Chinese Reconciliation Park

On a beautiful sunny afternoon, I decided an appropriate outing for mom and the kids might be to go over to Old Town in Tacoma.  Old Town is the area of Tacoma where I stayed when I came in March to look for a house.  It's a quaint little area of coffee houses, businesses and old houses with a paved path running all along the water.  My intent was to walk toward the restaurants and along the water, but instead we turned right and walked into the "Chinese Reconciliation Park". 

So here's some history for you that I bet you didn't get in high school history...on November 3, 1885 Tacoma's leaders and "a large crowd" expelled all the Chinese from their homes in the city and banned them from returning.  That wasn't very nice, now was it?  I guess there was a build up of anti-Chinese sentiment in the area and they thought the best thing to do would be to get rid of them.  Maybe these West Coast folks didn't get the whole message of the US being a melting pot.  No "tired and weak" aloud here (although most of the railroads around the West were built by Chinese immigrants so I'm guessing they weren't too weak, but maybe tired from a long day of hard labor...)

Anyways, about 10 years ago a group of Tacoma citizens realized this was wrong and so raised the funds to dedicate a park to the Chinese.  It's just a small place sandwiched between the railroad lines and the water and includes a "ting" (a pavilion).  This structure has an interesting story since it was donated to the park by the city of Fuzhou in China and shipped from there along with three master craftsmen in 2010 to reconstruct it.  Grammie thought it needed a fresh coat of paint and some landscaping.

Changing with the times

Times change fast, we all know that.  When my mom grew up she played dominoes and cards and jacks.  But it's 2012 and nowadays kids play other things, like Wii.  Fortunately, Grammie is very adaptable and last night, with a little instruction, the kids had her playing Band Hero like a pro!  Go Grammie!  Rock on!!!

 

Seattle

I'm beginning to understand that Tacoma is the red-headed step-child to Seattle.  When you say Tacoma, most people probably think it's a glorified suburb of Seattle, where it really is its own bonified city, just sitting in the shadow of Seattle.  Poor Tacoma, it's like the homely sister related to a beauty queen.

So this weekend we decided to see what all the fuss is about and visit Seattle to see some of the sights.  It takes a little over an hour to get to Seattle with the wind at your back (and Stevie at the wheel!) and we arrived in the middle of another beautiful sunny day (where is this rain we hear speak of?) to the center of this bustling city.  Right in the heart is Pikes Market, the famed fish-throwing, flower-selling, coffee drinking market.  This really is a fun place with lots and lots of shops selling lots and lots of great products, mostly homemade by local artisans. 

The biggest things, of course, are the fish stalls packed with huge salmon and other types of fish.  Just for show, they'll toss some of those fish around - not sure why, but it's fun to see.

Could that photographer get any closer?

And then there are the stalls and stalls of gorgeous flower bouquets.  Oh, I would buy a bunch every day if I lived close.

And then there is the original Starbucks (no photo here as I totally missed it.  Apparently my mom and Steve saw it but failed to point it out to me!)

So it was a fun afternoon, albeit a short trip this time, leaving us more to explore next time...

Mt. Rainier Wildflowers

While we were waiting to get into our house earlier this summer, during the time all five of us were living in a tiny hotel room and needed an excuse to go somewhere for the day, we visited Mt. Rainier.  It's an imposing force that is seen from most everywhere you go here (particularly from our back deck).

One part of Rainier that we didn't get to during our first visit was the famous "Paradise" - it's a place up the mountain that receives the most snowfall of any place in the the lower 48 states.  THE MOST.  Now there's a claim to fame.  It also has a lodge you can stay at and a beautiful display of wildflowers for a couple of weeks a year.

Well, late August is the time for the wildflowers to be in bloom and since it's late August, and since we haven't taken Grammie yet, Thursday we headed out to tackle the mountain.  I kind of fretted about what to do about Mick, I didn't want to leave him in the house all day, so we ended up taking him with us.  Mick LOVES a car ride so spending so much time in the car didn't phase him a bit. (Dogs aren't aloud on trails in national parks, only the parking lots and roads.)

We stopped for a picnic along the drive at a beautiful lake and overlook.  I'm not sure I paid attention to what the name was, and I really don't think the pictures do it justice.  The water is a green/grey color in real life.

After consuming our PB&J's we drove into the park, stopping first at Longmire to stretch our legs and visit the little museum.

Then we piled back in the car for another 1/2 hour drive up to Paradise.  There were lots of incredibly beautiful pull-offs along the route, and some scary bridges to pass and cliff-side stretches to drive, but that was all part of the experience. 

As we drove I kept an eye on the external temperature gauge on my dashboard.  I watched it drop progressively until we reached Paradise and it bottomed out at 50.  It is mid-August, isn't it?

But it didn't really feel that cold (it must be a dry cold), and the surroundings and the scenery distracted us from any bodily chills.  It was gorgeous!  Like something in a calendar (probably because it is in many calendars!)

Emmy and London had great hopes to touch snow, but this is as close as they got!

