Bonus Coverage

FISHERMEN'S FEST: I usually take weekends off from blogging, but we went to the annual Fall Fishermen's Festival at Fishermen's Terminal today, and I want to report it now instead of waiting until Monday, as I typically would. Because come Monday, we're going to the Puyallup Fair, and I know that will be a big gnarly blog post all by its lonesome.

Fishermen's Terminal is just at the foot of our hill, within walking distance. I think this is our third year attending the festival. It's something we look forward to every year. Fortunately all the kids' past favorite features were there. Our first stop was the bouncy house, er, ship: Mutiny on the Bouncer. (IMHO, they should have called it Mutiny on the Bouncy.)There, CJ and Annabelle were able to jump, slide and, most importantly, pummel pirates. From there, we went to the spin art booth. In years past, it has been Frisbees that the kids painted. This year, they had jigsaw puzzles, which the kids thought was a nice twist.

Here's Annabelle's finished puzzle:We also visited another favorite attraction - the build a boat booth. The kids spent more time than ever there this year, each with very specific ideas about their boat design.We toured the LOVELY steam ship Virginia V. This beautiful steamship was built in 1921 by Anderson & Company of Maplewood, Washington. She's constructed of old-growth fir. On March 9, 1922, she was launched and then towed to downtown Seattle for the installation of her engine and steam plant. According to the ship's Web site, "On June 11, 1922, the Virginia V made her maiden voyage from Elliott Bay in Seattle to Tacoma down the West Pass. She continued to make this voyage nearly every day until 1938." This vessel is absolutely gorgeous. I hope we can take a cruise on her some day.

And we were one of hundreds and hundreds on hand to say goodbye to J.P. Patches, a beloved Seattle icon. The area around the stage was PACKED. This was our "view," and you couldn't really hear him, either. But at least we were there to say goodbye. Sitting atop Christian's shoulders, CJ yelled hello and goodbye to the Emerald City's #1 clown.
We also got to see "Wizard," one of the stars of "Deadliest Catch." It was all fun and it was all free! (We did make a donation to the Fishermen's Terminal Memorial.)

And last but not least, the kids each got a chance to catch a real live (and now dead!) trout!

There's a nice overview about Fishermen's Terminal on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_profilepage&v=8_Sf-Hu74V4

(Lion) King for the Day

UP TOP A.M. Right out of the gate this morning we headed for the summit of Mt. Magnolia (ha ha). I knew we were going to be running around all day and I wanted the kids and dog (and me!) to get some exercise in while we could.

So, Kirby and I walked the loop while CeeJ and Bee scooted and scampered for about 40 minutes. About 20 minutes into our park time, a family with four kids under age 5 showed up. Annabelle immediately fell into playing with their two preschool aged boys.

JUST CAN'T WAIT TO SEE KING: This morning, the kids big bro Kennedy took them to see The Lion King in glorious 3-D. They were soooooo excited to go. They've been seeing the ads for weeks now and have seen an old VHS copy of the movie, but were really looking forward to the theater experience.

It didn't disappoint. Ken reports CJ kept trying to reach up and touch things on the screen. CJ declared it "a classic!" when he got in the car afterward.

The only slight mar on the movie was a mean lady in line behind the kids. I dropped the trio off and when the woman walked up I heard her say loudly, "Why aren't those kids in school?" The woman with her muttered something and the mean old windbag said, "Liar liars!"

Honestly, I felt like socking her in the face. And then I felt like saying 'They aren't in school because I refuse to sacrifice my children on the altar of mainstream education' or 'They're too smart for school.' Instead, I said nothing, because Annabelle and CJ didn't hear her say it and I didn't want to make a scene. The wretched woman wasn't worth it. Did I mention I wanted to sock her?

BERRY GOOD: I hear tell that rains are coming this weekend. That means what's left of the blackberries on the vines will probably go dramatically downhill after the rains come. So this afternoon the kids and I took a bucket out to the alley behind our house and got to picking. Or, at least some of us did. Others, named CJ, mostly paced up and down the alley, thinking about things tech-related. He did pause occasionally to eat some berries, however. We also scored some Italian prunes.Walking back to the house, Bee said she wanted to make a Seattle Berry Salad, and that she did. She headed for the kitchen sink. "We know it's organic, but we still need to wash it," she advised.
She then cut the pits out of the prunes and chopped the prunes and mixed them and the berries. Bee was quite happy with her creation.

