Nancy Conner, ABR - Olympia/Thurston County WA

If Dixieland jazz music gets your toes tapping and makes you want to get up and dance - there is quite a treat in store for you soon! The 19th annual America's Dixieland Jazz Festival is right around the corner! Amazing music from jazz bands from around the country will be happening June 25-June 28th at St Martin's University in Lacey.

You can check out www.olyjazz.com for complete schedules, list of participating bands, ticket info, driving directions and more.

Come celebrate summer with some great music - an entertaining time for all ages!!

This past Saturday we went to the Lacey Rotary Duck Dash in Tumwater Falls Park & it was a blast! I'm not sure how we managed to have not gone before this year since this is the 20th year it has been held, but I'm glad we got there finally this time. Our almost 2 year old granddaughter thought it was a great idea right from the time we parked and rode on the shuttle bus to the event (actually she has been wanting to ride the bus again ever since!).

The park had games, a giant slide, face painting, a fishing pond, balloons, a bouncy house, music, and local food booths to entertain the crowd while they waited for the actual duck dash to happen.

When the time neared for the ducks to be released, the crowd started moving into position along the river to see the big crane hoist up the container of ducks and then send them tumbling down to the river to race to the finish line.

The Duck Dash is a fundraiser for Lacey Rotary for their support of charities, scholarships and community events. People can purchase their duck for $5.00 and the fastest ducks to the finish line win their purchasers some awesome prizes - a 2010 Ford Mustang, cash amounts, 57" TV, fishing trips, gift certificates, etc. I don't think we won any prizes - our ducks might still be lurking somewhere hung up on the rocks and branches lining the river - but we definitely had a great time! Don't miss it next year - I know we will have it on our calendars to attend!

Burfoot Park is a county park in Olympia that is a wonderful place for family fun, with a big grassy area to picnic or play in the grass, playground equipment for the kids, and then you can go exploring down the wooded trails that lead to the saltwater beach.

We were lucky enough to go check it out recently while there was an extremely low tide and so there was LOTS of beach to walk and amazing sea creatures to encounter!

Very educational encounters with crabs, seaweed, pretty shells, & the gorgeous backdrop of gentle waves rolling in and sailboats gliding by.

Only problem is that county budget woes have this park on the chopping block, so go visit soon - like before the end of September or it may be closed to the public!