WASHINGTON, USA — As the end of the year quickly approaches, team Evening has collected some of our staff's favorite stories from 2022. Check it out and thanks for watching!
Washington's most dangerous drive
In one of the most beautiful places on earth, you'll find one of the world's most exhilarating drives. It's officially designated as NF-5400, but most of the locals call it Hart's Pass Road, the highest-altitude location in Washington state where you can drive a car.
The journey begins in the Methow Valley town of Mazama, where local worker Alex Perz answers lots of visitors' questions about the road to Hart's Pass, like Why is one particularly treacherous section called Deadhorse Point?
"I don't have that answer," Perz said with a laugh. "But when you get up there you might have an idea."
You're in for a few bumps on this mostly unpaved 20-mile drive. But the scenery more than makes up for it, if you have the guts to take in the view. Deadhorse Point? Its hairpin turns overlook a thousand-foot drop.
Rescue dogs unite with 'forever' families at mass adoption event
Every month, dozens of rescued dogs and cats are united with their “forever homes” at a parking lot in Marysville.
The early-morning adoption event is organized by Three Little Pitties Rescue, a non-profit based in Texas.
"Houston has a huge problem with dog overpopulation and so they bring them up to the Pacific Northwest where we have tons of adopters and a very dog-friendly environment,” said Erin Walsh, who adopted her own dog from the rescue organization and now works with them.
Adopters are matched with animals in advance, then the animals are driven across the country in a giant semi-truck in one 36-hour trip. Their new owners arrive from across Western Washington to pick them up, in what amounts to a drive-by adoption.
Pacific Northwest Ballet's first Black principal dancer reflects on remarkable journey
When Jonathan Batista moved to Seattle to in 2021 to dance as a soloist for the Pacific Northwest Ballet, he had no idea a promotion would come as soon as it did.
"My artistic director said, 'Look, you're going to sign your contract and it's going to inform you that you're going to be promoted in September.' And when I saw that paper, I just started shaking. It was a mixed feeling of happiness, joy, love for what I do, accomplishment and community," Batista shared. "As a Black dancer you have so many silent battles that you don't even realize. It can be quite challenging to see how much we have advanced."
Iconic Olympic Peninsula diner serves big burgers, raises big bucks for vets
The first thing you notice about Fat Smitty's is the chainsaw art outside.
The second thing you notice — are the dollar bills inside.
They cover every surface of this Olympic Peninsula burger joint.
"Well this is nothing but a big donation fund," owner Casey Carson said. "We've been doing it for almost 25 years and every five years we take the dollar bills off that customers leave us and we give it to charity.”
The bills began appearing in the '90s when a traveling salesman stuck his card and a dollar on the ceiling.
"This is where it all started, never been able to find the original dollar bill,” Carson said gesturing to the ceiling near where the burgers get handed from kitchen to dining room. The bills there are so old they crumble. But that one dollar led to thousands more.
Soap Lake, Washington is home to the world's worst golf course
Smack dab in the middle of the state of Washington, you will find the city of Soap Lake, a slice of heaven for the thousands of people who visit and live there. But the lakeside retreat is also home to what just might be the golf course from hell.
"You're at Lava Links golf course," said town historian Burr Beckwith. "It's a nine-hole golf course, kind of a pitch and putt. You only need two clubs, a putter and a nine iron."
We looked over the course and counted nine red flags standing in various parts of a lot filled with sagebrush, sand and basalt rocks.
"It's kind of like playing golf on the moon, if you can imagine that," Beckwith said.
Blindfolded basketball is as ridiculous as it looks - Bad Sports
KING 5 Evening hosts Saint Bryan and Jim Dever met at Wright Park in Tacoma to play on the same basketball court where local legends like Isaiah Thomas, Malachi Flynn, and Avery Bradley played.
"I am 6'6" tall," Bryan said. "The same height as Michael Jordan. I am often mistaken for a professional basketball player or a college legend. I am neither. I was just a little boy with a basketball hoop in the backyard and a dream. At the YMCA in Asheville, North Carolina, I finally learned how to play the game."
"I've shot baskets obviously," said Dever, who is 5'7. "I have a great shooter's eye and shooter's hand, but I don't typically play one-on-one."
"Well, I think it's called 'shooter's touch' not 'shooter's hand," Bryan said. "And besides, we're going to play blindfolded".
In recent years, blindfolded basketball has become a popular stunt on YouTube, where athletically minded influencers try to draw subscribers by playing with blindfolds. It looks impossible and ridiculous so naturally, it fits well into a new Evening franchise we're calling Bad Sports.
Tacoma's Rust Mansion going on the market after a million-dollar makeover - Unreal Estate
After a nine-month, million-dollar makeover, Tacoma's most iconic private home, The Rust Mansion, is going on the market listed at $4.8 million. Real estate developer Ashley Burks purchased the home in a private sale for $2.5 million in December 2021 and went to work restoring the "White House of the West."
"Initially when we started the project, there was a concern that I'm this young entrepreneur," Burks said. "What am I going to do with the interior of the home? Am I going to update it and modernize it? And we did the exact opposite."
Using a painting of the house as a guide, the single mom and entrepreneur oversaw a million-dollar renovation that has brought the Rust Mansion back to its original glory.
"I'm pretty proud of myself," she said before crediting the rest of the team.
It's been a labor of love in more ways than one. Burks dedicated the project to the memory of her late husband Bryan Meade who died of a heart attack in 2017 at age 36.
"He had a saying, 'You can do anything you put your mind to. You just got to throw your energy behind it,'" Burks said.
Meet Ballard's rooftop watchdog
Rumple the dog is obsessed with his owner’s rooftop! For three years, Rumple has jumped on the roof and kept watch over his Ballard neighborhood.
"I never would in a million years dream that my dog was gonna go climbing on top of the house," owner Robi Holmes said.
Rumple accesses the roof easily from the deck in the back. He weighs almost 110 pounds.
"When he first went up, it was utter shock," Holmes said. "And then I was a little worried if he's safe up there. It's just a really steep pitched roof."
Rumple's rooftop tendency has created a way for her to get to know her neighbors. People frequently stop by the house to take pictures of Rumple.
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