Zoo Review

STOP AND SMELL THE ROSES: Today we had a date with the animals.

More specifically, we were heading for Woodland Park Zoo. We haven't been in months and the kids have been intrigued by meerkat mugs on billboards all over town announcing a new exhibit. When the kids' #1 yoga friend suggested meeting at the zoo today, it was a big "Yes!" from all of us.

Today I decided to forgo the official zoo parking lot, its $5 charge and its maddening pay stations (s-o s-l-o-w) and park on a residential street hopefully nearby. Good call! We parked 1.25 blocks away from the main zoo entrance - for free!

We beat our fellow zoo goers there. I was going to just have we three sit on a bench and wait for them, but because we parked and walked in the lot, I noticed (for the first time) off to the right a rose garden. And right now it's in full bloom. Score!

We wandered through the garden, appreciating a rainbow of roses. There were also some statuesque topiary specimens. Eventually, we made our way to the main gate to wait for our friends. Bee and CeeJ were baboon jockeys during part of our wait.

Just inside the gate, a showy peacock was strutting its stuff. CJ was especially enthralled by it and I think the peacock liked him, too. It seemed to follow CJ around for a bit. CJ did a spot-on peacock call.

Soon after, we found the flamingo exhibit. There, a sign there reminded us that flamingos get their color from the brine shrimp they eat. It made me wonder about the diet the flamingos at the Woodland Park Zoo are getting, because while the flamingos' feet and knees were bright pink, their feathers had a definite orange tinge to them. Hmm. ...

We saw just this side of a bazillion different birds today. In more than one instance, their heads looked too small for their heavily plumed body.

CJ said this bird looked like it didn't have a head at all, and I think I know what he means. The bird didn't appear to have a neck and the crown of its head/the curve of its skull wasn't visible at all - it just faded away into this wild wispy mohawk of sorts.

Today the kids rode the historic old carousel that operates at the zoo during summertime.

According to the National Carousel Association, the merry-go-round was built in 1918. It has 28 jumping horses (ones that go up and down), 20 standing horses (stationary steeds) and a couple of chariots (those things you sit on if horseback isn't your style). Apparently the carousel spent its first 57 years in Ohio. Then it spent 20 years in Santa Clara, CA, before being mothballed in Seattle for several years. It was introduced to the zoo in 2006.

It's a beautiful old carousel in amazing condition. While watching and waiting for the kids, I noticed a plaque on the ride gave props to Boeing for their $upport.

From wooden horses it was off to see the much ballyhooed meerkats. They were the zoo's rock stars today. Dozens of people were crowded around the windows leading to their display.

They were busy busy busy critters, digging and scratching and pacing and running. They would also approach the glass and paw at onlookers.

Odd little animals, those meerkats (Suricata suricatta). Watching them, I was trying to figure out what animal they were related to. Native to Botswana and South Africa, they definitely weren't 'cat' like at all in their appearance or mannerisms. Tonight I learned "meerkat" is Dutch for "lake cat," but the suricata is not in the cat family. Rather, it turns out they're in the mongoose family.

Tonight I discovered the zoo has posted a "Do the Meerkute" video to YouTube. I'm going to have to show the kids tomorrow ... (I swear it sounds like Caspar Babypants singing it. Hmm ...)

Somehow we've missed the komodo dragons our last couple of trips to the zoo. CJ was determined to see them today and that we did. Watching two lumber around their enclosure, I couldn't help but think of news reports I've heard in the past couple of years with komodo dragons attacking and killing people. (In fact, Animal Planet calls them 'Nature's Perfect Predator' because of the deadly bacteria they have in their mouths.)I think the tapir gets the award for oddest animal we gawked at today. It has a bulbous shaped body, a funny schnoz, a weird little lopped off looking tail ... and what's with that black and white body paint? All four species of tapir are endangered, btw. And in case you were wondering, according to Wikipedia, the tapiers' closest relatives are the other odd-toed ungulates, including horses and rhinoceroses.

The African exhibit was beautiful today. The animals were mingling in the sunshine and appeared to be enjoying the rolling, grassy expanse that is, ultimately, their prison. ... Hmm. Have to think about that.
After several months of dreary weather, I think the hippos might have found today's 77 degrees downright sweltering. All of them were in the drink this afternoon.
The lions were impressive, as always.
After more than three hours of walking and wandering and pondering, the kids were ready to call it a day.

BACK TO THE GRIND: After the zoo, I returned to my pre-zoo chores, including more painting in the master bedroom. At one point Annabelle called up, "I left a note for you on the stairs." I was expecting her to be asking for chocolate milk (a common occurrence in these parts).

