Diamonds and Asteroids

THE OLD BALL GAME: Tuesday, I had to drive down to Portland for an appointment. All the way down, I listened to sports radio, and all the way back. By the time I was halfway home, I was dying to go to the Mariners' game that evening.

I called Christian at about 3:30 to ask if he and the kids wanted to meet me at Safeco Field in a couple of hours. They hopped on a bus, I scored a parking spot on the street for free, and we actually arrived at the same street corner within 30 seconds of one another. Pretty amazing.

The kids were thrilled to see I had a big pizza from their favorite place down south. And so, they sat by the bullpen during batting practice and enjoyed their favorite pizza. Talk about a great dinner!

 Speaking of batting practice, we managed to come away with another ball!

It was rocketed out of the stadium by Pirates star Andrew McCutchen. We held onto it for nearly the whole game, but in the ninth, we spied a young Pirates fan in a McCutchen jersey and Christian and Annabelle gave it to the boy. He was pretty pleased. :)

All told, we got cheap tickets (thanks, random scalper), had great pizza, free parking, easy ingress, and the Mariners won convincingly. Good times!

ON YOUR MARKERS: A couple of weeks ago, Annabelle was gifted a set of super fancy Copic markers from our awesome Buy Nothing group. This set of markers retails for around $185 for the set she was gifted, if you can believe that.

The markers are special because they let you masterfully blend colors. Annabelle takes them with her frequently when we leave the house. Last night, in about an hour's time span, she produced all of the above at a local eatery. It was fun watching people's reactions as they walked past the table. One family stopped to chat on their way out. They had a girl a couple of years older than Annabelle who just *loved* her drawings, and so Annabelle gave her one. The girl was so thrilled. She actually came back into the place and over to the table a couple of minutes later to ask Annabelle her name so she could say she knew her before she was famous.  Pretty sweet. 

ASTEROID EVENT: This afternoon, Christian took the kids to the Museum of Flight to check out an Asteroid Day 'celebration.' 

Turns out June 30 is Asteroid Day because it marks the anniversary of the 1908 Siberian Tunguska asteroid impact - the largest such event in Earth's recent history. It took out 10 million trees, 20 miles in every direction from the point of impact.

I'll let the kids tell you about their afternoon field trip. Annabelle writes first ... 

The Museum of Flight had an event today called “asteroid day”. When we arrived, we didn’t know it was going to be as small as it was. It took up the Alaska Airlines aerospace education center area, so it only had about 3 things you could do. The first thing was make a solar system “model”, which was just gluing pom-poms onto a piece of paper, from what I could tell. They also had a flat cutout of earth with holes to throw “meteors” through. The meteors were just tinfoil balls with red, orange, and yellow ribbon (like fire) coming out of them. The one thing I did do was a small sandbox activity where you would dig up different rocks that might represent minerals you might find while digging on an asteroid (e.g. rhinestones represented diamonds, malachite represented copper). It wasn’t all I expected it to be, but it was nonetheless good for younger kids to learn about asteroids.

 Next up is CJ's account ...

According to the event's website, "Asteroid Day" is a global awareness campaign where people from around the world come together to learn about asteroids, the impact hazard they may pose, and what we can do to protect our planet, families, communities, and future generations from future asteroid impacts. Asteroid Day is held each year on the anniversary of the largest impact in recent history, the 1908 Tunguska event in Siberia. The Museum of Flight, a frequent haunt for us, was holding an event for Asteroid Day, which we were looking forward to and visited.

One of the only things I learned at the event was the difference between asteroids (large rocks outside of Earth's atmosphere,) meteoroids (smaller rocks that break off from asteroids,) meteors (an asteroid or meteoroid that enters Earth's atmosphere,) and meteorites (meteors that land on Earth's surface). Otherwise, the event was rather simplistic and disappointing. There were 3 activity stations, only 1 of which I was interested in. One was a simplistic craft station that seemingly had little to do with the event. The second was a sandbox where you could "dig" for fools' gold, which you immediately had to put back in. The last one was a cardboard cutout of Earth suspended from the ceiling, with 4 holes in it. You could take a tinfoil ball that was supposed to look like a soon-to-be meteor, and try and throw it through one of the holes.

