Sing a Song of Washington

ROCK AND READ: This afternoon we ventured out to the Greenwood branch of the Seattle Public Libraries. It's not "our" neighborhood branch, or even particularly close to us, but we wanted to take in one of the Summer Reading Program shows. Specifically, it was singer songwriter Nancy Stewart performing "Hooray for Washington!"

We got there a little early, so we picked up a few books and DVDs to bring home with us, and spent some time sitting on the big ol' rocks they have in the children's reading area. The rocks were surprisingly comfortable.

We'd seen Stewart before - last summer, in fact - at a library program, which the kids enjoyed, so we were looking forward to more. Stewart changed the words to some familiar tunes to make them about Washington, and there were some original songs in the mix, too. 

During the 45-minute set, there were a number of trivia questions. and Annabelle got a work out raising her hand, eager to offer up an answer for all of them. The one that surprised me the most was a question (paraphrasing) about a large nesting bird that was more common in Washington state than any other state, save Alaska. Annabelle immediately shouted out, "Bald eagles!" which was the right answer. 

Speaking of reading, the kids were thrilled to get their LEGO Club and National Geographic for Kids magazines today.

WHAT IT'S ALL ABOUT: The show at the library this afternoon closed with the "Hokey Pokey." I could hardly believe my ears, because this morning, before 7, CJ and I were having an in depth discussion about the Hokey Pokey.

Actually, it wasn't much of a discussion at all. It was CJ lecturing me about its history while I stood there and wondered, "How and why does he know this?"

 

One of the factoids CJ shared with me is that the title for the song came from an ice cream vendor. 

INCOMING!: Tomorrow morning we'll be heading down to The Museum of Flight to see an amazingly odd aircraft deliver extraordinarily rare cargo.

Built by Airbus Industries, the Super Guppy looks a bit like a whale with wings.

Photo: Wikimedia Commons

Guppy aircraft have been used over the course of several space programs, including Gemini, Apollo, and Skylab, to transport large spacecraft components. Its cargo area is 25 feet tall, 25 feet wide and 111 feet long. 

                                           Photo: NASA

The Super Guppy left Texas earlier this week, with the shuttle trainer on board. It's supposed to arrive around 11 a.m. Can't wait to see it for ourselves!