Out and About

 

WEEKEND WANDERING: This weekend, in our quest to find The Perfect Light for above the dining room table we did a fair amount of sight seeing. One of our stops took us near the famous Fremont Rocket.

Its precise history is unknown, but from what the sign near its base says, it's a cold war relic, gleaned from a military surplus store in the Belltown area of Seattle. It took years for it to finally get mounted on a business front in Fremont.

You have to appreciate the sentiment painted on its side, in Latin: De Libertas Quirkas, which means "freedom to be peculiar."

Another stop took us to Pioneer Square. And while we didn't find The Perfect Light there, we did find a parking spot near the Klondike Gold Rush National Historic Park. The kids and I had been there before, but Christian had never seen it, so we popped in.

There, CJ would out that if he was worth his weight in gold, he would be the $1.8 Million Dollar Boy at today's rates.  

In 1897, he would have weighed in at $17,000. Talk about inflation! ;)

Though the place is a national park, it's housed in the historic Cadillac Hotel. In the basement of the park (isn't that an odd phrase?), CJ and Annabelle tried their hand at a wheel of fortune, which was, in effect, what the gold rush prospectors were doing. They spun the wheel, hoping to land on the tiny wedge where they'd hit the jackpot. It took many, many spins to finally find "the glory hole" ("Gold Rush" viewers will know what I'm talking 'bout).

COME MONDAY: We are in month seven-ish (UGH) of trying to get a permit to build an addition on the house. To that end we had to go to the permit center again (UGH) this morning. The kids and I deposited Christian at the door and then circled the block a few times, taking in the view.

Christian was in the Seattle Municipal Tower, which is to the right in this picture. At 62 stories, it's the second tallest building in Seattle. In the foreground is the reeeally big skyscraper - Columbia Center. At 968 feet (285 meters), it has 76 floors and is reportedly the 84th tallest building in the world, and the 20th tallest in the U.S. According to Wikipedia, it's the second tallest building on the West Coast and it has more floors than any other building west of the Mississippi. We just found out tonight that for just $5 (a LOT cheaper than going up on the Space Needle), you can ride an elevator to the 73rd floor where there's an observation deck (that's higher than the Space Needle). Add that to our 'to do' list.

Christian had to go to work for awhile, so the kids and I killed time at a sprawling antique mall nearby. What a history lesson that was! We spent nearly an hour there browsing and talking about what we saw - all sorts of interesting artifacts from the late 1800s up through the 1970s.

At one booth I spied something instantly recognizable to me, but it also dawned on me the kids probably had no idea what they were. So, I asked them if they knew. They didn't. So, I asked them to guess what the objects were. 

They each guessed something wheel-related. I told them it rhymed with wheel, but they were actually reels. Then, I got to explain what FILM is to them. ;)

After the antique mall we had to go to IKEA. Along the way we helped CJ complete a crossword puzzle about the Mexican-American War. We made a 10-minute trip through IKEA (a new personal best) and then it was back to the freeway, destination The Museum of Flight. We were all itching to see the Soyuz capsule that recently arrived there. Here are the kids running on the bridge leading to the museum's space gallery.

The Star Wars theme was playing as they bounded across, making the trip rather epic. ;)

Once across the street, we found the space-traveled capsule. It looked worse for the wear, that's for sure! You could totally see the burn marks on it from its journeys.

Walking around it and peering it, it's just so hard to imagine three grown men inside it, hurtling to and fro  Earth. Click on the photo below to enlarge it and learn more about the spacecraft's history.

So you have some size/scale reference, here's a photo of the kids and the capsule. The kids are holding a poster with some of our space-friends names on it.

In an interesting contrast, after our space gallery visit, Annabelle asked to go to the Red Barn. It's literally the birthplace of Boeing - the old wood framed, floored, sided and paneled structure where the airplane giant got off the ground (pun intended).

We checked out some of Boeing's earliest models. Look at the cockpit of this beauty. That slatted portion is the seat. In the foreground is the steering wheel.

After touring the main floor, the kids bounded upstairs.

Upstairs it was a serene oasis. The kids immediately sat down, pulled a book off the table and started reading about the history of Boeing.

In the foreground are replicas of drafting tables from days gone by.

EXCHANGE: This weekend during a car commute to who knows where, out of the blue CJ asked, "What's better for you, milk or water?"

My first thought, and immediate comment, was, "Water - because some people are allergic to milk."

"Allergic to milk?" CJ marveled.

"Yeah, lactose intolerant," Annabelle chimed in.

"Black toast intolerant?" CJ asked, bewildered.

LOL.