I was disappointed by the Museum of Flight's Asteroid Day event.

Ouch.  Hopefully it was more satisfying for the younger children who visited!

Eastern Adventure

CATCHING UP: Apologies for the tardiness, but the last couple of days have involved hundreds of miles and many sights.

Sunday and Monday were filled with an Idaho field trip for us. 

We left Seattle at 5 a.m. and drove along Interstate 90 for over 5 hours. We only stopped briefly for a couple of minutes, including one break to behold the viewpoint hear the Wild Horses monument in George, Washington.

Formally titled "Grandfather Cuts Loose the Ponies," the 200-foot line of life-size charging horse symbolically re-creates the Great Spirit turning loose a herd of wild horses above the Columbia River's Wanapum Lake. They are the creation of David Govedare of Chewelah, Washington, 

The horses are up on a hill, overlooking the Columbia River basin. Annabelle checked out the view there, too (that's the photo at the top of this post).

Then, it was on to our destination, the Silverwood Theme Park just north of Coeur d'Alene, Idaho.

We arrived at about 10:45 a.m., fifteen minutes before the gates opened at 11. Perfect timing! For the next seven-plus hours we walked all over the sprawling amusement and water park.

The very first thing CJ and Chistian did was hop on a big rollercoaster.

I'll let CJ tell you a bit more about our visit. ... 

Recently, my family went to the Silverwood Theme Park in Idaho, near the city of Coeur d'Alene. According to Wikipedia, Silverwood is the largest theme and water park in the American Northwest on 413-acre (1,670,000 m2) and boasting more than 65 rides, slides, shows and attractions.

During our visit to Silverwood, we went on many of those rides, some of which I will talk about here:

If I am remembering the first ride I went on was the Corkscrew. the Corkscrew's look was very distinctive, with a black-and-red color scheme in contrast to most of the rest of the park. According to Silverwood's website, originally opening at Knott's Berry Farm in 1975, the Corkscrew was the first modern inverting coaster. Riders on the Corkscrew would be turned upside down 2 times, which was apparently mandatory while building the Corkscrew.

One ride I really enjoyed at Silverwood was the Log Flume ride, where you could ride in a fake log across an artificial lake. One special part of the ride was that somebody outside the ride could place a quarter in a machine, and if they pressed a button on the machine after doing so, water would shoot out at certain parts of the ride. We ended up getting soaked this way.

A ride called Panic Plunge also comes to mind any time I think about Silverwood. Panic Plunge is a typical plummet ride where the ride raises you for a while, and then drops you very quickly. I noticed that while plummeting on Panic Plunge, I felt like I lost control over my body. I ended up regretting my decision to go on Panic Plunge, mostly because I became disoriented after riding it.

Overall, I enjoyed my experience at Silverwood. I look forward to visiting Silverwood again, and I would recommend a visit.

There was big fun to be had on the Bumper Boats ...

And there were multiple rollercoasters, including a mammoth wood-framed one.

We only played one midway game. Of course, it involved shooting clowns.

We spent about three hours in the amusement park side of the park, and three more hours on the water park side.

I'll let Annabelle share some about her visit. ...

Silverwood theme park is located in northern Idaho.  It’s a very fun park and it even has a large water park! The first thing we went to was the Country Carnival area. I didn’t go on any roller coasters, since the tame one I saw didn’t have any riders. I did watch CJ go on the Corkscrew though, and that roller coaster went in 2 loops! I did go on the scrambler, though. It was one of the fastest scramblers I’ve ever been on! After that we headed towards Roller Coaster Alley. There were rides there like the Aftershock, which dad went on. He said it was really scary! After riding roller coasters and having some snacks, we headed to the water park!

