Seattle Vacation-Day 5

Itinerary: Space Needle, EMP Museum, Pacific Science Museum

Today we slept in to recover from the long day of travel yesterday. But still, if you're from the central time zone, sleeping in on the west coast means you're likely going to wake up early by west coast standards. At least I will; Patrick has an uncanny ability to sleep. I was up an hour before he was.

We grabbed some breakfast at the hotel and set off for a day in Seattle Center, the location of the Space Needle, EMP, and science museum, to name a few attractions.  The museums opened up at 10 am so we went first to the Space Needle, which opened at 8 am.  The Space Needle was the showcase attraction of the 1962 World Fair and was thought to be the design for all future skyscrapers.  Of course this didn't pan out because the design is horribly inefficient.  We learned in the harbor tour that after the World Fair, the city wanted to tear the tower down.  The architect and builder rallied the city and petitioned to save the tower, foreseeing that it would become a major tourist attraction. The pair succeeded but the stipulation was the city didn't want to own the structure. So the pair bought the tower from the city and it has never been publicly owned. 

From the outdoor observation deck of the Space Needle you can see in every direction. The mountains off in the distance were a beautiful site to see. We had hoped to spend some time during this vacation in the mountains, but without a car and staying in downtown, we were limited in our abilities to travel to the mountainous areas surrounding the city. Next time.  Oh and there will be a next time.

Pattykate looking out over Seattle at the Space Needle. 

After the Space Needle we headed over to the EMP museum, which stands for the Experience Music Project. This museum is amazing and I highly recommend it to anyone visiting Seattle.  Patrick is the musical one in the team, although I'm coming around after years of positive musical influence.  The first floor of the museum held exhibits on Jimi Hendrix, the history and evolution of the guitar, a sci-fi/fantasy exhibit, and a horror film exhibit. 

The second floor was the "experience" portion of the museum.  Here there were hands on stations where you could try your hand at a wide range of musical instruments, each which had a mini prerecorded lesson to teach attendees the basics of that instrument. There were even sound booths you could go into and have jam sessions.  I played on what was very near to a theremin but which had a wide range of sounds. 

There was also a tower of stringed instruments, some of which where connected and wired to play a song.  Patrick was in heaven.  

View of the EMP from the Space Needle's observation deck

Patrick in front of the tower of joy

 

Drum set for the Jimi Hendrix Experience, specifically Mitch Mitchell

The outside of the EMP museum.

After the EMP museum we headed over to the Pacific Science Museum.  This museum is excellent, if you have kids with you.  If you're an adult fairly well educated in terms of science, you'll probably be disappointed.  We were.  Don't get me wrong, I would love to frequent this museum with the future kiddos but for just Patrick and I we were bored and sorely disappointed.  There was a giant chair and tables I took a picture with and a giant guitar Patrick took a picture with, and there was a butterfly garden, which was interesting to a point.  But overall, I wouldn't go back to this museum unless I had young kids in tow.  There was an IMAX theater we had tickets to through our City Pass, but Patrick's stomach was flipping by late in the afternoon, so we headed back to the hotel to let Patrick rest before heading out to find dinner that evening.  

Can you see Patrick?

After Patrick's nap we went out to visit the Olympic Sculpture Park near the waterfront.  It wasn't quite what we expected but it was still nice.  We ended up getting there near the end of the day so the light was just right.  There is a pathway that leads from the park around the shore for miles.  Had we had bike, or hadn't had walked miles already, we would have liked to run the trail.  As we walked along the waterfront we saw of all things a raccoon peeking through at a pier.  There wasn't any sort of solid around so this was a pecicular sighting but quite interesting.  The racooon walked along a beam between two piers and then disappeared under the pier in the rafters.  I wasn't expecting to see that kind of wildlife in the city.  

