Salmon Bay Way

ANOTHER DAY, ANOTHER PARK: This morning, we had an appointment to meet up with one of Annabelle's former preschool classmates. We hadn't seen him in well over a year, so Bee was really looking forward to it.

When we were planning the pow wow via Facebook messaging, I asked the child's mom if there were any good parks in her neighborhood (Ballard), since we're always looking to give new parks a go. She suggested Salmon Bay Park, at 70th Street and 19th Avenue W. As often as we're in Ballard, it's hard to believe we'd never been there before, but somehow it had managed to elude us, until today.

I checked it out in advance online. I read that as the 20th century dawned, Shilshoe Indians lived in the area, and that the park was named after a former tidal flat, which is now part of the Washington Ship Canal. I also learned the park was deeded to Seattle in 1890, and annexed into the city (along with Ballard) in 1907. first park annexed into Seattle and that once upon a time there was even a dance pavilion there. I found some great, century-old photos of Salmon Bay Park on the Seattle Municipal Archives site.



These days, Salmon Bay Park is a busy, busy place. Granted, today there were around 30 kids with some daycare at the park, but even set that group aside and the joint was jumping.

The park is a find in that the play equipment is old enough that it's not like recently renovated parks; but it's it's not so old that it's decrepit. And in addition to the climbing structures, there is a zipline!!!!

Structurally, it's very much like the one we discovered at Discovery Park a few days ago. However, it's lower slung (the kids can drag their feet for part of it) and the kickback isn't as great (I think because its tire bumper has lost its bump, so to speak).

Speaking of ziplines, guess what we did tonight after dinner at the Magnolia Village Pub with Renee and Jim. That's right - though it was damn near dark, we went to the zip line in Discovery Park and had some fun!!!!



DANCING IN SEPTEMBER: We have some additions and changes to our schedule this month, so I thought we'd do something we haven't done in awhile - I had the kids make up a calendar for the month.
But before we got down to business, I had them do a September dance with Earth, Wind & Fire providing the soundtrack




After they got done getting their groove on, it was down to business. I told them the good news is September is spelled just like it sounds. Despite that, CJ initially forgot the M and Bee forgot the E before the R at the end. They figured it out, though.

The dates on the calendars populated quickly. We wrote Musikgarten and yoga on Tuesdays, Annabelle jotted down ballet on Mondays. We also wrote down special events (like Labor Day on the 6th, the Puyallup Fair, the first day of fall, a Mariners' game on the 15th, Grandma's birthday on the 29th).

Our weeks are front-end heavy. I'm hoping to find something (that doesn't cost a fortune, or that's preferably free) to do the latter part of the week. Pacific Science Center and the Children's Center come to mind as potential possibilities ...

Once the dates were done, I asked the kids to draw a picture atop their calendars that symbolizes the month. After much consternation, CJ decided upon a leaf. Annabelle opted for drawing Grandma, whose birthday falls in Sept.


BACK TO SCHOOL: This time of year it's inescapable. Seemingly every other ad on TV and signs all over stores are talking about back to school. Not a day goes by without someone asking either me or the kids (or both) if we're ready for back to school. I usually mutter something like, "We never left school," and the kids' response is a blank stare.

I think I need to better prepare the kids for questions about their schooling. To that end, we watched a BrainPop Jr movie about schools. It did a nice job of talking about the traditional roles of people in the schools (teachers, principals, parents, etc.)

I asked the kids what some good reasons for going to school are. CJ said, "So you do things with friends, not just yourself."

Annabelle chimed in, "So you're not dumb!" :)