The first thing you see in the water park is Polliwog Park, which is a huge structure with lots of slides and water guns! You can run around in the shallow part or even get dunked by the huge bucket of water! They also had a wave pool with giant waves! My favorite part was the big tubing slide called Avalanche Mountain. The rafts were big enough for all 3 for us to go and it was fast! I also went on things like Velocity Peak, where you can go as fast as 55 miles an hour in only your swimsuit, and the new Riptide Racer, where you have a blue foam “toboggan” and you are timed as you zip down the slide! It was really fun going to Silverwood and I can’t wait to go again!

 Polliwog Park is pictured above.

Below are the big wading pools. The north one was closed when we were there, bummer ...

 but the south one was lots of fun. The waves were pretty impressive (often twice the size shown here).

In the middle of the water park, there was a "Lazy River" for floating down.

Much less sedate was this wild slide, Velocity Peak.Here's CJ smiling, happy to be alive afterward. 

Annabelle went down the dark blue, enclosed slide. Christian chose the same one as CJ.

At the north end of the water park were a pair of rides groups of people ride inflatables down. Christian and the kids went on Avalanche Mountain. It was about a half hour wait for a minute of fun, but they enjoyed it.

The forecast for the Sunday we visited was for 76 degrees or so. It would up being in the high 80s. It was a long, hot day, but loads of fun.

HOLY MOSES: We began heading back toward Washington at about 9 a.m. on Monday. I mentioned to the family that Id' heard there was a neat-o municipal water park in Moses Lake, Washington, and suggested we check it out.

Boy, were they glad we did!  Surf 'n Slide is big fun - and super inexpensive! The Moses Lake park was just $10 for adults, and free, $8 or $9 for kids, depending on their age. By contrast, general admission for Silverwood was $48. Sure, Surf 'n Slide isn't anywhere near as big and fantastic as Silverwood, but it's super affordable and definitely worth a visit!

The biggest draw there was the surf area, where water rapidly rushed up an incline, allowing for some fun knee and surf board action.

Annabelle looked downright graceful at times.

 Other times, not so much, ha ha.

The video tells the story best. 

But CJ, Annabelle and Christian all got the hang of it pretty quickly.

Toward Summer

BUSY WEEK: I'm behind on the blog because we've had a super busy week. 

The kids' last official day of classes for spring/summer of 2016 was Thursday. That meant party time. And that meant food. 

Watermelon's a good intro-to-summer food. ...

But that's too boring. So how about watermelon pizza?

We topped watermelon slices with coconut 'cheese,' cherry fruit leather pepperoni, and raisin 'olives.' 

We took five to the party today. They were about 8 inches across. We had enough toppings left over to make a couple more pizzas tonight, so we offered them up on our Buy Nothing neighborhood group and got to play pizza delivery people. Fun! 

We delivered one pizza last night, and two this morning at 7:40 a.m. This morning's delivery went to a preschool, where the children got a big kick out of them, it's reported.

BREWERS:  In other news, our first kombucha/science project was finally ready for debut. For the past 10 days, the growlers holding the brewing kombucha were topped with coffee filters. Ironically, the SCOBY, a mix of cultures of bacteria and yeast, inside each vessel also looked like a coffee filter, in a way. 

I love everything about kombucha, but I'm kind of afraid of it in a way. I sure wouldn't drink a 'normal' glass of water sitting on my countertop for 10 days. Dare we drink this stuff?

Hope so! CJ and Annabelle each enjoyed a rootbeer flavored home brewed kombucha last night and lived to tell about it, and I drank some this morning and don't feel any worse for the wear, so I guess it's OK!

BEADY EYED: This week, Annabelle finished a special bead project for a special person. It depicts a scene from one of the recipient's favorite video games, which includes a cat named Conductor Whiskers driving a train. Atop the train, Annabelle added the recipient's real life cat.

Overall, the project used about 6200 tiny beads, each which had to be hand-placed.

COOL:  Wednesday afternoon, the kids attended a special science-themed presentation by a gentleman from SubZero Ice Cream, a chain that uses nitrogen to freeze their creations. 