Olympic Sculpture Park looking out to Elliot Bay

Olympic Sculpture Park

Olympic Sculpture Park

Olympic Sculpture Park

 

Unexpected urban wildlife

After that it was getting late so most of the places we tried to eat at were closed. It stays light until nearly 10pm so it's a bit deceiving as to how late it really is.   We somehow ended up at a 4 story mall hidden in the middle of the city. We had no idea it was a mall from the outside. It was like a Mary Poppins carpet bag trick.  Oddly enough, Patrick ended up with a burger and fries. I saw this is odd because since last semester when I worked late on Tuesday nights, Patrick officially made that evening "Burger night".  So even in Seattle this tradition persisted.  It wasn't until after he was halfway through his dinner that I pointed out the coincidence.   

I had a parfait that night.. "Everybody loves parfaits"

Seattle Vacation-Day 4

Itinerary: Whale watching tour

We woke up early to catch our boat for a whale watching your this morning. The boat was leaving at 7:45 and we had to be there an hour ahead of time to pick up our boarding passes.  What struck me about the whole process and operation is that ferries and other boats are just an everyday mode of transportation when you live so close to the ocean, bays, sounds and other large bodies of water.  Checking-in at the ticket counter and boarding was not unlike the process you'd go through at an airport, except there was no TSA screening. There was a couple with bikes loaded up with camping gear, so it was clear the were touring Seattle and surrounding area via bike.  That looked and sounded like fun.  Maybe on another trip. 

We traveled 3 hours by ferry to Friday harbor on San Jaun Island.  The crew informed the passengers that there had been no whale sightings that morning, so we would embark for our whaling tour in the afternoon. We went ashore at Friday harbor and toured the small island city for about 2 hours. We walked the main city streets and checked out the city shops on the strip. 

Pattykate on the dock and Friday harbor. 

We loaded the ferry again after our excersion on San Jaun Island (many of the islands in the area have Spanish names after the first settlers) and headed out for some whale watching.  After traveling for about 15' we found a pod of 4 orcas, two adults, 1 younger adult, and 1 young calf.  It was amazing to see these magnificent animals. They would surface to breathe and would take a few breaths before submerging again for several minutes. The calf would come out of the water the most out of all the whales so on several occasions we could see nearly his whole body, from the tip of his nose to his tail. The older whales only surfaced enough to breathe, so we'd only see their spouts, backs and tails.  Upon reflection, I concluded that I would much prefer observe whales like this in nature than in captivity performing tricks for audiences.  I have scruples with Sea World. For two hours we followed this small pod of whales. Patrick and I stayed up on the top open deck and watched then with binoculars for nearly the entire time.  One unexpected site was a whale feeding.  The naturalist on board, who would point out whales, birds, and other interesting sites in the surrounding nature, at one point in the whale watching called our attention to some thrashing in the water off on the port side of the ferry.  We'd see water splashing about and then a seal tail would pop up. This continued for a good 5 minutes.  The naturalist explained the whales were hunting the seal and the reason it lasted so long was because it was very likely a training exercise for the calf.  The circle of life, while completely natural, was difficult to watch in person and so close up.  Especially after seeing the cute harbor seals at the aquarium a few days earlier. 

Above two pictures show whales in the pod we followed. 

A great veiw of the mountains on our ferry ride

PW on the Clipper ferry

The rear of the Cipper ferry going about 30 knots (35 mph )

We also so other seals (live and not being hunted), bald eagles, other coastal birds and a two Norse whales on our tour. The landscape was breathtaking.  Overall the tour was great but the down side was that it was ALL day.  We woke up at 5:15 and didn't get back to the hotel until after 8 pm.  And the travel, while very new to us and interesting, was very long.  We spent a little over 6.5 hours traveling to and from Friday harbor, so this was a lot of sitting and we were very tired of the ride near the end.  But it was overall very worth it to see whales and other marine wildlife in their natural habitat.  

Luckily on both legs of the journey we met some interesting people to chat with and pass the time.  On the return trip we sat with two local ladies who talked with us about the joys if living in Seattle, the culture and the people here. We comminted to them that we noticed when we drove to Camano Island tgAt the drivers here are all very laid back and extremely courteous.  She concurred that this is a good discripition of Seattlites in general and that these characteristics extended beyond driving style. She told us that the people here are very know and courteous in general and that they can be passive aggressive, sometimes to a fault.  We joked about how Texans can be loud and boisterous and often expressing their sentiments with disregard for the effect their words might have.  We pointed out that this is all made possible by the phrase "bless their heart", which when said before any off-color or unflattering remark acts as a socialy acceptable buffer to whatever comes next. 