Stately

LAND OF THE LILIPUTIANS: For the past two days the kids and I have spent about a hour at what they call "Hilltop Play Park," but better know to the rest of the world as Ella Bailey Park.
When we were there yesterday, at around 2:30 p.m., CJ and Annabelle were Gulliver-like. The rest of the kids in the park were all toddlers, as kids' CeeJ and Bee's age are in school. Today, I thought we'd go at 9 a.m. and maybe we'd beat the toddler crowd there. We mostly did. (Not that we have anything against toddlers, that's certainly not the case. I just worry about relatively ginormous CeeJ and Bee crushing them, ha ha.)

Today, the kids brought their beloved scooters up to the park and alternated between doing loops around the park and playing on the playground.Kirby and I just walked the whole time - about 50 minutes. The lazy dog has basically been asleep ever since. ;)

MORNING REPORT: The kids did some math this morning, as well as some grammar exercises. For some writing practice, I asked them to write a report about the animal they liked most at the zoo. CJ's response?

"What's a report?"

Aargh. Made me feel like a loser/horrible teacher. I explained a report is a factual account - often a who, what, when, where and why type thing - like a newspaper story. I asked them to include at least five facts in their reports. I asked them to draw upon their memories of the zoo trip first, and if they didn't come up with five facts that way, I instructed them to hop online, find the Point Defiance Zoo Web site, navigate to their animal on the site, and get additional facts that way.

Annabelle wrote: Polar Bears by Annabelle Kisky. Here's where I saw them. Point Defiance Zoo & Aquarium. I'll give you 5 facts. A polar bear has black skin, not pink! Polar bears can swim down 11 feet! Polar bears live in: Chruchill (sic), Manitoba, and Canada. Polar bears feet are like snowshoes. Polar bears have fur that isn't completely soft.

CJ wrote: "Budgie Buddies - A Budgie is a type of bird. I saw them at the Point Defiance Zoo. Budgie is short for budgerigar. They are bright. They each have diffrent (sic) colors. They live in Australia. They like to eat seeds." His handwriting was, as always, so neat.

We'll be doing more reports.

STATES OF CONFUSION: This afternoon we made good use of garage sale and Goodwill finds. First the kids read along while listening to an audio CD of "The Scrambled States of America." (We scored the book and CD at a garage sale last weekend for 50 cents.)

The book is a lot of fun, with wacky characters (oh, those silly states and their quirks!), and having a dramatic reading to go with really brought it to life. We've read the book before, but the kids are nowhere near having the state memorized, so going through it several more times won't hurt.

After that, we played a card game based on the book. (The game was 99 cents at Goodwill.) It was a lot of fun, fast paced, and had solid learning value. Definitely worth 99 cents - and then some. ;)
MINOR MINERS: For the past two days, a 'minor' obsession of the kids' has been the game Minecraft. Wikipedia describes the game as being "about placing blocks to build anything you can imagine. At night monsters come out, make sure to build a shelter before that happens."

Here's Annabelle's character in the game. Isn't she cuuute? I'm not so thrilled with the game. It lags, hangs up, freezes - I basically have to be tech advisor the whole time they're playing.

It's wildly popular with masses of people, and from where I stand I'm not sure why. The graphics aren't great, there's no music ... I'm clearly missing something.

The kids are both begging to buy the latest version. To date, they've been playing a 'classic' free version. At this point I am not inclined to take the plunge.

