Clark County Fair

It’s that time of year again! Time to enjoy some carnival rides, test your luck at shooting an over-sized basketball through an undersized hoop to win a larger than life stuffed animal. Time to eat more calories than any one human should eat in a day. Kettle-corn, Dairy Women’s Milkshakes, amazing sweet grilled onions covering a yummy burger from The Smokehouse. Corn on the cob, funnel cakes, snow cones, deep fried Twinkies and on an on… Time to see all sorts of animals. Animals like horses, cows, llamas, pigs, dogs, cats and even bees. It’s a great time to enjoy our local artists and crafters in the Clark County Event Center with all their fun quilts, cards, sketches, flowers, photos, paintings, jams and baked goods. Also in the big hall are vendors selling all sorts of fun, cool, quirky things. Ya never know what you might walk out the door with?

In addition to all these fun things at the Clark County Fair, don’t forget the great events of each day. The Grandstand Entertainment is FREE with your admission to the fair. The schedule is as follows:

Saturday, August 6th: Medieval Joust at 2pm and 6:30pm
Sunday, August 7th: Medieval Joust at 2pm and 6:30pm
Monday, August 8th: Wild and Wooly Show at 2pm & Northwest Bull Riding Championships at 6:30pm
Tuesday, August 9th: Northwest Pro Rodeo at 2pm and 6:30pm
Wednesday, August 10th: Truck Pull at 2pm and 6:30pm
Thursday, August 11th: Extreme Moto-X at 2pm and 6:30pm (my personal favorite of the fair!)
Friday, August 12th: Demolition Derby & Truck Derby at 2pm and 7:30pm
Saturday, August 13th: Monster Trucks and Tuff Trucks/Pro Arena at 2pm and 7:30pm
Sunday, August 14th: Monster Trucks and Tuff Trucks/Pro Arena at 2pm and 7:30pm (another fave at the fair!)

Make sure you get out to the fair at least once during the next week and a half. It’s always a fun day! How can something that’s celebrating its 143rd year be bad?

Wow! Vancouver, Washington is having their very own marathon THIS Sunday, June 19th, 2011. Yes, that’s on Father’s Day. I can tell you that this father won’t be out on the course because I’ve already ran the race! Check it out…

On Sunday at 7am the first ever Vancouver USA Full Marathon will kick off. In addition to the full marathon Vancouver is also offering a half marathon that kicks off at 8:30am. You can register for either event in person at the Fit Right NW Sports and Fitness Expo taking place all day Saturday, June 18th at the Vancouver Hilton.

This is a great exposure for OUR Vancouver, WA and guess what? The Vancouver USA Marathon IS A QUALIFIER FOR THE BOSTON MARATHON! I love that the start and finish line for the marathon and half marathon is at the beautiful Esther Short Park. You can get all the Vancouver USA Marathon Course Information here.

If you’d like to follow along in a very high tech way you’ll be happy to know that they have created a Vancouver USA Marathon iPhone app. It gives course information as well as bio info and you can track your favorite runner.

Hopefully you head down and sign up to do this great course or go and root on your favorite friend or family member! I know I will.

And I’m proud to be an American,
where at least I know I’m free.
And I won’t forget the men who died,
who gave that right to me.
~Lee Greenwood

I love this song and the lyrics that go with it. It makes me choke up every time I hear it. Especially if you really stop and listen to what is being sung. This tribute is one of the best I’ve seen to go along with the song. Please watch it all the way through and remember those who’ve given it all for our freedom. Also, don’t forget those who still live while continuing to die a little each day from their service to our country. Hug a veteran!

As a society we remember all those who’ve passed on on Memorial Day but let’s not forget what it was originally established as…

Memorial Day, originally called Decoration Day, is a day of remembrance for those who have died in our nation’s service.

Rather than go on with words, I’ll share some photos…

To the men who gave their lives in Vietnam November 8th, 1965…

To my dear friend Robb Needham. Your sacrifice and smile will never be forgotten.

Easter is upon us. I know lots of people are looking to locate an Easter Egg Hunt or two. I’ll highlight a few around town. I know this isn’t all of them but hopefully you’ll find one or two of interest.

