Seattle Aquarium

The kids and Stevie are still on break so we headed up to Seattle again today to try something different - the Seattle Aquarium.  The aquarium sits right down on the water and is a host to some pretty cool exhibits.

This month they were featuring the octopus so had lots of exhibits geared toward them.  I love London's face on this picture - he's all boy!

I hope I don't see a photo similar to this later in life (with an matching profile shot...)

It's like snorkeling in Okinawa!

Riding on the back of an orca

Warming up at Starbucks - it was brisk down on the water front!

 Just across the street from the Starbucks we spotted this restaurant!

The kids giving it their best Oki peace sign.

It didn't look like it made the cut, but then one block over we spotted another location...

We'll have to go for lunch next time we're in Seattle.

Blewett's Pass

After packing up from the hotel, we headed out of Wenatchee and then made a quick stop in the neighboring town of Cashmere.  In this dinky little town is the world famous Aplets and Coplets factory.  Now doesn't everyone know about these little treats?

Aplets and Coplets are a candy (similar to the European Turkish Delight) that are an institution in Washington, I'm not sure how many others know about them, but they are yummy.  Kind of like those orange slice jellies you get in the candy aisle, but with nuts and flavored with either apples or apricots.  I thought the kids might like the advertised "free tour and samples".  They go nuts for that show, "How It's Made" and this was like a live version.  After waiting 20 minutes, the tour took 5 minutes, but on the plus side we got to wear these cool hats!

I maintain that if I ever end up in H*ll, I'll be doing this job...

It is beyond me how anyone can stand at an assembly line and pack 4,000 pieces of candy in a plastic tray in an hour.  Stevie and I took this as an opportunity to emphasize to the kids that they must stay in school and go to college!

After our factory tour we drove on to a place called Blewett's Pass where we found a lovely sledding hill and cross-country ski trail.  We took a little hike on the trail until the going got a little treacherous and then spent a couple of hours on the sledding hill.  We all thoroughly enjoyed it, especially Mick who got into the game chasing the sleds.  He caught London once and tried to "herd" him by grabbing his hood.  We all thought it was hilarious, unfortunately London didn't see the humor in it!

The drive to Blewett's Pass

Hiking the ski trail.

He's growing up!

Mick, waiting to herd London!

Stevie's turn

We got the longest runs in together.

He caught us!

I think this is her smile...

Mick wearing his "snow crown" courtesy of Emmy.

Leavenworth

Paw Paw and Nana headed out early this morning for the airport and we packed up to leave too.  I had read about a cute little town in the Cascade mountains called Leavenworth and so we booked a two-night mini vacation for this February break. 

Leavenworth used to be a logging town, but in the 1960's, with the market sagging, it reinvented itself as a Bavarian haven complete with sleigh rides, brats, beer and costumed maidens.  It's a three hour car ride from our house over the "Snoqualmie Pass" and through some potentially hazardous roads.  We got prepared by buying chains for our tires and packing extra food and blankets.  This, it turned out, was unneccessary since the roads were perfectly dry.

We rolled into Leavenworth about mid-afternoon and first headed to a park to stretch our legs and give the dog a time to run around. 

Emmy, my warm-blooded child, who won't keep a coat on!

After some exercise, we walked around the downtown strip of Leavenworth.  It was very cute and quaint with all the shops and hotels (and even McDonald's) built with Bavarian architecture.

As you can see, the mountains behind had snow, but unfortunately, the town had barely any.  Yes, the winter wonderland we had anticipated was not there.  In fact, the lady in the visitor's center said they hadn't had snow since December.

So after visiting all the shops, we headed over to a neighboring town, Wenatchee, to our hotel.  The drive there was through some interesting topography.  I couldn't decide if the hills had all been logged so there were no trees left or if it was the way this area was.  Turns out this is called "high desert" and there were no trees to begin with.

