Olympia Weekend

The Domination of Eiler is proceeding with its cyber-dominance plans. Mostly these involve the Powernaut web comic series. (www.eilertech.com/stories/powernaut/index.htm/.) One plot involves an award ceremony, in which the Powernaut got lots of Honorable Mention and Most Improved. Uh, great, but this doesn't feed the other plan very well... To observe the Domination holiday od Free Comic Book Day, Free Powernaut Comic Day is next weekend! Fortunately the promotional flyers have already been printed and don't need "Most Improved" scribbled on them.

Meanwhile, the Domination of Eiler is observing a tradition of vacation outside what normal people do. The Dominator's school district just finished spring break, so this is a lovely time to declare a long weekend. Olympia-Washington has been chosen to submit its breweries and historic governmental sites.

Opened the trip on Friday night into Redmond-Washington. Local brewery "Mac and Jack" submitted about two ounces of coffee porter. Local brewery "Black Raven" did better by operating a full bar, albeit one where visitors have to call out for dinner. Fortunately its nearby pizza places are used to that.

On Saturday, the Domination expedition made it into Olympia. Vacation plans were fluid, because every know-it-all white guy at work wanted this same weekend off. So no reservations. But that actually worked out well. Visitor Center staff referred the Domination to cheap and well-placed "Governor's Inn".

Olympia is at the southern tip of Puget Sound. From north to south it has a port specializing in big logs, a tourist district, a hippie district (a.k.a. Downtown), the State Capitol specializing in office buildings, and a Historic District specializing in old houses. Governor's Inn is among the hippies. Old, and no air conditioning, but good enough this weekend.

First target, the State Capitol Visitor Center. It's like the Olympia town museum, and the Domination of Eiler loves town museums..

Target of opportunity: Procession of the Species parade through the hippie district - just like the one the Domination of Eiler crashed last year in Bellingham-Washington! (www.eilertech.com/domination/blog/6may2012.txt) As for last year, the Dominator had no animal costume handy. But a Britannia Beach totem t-shirt served. Many others in the parade just dressed as gentle freaks.

Two brewery outlets in hippie district, for McMenamins and Fish Tail, submitted lunch and dinner. Much drawing of Powernaut-related cartoons was done before curious audiences, and Free Powernaut Comic Day flyers were given out. Better than Powernaut business cards!

Sunday morning hotel breakfast, awesome. Any place can have a waffle machine, but this place had scrambled eggs with ham and cheese ready!

Kingdom-of-Heaven obeisance at the church nearest the Statehouse. This is a Presbyterian and UCC church, so the Domination's Bishop Principal suspected liberal theology. But the pastor surprised even him, by preaching the Revelation of Fluffy the Lamb! Reportedly some ancient Greek references use cute terms for the sacrificed Savior.

The Washington Statehouse (a.k.a. Legislative Building) submitted a tour. (Hourly, 11 to 3 Sundays, more often most days.) It is encouraged to rub George Washington's nose for luck. Next door is the Governor's Mansion, whose State Police guardians will pose for photos.

The Statehouse tour guide was greatly surprised to find the legislature in session today! April is the end of the year by political standards in this jurisdiction, and there's no state budget yet, and the concept of Pay For What You Use has not successfully risen here. But the Senate was in caucus during the tour, so no spectacle. The Dominator sent a bike patrol to check on them after tour hours, but they'd sensibly locked the entries to the Legislative Building by then.

There is a Children's Museum in the tourist district. Uh, no thanks. Next door, a Wet Science museum presumably full of Puget Sound hydrology.... open every day except Sunday. Instead the Domination bought CDs and earrings in the hippie district - and got accused of pissing on a building by an irate shopkeeper in the tourist district, just around the corner from fully functional restrooms, and in the absence of piss! Whatever. Apparently unsanctioned piss is a problem in Olympia.

Brunch in hippie district at Fish Tail brew pub. Dinner in hippie district at Cascadia bar, which specializes in specialty milkshakes and exotic-species hamburgers. Unfortunately, Sunday night seems to be Children's Night in Olympia. State rules against children at bars are limited to actual barstools, or even ignored!

Ah well. This still counts as a successful weekend. Perhaps the real Boeing museum (not the one near Mukilteo) will submit tomorrow. The Domination of Eiler now has to research what kind of mini-aircraft a boy pilot might conceivably have used in 1944...

All Hail the Domination!