SATURDAY APRIL 23RD, 2011 Easter Egg Hunts

Big Al’s Easter Egg Hunt is on Saturday April 23rd. They have two different times. The 4 and under hunt will begin at 10:30am and the hunt for the 5 to 10 year old kids will take place at 11am. Big Al’s is located at 16615 SE 18th Street, Vancouver, WA 98683.

LifePoint Church Eggstreme Egg Hunt is Saturday, April 23rd at 9:30am and 11:30am. It is for ages 2 through 5th grade. They’ll have over 25,000 eggs with candy and prizes. LifePoint is located at 305 NE 192nd Ave, Vancouver, WA 98684.

Vancouver Farmers Market will be hosting an Easter Egg Hunt at 10am on Saturday the 23rd. It will be held in Esther Short Park. Bring your family down for a great time collecting Easter Eggs and afterward enjoy walking through the market and visiting our vendors. This year we will have two hunts for different age groups. For those 4 and under we have an area for kids and their parents to collect eggs in a more relaxed atmosphere. And for those ages 5 – 10 a larger field will be filled with eggs and a few special surprise treats as well.

SPECIAL NOTICE: The MCCDCT Easter Egg Hunt is the only one of its kind in the Pacific Northwest. The hunt is done at McKenzie Stadium behind Evergreen High School. This hunt is for physically and mentally challenged kids. Wheel chairs and walkers can cross this field easily. This hunt is Saturday, April 23rd at 5:15pm. It will be at McKenzie Stadium (Behind Evergreen High School). If you have any questions please call 360-513-8201.

SUNDAY APRIL 24TH, 2011 Easter Egg Hunts

Camas Parks and Recreation will host their Easter Egg Hunt at Crown Park in Camas. It is on Sunday the 24th at 1:30pm. This hunt is for children between 2 and 9 years of age. You’ll find over 10,000 candy and prize filled eggs at this hunt location. Crown Park is at NE Everett and NE 17th Avenue.

(Please remember, ALL children MUST be accompanied by adults at all these events.)

Thanks to my real estate pal Ines in Miami for the cool photo!

I’m so excited! It’s been way to long since the Liberty Theatre in downtown Camas, WA has been open. Liberty has been a staple of the City of Camas since 1927 and deserves to be the local public movie house.

I’m very happy to share that the Liberty Theatre is open for business. They kicked things off tonight for St. Patrick’s Day with the Grease Sing-A-Long movie and the place was packed. I was having dinner at Twilight Pizza and the line at Liberty wrapped around the corner. I walked in front of the theater as they were getting out and everyone was laughing and talking about how wonderful it was to be back in this 350 seat venue.

The following comes from their website describing what you can expect to see happening at Liberty Theatre…

There are varied of tastes and diversity in this area and we feel an assortment of film genres and categories are the key to our success. The Liberty programming will be more “repertory” style, with different movies and different times and more turn over. On most weeks, you’ll get a choice of at least two movies and sometimes more. The Liberty will be showing films off of the National break, meaning that new films will show up at the Liberty 3 to 7 weeks after they are released nationally. This means we don’t have to run the same film for several weeks on end to satisfy studio requirements and can provide a wider variety of films for you to see. It also means we can keep our prices more economical; you’ll be able to see a first rate presentation at the Liberty for only $3.50.

In addition to reasonable movie prices you’ll also find family affordable prices at the concession stand. With the economy like it is this is a most welcomed addition to have a night out. Make sure you head down to Camas and enjoy a movie or two!

Liberty Theatre is located at 315 NE 4th Avenue, Camas, WA 98607 and can be reached at 360-859-9555. You can also connect with Liberty Theatre on Facebook.

Reflecting on the Liberty Theatre…

This week’s Clark County WA Neighborhood of the Week is Arnada. I thought it would be nice to highlight Arnada Park as a great outdoor place to go.

Arnada Park is located just south of Fourth Plain on the far east side of Arnada. The park is about 3 acres and a great little community park. Today the sun was shining and the park had several groups in it. There were a bunch of guys shooting hoops on the basketball court. The large play-set had a bunch of kids running around playing on it. Everyone was having a great time. There is also a cool gazebo with picnic tables in it. This park has had a ton of work done to it over the last 15 years to really dress it up. There is a nice walking trail through it as well as a large open grassy area to play on.

It should be no secret by now that I love my hometown of Vancouver, WA. I love everything about Clark County, WA (yes, I also love Clark Co, NV. Viva Las Vegas!).

