Favorite Places

HOME AWAY FROM HOME: Thought we're eyeballs deep in a big move, we took time out this evening to go to the old ball game. We've only been to two or three other games so far this season, a big deficit for us. 

We picked CJ up from his programming class about 4:20 at Seattle Center and then took darn near an hour to get to the stadium. Traffic was terrible. We went backward to go forward at one point. 

We finally made it, happily in time to get Mariners' snow globes. The first 20,000 fans got a globe. Half of them were Kingdomes, half were Safeco Field. Though we went to different people/boxes to procure ours, we all wound up with Kingdomes. 

While we love us some Kingdome, we would rather have half and half, so CJ and Christian went to swap a couple of Kingdomes at a designated swap spot in the stadium. In the end, we got the globes we wanted. They're super pretty.  :)

The Mariners have been on quite a streak. A LOSING streak that is. Before tonight, they'd dropped the last 8 games at home. Ouch.

Fortunately, tonight they turned that around and posted a strong win. We especially loved Nelson Cruz's 3-run homer in the bottom of the eighth inning.

We started the evening down in the bull pen, and watched most of the game from 'on high' - the top row on the west side of the stadium.

About the seventh inning, we made our way down to the 100 level, behind home plate (photo leading this post).

All in all, it was a lovely night at the ballpark!

REWIND: Though this week has been all about packing and moving, moving and packing, we have tried to make some time for fun.

On Wednesday, when picking CJ up from class at Seattle Center, we went straight to the International Fountain. It is, for sure, one of our favorite spots in the city on a hot day.

The kids splashed around for nearly an hour. In the photo above, the fountain's jets were dramatically choreographed to Beethoven's Fifth Symphony. It was marvelous!

Go Fourth

INDEPENDENCE DAY: We've had a busy-busy-busy weekend, but are taking a moment to appreciate America's 'birthday.' 

Dr. Brian Greene posted the graphic above on social media today. Interesting to learn how fireworks' colors are made.

Below, NASA wishes everyone a happy Fourth of July.
https://youtu.be/d1CLtV1WY34


We've got lots of other news to share. Stay tuned!

Us + Them

 
MIND BLOWING MUSIC: Last Saturday night, we had the rare pleasure of seeing Roger Waters (and a terrific back up band and singers) perform live.

Last time we saw Waters was about three years ago, in Wembley Stadium! He performed "The Wall" in its entirety during that show.

This go 'round, he pulled from his 50+ year catalog of music. It was a night to remember. I'll let CJ tell you more, below.  Just scroll past the flying pig photos. :)

Since 1967, George Roger Waters has been a prominent figure in the psychedelic rock music genre. For 20 years, (from 1965 to 1985) Waters was the bassist and singer of Pink Floyd, an iconic English psychedelic band.

On 25 June, I got to see Waters at the Tacoma Dome, a popular wooden stadium in Tacoma, WA. This was not my first time seeing Waters, as I got to see him during The Wall Live tour's stop in Wembley Stadium, in 2013. In contrast to last time, about 25% of this concert's content was from Waters' newest album, Is This the Life We Really Want? The other 75% was mostly music from Waters' previous work, particularly what he did with Pink Floyd.

For decades, Waters has held a hatred for war (due to his father disappearing in World War II). Waters also dislikes despots, and during the concert, this manifested in the form of scathing imagery targeted at President Donald Trump. This included a picture of Russian President (read: Dictator) Vladimir Putin holding Trump as a baby (referencing the Russian interference in the Presidential election last year), as well as a black-and-white slideshow of various appalling Trump quotes.

MORNING STROLL: The weather this a.m. propelled us outdoors. It had been waaaay too long since we walked along the Puget Sound waterfront not far from our house. 

We parked near the Louis Dreyfus grain terminal, Pier 86. From there, you could see the Princess Cruise ship parked at Pier 91, or Smith Cove.

We were surprised there wasn't a big ol' cargo ship at the grain terminal. As we got closer, we could see why.

Workers were crawling all over the structure, performing repairs and upgrades. If you look closely in the photo above, you can see a guy in an orange vest atop the tower. What a view he had!

There were also guys descending along with some sheet metal, just to the left of the tower in the photo. 

We made our way to our turnaround point, the Olympic Sculpture Park. 