Mishmash

ODDS & ENDS: Today's entry is a collection of past, present and future. Let's start with day before yesterday, as I still haven't managed to post all of the photos I wanted to from our Tacoma trip on Monday. For starters, in the Kids' Zone at Point Defiance Zoo, we encountered a drinking fountain. Thirsty, the four of us circled it looking for the button, dial, or ??? to make the water flow but we couldn't find it. Christian and I gave up but about a minute later CJ announced he'd discovered how to make it work. The button was a few feet away, tucked into a corner of a rock wall. Super cool, and good on CeeJ for figuring it out! Also in the Kids' Zone, the kids got a chance to feed some goats. As soon as the goats saw us getting quarters out to feed into their goat chow vending machine, they started getting super aggressive, darn near crawling out of their enclosure. DOWNTOWN: After the zoo, we drove through old town Tacoma. There, we saw the old, awesome Union Station building. We also walked across a sky bridge from Pacific Avenue to the Dale Chihuly museum. This was overhead ...And what was just down the block? The awesome Dorky's arcade!!!!REALLY RANDOM: As I was looking at the "temporary" folder I download my photos to each day, I spied the one above, taken probably a couple of weeks ago. In case you can't tell, it's a Wii-playing mouse mouse.
My wireless computer mouse died and I knew better than to throw it away. I knew Annabelle would want to make something out of it. Sure 'nuff, she made a mouse.

DEEP SPACE: NASA made a maybe big announcement today. The agency has selected the design of a new Space Launch System that will take NASA astronauts (yes, there are still NASA astronauts) farther into space than ever before. The press release today touted it as "the cornerstone for America's future human space exploration efforts." That sounds awesome. Ideas are great. Now, one question. Is the funding in place to make it happen?

Here is an artist's concept of what the SLS will look like on the launchpad.Image credit: NASA, of course.

According to NASA, "The SLS will be designed to carry the Orion Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle, as well as important cargo, equipment and science experiments to Earth's orbit and destinations beyond. Additionally, the SLS will serve as a back up for commercial and international partner transportation services to the International Space Station."

Wouldn't it be awesome if NASA once again became the pioneer "to boldly go where no man (or woman) has gone before"? While I'll be eternally hopeful this happens, I am not optimistic here and now. I'd love to be wrong.

SIGNED ON THE DOTTED LINE: Today I dropped a registration form in the mail. It's for CJ to participate in a session of Theater of Possibility (TOP). I first learned about it a couple of years ago, but he wasn't old enough to participate at the time. A link in a recent homeschool group email reminded me about TOP. CJ has said more than a couple of times that he's interested in acting or directing. He and Christian took a couple hour long physical comedy class at Seattle Children's Theatre many months ago, and CJ loved it, but I haven't been quite ready to turn him loose in a more than an afternoon commitment class -until rediscovering TOP.

The program looks awesome on "paper" (my computer screen). The director's credentials are amazing. Hopefully, CJ will start the class the first week of October. Now, if we could just find Annabelle a new place to do her dance classes. ...

Big Fun

GREATEST SHOW MY *&%: Sunday we made a trip up to the Comcast Arena in Everett to see the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus. We went to the RBBBC last year at the same place and had a grand time, and we were really looking forward to this year's show.

As soon as we reached the arena we knew things had changed. The line up point was the opposite corner of the arena. We weren't getting the same access to the pre-show backstage animal area like we did last year. And the gentleman working our bag check line would not let me bring my Canon camera or empty water bottle into the show. Guess I chose the wrong line because I can't tell you how many cameras I saw just like mine (a 35 mm with a detachable lens) in the show. That and countless video recorders, which were also supposedly verboten. Oh, and I brought that camera to the same circus at the same place last year. So that burned my butt.

When I did finally get into the arena (after having to walk back to the car, stash my camera and hope it wouldn't get stolen), I make my way in and find Christian and the kids on the floor of the arena. Christian and I quickly notice that things are much, MUCH different this year. There clearly wouldn't even be a two, not to mention three, ring circus. There was one ring. Instead of a second and third ring, there were DINING tables set up on nearly half the floor, and a bouncy house taking up a good portion, too. And our seats (which I carefully selected based on last year's layout) offered a fantastic view of said tables. Sure, that's why we paid $60 plus dollars for "good" seats - to have a view of people eating their lunches. That's AWESOME. (And no, I'm not just jealous of the golden circle people. Seriously, I would NOT want to be eating a three course meal just feet away from where elephants and camels are crapping and spraying, thankyouverymuch.)