But she surprised me. :)

Up and at 'Em

MORNING MATH: We do and talk about math every day. What we don't do every day is put-pen-to-paper math. And now that I think about it, we didn't technically do that today, either. But we did do pen to glass math, which is close, right?

Since I had some painting to do upstairs, I grabbed the window markers and told the kids we'd be doing math up there this morning. C-mind-is-a-steel-trap-J asked suspiciously, "Are you going to make us do big numbers?"

His question reminded me that last time we did window math, I had them (for the first time), add numbers in the tens and hundreds. I told CJ that we would indeed be using 'big numbers' but that it was no big deal, because as long as he knew how to add combinations of numbers 0-9, he could add any numbers together, no matter how 'big.' To demonstrate, I wrote a couple of 7-digit numbers down and explained that it was really just like doing 7 small math problems. Together, we added the columns - the ones, tens, hundreds, thousands and so on. The kids saw that it definitely was a snap - even the "carrying" part, which just meant they had one extra number to add, no big deal.

After about 20 minutes of math, we moved on to some spelling. For fun, I thought I'd let the kids give each other words. That mostly worked. ...

After that it was back downstairs and I suggested they check out "The Price is Right." We haven't watched that show in a couple of months, and I think it's a pretty decent way to practice some math and money skills.

EWWW GROSS: From a Facebook post, I saw that BrainPOP's featured movie of the day was about, well, hmm, how to put this nicely - nasal mucus? (They titled their video "Boogers," which, of course, the kids found hysterical which, of course, was BrainPOP's intention.)

And so, the MPA student body learned what happens when slimy mucus dries in the nose and how specialized hairs in nasal passages move the, um, boogers, to the front and back of your nose. The video also explained why picking one's nose is a bad idea. Important stuff. :)

YOGA PLUS: This morning I got an email from a mother of a yoga friend saying they needed help. Help killing off an ice cream cake, that is. Selflessly, CJ and Annabelle were up to the task. :) After they polished off the cake, they had time before yoga to play a board game called Round Up. What a great game. Instead of competing against one another, the kids take turns working toward a common goal -getting four horses safely back to their stable.

It was nice to see that a cooperative game could still be exciting and suspenseful - that those things aren't exclusive to a competition. It's also nice that it's a quick game - taking only about 15 minutes to play.

ON THE WATERFRONT: Another day, another waterfront for us. Looking at a map of our yoga friend's neighborhood, I realized how close they were to Genessee Park, a place I've been wanting to check out for awhile now. We did find Genessee, but we only did a slow drive by. I could see lots of grassy expanse and a play structure, but it was a beautiful, sunny day, and the shores of Lake Washington were just a block away, so I headed the car that direction. We found ourselves at a spot where there are multiple boat launches. We could see that it was home to the Mount Baker Rowing and Sailing Center - and several ducks. A pair of mallards honed in on us quickly. It was clear to me these waterfowl are used to a junk food diet - that human visitors to the park routinely feed them. They were very bold in approaching us and I half think they would have gotten into our car had they been given an invitation.

Much to Mr. and Mrs. Mallards' disappointment, we had no scraps for them today.

Only after we got home did I learn we had visited Stan S. Sayres Memorial Park. The park is named after the man responsible for bringing hydroplane racing to Seattle. Sayres (1896-1956) was a championship racer himself.

The park, about a mile south of I-90 on Lake Washington, is also known as "Sayres Pits" and is the staging ground of Seattle's annual Seafair Hydroplane Races.

Hello Summer!

SOLSTICE: Yesterday upon realizing that today would be the first day of summer, Annabelle said she thought MPA needed to have a sunshine-themed craft to commemoriate the date. Specfically, she decided it should be a paper plate that is turned into a sun. So, today I went to the store and bought paper plates. She and CeeJ colored them and then cut triangles out of tissue paper to use as sun rays. Annabelle decided that she needed a blue background for her sun, and that led to clouds, a bird with a nest, and even some swirling wisps of wind.

CJ was slightly less enthusiastic about the project. ...

THE GREAT OUTDOORS: Though the day dawned gray, by 11 a.m. the sky was looking lighter. We decided we'd better go for a run while the getting was good.

I'd read online this weekend that the sockeye salmon were returning to the Hiram Chittenden Locks. You know we had to go check it out! CJ and Bee biked the 4 mile (round trip) journey, with Christian, Kirby and I were on foot, huffing and puffing along side them. The sun actually came out during our trek - hooray!

When we got down to the ship canal Christian spied some Canada geese goslings. For baby birds they were damn big!

There were lots of tourists at the Locks today. And fortunately, there were also lots of salmon in the fish ladder!

