildlife Park. it's one of the best places I have seen in my whole life. It has many wonderful activities such as tram tour which takes visitors to see scenic and animals, walking tour which helps to be close of wild animals and Kids' Trek. I really enjoyed taking tram tour because it was about 50 minutes which is fairly enough to see that beautiful nature. By comparison in Saudi Arabia, beautiful nature and nice weather are almost absent there, so I determined to embrace the opportunity and go where nature is.

Northwest Trek Wildlife Park is likely is the best place for children since they can play around and enjoy their time seeing animals. Moreover, parents can have their children's birthday parties there. Instead of wasting time, you have to plan your adventure is in the first place if you would like to there. Northwest Trek Wildlife Park also offers all this adventure about $22 for adult and for youth (5-12) around $14 which are affordable prices.

The Washington State Capitol

The Washington State Capitol

Olympia has a lot of attractive places chiefly is The Washington State Capitol which is the home of the government of Washington State. In fact, I have been there last summer and I really enjoyed my time with some friends. When I walked outside The Washington State Capitol, I realized that State Capitol is surrounded by other buildings which make it unique among them. Moreover, its exterior design and its location on the hill made me imagine how it was built 1922-1928, however, sooner I realized that nothing can hinder human abilities especially when I think about pyramids.

Indeed, I was surprised when I saw The Washington State Capitol Interior design, for a moment I felt that this building supposed to be in Islamic regions. Building's floors and many interior walls are covered by marble and some inscriptions which inspire me that this design is like mosques design especially its dome. The statue of George Washington grabbed my attention a bit and made me think about the Politicians' principles of putting the statue of George Washington in a state which has a same name. However I eventually realized this kind of symbol is probably important for Americans not for foreigners.

Capital Mall

Capital Mall

Capital mall is the most convenient place to shop in Olympia. Additionally, capital mall is embodiment of modern buildings in Olympia area. Nearly, in every weekend I shop there until I drop. Although capital mall is not big enough, it has array of different stores such as Best Buy, Century Theaters and Macys'. Above all, it is an optimal place for people who live in Olympia and who seek to buy brand products such as GAP, Nike and American Eagles. Although I like physical store more than online, capital mall, on the other hand, doesn't cater my needs some time, so I tend to buy things such as Polo and H&M products online.

Because Washington State weather is cold and rainy most of year, I spend most of my free time to 

hang out with my friends in capital mall in the food court. Goods are not the only thing you will find 

there, but also services such as, AT&T and T Mobile. Generally speaking, I recommend Capital mall, 

also personally, I recommend all visitors to taste Chipotle Mexican Grill food.

Counter Tourism Assignment 2

 

The Museum of Glass is a 75,000-square-foot art museum in Tacoma, Washington dedicated to the medium of glass Since its founding in 2002, the Museum of Glass has been committed to creating a space for the celebration of the studio glass movement through nurturing artists, implementing education, and encouraging creativity. The idea for the Museum of Glass began in 1992 when Dr. Philip M. Phibbs, recently retired president of the University of Puget Sound, had a conversation with Tacoma native and renowned glass artist Dale Chihuly.

Although every city has museums, The Museums of Glass in my opinion is one of the best museums all over the world, and I attribute this to the fact that The Museums of Glass is unique museum which has a lot of glass decorations. In fact, I really enjoyed visiting that museum and I also recommend it and if I have a chance I would like to visit it again.           

work cited
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Museum_of_Glass

Abdullah Alkhalifa

05/22/2016

Tumwater Falls Park

The Historical Essence of a City

Every city has its history of essence, combining the past with the present. In Tumwater, Washington, there lives a 50 year old park that is always open to the community, which was opened in 1962. The Tumwater Falls Park is owned by the Olympia Tumwater Foundation and over the years has received the status of being one of the most popular parks in the region.  The park sits on 15 acres of land and goes smoothly along the lower Deschutes River, one of the popular locations for salmon. Due to the park being so widely popular, it receives at least 200,000 guests every year.

Some may call the Tumwater Park, the urban oasis of the city and it attracts a lot of attention due to its historical authenticity right in the middle of a busy modern city. The park was originally received by the community as a gift from the Olympia Tumwater foundation and is not run on city, state or federal fund, their only source of funding is from private funding. Many people may think that the idea of a park may boring, however Tumwater Park holds massive history and very interesting facts about its existence.

As the park runs along the Deschutes River, the water tends to flow in the direction of north, however at one point in its lifetime, it actually flowed south. Thousands of years ago, the last of the glaciers from Puget Sound started to form and trapped the water in the north, therefore creating the Deschutes River Valley. Due to the activity of the glaciers and flow of water, it had left soft sediment along the river, creating volcanic rock on the walls of the falls.

Another fun fact of the Tumwater Park is that it was one of the very first homes of the earliest railroads in the city. Due to issues that have happened in the city, residents of Tumwater decided to build their own railway road, which was later named the Port Townsend. The railway road runs along the west side of the Deschute River. However, over the years, the railroad got abandoned when another railroad was built that ran down the brewery site.

Another major attraction for the park is the fish ladders and holding pods that will have salmon migration annually. In the 1950’s it was known that it would be very unlikely that salmon would ever swim up the upper side of the river, however when the state took on the project of building the salmon ladders in 1950’s, it brought in the salmon. By the 1980s, there were close to 12 million salmon coming into the river. This results in tons of tourists flocking into the city to catch salmon or to view the flowing of millions of salmon through the river annually. The beauty of nature comes to life when those salmon’s swim through the river, giving people a glimpse to the wildlife that occurs within those waters.

Although there are many historical elements that contribute to the creation of the Tumwater Park, it also has a brewery alongside of the park. The brewery over the years has always managed to attract a lot of attention, both from locals and from tourists. A fun fact about the Olympic Brewery is that it was built in 1906 and has been dubbed as having the best beer in the West Coast. The owner of the brewery Leopold Schmidt admitted to the secret of producing great beer and revealed that he had discovered artesian wells in the area. He also added on that he utilized those wells by taking the water in them and using it to produce the beer at the brewery, giving it its unique taste.

History is definitely brought to life at the Tumwater Park, however the beauty of nature also resides in that park. When visitors would attempt to hike at the park, within one and a half miles of hiking, they would be met by the beautifully cascading waterfalls that go into the reflection of the river surrounded by rocks. The park has massive wealth in waterfalls as they have three beautifully structured waterfalls that can be lined with a bright rainbow on the perfect day. If that view is not breathtaking enough, the park provides facilities to make this adventure family fun packed with picnic facilities, sand-filled areas that give children an enjoyable project to play in and the variety of native trees that surround the entire area from start to finish.

 

 

Work Cited

O’Connell, Emmett. "Tumwater Falls Park Celebrates 50 Years - ThurstonTalk."ThurstonTalk. Thurston Talk, 2012.

Roth, Anna. "Tumwater Falls Park." WTAs Blog. Washington Trails Association. 

"VISIT OLYMPIA - LACEY - TUMWATER." Tumwater Falls Park.

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