DYNAMIC DUO: Here's a shot we staged last night at the request of Birthday Dreams, one of our favorite non-profits. They want to do a bio bit on CJ and Annabelle's volunteer efforts for their organization. I thought it only fitting that the Kitchen Aid make it into the photo. It sure gets a work out every time we take on a Birthday Dreams project. I used a Google Photos app to turn the stationary shots of CeeJ and Bee into an animated GIF file. 75: Today, the Internet has been full of stories about remembering D-Day's 75th anniversary. I thought it would be a good day for the kids and I to look back at photos from our visit to Normandy Beach a couple years back.
It was breath-taking then and now. I feel so fortunate to have been able to stroll those grounds and reflect on the significance of what happened then. Our trip to Europe a couple of Septembers ago was one for the ages. Below, looking down at Omaha Beach on the so-serene day we were there, it was hard to imagine the carnage and chaos that happened there on June 6 of 1944. Definitely a turning point in the history of humanity.
STROLLERS: Monday morning we went for a little stroll first thing. We headed down to the lowlands near the Tukwila Community Center. We parked in their lot and walked north for a bit, along the Duwamish River. In short order we saw some Canada Geese families. One of the groups had thirteen babies!
We walked across a kinda scary bridge over the water (pictured at the top of this post), and strolled through a quiet neighborhood on the other side. There, we saw some ENORMOUS leaves of a plant none of us had ever seen before. Later in the day, we did a little research and we think that they are Japanese butterbur (Petasites japonica).
Per a city of Portland's Environmental Services webpage, it's an invasive species. "Japanese butterbur’s kidney-shaped leaves can be up to four feet wide and are fuzzy on the underside. It emerges in late winter or early spring, sometimes with clumps of white or pale yellow flowers appearing before the leaves, and can grow up to six feet tall," says the site. Later in our walk, we spied a station of sort surrounded by screened chain link fence. I immediately thought it the air quality station that's part of the state network. During the last miserable air quality summer, I repeatedly checked the official site for local air quality readings, and I do believe this just has to be the site listed for Tukwila. This photo makes it look like it's out in the wide open, but I shot it between slats. It's completely fenced in.
ONE LAST TIME: As documented here, we've been doing birthday bulletien boards for the kids' former school for months and months now. The last one of the year is always the hardest, as you have to incorporate June, July, and August birthdays. We decided to do a fishy theme, and incorporate info about local libraries' summer reading programs.
We really enjoy this project, but we think it's time to pass the torch to others. There are so many gifted artists at the school ... it's time to see some of their work, we do believe. PARTY PARTING: Monday afternoon, we headed down to South Lake Union for a final gathering for the Ultimate Frisbee team that Annabelle has played for for the past two years.
The spot had free games like pool, darts, and a couple of arcade games. The kids had fun and it was a nice way to wrap up a good season for the team.
GAMERS DELIGHT: On Sunday, we made our annual trip down to Tacoma for the Northwest Pinball and Arcade Show.
CJ will tell you a bit more about it. ...
From May 31st of this year to June 2nd, the Northwest Pinball and Arcade Show was held at the Tacoma Convention Center. The event has been held annually since 2008, so this year marked the 12th iteration of the event.
As with previous iterations, there were over 400 different pinball and arcade machines, according to the event's official website. The machines themselves were held in a large auditorium, where countless attendees (likely more than the number of games) played the plethora of games available. Many of the machines from the previous events (example: Joust) returned from previous Pinball and Arcade Shows, while other machines (such as Contra) were newcomers.
I played a few games, but truth be told, I'm really more interested in the artwork on the machines. This old "Faces" pin has always been a favorite.
This year I noticed a couple of vintage pinball machines that seemed to be made to try to appeal to female players, like this Flip a Card machine (1970).
Who wouldn't want to hang out with those groovy girls?
This bumper with a typist on it cracked me up.
And this snow-racing themed pin seems to be urging girls to get in on the competition.
Naturally, there are also always PLENTY of pins that are trying to appeal to hetero males. Annabelle took one look at this machine's artwork and said, "That's not how a shirt's fabric works." Astute observation.
Not sure exactly to whom Alien Poker was supposed to appeal.
Bizarre.
I'm always interested in checking out games I've never seen before. One such case this year was this one, Chicken Shift. It had an interesting game play concept. You used two controllers to flip levers to get eggs into crates and such. We watched a pair of guys play it for awhile before Christian gave it a go. It looks so simple, but it actually gets pretty tricky pretty quickly.
While Chicken Shift was an old (1984) game we'd never seen before, there are always brand new games at the show, as well. One was a Primus pinball machine.
