On the Waterfront

LOW TIDE: We took a stroll to the end of a road in Magnolia this morning. When we arrived we found it was low tide. The kids combed the beach while I stood back with the dogs, who watched them and worried that their humans were too far away.

MUSICAL: It was day three of the music and animation workshop the kids are enrolled in this Monday through Friday. CJ actually took a video of the song the group came up with today (about a hawk named Calvin who is accused of stealing nuts from a squirrel, Christopher Acorn. When I walked in the room, Annabelle was playing a solo on a little theremin-type instrument she'd brought along. It sounded good! CJ's video needs some heavy editing. Hopefully I'll be able to post it tomorrow.

SHIP SHAPE: When we came home from West Seattle this evening, we were thrilled to see an enormous Navy shop parked at the foot of our hill! And on board are at least a couple of Boeing Osprey. Sweet! We made a mental note to walk down the Garfield Bridge in the very near future. We would up doing it shortly after dinner.

Below, the ship kind of blends into the gray building in front of it. ... 

But we closed in for a closer look.

Per the Seafair Web site, the ship is Amphibious Assault Ship USS Boxer (LHD 4): "USS Boxer stretches 844 feet in length and is the largest of all amphibious warfare ships; resembling a small aircraft carrier. The ship is not only capable of conducting aircraft operations but it also capable of supporting watercraft operations in its well deck. This class of ship provides the Marine Corps with a means of ship-to-shore movement by helicopter in addition to movement by landing craft. LHDs, like Boxer, have been participants in major humanitarian-assistance, occupation and combat operations in which the United States has been involved."

 The ship's so enormous, the Osprey, a tank and other vehicles on board like kind of small!

The white structures visible below are cranes in the Port of Seattle.

We could see soldiers working on board.

They appeared to be readying some flags.

Mount Rainier has been making itself known the last couple of days.

And we had to get a shot of a nearly full moon and the Space Needle.

PERLER PROJECT: The kids are already working on a thank you for their workshop leader, Morgan Taylor. They're making one of his characters, Gustafer Yellowgold, a creature who comes from the sun, out of Perler (a brand name) beads.

First, we had to find a good photo of Gustafer's head online, then we used a program to make a cross stitch pattern of it, in effect. And then, it was a matter of putting tiny, tiny beads in the right place.

The kids worked together, with CJ spending a lot of time picking out the right colored beads.

Here's the almost-finished pattern.

Once that's done, you take an iron to it and melt the beads together.