Anne, our Operations Assistant, tells me that last Sunday looked like "International Day" at Fort Walla Walla Museum, a regular 'United Nations' of visitation. We love that! Each year we get visitors from, on average, about 30 foriegn countries; last year we welcomed travelers from 42 distant ports of call.
I leafed through our guest register book yesterday, a much handier task this year with the absence of its former location in Exhibit Hall 1 and its new home in our Headquarters. We had visitors from Cambodia, two different cities in Sweden, and Hong Kong that day, along with folks from California, Oregon, Alaska, Idaho, and, of course, Washington.
A couple years back, we had a family, the Becks, visit us from Germany and however unlikely it seemed, they knew as much about the Museum as anyone could who had never been here before. Students of the Internet age, they'd researched us and regional history thoroughly before embarking on their trip. Their vacation began in Portland and consisted of a tour of the west, heading across Oregon, Washington, Idaho, and Montana before concluding their trek in Yellowstone Park.
It's amazing that world travelers find us here in Walla Walla. Yes, you can fly here, but only from Seattle, and not always conveniently. Yes, we're on a US highway, but it's not the same as the Interstate system: we are not on the way to anywhere for most folks. 100 miles west of here, the highway begins a twisting, tortuous route over the Bitterroot Mountains that takes you to Lolo, Montana and Lewis & Clark's famed 'Traveler's Rest.' To our west lie the Tri-CIties and the source of much of our visitation, but only 100,000 or so folks reside in the four communities that make up the Tri-Cities. South from here, state route 125 becomes Oregon Highway 11 and connects us to Pendleton, which is on the east-west Interstate 80. The old joke of 'you can't get there from here' isn't quite true of Walla Walla, but the flavor of the sentiment lingers on the palate.
Nevertheless, our international visitors continue to arrive from all over the world. Like all of our visitors, they are most welcome and we are more than pleased to share our fabulous heritage with them. Today's photos include from top down: the John King family from Wales by Thailand, with their Walla Walla friend; the Beck family from Germany; high school kids from Sasayama (our Sister City), Japan; Rotarians from Ghana; and the Astons from Northern Ireland.
I leafed through our guest register book yesterday, a much handier task this year with the absence of its former location in Exhibit Hall 1 and its new home in our Headquarters. We had visitors from Cambodia, two different cities in Sweden, and Hong Kong that day, along with folks from California, Oregon, Alaska, Idaho, and, of course, Washington.
A couple years back, we had a family, the Becks, visit us from Germany and however unlikely it seemed, they knew as much about the Museum as anyone could who had never been here before. Students of the Internet age, they'd researched us and regional history thoroughly before embarking on their trip. Their vacation began in Portland and consisted of a tour of the west, heading across Oregon, Washington, Idaho, and Montana before concluding their trek in Yellowstone Park.
It's amazing that world travelers find us here in Walla Walla. Yes, you can fly here, but only from Seattle, and not always conveniently. Yes, we're on a US highway, but it's not the same as the Interstate system: we are not on the way to anywhere for most folks. 100 miles west of here, the highway begins a twisting, tortuous route over the Bitterroot Mountains that takes you to Lolo, Montana and Lewis & Clark's famed 'Traveler's Rest.' To our west lie the Tri-CIties and the source of much of our visitation, but only 100,000 or so folks reside in the four communities that make up the Tri-Cities. South from here, state route 125 becomes Oregon Highway 11 and connects us to Pendleton, which is on the east-west Interstate 80. The old joke of 'you can't get there from here' isn't quite true of Walla Walla, but the flavor of the sentiment lingers on the palate.
Nevertheless, our international visitors continue to arrive from all over the world. Like all of our visitors, they are most welcome and we are more than pleased to share our fabulous heritage with them. Today's photos include from top down: the John King family from Wales by Thailand, with their Walla Walla friend; the Beck family from Germany; high school kids from Sasayama (our Sister City), Japan; Rotarians from Ghana; and the Astons from Northern Ireland.
No comments:
Post a Comment