There was lots of 'smoke' and even an explosion (a big balloon).  

The kids learrned lots about nitrogen, and enjoyed some tasty ice cream. 

THE WAIT IS OVER: Way back in June of 2015, CJ pre-ordered a video game, "Mighty No.  9," from the creator of the Mega Man series. Unfortunately, it doesn't sound like it was worth the wait. I'll let CJ tell you more about it ...

On June 21st, Mighty No. 9, the highly anticipated spiritual successor to the Mega Man series, finally came out. Both series are the brainchild of Keiji Inafune, a Japanese video game developer. Keiji, after working at Capcom for almost 25 years, left the company in 2010. However, Capcom kept the rights to the Mega Man franchise, and used their IP poorly. Keiji decided to make his own company, Comcept, and work on a spiritual successor to the Mega Man series. After $4,000,000 spent on the project, 3 development teams (Comcept, Inti Creates, Deep Silver), 3 years in the making, and loads of hype... It's not all that great.

MN9's unfortunately slow-paced plot sounds like this: There are 9 androids created by a man named Dr. White. They are known as the "Mighty Numbers". In order, they are Pyrogen, Cryosphere, Dynatron, Seismic, Battalion, Aviator, Brandish, Countershade, and Beck. However, all of them except Beck are infected with a mysterious virus (read: Maverick Virus), and Beck has to stop them. Mighty No. 9 suffers from poor graphics reminiscent of the PS2 and an unappealing aesthetic. Mighty No. 9 also suffers from a choppy framerate, which can make it seem as though characters are teleporting (not as nice as it sounds). As I mentioned earlier, MN9's story takes longer than it should to unfold. This is particularly troublesome in the intro stage, where you will likely spend more time listening to characters providing exposition than you will actually playing the game.

I haven't watched much of the game play, but I can honestly say the trailer is one of the worst things EVAR in my humble opinion.

Computers, Cannabis and Classes

WAYBACK MACHINES: Saturday afternoon, we took at trip to one of our favorite spots in Seattle, the Living Computer Museum. 

We were attending a members only open house, which gave us a sneak preview to major renovations on their first floor, along with special access to complimentary snacks. ;) 

CJ enjoyed playing Donkey Kong on a couple of throwback platforms.

 Annabelle tried to coax Ghostbusters to load on the Amstrad CPC-464, but after waiting way beyond the 5 minutes (!) loading time, she abandoned ship.

 As cool as the computers are at LCM, CJ always makes it a point to visit their on-site library.

He's been hankering after the book he's holding for a couple of years now. We finally bought him a copy in the gift shop upon leaving.

Loved this vintage Peanuts poster on display near the library.

 I played a game or two during the visit, including a super old, text-only based Star Trek game.
The Klingons got the best of me, unfortunately. I was just happy I kinda sorta figured out how to play the entirely text-based game with hardly any instructions and zero experience.

GREEN WAY: This afternoon we took a stroll, weaving our way through nearby alleys. Before too long, we found ourselves in a hemp forest ... 

This neighbor has had hemp growing in their backyard for a few years. This year's garden is a bit more ambitious, though, and they've certainly upgraded their signage!

Interesting to learn that the laws for 'farming' hemp are changing a week from today. Our neighbors are ahead of their time!

FINALES: This morning, CJ's drama class had their year-end presentation. It consisted of a series of improv skits by pairs of students. Each and every one was entertaining.

The kids also had their last social issues class of the year. The students each shared a sweet sentiment or image on a page, which we bound into a keepsake book. Christian made the wood cover for covering the pages out of wood paneling we had.

The kids and I found the neat metal sentiment we glued to the cover at a local craft store. It fit the journey the class took together this year, for sure.

Growing Along

BY THE YARD : This weekend, we worked in the yard a bit, weeding the vegetable garden, and planting a couple more flowering lovelies in the rockery.

