SALTY SHORE: Monday afternoon we took a field trip we've been meaning to make for over two summers now. We wanted to test the (salt!) waters of Colman Pool, in West Seattle.
Getting there isn't all that easy. It's on an outcropping of enormous Lincoln Park, and the nearest parking lot is a half mile away.
But it's definitely worth the walk! How many heated, outdoor pools have filtered Puget Sound water, a phenomenal view of the Sound, and a corkscrew slide?!
It's a popular place. VERY popular. A veritable sea of humanity. The cashier who took our money said every session sells out.
The walk to and from the pool is pretty. There's almost always a ferry - or two - going by, since it's right next to the busy Fauntleroy terminal.
After the swim and the park, we were off to the ballpark!
We arrived early enough to watch some of the Ms' batting practice. At one point the kids were hot and wanted to go sit on a bench in the shade on the concourse. They did, and I kept glancing over, checking on them, from where we were standing to watch BP.
At one point, a gentleman had joined them on the bench. I eventually suggested to Christian that he go see what the guy's deal was - just another one of those feelings. ;)
Carter was in town to watch the Blue Jays take on the Mariners. A WHOLE LOT of Canadians were in town for the same reason. It felt like the crowd of 41,000+ was about a 50/50 split.
Eventually, King Felix came out for warm ups, to a rousing ovation, which he acknowledged.
The Blue Jays took BP and fielding practice, too, of course. Here's Colby Rasmus. We've been watching him play ball since 1999, when he was on a Little League World Series on a team from Alabama.
The thing I remember most about that LLWS run was reporters repeating over and over that Colby's father Tony, the team manager, was made to choose between his job, and coaching the team, and he chose the team. They made him out to be some hero for it. However, right before the final game, the truth came out that he unilaterally quit his job, he wasn't forced out at all. But I guess that little folk tale is ancient history. This year, Tony Rasmus is being awarded the 2014 George and Barbara Bush Little League Parents of the Year award with his wife, Robin. And in other news, it sounds like Mr. Rasmus is still pushing buttons and stirring things up when it comes to his son's career. Bummer.
But back to the fun stuff! The game Monday night was phenomenal. It was a playoff-type atmosphere, with a huge, vocal crowd, which was into every pitch. The game was tight for the first couple of innings, but in the sixth, a thunderstorm broke out, and the Mariners' bats crackled to life.
It was surreal watching the Mariners go to town while lightning flashed all around and thunder roared. At one point, Robinson Cano was up to bat, and a jagged bolt of lighting touched down north of the stadium. So dramatic! I expected the PA guys to start playing the theme from "The Natural." Instead, they played AC/DC's "Thunderstruck." Good enough. ;)
SCIENCE GAMES CENTRAL: Thanks to a link on the Seattle Public LIbraries' site, we have re-discovered the Web site for the Center for Game Science!
The site is an effort of the University of Washington (Go Huskies!). Per the description on its Web site, it "focuses on solving hard problems facing humanity today in a game based environment. Our focus is on scientific discovery games, games that discover optimal learning pathways for STEM education, cognitive skill training games, games that promote human creativity, games that explore collective over individual intelligence, and many more."
Neat-o! The SPL link took us straight to the site's "Riddle Books" game, which is basically a challenge to solve story problems or "riddles" as they're called there.
AND THEN THE RAINS CAME: We received a reprieve from watering duties today, usually a 30 minute or so task around here these days. An overnight rainstorm was a record breaker, shattering a 32-year-old record.
According to the National Weather Service, .85 inches of rain have fallen at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport since 1 a.m. This shatters a record of .33 inches set in 1982.
“1.33 inches fell since 9:53 p.m. last night. This is fairly uncommon for summer months,” said Josh Smith, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service.
Smith said rain showers are lightening this morning, but they remain in the forecast. There’s a 50 percent chance additional rain will fall throughout today.
In Bellevue, flooding bad enough that part of a main drag (Factoria Boulevard) was closed for several hours.
COBBLED TOGETHER: The skies were still dripping a bit this morning when we struck out to forage four cups' worth of blackberries to make our first cobbler of the already waning season.
It took us less than 10 minutes to get our quota, and this afternoon, we whipped one up, slightly modifying an allegedly blue winning recipe I found online (how can you not add cinnamon to a blackberry cobbler recipe?!). We also topped it with oatmeal in a little butter and brown sugar instead of the heaping topping of white sugar it called for. The kids did the measuring and the mixing ... and the tasting.
They carefully distributed the four cups of blackberries over the cobbler's entire top.
It smelled absolutely divine while baking, so we were hopeful that it would taste as good as it smelled.
It does. :)
Toronto is a lot farther from Alabama than St Louis is. In many ways.
ReplyDeleteToronto's probably the best place he could have wound up - a whole country away from a professional meddler.
Delete