As I was nearing the “end” of 365 Things To Do In Vancouver, WA I decided I should figure out how to expand what I spent a year doing. I wanted to do something that would allow me to continue highlighting great things to do all over town and also re-share all the things I wrote about last year. I want to continue promoting our local businesses, events, parks, trails and activities. I also want to share details about the neighborhoods these wonderful places and events “live” in.

So, today I introduce my next “project”. Beginning on Monday, March 7, 2011 I’ll begin spotlighting a Clark County, WA Neighborhood of the Week. Each week I’ll focus on one particular neighborhood. I’ll share general information, demographic data, school data, etc. about that neighborhood. I’ll highlight local parks, restaurants and activities. I’ll likely share a “Home of the Week” as I preview homes for sale in the neighborhood. I’ll also be creating a map of all the homes for sale in each neighborhood. This map will also include the “365 Things To Do In Vancouver, WA” posts I’ve written over the last year. My hope is to create a complete Clark County, WA neighborhood resource guide for those who already live there plus share it with others who might like to make that neighborhood home.

Having listed and sold single family and multi-family real estate in Clark County since 1994, I’ve learned that people buy neighborhoods. This guide will help share the great things about each neighborhood as well as continue to promote supporting our local businesses. We all must work together to help keep our local economy strong and thriving.

This newest “project” will be a constant work in progress. I’m sure as it begins I’ll tweak and modify it as necessary to hopefully make it better each week. Of course, there is also a Clark County WA Neighborhood of the Week Facebook page where each post will be shared with a larger audience. Please feel free to “Like” it.

If you have neighborhood information to share please send me a message through the “Meet Up With Dale” box on the sidebar. I’d love to hear from you. Let’s all work together to make this the best site possible.

See you all 3-7-11!

The Mission: February 17th, 2010 through February 16th, 2011 write one blog post each and every day highlighting something to do in Vancouver, WA (& surrounding cities).

Status: Task completed on schedule. Every single day one blog post was written. Almost every post included a video from on location as well as photos from each location.

All blog posts lived here on the Clark County Real Estate Guide. The permalink to each post was then placed on the 365 Things To Do In Vancouver, WA Facebook Page. Over the course of the year the Facebook page grew at a very steady pace. At the end of the 365th day there were over 14,000 “likes”. I’ve been so thankful for the wonderful reception this page got.

67% of the fans are women. The fan base spans over 19 countries all over the world. Approximately 75% of the fan base is from the Vancouver/Clark County/Portland area. The next largest group represented is in Seattle. 83% of the fans are between the age of 18 and 54.

Over the course of the 365 days 8,281,995 post views occurred on Facebook! A post view is defined by Facebook as “the number of times people (Fans and non-Fans) have viewed a News Feed story posted by your page”. This blows my mind!

Approximately 100,000 visitors stopped here at the Clark County Real Estate Guide throughout the year. The most viewed post of the year was Day 295: Magical Lights On 63rd Street with almost 1,200 visitors!

As I mentioned on Day 365, this “project” is not done! There are still lots of wonderful things to share about Vancouver and Clark County, WA. I will not continue daily but will continue regularly. I’ll also be adding content to the site that I believe will enhance and improve upon what is already here.

I’ll be announcing these changes on 3-1-11. Please stop in then to see what is coming and I hope you’ll either subscribe to get these posts via email or via an RSS feed.

If you have any stories of new places you’ve discovered or enjoyed during the first 365 days I’d love to hear about them. I’d love it if you’d leave a comment below. Please share this site with your friends and family who may not be aware of it. It’s a great resource from a native Vancouver guy whose family has been in Clark County since 1893. Remember, you can type anything into the search box on the top right side of the site and it’ll find all posts with whatever keywords you desire (i.e. pizza, wine, hike, theater, etc.)

Day 365 of 365!!!

Can you believe it? Today is Day 365! Yes, this is the 365th day in a row I’ve written a blog post about my hometown, Vancouver, WA. I’ve shared parks, trails, events, activities, restaurants, coffee houses, venues, wineries and countless other great things. It’s been a most amazing year. The business owners I’ve met. The wonderful people who call Vancouver and Clark County home. The people who used to live here and are enjoying reminiscing about Vancouver. Those who are considering relocating here. Everyone is wonderful.

