Grunge and Color in Olympia, Washington, Winter 2025-2026 (Oly 29)

Olympia is fun to walk and check for new stores, signs, and graffiti. Fourth and Fifth Avenues are rich with material, if you like grunge and messy American city vibe.

 

Thurston County Food Bank (Oct. 2, 2025, Ektar 100 film, 90mm ƒ/2.5 Elmarit lens)

Some mornings, I eat breakfast at Bread Peddler on Capitol Way N. and then walk home along 4th or 5th Avenues.

Parking lot, Capitol Way at State Ave.

Parking lot, Capitol Way (Feb. 28, 2026, 50mm F/2 Summicron lens)

Thai restaurant, not open yet?

Voyeurs, 404 4th Ave. E. (35mm ƒ/2 Summicron lens)

Vintage clothing, 707 4th Ave. E (35mm ƒ/2 Summicron lens)

Espresso Station, corner of 4th Avenue and Plum Street

More random scenes around town.

The Flamingo House! 503 Central Street.

Surviving wood traditional houses, view south from Legion Way

Alley, Legion Way 314 (35mm ƒ/2 Summicron lens)

Pink restaurant at 430 Legion Way

Gas meters, Olympia Ave, (50mm ƒ/2 Jupiter-8 lens)

I took this photograph with my 1962 Soviet-era ЮПИТЕР-8 lens. It has field curvature and is therefore is more suited to scenes with depth. But I continue to be impressed with how well this Sonnar design works in mid-distance scenes. It is a thread-mount lens, but with a Leica M-LTM adapter, it mounts perfectly on my Zeiss Ikon ZM camera. 

Massage shop, Fir Street

A friend told me that this little building might be a Sears kit home. It definitely resembles some of the Sears houses with the raised attic room on one end. But I checked with SearsHouses.com national database, and one of the curators wrote that Sears did not sell houses this far west. However, there were west coast kit house manufacturers, so who can tell about the origins of this modest little house on Fir Street. 

 

 

Smoke shop, 3730 Pacific Ave., Olympia

When you are done exploring and photographing, where do you go? Why, to Ranch House BBQ on Rte 8 west of Olympia. Brisket, ribs, sauce - for the hidden carnivore inside.

 

 

Ranch House BBQ (Portra 160 film, 50mm F/2 Summicron lens)

 

This ends our winter 2025-2026 random exploring around Olympia. 

I took most of these photographs on Kodak Ektar 100 film using my Zeiss Ikon ZM camera with various lenses. The ZM has a remarkably accurate aperture priority automatic exposure function, especially when the light is soft. Point, focus, click. I will write more about the ZM in the future.

From the Archives: Karachi, Pakistan, 1961-1962

In 1961, my parents and I lived in Karachi, West Pakistan. I added "West" because that was before East and West Pakistan split into two separate countries (Pakistan and Bangladesh). My dad was working for an engineering company that was designing drinking water supply for the Karachi area. 

Karachi was a difficult time for the family. The city was primitive and dirty. Food standards were low. Prices for a western lifestyle were unexpectedly high. My dad rented an apartment, but the price was well above the housing allowance provided by the company. I recall the apartment and yard were OK, but the municipal electricity was sporadic. We could not drink tap water. 

I attended part of third grade at the Karachi American School (it had a different name then). The school is still in business with an international faculty. We sang the Pakistan national anthem every morning.

The expatriate (expat) community was active, and we associated with other Americans and Europeans. As was common among expat communities, we bought furniture and household goods from other foreigners who were leaving for other assignments. That included buying and selling LP records (that seemed to be a big deal, according to my dad's diary). The American ambassador projected movies on a screen on his rooftop. We used to visit our friends, who lived in an adjacent house, and sit on their roof to watch the ambassador's films. The sound was a bit muted, but we could hear. 

Here are some street scenes from the city. Unfortunately, my dad did not label the slide mounts with date or exact location. Please click any picture to see it enlarged.

 

Home 

 

Couch transportation device, Feb. 2, 1962

Moving day, Jan. 22, 1962

The black Chevrolet was a company car. A black car without air conditioning in Karachi? It might have been a bit more convenient than the camel. 

 Unfortunately, I could not find any photos from inside the apartment.  

 

Downtown 

 

Kandawala Building, Bunder Road, Karachi. It housed offices of the US Embassy and US AID.

Professional letter or document writers

I have seen letter writers like this in other countries. For people who could not write or did not have paper or a writing situation where they lived, the professional scribes provided a vital service. 

 

Vital shaving service

Saddar District 

Jahangir Park (possibly) with the Empress Market in the background

 According to the current internet, Jahangir Park is now walled and has dinosaurs in it. 

 

Empress Market, Saddar district

The bustling Empress Market in the Saddar area was built between 1884 and 1889 during the British Raj. I do not remember visiting markets, but I assume we explored. This may have been similar to Scott Market in Rangoon, also a major mrket from the era of the British Raj.  

 

My dad and I liked busy markets like this, my mom less so. But this looks pretty clean, so maybe she would have been reasonably comfortable looking around.  

 

City Outskirts 

 

The outskirts of the city had miles of shanties and huts. Local people, often children, collected camel and cow dung to dry in the sun. They sold these patties for fuel. 

End of the road - somewhere

Sailing boat excursion somewhere on Hawke's Bay

Looking at these slides brought back memories of another time, another life. I would love to go back and explore, but the political and security situation of the 2026 world makes a trip to Karachi unlikely, especially for US citizens.  