We humans weren't the only ones interested in the fish. A big blue heron was standing on the shore, scanning the water for lunch.

A sea lion was also swimming about, looking for an easy fish fix. His (or her) plans were thwarted, however, by a worker at the locks who (quite surprisingly to us and others standing around) threw a small explosive into the water. The huge BOOM that followed temporarily scared the heron and the sea lion away, but the seagulls came in droves. They seemed to know that BOOM kicks the tail of tiny fish, dozens of which could be seen floating on the surface soon afterward.

We continued westward along the sea wall and I saw another heron, this one carrying a twig, set down in a nearby tree. I spied the nest it was building and could see another heron was hanging out in the nest. Cool!GREAT LITERATURE: This afternoon the kids took it upon themselves to cozy up with some reading material on the couch. Their pick: a Nintendo publication about the history of Mario.

I know there are oh so many other things that would be more enriching and educational, but there's also value in reading for pleasure, and they were definitely enjoying the magazine, so I left them alone.

MC BEE BEE: Late this afternoon I was out on the porch, painting some trim. I heard Annabelle speaking in loud, harsh tones, but I couldn't make out her words. After about a full minute of it, I'd heard enough.

I figured CJ was on the receiving end of a rant from his sister, so I climbed down the ladder and stomped in the house, ready to give her hell.

But first, of course, I asked Annabelle what she was yelling about. She clammed up, so I asked CJ, "What was she saying to you?" He wasn't much help either. Finally Annabelle offered, "I was just rapping."

Oh. Really?

"Yeah, she was rapping," CJ vouched. "We were making up raps about Super Mario."

Oh. Of course, then I felt bad for having marched in there with my hackles up. So I apologized and slunk back to the front porch and my paint.

Firsts and Lasts

FINITO ... FOR NOW: Today marked the end of the kids' first year of music education. They have completed Musikgarten's Young Musician Year One program and will have a couple of months off before starting year two in September.

For today's grand finale, their group played a song about a seashore in two part harmony. It was really neat - and very pretty.

Even though the formal class is over for the time being, I think it would be a great idea to keep every Friday morning from 9:15 to 10:15 set aside for formal music education. We do a lot of casual listening and singing all week long, but it would be good to continue the conversation regarding rhythm, pitch, tempo, and so on.

As a parting gift we gave teacher Nancy a cute little multi media (ceramic, paint, bead, metal) sign/wall hanging that says "You are a fabulous teacher" and next to the words there is a little mirror. A daily affirmation of sorts! ;) She seemed to be genuinely surprised and appreciative.

THEY SAY IT'S YOUR BIRTHDAY: From a BrainPOP Facebook post, I learned it is Sir Paul McCartney's 68th birthday. To help celebrate the occasion, today BrainPOP's free featured movie is about The Beatles.

I asked the kids if they knew who The Beatles were. Annabelle said, "A music group." But that was the extent of it. They both know "Yellow Submarine," but I'm pretty sure that's it for their Beatles repertoire (a wrong I should right). The BrainPOP Beatles video was well done, giving a nice history of the group and their impact on modern day music.

Once on the BrainPOP site, the kids were eager to explore some other topics. They watched a short video about martians and then I suggested that since we were going to see Toy Story 3 this afternoon, they check out one about digital animation

TS3: CJ has been counting down the days until the premiere of Toy Story 3. Every day for the past two weeks the first words out of his mouth have been, "Toy Story 3 premieres in X# days." This morning, at 6 a.m. he declared, "Toy Story 3 premieres today!!!" It was rather like Christmas morning. ;)

I'd ordered tickets online last week for a 2:30 afternoon matinee - or so I thought. At about 1:35, I thought to print out the confirmation and take it with us to Pacific Science Center's IMAX just in case. Yeah, well it's a good thing I did. Our showtime was 2:05. Less than a half hour away!!!!!! OMG! OMG! OMG! Scramble - stat!!!

We were out the door within 30 seconds. Good thing the venue is only about 7-8 minutes away. But I took the first available parking spot I found (about 8 blocks away from the ticket counter) because I knew there was a big event at the Seattle Center today - a funeral for four children and one woman killed in an apartment last Saturday.

Honestly, I felt more than a little foolish/awful running like a mad woman past the funeral site - past a half a hundred uniformed officers and mourners starting to straggle out of the service at Key Arena. Like missing a movie is a Big Deal in the overall scheme of things.

