‘Nice to be back.’ Thousands fill parks as Tri-Cities summer events return
Karl Pearson and Mike Lauria were happy to be back at the Tri-City Water Follies.
The two longtime attendees who know pit crew members and have spent time and money following hydroplane races loved the chance to see and talk to people they missed last year.
“It’s nice to be back,” Lauria said. “It’s more of the socializing that is really fun. Yeah, boats that’s great. It’s nice that they’re out there. I applaud the drivers and their teams.”
Thousands returned to the Columbia River shoreline for Tri-City Water Follies events and to Howard Amon Park for the annual Allied Arts’ Art in the Park show.
About 20 minutes away, Amanda Conmy’s family wandered through hundreds of vendor and artisan booths in Richland.
They liked getting a chance to see the jewelry and to people watch.
“It’s always a pleasant event. There is never any rude people,” Conmy said. “Everybody is happy.”
The two biggest summer events returned to the Tri-Cities after being canceled in 2020 because of COVID pandemic restrictions. But Gov. Jay Inslee’s decision to reopen the state by June 30 cleared the way for the return of both.
Spectators braved temperatures in the 90s Saturday and closer to 100 degrees on Sunday.
Tri-City Water Follies
While the HAPO Columbia Cup hydroplane races were delayed for a day to clear sago pondweed from the Columbia River, Pearson and Lauria were still enjoying themselves.
Both started coming to the event when they and the races were still young.
Lauria put together a tribute to the event’s past — a banner with a cannabis-themed drawing of a hydroplane. It was a reference to a shirt from 1981 by a silk-screening company that jokingly referred to, “The Columbian Cup.”
“It had the front cockpit without the cockpit protection, and it had the driver with the doobie up here, the cannabis leaf in the back for the rooster tail and then this little squiggly look on his face,” Lauria said. “I figured I would do a little bit of a throwback, and a little bit of an update.”
Pearson was wearing a hat from the 1984 Budweiser Columbia Cup. He had pins he picked up from Madison, Ind. He follows the circuit across the country.
He has collected buttons, pins and programs from hundreds of events, and had about half of his collection sent to Seattle’s Hydroplane and Raceboat Museum.
Both men hope the Water Follies and hydro racing could reach more people locally and by attracting national attention by getting racing onto national sports broadcasts.
“I came down here when you couldn’t hardly walk down this way (because of the crowd),” Lauria said. “It would take you almost an hour to go down this way and then down to the pits.”
Art in the Park
Former Richland teacher and professional artist Consuelo Soto Murphy was one of a few hundred vendors at Howard Amon Park.
Thousands walked among the booths of various artwork ranging from metal creations to stained glass, photos, ceramics and paintings.
About half a dozen people crowded around her as she painted migrant laborers working in a field. Her art has been used by Visit Tri-Cities, Sunset magazine and in many Mid-Columbia publications. It was also featured on a CBS drama Madam Secretary.
Soto Murphy was glad to be out of the house and in the park talking with her customers.
“A lot of my former customers are glad to be back to find some artwork and some prints,” she said.
The last year was her final one with the Richland School District, noting the struggles teaching students through Zoom during the pandemic.
But it did not slow down her art and she started a new website.
“I have a lot of my work on there, so customers are looking on there,” she said. “My sales have not dropped.”