Japanese Gardens at Lake Sacajawea Park

Japanese Gardens at Lake Sacajawea Park.

I love discovering new places to see and experience. On March 16th my good friend and I went with her kids to Lake Sacajawea Park in Longview, Washington, just across the river from us. We had all been there before, but this time we went to a part of the park that we hadn't been to, the Japanese Gardens.

The Japanese Garden's Weyerhaeuser Centennial Bridge at Lake Sacajawea Park.

Lake Sacajawea Park is an expansive, well maintained park of 67 acres in the heart of Longview Washington with 3.5 miles of trails that go around the whole lake. There are lovely old growth trees and other plants along with wildlife like ducks, geese, herons, and other water fowl, birds of prey and other birds, frogs, turtles, fish, otters, beavers, weasels, racoons, opossums, squirrels, chipmunks, and deer. You can enjoy biking, walking, and running, jogging, fishing, picnicking, kayaking, canoeing, paddle boating, birding, wildlife viewing, and taking your kids to play on the playgrounds. There are picnic tables, sitting benches, covered picnic areas, playgrounds, 2 spectacular lake fountains, botanical gardens, an arboretum, restroom facilities, trash receptacles, drinking fountains, bridges, and event spaces. Events held there include Summer Concerts at the Lake, Go 4th Festival, Annual Fishing Derby for kids, and Summer Movies at the Lake. You can enjoy the Frank Willis Arboretum, Japanese Gardens, Rhododendron Gardens, and the Solar System Walk while you are there. The park is designed to be accessible, with paved paths suitable for wheelchairs and strollers. Pets are allowed, but need to be leashed. To get there you have easy street parking all around the perimeter of the park. The park is open from dawn until dusk.

A Japanese Garden Lantern in the Japanese Garden at Lake Sacajawea Park.

The tranquil Japanese Gardens are nestled on an island in the Lake Sacajawea Park. They are gorgeous year-round to view especially in the fall when the leaves of some of the Japanese maples have changed. The Japanese Gardens were meticulously built to mimic the beautiful gardens of Japan. Accessible by the Weyerhaeuser Centennial Bridge, these gardens are a gorgeous haven to Japanese and Asian flora. Within the gardens there are a number of neat structures like pagodas, arbors, statues, and sitting benches. There is also a bubbling brook that I enjoyed listening to while I took in the scenery. It is a lovely, peaceful place to go and get away from it all. I highly recommend visiting if you are ever in the area.

A Pagoda structure in the Japanese Garden at Lake Sacajawea Park.

Location of the Japanese Gardens at Lake Sacajawea Park.

Japanese Gardens at Lake Sacajawea Park

Address: 3223 NE Nichols Blvd, Longview, WA 98632

Phone: (360) 442-5421

Hours:

Monday	7 AM–3 PM
Tuesday	7 AM–3 PM
Wednesday	7 AM–3 PM
Thursday	7 AM–3 PM
Friday	7 AM–1 PM
Saturday	7 AM–1 PM
Sunday	7 AM–3 PM

15th Annual Rose City Yarn Crawl 2024

Rose City Yarn Crawl Theme for 2024

The 15th Annual Rose City Yarn Crawl was held March 7th-10th this year in 2024. The Rose City Yarn Crawl is "an annual Portland experience, the Rose City Yarn Crawl is a four-day event for fiber enthusiasts" - knitters, crocheters, spinners, weavers, and felters. This year the crawl featured eight shops that participated. Within each of these lovely shops they have gorgeous yarn, knitting and crochet notions, needles, handmade wares, books, bags, patterns, and other enchanting things. Once open, visitors use a passport that gets stamped at each of the yarn crawl destinations you visit for a chance to win prizes. With each purchase you make in the shops you will get access to a Ravelry download code for that shop's free pattern. In addition each kit purchased for the patterns gives 10% of the sale to the shop's selected charity.

Image designed by local Portland Tattoo Artist Alice Kendall from Wonderland Tattoo

If you cannot participate in person, you may instead participate in the Rose City Yarn Crawl online and crawl virtually. This is how I participated this year because of time and travel constraints. You can instead download and print the passport and look for the code words on each shop's website then record them on your passport. After you are done shopping and crawling, then you go back to the Rose City Yarn Crawl website and enter them into the virtual passport entry form. After you do this you will be entered to win a prize exclusive to virtual crawlers.