Panting, we get to the will call kiosk at 1:56 - we still have 9 whole minutes to try to get seats. I swipe my credit card and ... no tickets. I try again. And again. And again. And again. The kiosks aren't working for anyone else either. Awesome! not. So we get to go stand in the long a*% line. I finally have tickets in hand at 2:01. Run, run, run some more - probably two more blocks. Then I HAD to get popcorn because that was part of CJ's Perfect Premiere Fantasy. At 2:05 we sat down. Just 30 seconds later, we were (happily) joined by big bro Rick (he'd been at the nearby memorial service - he knew one of the victims as he works where she went to school). It was nice that Rick could join us and he was probably very ready for some levity.

The movie was terrific. Great writing, lots of action, and it was very touching. (I saw Annabelle wiping away tears at least three times.) At one point near the end, the 60-something gentleman sitting to my left was, well, sobbing. Tears were streaming down his cheeks from behind his 3D glasses and he was huffing and puffing and sniffling.

If you're looking for a witty, touching, entertaining summer movie, you should see Toy Story 3.

BRIGHT LIGHT: See this (above)? It's shadow puppets. What do you need to produce shadow puppets? A wall, hands and light. These here shadow puppets are on an EXTERIOR wall, which can only mean one thing. Are you sitting down? That's right, there was SUNSHINE IN SEATTLE today for the first time in weeks!!! (And the crowd goes wild!!!)

The sun finally broke through the clouds sometime this afternoon when we were in the theater. So, when we came home we played baseball outside (Annabelle's batting is coming right along thanks to the baseball tee). And then we had a super cheap happy hour dinner on the Fremont McMenamin's back deck. A nice way to end the week.

RIDE, SALLY RIDE: On June 18, 1983, Sally Ride took her seat aboard the space shuttle and launched into history. The physicist from California became the first American woman in space as a mission specialist on STS-7.
A magnificent milestone to celebrate, but I can't help but wonder, "What the hell took so long for a woman to be onboard a manned U.S. mission?" ...

WORTH WAITING FOR: Eric Duquette of Rhode Island didn't speak until age 5. When Eric was diagnosed as autistic, his parents were told by "experts" that he would likely be institutionalized as an adult. Recently, Eric served as salutatorian for his high school graduation class. And Eric has proven the experts right. In a couple of months, he's going to be institutionalized. Duquette was accepted to every institute of higher learning to which he applied. Here's a short, heart warming excerpt of his graduation speech.

Great Lake

HARVEST TIME!: This morning it was clear we couldn't wait any longer. We had to harvest our first portabella mushroom before it entirely overtook the master bathroom, where we have our fungus project underway.

The mushroom was MONSTROUS. Just look at CJ's hand compared to it!

Tonight I made a 2 die 4 mushroom and kalamata olive topped pizza with white pesto- sauce. OMG. Did I mention it was delicious? Even though I was generous with the mushroom topping, we have seriously like a pound of portabella left over. Looks like we'll be forced to have mushroom omelets, steak and mushrooms, and other mushroom infused foods this weekend. Darn it. ;)

HE'S BA-ACK: We had a nice surprise in Annabelle's summer session of ballet this morning. There was a boy in her summer session last year whom she was tight with (translation: he stuck to her like glue). Today, he popped up again, and he picked up right where he left off. :)

After class Annabelle reported, "He followed me around during free dance. All The Time." He asked Annabelle to come to the park to play with him after class, but, alas, we had to give brother Kennedy a ride to work. Maybe next week, ballet boy. ...

TOY MAKER: For the past seven days running, CJ has started every single day by announcing how many days are left until the Toy Story 3 premiere. This morning he was grinning ear to ear at 6:30 as he notified me there is just ONE day left.

In preparation for the Big Event, we visited the Toy Story Web site today. No surprise - it's very snazzy.

CJ enjoyed playing Space Pong (just like the 70's classic "Pong" but with LGM hitting the 'ball' back and forth). Annabelle explored the site's creative features, including "Comic Creator" and "Toy Creator."

Here's a photo of the toy she created, flanked by a couple of his Pixar pals. ...
MOUTHS TO FEED: This afternoon we had to go to Petco to get the dog and our fish some food. As always, we wound through other store aisles, checking out the live critters in tanks and cages. Today, we lingered over four ferrets for a bit. They were - dare I say - cute, and curious about us. Before too long, Mr. Sensory asks, "What's that smell?"

That, CJ, would be ferret funk. That was the end of hanging out by the ferrets. "That smell is AWFUL!" he said, wrinkling his nose and heading for the relatively odor free parakeets.

BUGGING ME: This afternoon CJ called out from his room, "There's a bug in here." I went in to investigate, and CJ pointed me in the direction of Wario (one of Mario's nemeses). It was a small, green insect, rather resembling a leaf. CJ wanted to know what kind of a bug it was and I didn't have an answer for him. He said, "Well you can find out on the Internet."

