Library Opening and Christmas Concert

When Tiffany and I picked Alex up from school today, we went straight to the new Cascade Park Library, next door to the Firstenburg Center, where they had their grand opening from 4 to 8. Tiffany and Alex were among the first few people in the building when they opened the doors; I was parking the car, so I was 5 minutes later.

We spent 20 minutes wandering through the library. It is a large, very open space with dozens of internet terminals, very nice reading areas (including one with very comfy chairs in front of a fireplace, looking out a window at a small wooded alcove). The library has self-checkout; I am not sure how this works, but it appears to be something similar to the self-checkout lines in the grocery stores. Today the library is well-stocked, with many of the books being brand-new. It is obvious that much time and effort went into staging.

One thing the library does not have is adequate parking.  Of course, parking was a nightmare for the grand opening.  It shares the Firstenburg Center parking lot, and no additional parking capacity was added with the addition of the library.  The Firstenburg parking lot has always had a questionable capacity, so I fear that the addition of the library may be too much for the lot to handle.

We saw Mayor Royce Pollard, who was going to give a speech sometime around 5:00, but Alex was too shy to approach him and shake his hand. Instead, we settled for just seeing him from 20 feet away.

Finally, we decided that we did not want to stick around for the speeches, refreshments, and entertainment so we left about 4:30.

After eating dinner, we were off again to the Battle Ground Community Band's final Christmas concert, at The Quarry Senior Living. We had a fair-sized audience and played well. Alex was well-behaved, possibly because he brought his Nintendo DS.