After watching an information video in the visitor's center (prompting questions from Emmy on whether the volcano was going to erupt and wipe out our house.  I think this girl has lived through too many natural disasters!), we headed up a short trail that showcased all the many varieties of wildflowers.  Lupines, heather, asters, paint-brush, etc.  As my mom pointed out, there were both spring and fall varieties of flowers.  I guess because the growing season is so compacted they all have to bloom at the same time?

It was a beautiful experience and I highly recommend anyone who wants to visit come next August!

Sunday in San Fran

So usually when you travel, you want to see as much as you can, especially if your time is short.  But sometimes the best part of getting away, is not having to rush, get up early, cater to others - basically be a mom or dad.

So that's what we decided to do on Sunday - sleep in!  I have to say it was very indulgent for me especially to sleep in and then read in bed while I waited for Stevie to wake up.  No disturbances, no nagging, no requests for breakfast - just quiet.  Ahhh.

And then, to top off the indulgent morning, we went to brunch - just the two of us.  Ahhhh.

The famous Sears restaurant for brunch.

After brunch, we got one of the historic tram cars down to the waterfront again to look around and do some souvenir shopping.  On Sunday morning we walked over to the famous Ghiradelli chocolate factory and then around Golden Gate park.  We strolled out onto the long curved pier to try to get a good look at the Golden Gate bridge but the top half was shrouded in fog. 

Yes, it was that cold!

However, we did get a good close up encounter with a sea lion trying to glean any leftovers from the fishermen!

And that about brings our special weekend to a close.  A special thanks to Grammie for keeping the kids, even venturing out to the circus with them!  I know we all enjoyed our weekends.

Muir Woods, Sausalito and Sonoma

Saturday was our busy full day for our trip and so that we could see everything that we wanted to and not waste a lot of time getting lost, we opted to book a day trip.

The van picked us up at our hotel in the morning and took us first across the Golden Gate bridge (a little locked in by fog at that time of day) and up to Muir Woods.  We always say that we're not "tour people" but I do have to say that they have their advantages - like not having to drive - but they're also good for learning stuff about the area.  Like did you know that despite their enormous size, redwoods' pine cones are only about an inch long?  And did you know that redwoods propogate not only by seed, but they also have a kind of tuber system so that if a "mother" tree dies, a ring of new trees will grow up around the mom.  They call these family circles.

Muir Woods National Monument is a national park dedicated to the preservation of old-growth redwood forests. The trees are so amazingly large and tall and beautiful. Yes, these are the trees that inspired Woody Guthrie to write the the line in "This Land Is Your Land" (believe me, the song was stuck in my head the whole day!)

Unfortunately we had only a little over an hour to explore the woods, but it was long enough to take a hike, see the sights and even buy our very own Giant Sequoia seedling (it's supposed to grow about a foot a year, unfortunately it's only about 2 inches tall on my back deck right now!)

At the end of our trail was the Cathedral Grove, the sight of the first United Nations conference in 1945. Yes, the woods were so peaceful that it seemed fitting to begin a new era of peace after World War II there.

Going into Cathedral Grove

The redwoods are so large and dense (the bark can be a foot deep) that most forest fires don't burn them down, just scar them as you can see.

Muir Woods was a magical stop on our mystery tour, but soon enough we were back on the bus and off to Sausalito.  Sausalito is the quaint waterfront town on the other side of the Golden Gate bridge to San Francisco.  It's a cute little town full of art galleries, restaurants and (apparently) famous people.  Our tour guide must have been a music and film fan because he kept telling us about all the famous musicians and actors that live around there.  I don't think I would have recognized anyone if I ran into them because most of the people were washed up rockers from the 80s and 90s.

So instead of star-gazing, we opted to grab some fish and chips and sit by the bay to enjoy a picnic lunch (accompanied by the seagulls, of course).

I was reminded of that scene in Finding Nemo...mine, mine, mine, mine

That's the Bay Bridge far behind us.

After lunch, we boarded the bus again to head out to the wine country - Sonoma Valley!  We were going to visit two different wineries during the afternoon and do some wine tasting. 

Our first stop was Viansa Winery - a gorgeous hilltop retreat that was just so beautiful and picturesque.  We headed into the great room and shimmied up to one of the bars to be educated and instructed about tasting wine and the various tastes.  It was great!  We really liked the reds and, surprisely, one of the rose wines and ended up purchasing three bottles.  When we had our fill, we sauntered outside to view the beautiful scenery and bask in the glorious surroundings.  You could have left me there and picked me up same time next week!

But, alas, the tour moved on and we headed down the road to a smaller winery called Meadowcroft.  This tasting session was a bit different and we quickly decided that our favorite winery was the first one.  This was lots of fun too, but it lacked the romantic Italian feel of the first and the better tasting wines of the first!

After 12 samples of wine, it was time for a nap!

Having our fill of tasting for the day, the driver shuttled us back to the hotel and the end to a wonderful day!

The bridge before we headed across it.

The view from the bridge out to sea

The view from the bridge of San Francisco