Electrified

 

FLOATERS:  Yesterday evening we finally got around to using a Groupon we'd bought months ago for a two-hour rental of an electric boat to motor around Lake Union.

It was a nice big boat, with plenty of room for our party of 7 (the big boys, Kennedy's girlfriend, the MPA kids, plus Christian and me).  We boarded at The Electric Boat Company dock, on the west side of Lake Union, a bit south of the "Sleepless in Seattle" houseboat.

I loved, Loved, LOVED cruising in an electric boat. It was so peaceful and quiet compared to motorboats, and there weren't the stinky exhaust fumes either.

We puttered around, past Gasworks Park.

It was perfect out - sunny, warm and no wind (much to the sailboat's chagrin, I suppose).

We crossed under bridges, including the Eastlake and Montlake ones, pictured below.

At sunset, we started chasing the sun.

Above is the Aurora Bridge, and below is the Ballard Bridge.

I think CJ's favorite part of the trip was when Pink Floyd came on the boat's radio. He started busting some moves.

It was a great time, and I sure hope The Electric Boat Company has another Groupon some day (but I'll bet it's not going to be during summertime, the height of boating season).

TRANSPLANT:  Our seeds sprouted and outgrowing our counter top greenhouse, it was time to plant them in the garden.

Annabelle helped prep the big raised bed.

We have high hopes for CJ's pumpkins (keep your fingers crossed!).

COOKIES FOR A CAUSE: The learning center where the kids take their Friday  computer programming class held a fund raiser today, selling homemade stuff donated by program participants. You had to know I'd take cookies. It was a good opportunity to try my Star Trek cookie cutters for the first time.

And I broke out the Star Wars cookie cutters, too. Those are always a hit, and so much fun to make. I think I took about 40 cookies in all.

Who knew when I saw "Star Wars" back in '77 that I'd be making Star Wars cookies 36 years later. Wow.

History Lesson

MATH MARAUDER:  We were back up at the Shoreline campus today for CJ's second full day of  'keep the state' happy standardized testing.  He had to tackle a two hour writing test this morning, and two hours of math this afternoon.  Mercifully, he's all done with these tests and next year they're going to an online test, which almost has to be better than the current version.

Meanwhile, Annabelle and I killed time in the library. At one point, her math teacher shared the news with us that Annabelle was the first in the school to complete/beat the Math Quest.

BIG GUNS:  We had one short hour to kill between CJ's two two-hour long tests today. We used a good part of it to check out a park not too far from the test site. We've driven by it so many times, but never had time to stop before. Today, we fixed that.

It's called Hamlin Park, and according to articles I read on the Internet tonight, it was named after the homesteading Hamlin family, who, in the late 19th century, logged a big chunk of land in what is now southeast Shoreline.  The Hamlins farmed the land for decades, and the creek cutting through the land was a salmon stream.

Fast forward to 1923, and the U.S. Navy bought the property and built a hospital on the site. Now, the cannons make more sense. ...

Yes, cannons.

Imagine our surprise when we pulled into the park and saw these. ...

And we were even more surprised when we read the plaques on the retired weapons. Turns out they were relics that saw action in the Spanish-American war, both of them from the U.S.S. Boston.  Here's a U.S. Navy photo of the ship, taken in 1891.  Turns out the ship was the fifth with the same name, this one, a protected cruiser, was launched in 1884.

The ship took part in the Battle of Manila Bay (May 1898) and the capture of Manila (August 1898).

The sign on the westernmost cannon in the park (Annabelle is perched atop it above) let us know that particular cannon took out three guns at a Spanish fort at Cavite on May 1, 1898 (almost exactly 115 years ago).

And the sign on the easternmost cannon let us know that it fired the very first shot in the Battle of Manila Bay on May 1, 1898. It was the first major engagement of the Spanish-American War. How 'bout that for some history?

So, thanks to a quick stop at a new-to-us-park, we got a history lesson about the Spanish -American War, a geography lesson we had to look these places up!), and a local history lesson (about Shoreline history, its homesteaders and the Navy hospital. Very cool! 

Power Up!

GANGBUSTERS: Our recent heatwave might be helping - everything we're growing on our countertop is going crazy!


The mushrooms have doubled in number and size seemingly overnight, and the carrots, pumpkins, broccoli and watermelon have outgrown the lid on our countertop greenhouse.
LOCKDOWN:  We spent a good - well, long - portion of our day in Shoreline, where CJ is having to take the state of Washington's mandatory annual Measure of  Student Progress test. He has to take two writing tests, one math test, and one reading test.