Normally, he'd be right. Several times a day we pop online to answer questions. But how in the world could I find out the bug's name by using search terms like "small green insect"? I hated having to tell CJ I didn't know the answer, and I really didn't know how to get it. (CJ did give whatever it was a ride outside on Wario.)

Tonight when Christian came home he said, "We used to call them stink bugs." So we Googled that and BOOM, there it is. We found photos labeled 'green stink bug' that looked just like our specimen. Mystery solved!

ROW, ROW, ROW YOUR BOAT: A few weeks ago I purchased a steeply discounted family membership to the Center for Wooden Boats, a hands-on history museum. The place is just six minutes from our house, at the south end of Lake Union.

Part of our membership included a 'free' one hour row on Lake Union. Cool! Since it was gray (our new normal, BTW), the lake was a pretty lonely place today. We had our pick of any of the CWB's fleet. We chose a Whitehall 15, billed as 'a fast rowing water taxi' thought to be of New York City harbor origin, its design circa 1840.
Christian carefully navigated us away from the boathouse, but once we were on the open water, the kids each got a chance to row.

Most of the ride, the kids sat at the bow so they had a great view of where we were going.

The scenery from the boat was enthralling. It would have been STUNNING if it weren't so damn gray out. Sigh. Though other boaters were few and far between, we did see several seaplanes. It was cool to get to see them take off and land at such close proximity. (Though I'll admit, when you see them zeroing in on the part of the lake you're bobbing in, you sure hope they can see your lil' ol' wood boat.)
"It was really fun on that row boat. We weren't polluting," Annabelle pointed out.

North of the Border

ROAD TRIP!: The first bell rang early at MPA today - at least for Annabelle. Though CJ is almost always up and raring to go by 6:30, Annabelle is another story. I had to darn near drag Sleeping Beauty out of her bed at 6:45 today. The early upping was necessary because we had places to go, people to see. Specifically, we were heading to Burnaby, BC, Canada, to see CeeJ and Bee's Aunt Renee's master's program graduation!

We pulled away from the curb at 7:30, just as I'd hoped. We made a couple of stops before the border - one for gas and one at a store for a couple of snacks. We had zero wait at the border, which was great. Mercifully, my Mapquest directions were right and we drove 543 north to Route 1, to the proper exit. Along the way we crossed an impressive bridge spanning the Fraser River.

Without a single wrong turn (hooray!) were on the Burnaby campus of Simon Fraser by 11:30 a.m. We were there waaay early for a 2:30 graduation ceremony, but that was by design. As much time as we'd be spending sitting in the car to and from, I wanted to have plenty of time to roam the campus. I figured (correctly, fortunately!) there would be plenty of artwork and interesting architecture to check out while we passed some time.

We found a number of appealing water features (that would be even more appealing had the day not been so very very gray).

There was also lots of intriguing sculpture around the campus. Both of the kids were enthralled by an egg-like statue in a grassy courtyard.
We also had a chance to grab a bit of lunch. That was the lowlight of the day. We went to a place on campus called Pizza Pipeline or Pitstop or something and ordered a slice apiece. It was The Worst Pizza ever. Seriously. Ever. Anywhere. When I tell you it tasted like cardboard, I'm not just making a quick/easy/age-old analogy. I am speaking the truth. It didn't just have no taste, it had taste - and it tasted like cardboard. Annabelle's face says it all. ...

Before long, we were back to wandering. In search of a bathroom, we happily happened upon an art gallery. The current exhibition - a five-person show - is called "The Things We Do." The kids and I just LOVED the work of Marcia Pitch. The 60-something artist had taken mostly toy/doll parts and reassembled them in zany ways. Cool and sometimes creepy - it made me want to run to Goodwill, grab a bunch of toys and tchotchkes, rip 'em apart and reassemble them. In fact, we will without a doubt make that a future MPA art project.

Before long, it was nearly ceremony time. We connected with Renee via cell phone and found her in the courtyard.
Soon, it was time for Renee to line up with her classmates for the processional - which was led by some great sounding bagpipe players!

Rather than sit in folding chairs with the rest of the crowd, we (politely and surreptitiously) roamed the perimeter of the graduation, continuing our exploration of the campus. There were so many tucked away patios, plazas and rooftop gardens. During our travels, we came across a sign, which the kids found HYSTERICAL.
In case you're wondering, it was supposed to say "Keep Off Glass."
After the ceremony, we reconnected with Renee and family for a few minutes ...

(Don't you just love Annabelle's Magnadoodle motarboard?

We had an uneventful trip home, which included a stop at the Golden Arches at Exit 230 (don't even know what town it was in) ...