Visit to Seattle Area July 2 – 12, 2014
The maybe-world famous, definitely-annual Des Moines Art Festival was the last
weekend of June and the boys were in town for the first day of it this year.
They left for Seattle on June 28th right after they each completed one
square of a huge mural for the festival of Seraut's Sunday Afternoon painting. Their squares were part of the prominent
woman’s umbrella and hat in the upper right part of the painting.
I stayed home for three or four extra days for some time on
glass and to move three bedrooms of furniture around to create a new “big boy
bedroom” in our guest bedroom. On July 2, I flew to Seattle and joined the boys
in Seattle. They had been staying at the houseboat on Portage Bay, near
University of Washington (and had seen lots of other friends and family I didn't get a chance to see), but the four of us stayed downtown for my first
night. We stayed at the Mayflower, a lovely, small old downtown hotel on 4th
Street. While I was flying in, I looked up good restaurants for kids in Seattle
and one, Lola’s was also a Tom Douglas restaurant and close by. When in
Seattle, it is always a good bet to try a Tom Douglas restaurant or two.
We checked in and decided to be real tourists while in the
city. We immediately headed out to try the monorail to the Space Needle. The
monorail only has two stops, but the boys loved it. We went from downtown to
the Pacific Center and the base of the Space Needle. We had planned to walk
through the new Chihuly Glass Garden, but when we saw the $30+ each price tag
(and since we have seen a lot of his work), we decided not to go. We got a
ticket instead to the top of the Space Needle and headed up. Luckily, the
elevator to the top also offers views of Chihuly’s Gardens, so we had the best
of both worlds.
At four years old, the boys are not tall enough to see over
the viewing wall, so they could only see the long views from the Space Needle. Here's the view of downtown to the south.
We decided to head back down and go to dinner. We LOVED Lola’s and recommend it
highly. It features Greek and Mediterranean food, such as various hummus-type
spreads, many kebobs, flat bread pizzas, and salads. The boys also love this
type of food, and sat happily coloring, naming every passing vehicle from our
window seat, and munching on food.
We spent the next three days on the houseboat. While there,
we enjoyed a meal with Ricardo’s older daughter and son in law, visited a few
friends (including an old friend of mine from Microsoft; Thanks Candace), visited the Woodland Park Zoo, the Seattle Aquarium and went to Pike
Place Market almost every morning.
On the 4th of July, we piled into
our boat and made our way to Lake Union for the annual fireworks display. There
are hundreds of other boats all anchored in Lake Union for the 4th
of July, but it’s the closest one can get to the barge firing the downtown
fireworks and so the display is quite dramatic. Here's a view of downtown from south Lake Union.
After waiting for darkness
until after 10 pm, both boys fell asleep after the first burst or two.
On the 6th, took the ferry from West Seattle and
spent three or four days on Vashon Island. Although, we have a small farm
there, we rent it out and so we can only visit. We stayed with Aunt Shirley and
Uncle Bill in their wonderful studio flat above the woodshop. Here's some of the poppies in their extensive vegetable and flower gardens.
While there we
enjoyed beach picnics,
horseback riding (Thanks Linda),
swimming (Thanks Pam), art projects,
walks in the woods
and cook outs every evening.
Alle flew in from her choral
festival near Vancouver and joined us. Shirley and Bill also have two new
kittens, so the boys were very well occupied.
We all had a grand time.
After four perfect summer days on Vashon, we headed north on
another ferry to the Hansville area and stayed at a small lighthouse. Here's the view from within the light.
While
there, we visited the Point-no-Point lighthouse, a southwestern beach which is
more secluded, tracked and watched all of the boat traffic into Puget Sound,
and
ate lots of Norwegian baked goods from Poulsbo, where I also got a chance to meet up with an old friend from college (thanks Lynn).
The weather was sunny and clear most of our ten to fourteen days
and so we enjoyed the Seattle area at its summertime best.