Above are CJ's pumpkin plants. I love how you can see how they literally burst out of the seeds.

The Web site for the test assures me "The Measurements of Student Progress ... should never be the sole judge of a student's academic skills and knowledge. A student's entire performance should always be considered." 

Agreed. But you're still getting the test, right? Right. Oh well. 

CJ passed all of the parts he had to take last year, hopefully this year will be a repeat performance. In the state last year, 71.5 percent of students passed the reading test, 59.4 percent passed math, and 61.4 percent passed writing. 

CJ said he thought he did pretty well today  - until someone came into the room during the test to announce that there was a neighborhood emergency and no one was to leave the building. (Translation: We were in lockdown.)  Apparently he had a hard time concentrating after that. Can't imagine why. ...

Police officers, weapons, K9 units and such were seen around outside the building, and we were told they were looking for a bad guy who had stolen a car, was being chased, and then eluded capture and escaped on foot near the school.  Just a tad disconcerting.

CJ finished his test and found Annabelle and me waiting in the library. Unfortunately, we couldn't go out and grab lunch and run around in the fresh air like I'd planned, what with the lockdown and all. So, the kids played in the gym for awhile. They actually had a great time playing floor hockey. CJ even scored a goal. After a bit, we got an 'all clear' and so we ripped out to get some lunch and had CJ back in his seat for afternoon testing.

REMEMBERING RAY: Today, Ray Harryhausen died at age 92. He played a starring role in my childhood, and countless others. Harryhausen was an epic stop motion animator looooong before the age of CGI (computer generated images).His work with monsters and myths inspired my imagination - and gave me nightmares.

Tonight, I introduced the kids to Harryhausen by showing them this great YouTube video featuring the artists' creatures. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=U9kmjW73-v4)

The Great Escape

WEST POINT: Last week a Groupon popped up for a night at a hotel in Silverdale, Washington, which is almost due west of us, over on the Kitsap Peninsula. 

The price was right, and so I bought one. We headed over there Sunday morning, driving down through Tacoma.  Here we are crossing the Tacoma Narrows Bridge.

Our route took us through Bremerton. None of us had ever been there before, and we know it to be a big Navy base, so we were looking forward to checking the place out. 

As we drove into town, we spied some BIG ol' ships in various states of "they've seen better days." 

One of them was the U.S.S. Kitty Hawk, which was decommissioned on May 12, 2009, after nearly 49 years of service. Here she is back in the day. ...

Unfortunately, the ships were docked right next to a highway, and there was nowhere for us to park to take a better look. (We also couldn't access the naval base, of course.)

We did check out a waterfront park in Bremerton. There, the USS Turner Joy, a warship from the Vietnam era, was on display.

We passed on the tour, as it would have set us back $38. We can tour big ships for free on the Seattle waterfront from time to time.  (You can take a free, two-minute tour of the Turner Joy via YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=RsnHDOtwMMI)

The waterfront park hosting the Turner Joy was a great place to soak up some sun. Here, CJ and Annabelle sit on a large stone memorial bench for a Navy Captain.

 From Bremerton, we continued north to Silverdale.

There, we stopped at another waterfront park, Silverdale Waterfront Park, to be specific.

The park was hopping, and many of the visitors were military families.

This park also had a military memorial, with flags representing the various branches of the service ...

and a neat map of the world, with the continents made out of concrete.

From the park, between the flagpoles, we could see our hotel.

Situated right on Dyes Inlet, the Silverdale Beach Hotel was lovely.

Tonight we learned Dyes Inlet is named for John W. W. (that's not a typo) Dyes, a taxidermist with the Wilkes Expedition of 1841.

There was a nature trail along the water's edge, crossing through the hotel property. From an interpretive sign, we learned more about the feathered (and underwater) friends in the neighborhood.

We saw some real live herons ...

and even a bald eagle flying overhead.

As we wandered the trail a bit further, we came across a big ol' rusty contraption.

 

Fortunately, there was a sign there to tell us it was a saw from logging back in the day.

We did spend some time indoors too, specifically in this lovely pool. The kids swam Sunday afternoon and night, and Monday morning. 

It was a whirlwind getaway. By noon, just 26 hours after we left home, we were back home in Seattle (having taking a ferry from Bainbridge to downtown Seattle). 

The commute gave us time to help prep CJ for his state standardized tests he'll be taking the next couple of days. And as soon as we got back home, we were right back to Einstein. Good news - we passed our homework and tests for the week. We're halfway done with this class and still hanging in there!