After parting ways with our new friends, who turned out to have similar personalities and senses of humor as us, we set out to find some dinner.  We settled on a little Thai place a few blocks from our hotel.  I ordered Sin Yai at spice level 2 and Patrick ordered is classic Panang Curry at spice level "extremely hot".  I had never tried or even seen my dish at other Thai restaurants, but I was drawn to this dish because it had a variety of veggies, as well as curry and peanuts. All of which made for a FANTASTIC combination. By far, this is my new favorite Thai dish.  I just hope I can find it at Thai restaurants in Dallas.  If not , I'll just have to go back to Seattle.  Unfortunately, when Patrick asked for his curry "extremely hot", which normally is just fine for him, his dish came out spicier than expected.  Our first indication was when we tasted my dish.  While still a comfortable level of heat, this Thai restaurant's 2 was spicer than our pallets were calibrated to.  Knowing that my 2 felt more like a 3, we guessed Patrick was in for a ride.  The Thai heat scale can be specific to individual restaurants.  At our favorite Dallas Thai spot (Thai Star) Patrick orders his dish at spice level "Thai kill me", which is still not hot enough for him and he still has to use their pepper spice rack to up the heat level to enjoy his dish.  But here at this Seattle Thai restaurant, he went for the hottest spice level and for the first time in years, got in over his head in terms of spice level.  We ordered a creamy drink to tame the heat a bit, but he was still not able to enjoy his dish as much as he would have liked. Lesson learned.  When we go back (note when not if), Patrick will be a little less ambitious in terms of spice. 

Seattle Vacation-Day 3

Itinerary: Zip line canopy tour, exploring

Today we headed out for a zip line canopy tour.  We rented a car and traveled north to Camano Island which is about an hour north of Seattle.  The tour consisted of six zip lines situated on platforms of varying heights above the forest floor. I was surprised when I booked the tour to see that it would take 2.5 hours to complete all the zip lines.  We had two great tour guides who not only set up our safety rigs but also taught us about edible plants we passed by on the short hikes between zip lines.  We ate wild salmon berries, huckleberries, elder berries, and wild grape leaves. We also learned that stinging nettle leaves are edible (you have to fold the leaves up just right) and we learned the two antidotes to the painful stickers of stinging nettle.  The first treatment is to chew the stinging nettle leaf until it is a pulp and then apply to pulp to the affected area. The second is to use a fern that grows near stinging nettle.  Find a fern leaf with an orangish underside and rub that on the affected area. We were both thoroughly impressed with our guides knowledge of the local forest. 

Overall the zip line adventure was an amazing experience and well worth the money. There was one line that was 650 feet long. That's 25 feet longer than the space needle is tall. 

Patrick with his safety tether on one of the zipline platforms

The view from one zipline plater to another

Patrick after finishing a zip

Brett our guide showing us edible plants of the northwest forest

Wild salmon berry tasting 

My view before crossing the "rickety bridge"

The zippy couple

Can I just stay here?

Patrick on the 650' zipline. 

As if the tour itself wasn't great enough, they knew it's was our anniversry so they gave us each a free souvenir tshirt! Talk about taking care of your customers. If you visit Seattle this place is worth the time and money to travel to. 

After zip lining we got some lunch at a cute little dinner nestled next to the woods and a lake.  Again, I wa pleasantly surprised at how good the vegetarian options we in taste, abundance, as well as how filling my salad was.  It's so nice to be in a place that respects and understands vegetarians and is environmentally conscious.  Recycling is everywhere.  And they will only give you a bag at shops if you ask for one, at which point you pay $0.05 for a paper sack. So from what I can tell, plastic bags are all but banned here. We did see one restaurant that used plastic bags for take-out, but that's it.  I'll happily pay the $0.05 cents if that's what it takes to clean a city up and reduce everyone's footprint a little more. 

