Still Sunny

BLUFFING: If you believe the weatherman, tomorrow our sun is going to leave us (well, at least go into hiding). So tonight after dinner, we took a nice long walk along "The Bluff," which borders the southwest and west side of our neighborhood, Magnolia.

There are several small parks along the boulevard, with room to roam.

And room under towering trees to just stand still and contemplate.

The park bench below offers up a fabulous view. The city's to the east and Elliott Bay is to the south and west.

Speaking of contemplating, just tonight, for the first time, I asked, "Why is it named Elliott Bay?" No one in the household knew, so onto the Internet we hopped. Turns out there's not a definitive answer. The body of water has been officially named Elliott Bay since the U.S. Board on Geographic Names officially settled on that moniker in 1895 (it had also been called Seattle Harbor and Duwamish Bay in years prior).

But who is Elliott? Apparently the bay was named in 1841 by the Wilkes Expedition (more formally known as the United States Exploring Expedition). The exploring and surveying expedition was conducted in the Pacific Ocean from 1838 to 1842. There were at least three or four Elliotts associated with the expedition, including the ship's chaplain (Jared Elliott) and midshipman (Samuel Elliott). So we have some ideas about the bay's namesake, but we still aren't sure.

Our expedition was delightful until Annabelle caught her scooter wheel in a large crack and did one of those protracted falls before going SPLAT! on the pavement.
It was a spectacular enough fall that a passing motorist stopped to make sure she was OK.

The good news is, she's young and heals quickly. By tomorrow, it should just be a bad memory.

SHROOMS!:  Several days ago, we finally got to experimenting with a mushroom growing kit we got for Christmas (thanks, Nonnie!).

Per directions, we took the bag out of the box, soaked its innards, and the kids cut a hole it in.

We've been misting the thing faithfully for about two weeks and finally tonight we saw the fruits, er, fungi, of our labor!

I should have included something for scale in the photos. Our mini mushrooms are about the size of a small fingertip. We're counting on them getting a little bigger!