Just stark rocks a couple of summers ago, after we installed it (all 18 tons or so, using just our bodies, brains, some ropes and pulleys), now it's HQ for birds, bees and butterflies by the dozens, on a daily basis.

Apparently, they aren't scared off by the carnage the T-Rex has caused among the garden gnome population. 

 We've seen many a bumblebee this year. They love the "Yellow Submarine" plants we have.

 Our crocosmia is in full bloom.

 It's such a bright red, it almost looks illuminated.

 We checked our big potato pot and found spuds popping up all over!

 They are all descendants of this very special potato Annabelle got in the mail last October!

 She was quite pleased with her plentiful harvest!

MEANWHILE, IN WEST TEXAS:  On Sunday morning, Kent, WA, based Blue Origin conducted an impressive rocket test.  Their New Shepard flew again, reaching an apogee of 331,504 feet (101.042 kilometers). This test was the fourth flight for that same booster, and the sixth trip for the capsule atop it.

https://youtu.be/xYYTuZCjZcE

The team intentionally did not deploy one of three parachutes on the capsule in order to prove they could softly land with only two chutes open. In order to ensure future crews' safety, the Blue Origin's capsule has been designed to have one or two levels of redundancy in every system. 

Humming

WINGING IT: We've been SUPER busy this week. Imagine our delight this morning upon upping not absolutely having to rush off to a specific place at a specific time. Delightful!

Add to that the fact it was gorgeous outside. We decided to go a walking. Our original plan was to head up to the bluff along Queen Anne, but on autopilot, I headed toward the kids' learning center. Oops. 

Realizing my mistake, I started wending our way toward the bluff, and along the windy route, I looked to the right and spied a park bench at one point.

"Is that a park?"! I wondered aloud.

Indeed, it was. 

In fact, it was a park I'd first heard about when CJ was a kindergartner, seven-plus years ago. I knew there was a park on Queen Anne dedicated to neighborhood families lost on a flight headed back to Seattle from Mexico in 2000.

Rachel's Playground at Soundview Terrace.

 The tiles speak to remembrances of classmates lost.

Every single one of the passengers and crew on board perished aboard Alaska Airlines Flight 261. Eighty eight lives gone due to a damn 'jackscrew' and inadequate maintenance led to excessive wear and eventual failure of a critical flight control system during flight" per the official report. Sixteen years removed, it's heartbreaking and nauseating reading about the account and cause of the crash. I can't image how it is for the families for those involved.

Fortunately, CJ, Annabelle, and the dogs had none of the awful details as they were enjoying the park. They jwere able to enjoy the beauty and fun of the place. 

There were a number of tropical plants in the park. I noticed the hummingbirds approved and told the kids to sit on a bench and hold still.

 Within a minute or so, a hummer arrived!

SIGN ME UP!: This afternoon I received a direct message via Twitter. In my experience, usually those are instant-delete type garbage, but this one was different. It was a direct message from the Jane Goodall Institute, inviting me (and countless, others, I'm sure) to enroll in a free course for educators.

Here's the post the link led to ...  Of course I signed up. 

Empowering Youth Through Service in Education

Join us for an action-oriented online professional development course! This course will teach participants how to identify and implement a local service-learning campaign using the Roots & Shoots program model. 

At Roots & Shoots, our goal is to develop compassionate leaders to make the world a better place for people, other animals and the environment. Help us achieve that goal! Complete the course and mentor young people to lead change in their communities by mapping needs, collaborating with stakeholders, and designing practical solutions in the form of campaigns. Connect young people to Dr. Goodall’s message of hope while facilitating a sense of empowerment that comes from helping others!

This course is designed for K-12 formal and informal educators in the United States, but we welcome all professions from all over the world to participate because truly the materials and model is easily and often used by other audiences. If you are located outside the US, we encourage you to check in with the Jane Goodall Institute office closest to you; as they may offer resources and materials specific to your country or region. You can find a list of offices here.

https://rsonlinelearning.appspot.com/mooc2016/course