Rose City Yarn Crawl Participating Shops

I bought some things from three of the 8 shops during the crawl: Weird Sisters, Starlight Knitting Society, and Knotty Lamb. I really wanted to buy from more shops, but I unfortunately had a budget that I was following. I received my package from Weird Sisters first on March 15th. I purchased the Wild Witchcraft book by Rebecca Beyer because of all the lovely folk herbalism, gardening, and foraging information in it. It also has recipes for tinctures, teas, salves, etc. Some very pretty full color pages of herbs and plants as well. I love the wood burned stitch markers, too. They have a mushroom 🍄, books 📚, and butterfly 🦋, as well as the St. Johns Bridge 🌉 and their logo. They threw in a pin, sticker of a cool spider in her web knitting, and a bookmark. On March 16th I received both packages from Starlight Knitting Society and Knotty Lamb. From Starlight Knitting Society I purchased the Starlit Owl cross stitch kit by Junebug and Darlin and a lovely enamel pin with bleeding hearts, knitting needles and yarn on it made by Kitty with a Cupcake. The package from Knotty Lamb contained three different sized Crystal Palace Yarns bamboo circular needles and some very cute llama washi tape. They threw in a lovely butterfly button too. All stores I purchased from gave me two awesome downloadable patterns each for free as well (one knitting and one crochet each).

Rose City Yarn Crawl Purchases.

Follow the Rose City Yarn Crawl on Facebook and Instagram and mark your calendar for next year's yarn crawl on March 6-9, 2025. I will be participating in the Rose City Yarn Crawl next year, hopefully in person this time. Maybe I will see you there. Give me a shout if you are also going or just leave a comment on this post telling me what fiber arts you enjoy doing and what projects, if any, you have been working on.

Wordless Wednesday First Day of School

Today was Teela and Zari's first day of school. Teela is in 11th and Zari is in 8th.

Advancing Native Missions Gift Catalog Review #nativemissions #giftingcatalog #giftcatalog #ANM #seasonofgiving #missions #giftofthegospel

Disclaimer: I received a complimentary copy of this catalog through FrontGate Media in exchange for my honest review. I was not required to write a positive review. I was compensated for this post.

Advancing Native Missions is a Christian mission based organization that instead of sending out foreign missionaries that have little knowledge of the people or culture, they have native (local) missionaries to spread the gospel and minister. They are already accustomed to the physical climate, environment, and political situation. These missionaries live and minister on a fraction of the resources because their standard of living is comparable to those they serve. They also already know the language, people, and culture and can begin work with minimal training and preparation. They are more committed to working long-term because they already know and love the people; their own family, friends, and neighbors. These missionaries preach the Gospel, plant churches, care for children; found: schools, medical clinics, and Bible colleges to train others.

ANM has over 27,000+ missionaries, church planters, trainers, and workers working in 121 countries around the world with 49,000 + churches planted. Some of these countries that these native missionaries serve are closed to Western missionaries. This is the only way to get the message of The Lord out to them.

Through the Advancing Native Missions Gift Catalog you can help these native missionaries with gifts and donations to them and the people they serve so that they may live in better circumstances. You and your family can also pick from many causes and charities to aid and advocate for those that are in need, including: 

• a Bible to a fellow Christian for spiritual growth
• a boat or bicycle to a church planter or pastor so they can travel easier
• a chicken so a family can eat and sell its eggs
• a Christmas gift box: a box of small gifts to a child in need
• a goat or sheep so a family can have milk and meat
• medicine to support medical outreach in impoverished communities
• a motorcycle so a church planter or pastor can access remote areas and share the gospel
• sack of rice to feed a family on the verge of starvation
• school supplies so that a student is more equipped to learn
  
• sewing machine so that a family can start a home business and mend clothing
  
• shoes so a child can play, do chores, and walk to school safely
  
• soccer ball so that kids can enjoy healthy recreation with friends
• well to provide clean and accessible water for a community
• etc.

My daughter, Zari, looking through the ANM Gift Catalog.

My Thoughts:

I believe that food and financial security is so important and so many in this world are starving, going hungry, and don't have any way to make ends meet. People are also being persecuted for believing in Christ and that is wrong. I know that I am fairly privileged to live in America where I am living fairly comfortably and free to be a Christian and share my beliefs. I am so grateful and thankful for this. My family is overjoyed to be able to share something so important and essential as the gifts in the ANM Gift Catalog.

Included in the catalog was a coloring book for my kids to color that is based on a true story about 4 kids that go the their grandparent's house and learn about generosity through hard work where they earned money to get gifts from the ANM Gift Catalog. You can download this coloring book when you sign up on the website.

Nova says, "Give to ANM! It's a worthy cause.".

Giving to this amazing fund is a wonderful and generous thing to do to celebrate the upcoming Christmas holidays with your family. Sharing the message of Christ and giving the gift of benevolence, service, and humanitarianism is so important for those that are impoverished and/or persecuted for their beliefs. Please help those who cannot help themselves. Use the Advancing Native Missions gifting catalog to donate and directly impact families around the world.

YOU CAN HELP CHANGE LIVES TOO
Find over 20 simple ways to transform lives inside this catalog … all in the name of Jesus.