I really don't like the band Primus, after whom the machine is themed, but I did like this pin. I loved its old school analog/rolling counter. (I am weary of newfangled digital machines where even terrible players score 47,000,000 points in a round. It's ridiculous.) I also liked the Primus plunger.
Turns out there were only 100 of these machines made. Each one is autographed by all of the band members.
CJ played the enormous Hercules. The pinball was the size of a pool ball.
I think my favorite game of the day was the re-imagined PONG. Lordy, how many hours I spent playing that in my youth, when the oh-so-simple game was 'cutting edge.'
This new 3D-version is fun, with game play just like the old school one.
All in all, the show was a very fun way to spend a couple of hours.
OPEN AT LAST: We made a stop for lunch after the show, finally getting to check out the new McMenamins Elks Temple, on the Tacoma waterfront.
Over ten years in the making, this place is five floors of "WOW!"
We didn't come close to seeing all of it. This visit was limited to their front lobby (complete with an eclectic collection of regal chairs and couches).
And we only saw a little of the artwork on site.
The place as absolutely crawling with people. We'll go back on a more sedate day to check it out from top to bottom.
The experience started off with an orientation. It included an explanation of how Puget Sound was formed, and how its present-day watershed works.
It was an educational presentation, but it was down in the belly of the boat, and seemed to take a looong time, probably because it's like, "Hey! We're on a boat on the Sound! Why are we sitting on the floor down below? I want to see the water!"
Once that was over with, things got a lot more entertaining.
CJ can give you an overview.
On May 28 of this year, I went on a (relatively) short boat trip as part of a school activity (though I am no longer a student at the school the boat ride was affiliated with, I was still able to go on the ride). The boat ride lasted 5.5 hours, and the main activities involved teaching students about the Puget Sound. Before students boarded the boat, they were separated into three categories (my sister and I were placed in the "Orcas" category). The activities I remember from the trip are as follows (in more-or-less chronological order):
We went over to the boat's deck, lowered a large net into the water, and caught certain types of plankton. There were two cups of water: One had a smaller variety of plankton, and another had a larger variety of plankton. Afterwards, we analyzed the plankton underneath a microscope, and attempted to match the kinds of plankton we saw in our water samples with illustrations of them on a sheet of paper (to varying degrees of success).
We watched a "lecture" (for lack of a better word) by a teacher, providing his own analysis of a water sample provided to him. He briefly described some of the plankton he noticed.
We briefly gazed over the Puget Sound while eating our pre-packed lunches.
After finishing up with lunch, we watched a presentation by two SCUBA divers. The divers had a camera with them, broadcasting a video signal to TV screens on the boat. While the divers were diving, they showed up multiple different rockfish (a species of fish than can live to be octogenarians), as well as certain crabs, and even a juvenile octopus.
Towards the end of the boat trip, we went sightseeing for two sea lions on a floating platform near our boat. The one I noticed was rather chunky.
Lastly, the students went down in the cabin to watch a short presentation about preserving the Puget Sound from dangers such as pollution, acidification, and waste dumping.
Following are a few photos from the day's activities.
One of the first things the kids did was pull a water sample from Puget Sound to check for plankton and other life forms.
Annabelle got to help lower and raise the collection device.
The water was teeming with tiny lifeforms.
The facilitators took some of the Puget Sound soup and put it under a video microscope.
It was absolutely fascinating seeing all the different critters down below the waterline.
They come in so many different shapes and sizes.
The students all had several minutes to use their own microscopes to scope out the situation.
There were also ample opportunities to check out larger Sound dwellers, like sea cucumbers, crabs and such.
At one point, I looked toward Alki Beach and saw something in the water. At first I thought it was a seal, but I quickly realized that it was a diver.
In fact, it ended up being two divers, and they were swimming toward our boat.
Turns out they did a live dive showing us what was under the waterline, near the vessel we were on. We saw everything from sea pens to rock fish to an octopus!
Between activities, we did have a chance to do a little bit of sightseeing. For instance, we spied a ferry under repair.
Toward the end of our trip, I was disappointed we hadn't seen any whales or dolphins or any above-water creatures. Fortunately, these two male California seals fixed that deficit.
CLOSER TO HOME: On one of our walks last summer, we discovered an iris specimen garden just a couple of blocks from home. I made a mental note to visit it during the height of iris season this year.
Truth be told, we were more than a couple weeks past the prime time, but Leonine Iris was still an interesting sight, well worth checking out. They specialize in Pacific Coast Irises.
FLYBY: Recently, NASA shared some footage was taken by astronaut Nick Hague, who has been onboard the International Space Station since mid-March. It's 30 minutes' worth of footage condensed into 60 seconds. (The 30 minutes of filming is about one-third of an orbit of Earth on the ISS, by the way.). This clip shows cloudy skies over the Pacific and Atlantic oceans.