After lunch, we headed toward two little neighborhoods: Fremont and Ballard.  Both of these neighborhoods have hipster shops and fit us to a T.  We were so wrapped up in checking out all the cute stores that we forgot to check out the Fremont Troll, which is a massive sculpture under a bridge in Fremont that looks like, well a troll. Perhaps we'll get back there before we leave. I did get one thing in Fremont, those of you who see me frequently will likely notice right away. I don't think anyone reads this who won't see me in Dallas when we return, so I'll just leave it at that. 

After cruising the hipster hangouts and thoroughly enjoying ourselves, we made our way to the original REI. Again, it was awesome. The walk up to the store is wooded and has a little nature trail. For being in the middle of the city, this comes as an unexpected but very appreciated surprise.  Inside there are two stories. 

Patrick at the start of the trail that leads to REI-Seattle

Cute kids play area

We had an idea to buy Ollie some dog hiking booties to try to prevent her from scratch at the carpet when we're away so we bought these at REI.  Scratching is one of her coping mechanisms for her separation anxiety and it causes damage to carpets.  Let's hope these boots work. 

By the time we finished at REI we were beat so we headed back to the hotel and crashed early. More fun coming tomorrow. 

Seattle Vacation-Day 2

Itinerary: Seattle Aquarium, Pike Place Market, Harbor Tour, Anniversary dinner 

The aquarium was AMAZING! They had a touch and feel section where anyone could touch sea anemones, sea cucumbers, starfish, and a variety of other sea invertebrates.  I was very impressed with the exhibits and how they were tailored and geared for hands on learning for children and adults.  The harbor seals were the highlight, as well as the sea and river otters.  All were amazing creatures to observe.  The seals would bob in he water and had his cute expression of curiosity on their adorable faces. Honestly their faces reminded me of Ollie.  None of the animals are trained for entertainment purposes, but they are trained for their own safety.  We watched a demonstration with the seals where the biologists showed the audience how they trained the seals to retrieve trash (specifically plastic water bottles) out of their enclosures.  One seal even would put the bottle in a recycling bin! All if the mammals and birds at the aquarium were rescued and had been rehabilitated, but could not be released into the wild.  The mission of the Seattle aquarium is education and conservation and they do a great job at it. 

After the aquarium we headed to Pike Place Market. We were getting pretty hungry so we looked for a place to sit down for lunch.  We had no idea how big Pike Place Market was going to be.  It's six stories.  We climbed the stairs from the waterfront to the top story several times.   The market is filled with produce sellers, restaurants, and shops.  Every kind of cuisine is available.  What's best of all, I've had no trouble at all finding something I want to eat.  This is an impressive feat since I'm a health conscience, picky vegetarian. There's also a neat area of shops and stores across the street on Post Alley.  We settled on a little Thai place where I ordered Tom Yum soup and Patrick had Masaman curry. Oh it was so good.  The fresh food stalls nearby sold the most amazing fruits and veggies and I wanted so much to stock up. I settled for a few free slices of fruit, for now. We plan to return later in the week and get some fruit and yogurt for a meal. There were also samples of fresh, homemade Greek yogurt. I has never tasted yogurt that good!  I'm looking forward to that meal.  Just a few shops down from there is the original Starbucks. That was pretty neat to see as well.

After working our way through the market, we headed back to the waterfront to go on a harbor tour.  Before we left Texas we found there's an attraction pass called the City Pass.  You pay $64 and you get passes into a variety of city attractions for a overall reduced price.  The harbor tour and the aquarium were part if the city pass.  On the harbor tour we saw the city from a new angle, learned a lot more about the city, and enjoyed the fresh cool air.  The summer weather here is much more mild than Texas as you could imagine. From the boat we also saw Mt. Rainier, a navy destroyer, and the space needle. All pretty impressive to see. Mt. Rainier is 3 hours away, one way, so we won't be able to visit that site on this trip. 

