July 2 – 12, 2014 - Summer Visit to Seattle Area

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 28^th 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 4^th 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 4^th 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 4^th 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 6^th, 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.