Space Needle Santa 2016

HOLLY JOLLY: Santa is everywhere this time of year, and he pops up all over Seattle, at malls, Macy's, you name it. However, our favorite place to catch up with the jolly old elf is at the Space Needle. After all, it doesn't get much more Seattle than that!

We caught an elevator up this morning, shortly after 11 a.m. The photo below is of the Pacific Science Center Arches the the Chihuly Garden of Glass through smudged glass doors.

On the way up the escalator, there are graphics on the wall, chronicling the iconic landmark's history. Like most other brilliant ideas, the Space Needle's genesis was a sketch on a cocktail napkin. 

One thing we learned today is that way back when (1962), there was a torch atop the Needle! I can only imagine how cool that looked! I wish they'd bring it back!

 Instead, there's just flashing bulb atop it now.

We also learned that the Needle's rotating restaurant is spun by a one horsepower motor. Wow! How is that possible?

Up top we had a view of one of our favorite playgrounds in the city, the space just west of the former Experience Music Project (now MoPOP).

Naturally, we had to take the obligatory photo toward our neighborhood. The foreground is the roof of Key Arena, In the distance is Magnolia, our 'hood.

 Christian caught a shot of this Coast Guard ship being tugged across Lake Union. 

Later, I found this photo (below) from the Ballard Locks of the big ship, U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Munro, moving through, on to Puget Sound

On our way away from Seattle Center, we had to stop by the Center House to check out the annual model railroad display. 

STATION TO STATION: This afternoon, a friend shared a link to a site that let you hop around to live broadcasts from radio stations circling the globe. 

Called Radio Garden, all you have to do is click on any of the little green spots/stations around the world to listen in to what they're broadcasting.

We clicked on all sorts of countries - Japan to Iceland to Greenland to Russia and beyond. What was interesting to us was how many of those stations were playing "American" music, with English speakers/singers.

Finland seemed to be an exception; the stations we 'visited' there were all non-English. 

We did listen to some Russian sports radio. We were guessing they were talking about hockey, but who knows?

We totally encourage you to give Radio Garden a test drive. Much fun!

December Doings

DRAMATIC DEPARTURE: This NASA photo (by Bill Ingalls) is a stunning capture of the send off for Mercury, Apollo and STS astronaut John Glenn. His casket was on display in the Ohio State House prior to his memorial, which was held on Saturday, Dec. 17. 

The archival video of the service can be viewed on YouTube: https://youtu.be/RfrAmFaNBgc


GAMEY: As anyone who reads this blog regularly knows, we love to play games. All kinds of games, including tabletop strategy games. Solving problems, working cooperatively, facing challenges and being flexible, games are honestly probably the bulk of our math/logic education here at MPA. 

Last week, we tried a simple, fun game called "Repeat or You're Obsolete." A very not catchy title, the game is mostly about being able to remember lists. 

Here's a YouTube video from the young man/game inventor explaining it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=22_MP7tq6W0

It was fun and challenging and easy/quick to learn. However, at the end, we all concluded we weren't looking forward to playing it again, so we'll pass it along.

We also just recently took our first go at the long-awaited "Labyrinth" board game, based on the 30-year-old movie starring David Bowie as the Goblin King. I pre-ordered it months and months and months ago. This week, we finally got to give the game a go.

It's fun - and confounding! We've played it twice and were nowhere near beating it either time. We aren't giving up, though!

ELFISH: Tis the season of holiday movies, and one of our very favorites is "Elf."

In fact, it's such a favorite that CJ was the title character from the movie for Halloween. 

A local, independent theater shows the film each holiday season, and this year we finally made it out there to see "Elf" on the big screen. Of course CJ recycled his Halloween costume for the occasion! 

Imagine our delight when we entered the theater an hour pre-movie and a song from the Pee Wee Herman Christmas Special was playing!

 And things got even better when Elvis from the '68 comeback special came on, with him singing "Blue Christmas."

It was *so* much fun seeing the movie on the big screen, and everyone in the theater sounded to be a big "Elf" fan- laughing uproariously at certain scenes, and singing along at the end. Big fun!