Oh, and see that elephant up above? It's blood is on my hands, just so you know. I know this because the leather shoe wearing PETA people standing outside the arena holding old black and white photos of an elephant being mistreated told me so.

What's 'funny' is every time I've seen PETA folks outside a circus protesting (whether in person or in a report), they have the same three black and white photos.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that an elephant would be happier being trucked on a cross country tour and doing a dog and pony show for humans than they would be living out in the wild. What I am saying is that it seems like it would be RIDICULOUS to torture or kill animals you are counting on to perform and make you money. Why would you kill your cash cow, so to speak? The PETA folks typically aren't passing out info about RB and B&B's elephant reserve in Florida, either.

But my bitchfest aside, the kids had a wonderful time at the circus. And that's what counts, I suppose. ;) They got to take part in a stunt balancing lesson with a clown, had sparkly circus girls teach them how to hula hoop, got to sit on daredevils' motorcycles and got to walk a tightrope all before the circus even started. The show itself, well it was entertaining. There were impressive elephants and camels, and some acrobats and one dude on a trapeze for a short bit, but man oh man, the show paled in comparison to last year. No contortionists and only three clowns in the entire show (and this complaint is coming from someone who doesn't like clowns.) There were no big cats - of course that makes sense in that you don't want to make lunch out of the people eating lunch on the arena floor. Instead, there were trained house cats, no lie. Did I mention a small box of popcorn was $7?

Yeah, I don't think we'll be going to the circus next year.

DO THE ZOO: On Monday we had occasion to head south to Tacoma and visit the Point Defiance Zoo. None of the four of us had ever visited the zoo before. They advertise quite heavily on Seattle stations (my kids can sing the zoo's jingle), and CeeJ and Bee have been Jonesing to go there for months. Monday, we made it happen.

We left home at 8:35 a.m. Traffic wasn't bad and we pulled into the zoo at about 9:35. It was an overcast morning - with temps in the mid 70s. Weatherwise, perfect for zoo touring (animals, including humans, are usually sluggish at the zoo when it's hot and sunny).

We had studied the day's calendar and definitely had an agenda going in. On our to do list was an Asian Forest Sanctuary keeper's talk, the polar bear keeper's talk, a "Wild Wonders" show and seeing every single exhibit there. :) What a beautiful zoo it is - the grounds are gorgeous as is the view of Puget Sound. We definitely made the rounds. One of our first stops was the aquarium.

UNDER THE SEA: The aquarium had a Pacific theme, featuring both North and South Pacific marine life. The kids' favorite fish was the super big Grouper.We also enjoyed a big shark tank with a variety of sharks, none of which apparently wanted to be photographed today.

BEARY COOL: We made sure to be at the polar bear exhibit at 11:30 for the bear keeper's talk. That was a good decision. Two bears were in the enclosure during the presentation. One, Boris, was asleep the entire time, but another of the male bears was stirring. While the keeper's talk was informative, without a doubt the most entertaining part of the show was when the keeper, after his verbal presentation, went outside the underground viewing area where we'd gathered. He began throwing food (small fish and grapes) into the enclosure's water. One of the bears (not Boris!) plunged into the water, much to the delight of the crowd. He walked and swam around feeding. It was absolutely thrilling to be so close to the creature as he actively moved about. I would estimate that at least three of the nine minute polar bear presentation was about the current plight of polar bears due to their habitat disappearing due to climate change. The keeper talked about how the ice flows where they live and hunt are disappearing and how that has impacted their survival and breeding. He suggested a few ways people can help, for instance by lowering carbon emissions, and suggested people interested in learning more about polar bears' plight check out the World Wildlife Federation online. We happened to encounter the trainer again after he fed the bears, near a restroom. I asked him about the sleeping bear who didn't get any food - would he go hungry later? The keeper assured me that what he'd just thrown in the tank was akin to a snack for humans, just a supplement and not their main meal. He went on to explain about polar bears' metabolisms and how they change throughout the year, and said the winter months are a great time to come to a zoo and bear watch.