My dad took these pictures on Ektachrome slide film with his Leica IIIC camera with 5cm ƒ/2 Summitar lens. I scanned the slides with a Nikon Coolscan 5000ED film scanner controlled by NikonScan 4.03 software. The slides had changed color to red, but the auto color function in Photoshop Elements 2024 did a remarkable job at retrieving some original color. 

 

Karachi and the Indus River valley (from Google Maps)

Cycling the Hudson Valley of New York - Troy to Hudson (Day 1)

Parks and Trails of New York (PTNY) sponsors the Cycle the Hudson Valley bicycling tour every year. The route follows the Empire State Trail, which consists mostly of former railroad lines that have been converted into multi-use trails. In towns, the trail sometimes follows local roads. My friend from Valatie suggested we do the ride, and I jumped to the chance. 

I biked for practice in the Olympia area, shipped my bicycle via BikeFlights to a bicycle store in Valatie, and flew to Albany.

We followed the Empire State Trail from the beginning of our tour (August 5, 2025) in Troy to the end along the west side of Manhattan and across the bridge to Brooklyn. The pictures here and the following articles will run from north to south following the ride. Here is Day 1, Troy to Hudson.

(Note, before the ride, my bicycle companions and I explored the charming town of Valatie and environs (click the link). And after the ride, we explored a historic neighborhood in downtown Albany)  

Troy, New York

Ready to roll at Hudson Valley Community College, Troy, NY

6 High Street, Troy

We camped overnight at the Hudson Valley Community College in Troy and left early. About 250 riders biked down High Street and crossed the Hudson River. There was no time to look around (a common theme when you are covering 50+ miles each day), but I saw some venerable houses on High Street.

Clinton Park

Wow, bright paint. My Valatie friend said this restaurant had moved to a new location. 

Nassau and Nassau Lake

After crossing the Hudson River back to the east side, we rode on the Albany-Hudson Electric Trail, a former electric trolley line. This was a hilly section. 

Watch bunnies and a Little Library, Nassau

Carpentry shop

The welcome rest stop!

Kinderhook

We pushed through the historic town of Kinderhook without stopping. The park had games on the ball fields with children enjoying the outdoors.

Village Playground, Kinderhook

Hudson

Hudson is a historic city in Columbia County. It has become quite sophisticated with hotels, restaurants, and coffee shops. My friend told me that following Covid and the transition to remote work, many professionals from New York City have bought homes in historic towns up the Hudson Valley. They can work remotely but easily take the train to the City as needed. Cities like Hudson have seen investment and gentrification.

Not yet restored, 281 Hudson Ave.

Missing a porch? Front Street

Townhouses on Warren Street

Warren Street

Hudson Youth Center

We stayed at a community college near Hudson and took a bus into town to find restaurants. It was a beautiful evening.

Zowie, serious fisherman's soup!!! (I like Hudson....)

This ends a tiring day no. 1 on the trail. But as long as I could eat like this, I was ready for the miles. To be continued....

I took most of these pictures on August 5, 2025, on Kodak Portra 160 film with my Canon Canonet GIII QL17 compact camera. It has an excellent 40mm ƒ/1.7 lens. To power the Canonet's CDS meter, I used a Wein Cell, which produces the same 1.35 volts as the original mercury batteries. I carried the camera in a small bag mounted in front of my handlebars. 

Return to a Rough Coastal City: Aberdeen, Washington

 

We stayed in Aberdeen for a night before heading out to Grays Harbor National Wildlife Refuge for the spring migration. The NWR is famous for the thousands of shorebirds (sand pipers and similar) who stop to feed and rest before continuing their amazing migration to Canada and Alaska. During summer. they feed and breed in the shorelands in the north and then migrate south in autumn.  

A few photographs around downtown were too good to resist. Poor old Aberdeen - you can tell that it was a rich and prosperous city once. Maybe it is coming back, but it went through a rough period when the timber industry contracted in the 1970s. 

 

US 101 bridge over Chehalis River with Wishkah River in foreground (1/8 ƒ/11, orange filter)

The Wishkah River flows south from the foothills of the Olympics and debauches into the Chehalis near the east end of town. I have photographed the Wishkah before in early 2024 and again later in 2024. 

 

Alley parallel to West Wishkah Street

Decorated dumpster? Alley parallel to West Wishkah Street.

In the business district, many of the main streets had a parallel alley. At the turn of the century, the alley likely served for coal delivery and trash pickup. 

Warehouse on South K Street

South K Street, view towards rail yard and Chehalis River

Vapolife Building, South K Street

Homeless behind Safeway store, South K Street

Hotel Morck, Heron Street

The Hotel Morck, built in 1924, was the centerpiece of downtown Aberdeen. For almost four decades, it was the sophisticated gathering place for Aberdeen's elite and visitors. According to the National Park Service, "The hotel building exemplifies late 19th and early 20th Century Classical Revival architecture, with the extensive use of terra cotta and a formal tri-parte arrangement." The hotel closed in 1961 and was converted into apartments. In the early 1980, the building converted into a low-income apartment complex, after which it degraded severely. Grokipedia has a detained description of the architecture and history. 

Undated post card; source unknown

I took these photographs on April 27, 2026 on Fuji Acros film with my Rolleiflex 3.5E camera with 75mm ƒ/3.5 Xenotar lens. All frames were tripod-mounted. Northeast Photographics in Bath, Maine developed the film and scanned the negatives with a Noritsu system.