Wenatchee is the "Apple Capital of the World" so there were thousands and thousands of apple trees planted in the valley.  Apple trees are kind of creepy when they don't have leaves - like something you'd see in Hansel and Gretel when they're walking through the forest - but I'm sure they're beautiful in a month or two when the blossoms come on!

The kids thoroughly enjoyed the hotel, mainly because there was a pool and hot tub, and our dinner out for more Mexican and movie night.  Sometimes kids are so easy to please, aren't they?  Stevie and I decided, though, that we'd change plans and head back home tomorrow.  Sometimes the best laid plans just need to be tweaked.

Sunday with Paw Paw and Nana

After a busy Saturday, we took it at a slower pace on Sunday and enjoyed an afternoon around Gig Harbor and the house.

Gig Harbor proper is a cute little maritime village with lots of little shops and family restaurants.  We ate our fill at our favorite Mexican restaurant for lunch and then toured the "downtown" area.

Yep, no denying it, Father and Son

Paw Paw and the grandkids

I think Stevie and Emmy were trying for the same face!?

Saturday with Paw Paw and Nana

Saturday was another pretty day and after breakfast we headed up to Seattle for a little tourist action.  We stopped first at, you guessed it, Pike's Market!  It was lots of fun, as always, walking around the market browsing and doing some shopping. 

The market area has some really talented street performers who play guitar, sing, play piano, etc.  But this guy really took the crown - he was playing guitar, singing, playing harmonica, playing jingle bells on his feet all while doing the hoola-hoop.  In addition, during some songs, he balanced the guitar on his chin and hopped around in circles (all while doing the hoola hoop!)  Pretty talented.

We had lunch at the market - clam chowder, of course - and then went to the Pacific Science Center.  We joined this museum around Christmas to see the King Tut exhibit and wanted to go back.  Besides, it was the only way we could bribe the kids to come with us to Seattle!  We didn't stay that long since it was getting late in the day, but we did make a stop in the butterfly garden to see all the beautiful butterflies.

This butterfly liked Nana's head.

This poor butterfly landed for a drink, but the koi attacked him and he couldn't fly because his wings were wet.  Stevie came to his rescue!

With the rescued butterfly.

 

Paw Paw and Nana visit

Friday afternoon, Stevie's dad and Barbara flew in for a quick weekend visit.  The timing was perfect as this was the kick-off to over a week off for the kids and for Steve (the schools are out for "February Break")  It's been over four years since we've seen them so we spent the afternoon catching up.  Fortunately, the weather was beautiful (read: sunny!) so we had a fire pit and let the kids play out in the yard.

Beautiful sunset

 

A trip back in time

I received an email this week from the Museum of Flight at Boeing (to which we're members) that they were hosting an Engineering Fair and I thought it might be good for the kids to see so despite Stevie being on call, I packed up the three of them and drove up to Seattle.  The Fair was interesting, and they all learned about different kinds of engineering, and then we hit the exhibits. 

This is one of the many flight museums around the country that was competing for getting one of the Space Shuttles when they were retired, but they lost their bid to other places.  However, they did manage to score the Shuttle flight simulator (the actual one the astronauts trained in) and have this set up in a new exhibit hall.  Despite having been to the museum a couple of time, we have yet to see this simulator so that's where we headed today.  It's pretty amazing to get so close to modern history.  We weren't able to go into the cockpit (you needed to schedule a tour for that), but we did stand in the cargo bay.  It's actually a lot smaller than I thought it would be.

No, this wasn't the simulator!

So after exploring modern history, we went outside the building to some planes you could tour.  The two that were open this day were the Concord and the first jet Air Force One.

The Air Force One they had was the first jet, a 707, and was used by Kennedy through the first Bush. George Bush got the first 747 in 1990. So this was the plane that Johnson was sworn into office aboard. It was kind of a step back in time to see the antiquated technology. Of course it was "high tech" back then!

They didn't know what this was!

The Concord was fun to go aboard too, but I quickly discovered taht I would not have appreciated paying a bunch of money to fly on it.  It is VERY narrow and squishy.  Made me closterphobic just to walk through it!