Weekend in Seattle
My oldest nephew, Jesse Paulson, got married this last weekend in Seattle. We decided to take a little extra time since we were going to be in Seattle and play around. My brother, his wife, and two of their three boys came up from Boise to travel with us and make this a great family outing.
We were able to get out of the house a little after 10am and with a couple of pit stops we checked into the LaQuinta Inn in Lynnwood at about 3pm. After unpacking and putzing around for a bit I took some of the kids on a Geocaching expedition and the rest went to Trader Joe’s , a specialty grocery store. All I know is Von came back with some chocolates and a case of cheap wine, Charles Shaw Shiraz, which they were calling Two Buck Chuck.
Saturday Morning we headed over to the Pacific Science Center to entertain and educate the kids. Of all the stuff there I think the thing that entertained them the most was a ‘blue-screen’ setup where they played the goalie in a game of virtual soccer. It is hard to see in the pictures but the television in the background shows the goal they were defending and soccer balls they were ‘blocking’. The Butterfly House in the Science Center was also quite interesting as was the giant Madagascar Roach that you could pet.
After finishing at the Science Center we had lunch and then went out to the International Fountain. The kids had a great time trying to keep from getting wet before we decided that we didn’t want to take the chance of them getting soaked and pulled them out of the big bowl. From here Jim, Paula, and Melanie went to Pike Street Market while Von and I took all the kids on a driving tour of the Queen Anne District hills. Wow! Am glad we were not driving the old 15 passenger van through these narrow streets! Our quest were a couple of geocaches – but alas we failed to get close enough to park on most of them but the views were terrific. One thing geocaching does is help you tour an area like a local. You find all the cool spots that usually only locals know about.
From one of the stops we spotted the Gas Works Park and decided to navigate there and let the kids play for a while. At the top of the hill in the park some guys were flying some really cool remote control gliders. Not much larger than a frisbee, they give them a strong hurl into the wind and then remotely control the rudders and the things would sail in the sky forever. Just what I need – another hobby!
We realized what time it was getting to be and attempted to rush back to the hotel – only to find a severe accident had snarled traffic – oh well, guess we won’t be early.
We got dressed for the wedding and headed out the door about 30 minutes before the wedding was to start. The wedding was only 6 miles away but we were not sure how to get there. We had a map but figured we did not need to head north to catch the main road just to come back south again – wrong! Finally we got onto the road shown on the map and the road weaved and bobbed, changing names and directions 4 or 5 times but landing us right at the Community Center where the wedding was going to start in 10 minutes.
Jesse, my nephew, is a great kid (if you can say that about someone 30 years old). Stephanie, his fiance, now wife, seems just as nice. We have been able to get to know her at the last couple of Family Reunions in Ocean Park. The ceremony itself was over quite quickly and the reception following had some great food and chance to visit with family. My sister, Karen, even got me out on the dance floor (sorry, no photos).
Sunday morning I took off early to try to catch a couple of geocaches. I ended up down in Edmonds near where the wedding had taken place and decided to ride the ferry across the sound to do a couple of geocaches. As usual I was not very good at managing my time — the ferry does not operate as often on Sunday so the 1/2 hour ride each way and 1/2 mile walk to the cache took longer than I had ‘planned’ and I did not get back to the hotel quite as soon as I had hoped.
After we got things packed up we headed to the Edmonds mall where 1/2 the group wanted to shop at Daiso, a Japanese version of the ubiquitous dollar store, with all kinds of imports. The boys did not really want to go in so I took them around the mall where we found a computer game store and then the cutlery shop where they could covet all types of swords.
We had lunch and then started our trek back to the Tri-Cities.
Other Photos:
Did you know there is an Ocean Park Maine also. I have been to Ocean Park Washington. There is a cute store called Sweet Williams. If you ever get there again, let Kate, the owner know Nancy Kenney sent you. It is a great shop. Check out Ocean Park, Maine. T
Comment by Nancy Kenney — November 8, 2005 @ 5:54 pm