If anyone would have told me what today looked like on February 17th, 2010 I’d have never believed it. I’ve had the opportunity to not only help encourage locals to “Get Out, Explore & Enjoy Our Community” but I’ve been able to help lots of small business owners set up and tweak their Facebook pages. I’ve also had the opportunity to share my experiences locally and nationally. I’ve taught classes, webinars, been on panels and loved sharing what I’ve done with the Clark County Real Estate Guide and the Facebook page 365 Things To Do In Vancouver, WA.

Everyone has been dying to know what the big finale is. What is Day 365? I’ve contemplated this for quite some time. As I pondered my different choices I kept coming back to the same conclusion. There really is no “finale”. There are 364 blog posts about great things to do in Vancouver plus TONS of things I didn’t get to these first 364 days. So, today I encourage you to keep exploring this site. Keep exploring Vancouver (& surrounding cities). The things to do in Vancouver, WA never ends. Even if you don’t agree with something I suggest, find the places you love and keep going back. All our small (and large) businesses need each of us. It takes us, the entire community to make our local economy grow.

The other thing I get asked all the time is “what’s next”? What happens after 365? I’ll not fully disclose this yet. Stay tuned for some changes here at the Clark County Real Estate Guide. Will I keep sharing the things to do? Absolutely! I’ll not be posting 7 days a week any longer. I’m thankful I committed to it and saw it through to its completion. I’m very proud of this accomplishment. It still amazes me I have completed it. I joked that I’d go to Disney World when I hit Day 365. I’m happy to say, I spent today at Walt Disney World Animal Kingdom all day today! What a great time it was. I’ll be taking the next week-ish off from here. I hope you’ll browse the site and go exploring some old posts. You know, on the top right is a search box. You may use it just like if you were searching Google. Type in any keyword or phrase and it’ll find anything I’ve covered over the last year. Have no fear, I WILL be back!

I hope you’ll keep coming back and I hope all of Clark County, WA (& beyond) love what is coming next. Thank you all again from the bottom of my heart for your support and love. I really do appreciate you all!

Special thanks to my wonderful friend Brian Copeland for the awesome Goofy photo! Thank you for sharing in the journey I’ve taken over the last 365 days. Also, thanks for spending Day 365 at Disney’s Animal Kingdom with me! If anyone ever needs Nashville real estate service Brian is your man!

Day 364 of 365!!!

Seriously! Wow! I can’t believe I just typed “Day 364 of 365″. That blows my mind. It’s hard to believe I’ve blogged every single day in a row for 364 days. What a crazy wonderful year it’s been. Let’s get to today’s post.

Did you know Vancouver has its own convention center? It does. The Vancouver Convention Center lives in the heart of downtown Vancouver directly south of Esther Short Park. It is a wonderful facility that can accommodate all sorts of events locally. Whether you’re having a little meeting, large meeting, banquet, wedding, full conference or anything in between this is a great place to check out.

I’ve attended several events here. The facility is wonderful. It was built just a few years ago and is so convenient to everything. The Vancouver Convention Center lives on the south end of the Hilton Vancouver.

Vancouver Convention Center is located at 301 W 6th Street, Vancouver, WA 98660. The main entrance to the ballrooms faces Columbia.

Day 363 of 365…

I’ve been hearing about how great Lapellah Restaurant is for quite some time. I decided it was finally time to “check it out” myself. I’m glad I did.

They have a very hip decor to the place. I loved seeing the huge wood stove as I entered. I’m sure they cook lots of tasty foods in there. I’ll look forward to going back to explore more. I decided to sample some of the Happy Hour menu tonight. I chose to have the Wedge Salad and an order of their Calamari. Both were excellent. A typical Wedge Salad comes with Blue Cheese and crumbled blue cheese but I’m not a huge fan. They were kind enough to dress up one with some Thousand Island for me. The salad and calamari were both excellent. The calamari were lightly battered and very tender. There were also huge chunks of freshly grated Parmesan Cheese shaved on top of the sauce and calamari. I found this to be a very nice addition to this item.

Lapellah Restaurant is located at 2520 Columbia House Blvd., Suite 108, Vancouver, WA, 98661 and can be reached at 360-828-7911. You can also connect with Lapellah Restaurant on Facebook.