After the harbor tour we walked back to the hotel for a nap before dinner.  We'd been up and walking the city since before 8  am and it was now 5pm, so we were a bit tired.  We changed and headed to pier 67 and restaurant SixSeven for dinner. I scoped the place out during the vacation planning phase and found they had some good options for me. The view and dinner were amazing.  What a great way to end an amazing day and celebrate 11 years of blissful marriage. I am so grateful to have found Patrick and that we are happily married. He is in every way my perfect match.  In all our time together we have never bickered or fought and I am very proud of that.  We sacrifice for each other and our family and we proudly consider ourselves a team.  I can't express how much I love him in words or how happy I am that he asked me to marry him.  My life has turned out much happier and exciting than I could have ever imagined thanks to my true and only love. 

More pictures to come. I'm posting from remote devices so pictures are a little difficult to include at times. 

Seattle Vacation-Day 1

Today we traveled from Texarkana, TX to Seattle, WA for our first ever true vacation. No races, no crashing with family or friends, just Patrick and I doing everything we want to do.  It's about 65 degrees here, we saw Mt. Hood (see below) on the flight in. I'm in love. Both with Patrick and the region. This vacation is going to be awesome!

The blissfully happy couple headed out for their much needed vacation.

Mt. Hood

FaceBook Detox and Memorial Day

For personal reasons I'm taking a hiatus from Facebook.  It's been about three weeks since I resolved to not view or post anything on Facebook and while I'm enjoying the break and getting the rest I need from this site, I do miss the silly and funny photos on Facebook and I miss having a place to post my own funny experiences and photos.   

To remedy this, I will try to post more here. I know there are very few people who read this blog, but that's fine by me.

To begin this new alternative platform for updates, I wanted to say something about Memorial Day.  This day is often taken for granted and many Americans see it as a day off work to barbeque, go to the pool and in general lounge around. While these are great activities, we should always remember why we can do those things.  It is because selfless men and women and their families have made tremendous sacrifices for us.  In many cases, our soldiers have given the greatest sacrifice of all--they have given their lives for our freedom.  They willingly live a life of hardship and separation from their families so that we don't have to, so that we can live in a peaceful and prosperous nation, and so that we don't have to fight terrorism on a personal level.  Thank you to all the men and women who give so freely of their time, talents, and lives for our great nation. You're sacrifice does not go unnoticed or unappreciated.  I always like to thank my brother for his service in the military and count myself lucky I have someone close in my family I can thank.

      

Some much needed family time

The first two weekends in May I spent some much needed time with my family.  First was Patrick and Lori's wedding on May 10, 2014.  My Patrick and I drove in that morning to attend the wedding.  It was on outdoor ceremony and was beautiful.  Patrick looked so happy and I'm so happy for him.  The following day Patrick I., Lori, Lori's mom, me, and Patrick's and my mom went to Scarborough Fair.  It was so wonderful to spend Mother's day with my mom.  That hasn't happened for years.  I was also very glad to spend the day with my brother; we rarely see each other and it was a treat to go back to the Fair together as a family.  We did this when we were younger and it was nice to come together as adults with our mom to spend the day together doing something we all love. 

Pat and Lori Cutting the cake at their wedding in Argyle on May 10, 2014.  It was very special for me to be there for him that day because he was serving in Afghanistan when I got married.  We were together for his wedding and that meant the world to me.

Patrick and Lori at the alter.  They wrote their own vows which I thought was sweet. Both vows were beautifully written. 

Kevin Moore, my second oldest nephew graduated from Parsons High School on May 18th.  I'm very proud of him.

Left to Right: Don Harris, Kyle Aguilera, Kori Burke, Amy Harris, Kameron Burke.  My sister, her kids and dad.  It was great to see them all at Kevin's graduation.

Left to Right: Don Harris, Kevin Moore, Laura Moore.  Again it was so wonderful to see everyone and be there for Kevin's big day. 

Kevin has really grown into a great young man. He has such a clever and witty since of humor. I love this guy.

Me, Laura and Amy.  Sisters together.  I miss them but was so happy to see them and spend time with the family.