ASIAN PERSUASION: We attended the Asian Forest keeper's talk at 12:30. The keeper was super friendly and knowledgeable. Though the resident tapir was nowhere to be seen, a trio of Asian otters were active and entertaining during the first part of the presentation. We walked through the exhibit with the keeper and when we got to the Sumatran tiger enclosure, it was fascinating to watch the interaction between the mother and son tiger (specifically, some growling and grouchiness regarding the single steak in the habitat). It was amazing to be just an inch of clear "glass" away from the creatures.Keeper Paul was extraordinarily knowledgeable about all of the animals in the Asia exhibit, providing information about their native habitats/origins, their diets, and the characteristics of the specific animals on display during our walking tour. Everyone in the family learned a lot. (Did you know that the easiest way to remember the difference between a monkey and an ape is that monkeys have tails and apes do not?)

ELEPHANTS REVISITED: We didn't spend much time viewing the elephants today, nor did we attend the elephant keeper talk, as it overlapped the Asian area keeper talk. The elephants at the zoo were not standing on their trunks or sitting on their hindquarters. If we had gone to the elephant talk, I would have loved to ask the keeper what they thought about circus elephants. ... The kids' favorite part of the elephant exhibit was an interactive display where they got to move 'elephants' around the chutes, being careful to open and close gates along the way for safety.BIRD BRAINS: The kids' very favorite exhibit of the day was Budgie Buddies. You know those things you call parakeets? Yeah, they're Budgies. While a parakeet exhibit might not sound so awesome (you can see that at Petco, right?), well, this was a little different. See, at this exhibit, for $1 you can buy a Popsicle stick with bird food on it. And the Budgies, they know you're coming. As SOON as the kids stepped inside the enclosure with their sticks they were SWARMED by birds all up in their faces and everywhere else. That doesn't happen at Petco. Frankly, I found it disconcerting (they dive bomb you and you can feel their feathers on your face), and I didn't even have a feeding stick. CJ quickly grew OK with the situation. And Annabelle? Well not so much. You know those blood curdling screams from horror movies. Yeah, well, this was like that, but LOUDER. And LIVE. Honestly, it sounded like a murder-in-progress in the Budgie Buddies exhibit. Fortunately, the two young women working the exhibit were calm and collected and talked Annabelle down. (That, and the food on her stick quickly disappeared.) After being in the exhibit for a couple of minutes without bird food, Annabelle came around. In fact, so much so that she wanted another food stick. She and CJ were swarmed once again, but this time they welcomed it.
AND ALSO: We saw cute young (3 month old) clouded leopard kittens. We also saw an Asian Anoa with Kongs (a dog's chewy toy) on its horns. The keeper told us that they were there to protect the female anoa at the zoo. The Arctic fox was tiny - smaller than our puny dog Kirby. BUT WAIT THERE'S MORE: While there is more to report about our Tacoma adventure, this post is looooooong and I'm tired. And so, I'll leave you with another 'stay tuned ...'

Forgive Me

JAM PACKED: Forgive me in advance for today's post being so short. I've been up since 4 a.m. (thanks Annabelle!) and we had a 12 hour field trip today to Tacoma.

I promise that tomorrow's blog post will be BRILLIANT.

OK, maybe not brilliant, but at least full of photos and info about our last two days' adventures.

On Sunday, we went to the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus in Everett. I'll post a full review tomorrow, but let's just say it was half the show it was last year, and I mean that literally. (For instance, no tigers this year. Instead, they had frigging house cats jumping through rings, I kid you not.)

And would you look at the clown above trying to lure my sweet, young daughter to join the circus? See how she/its eyes glow red. Yeah, pretty much proof that the clown is pure evil (a la Pennywise in "It" perhaps).

GET TO THE POINT: This morning, we left home at 8:30 for Tacoma. Our destination was the Point Defiance Zoo. We got home a little before 9 p.m. That's a long field trip. It was a great outing though.

Crowds were light/almost non existent, which helped us see lots of animals super close up, but more about that/them tomorrow. After the zoo, we drove to old town Tacoma, checked out a little architecture and ogled the Dale Chihuly glass museum entrance. Maybe someday we'll actually go inside. ;( See you tomorrow.