We always stop to nod at the huge head. She never nods back.

 And we stand next to the naked guy statute. The fountains jets were on high during our visit, so you can't see the little boy statue opposite him. You can see the Space Needle peeking in, however.

It was a wonderful morning along the waterfront.

LIFE HACK: Yesterday, I said bad words when I realized I'd accidentally recycled the cap to a hot sauce bottle.

Annabelle, who is forever reading or watching 'life hacks' on her phone quickly sprung into action, telling me she'd seen a video where a person used a balloon to seal a bottle.

 It took about three tries, but she got it to work!

Following is a tutorial that shows the technique.
https://youtu.be/A6NY1DyePWU

Rainier Revisited

PARADISE:  Last week, the kids and Christian had the awesome opportunity to attend a camp with a bunch of friends. I'm still playing catch up (that whole house selling/house buying/moving thing). Following are some photos and memories about camp. 

Following is CJ's narration of some memories.

Pack Forest is a camp near Mount Rainier, a U.S. National Park in Washington State (located south of us). On Tuesday, my dad, sister, and I drove down to Pack Forest for a group camping trip.

On the first day of our trip, we went hiking in the woods by our campground. I spent multiple minutes doing the math to figure out how much money Pack Forest would earn if they sold a large portion of their forest's wood. By my math, Pack Forest would earn $250,000.

On the second day, we went all the way up to Paradise. As described on the National Park Service's website, Paradise is famous for its glorious views and wildflower meadows. When James Longmire's daughter-in-law, Martha, first saw this site, she exclaimed, "Oh, what a paradise!" 

The park's main visitor center, the new Paradise Jackson Visitor Center, is located in the upper parking area. Paradise is also the prime winter-use area in the park, receiving on average 643 inches (53.6 feet/16.3 meters) of snow a year. Winter activities include snowshoeing, cross-country skiing and tubing. The road between Longmire and Paradise is plowed throughout the winter.

My dad, sister, and I all went snowshoeing along with the other campers, walking for roughly half a mile across parts of Mount Rainier. I actually had to tie my coat around my waist (and wear sunglasses and a sun hat), due to the very large amount of sunlight up there. It was warmer than I expected, and I got to see some marmots (creatures that are common on Mount Rainier).

End of CJ's comments. 

Below is a marmot hole. I find it so darn interesting that there are snowy mountain "rats."

There are a number of scheduled activities during the group's stay. Following, Annabelle tells about an educational game they played.

How to Play: Predator-Prey

Setup: place six poles in your playing area. Tie a different color marker or crayon to each pole. Put a blue flag on two poles, and green on the four others. The blue flags will represent water sources and the green flags represent plant food. For extra fun, try hiding the food and water in unexpected places!

Each player will become one of three types of animal: an herbivore, an omnivore, or a carnivore.

Herbivores must collect 2 water sources and 4 plant food, and can be tagged by anyone.

Omnivores must collect 2 water sources, 4 plant food, and tag 2 herbivores to collect meat. Omnivores can also be tagged by carnivores.

Carnivores must collect 2 water sources and tag 8 herbivores or omnivores to collect meat. Carnivores can only be tagged by “Hunters”, players who use a ball and attempt to hit the “animals”.

Each player gets a slip of paper that lists their type of animal and slots to fill with water and food. This is where the different color markers or crayons come in- it prevents players from marking all of their water or food slots with only one source.
Each player also receives a number of “Life bands” on their left wrist. Herbivores receive 6, omnivores receive 4, and carnivores receive 2. Players lose these bands when they are tagged or “shot” by a hunter. When an omnivore or a carnivore tag another animal, they take the life band and place it on their right wrist as meat that they’ve collected to survive.
 During the game, players race to find the food and water poles before they lose all of their lives! This game works best with a large group in a wide and open area. To mimic real life, the majority of player should be herbivores, a medium-sized group can be omnivores, and very few should be carnivores. To win, players must fill in all of the slots on their cards and survive until the end of the game. If players lose all of their lives before time’s up, they can choose to become a hunter (who uses a ball to hit the animals and take life bands) or a veterinarian (who can return lost life bands to other players). 

All in all, it was a terrific time, and I'm so glad they got to go!

Mountaineers

WHITE WONDERLAND: The MPA student body is in day two of their excursion to Mt. Rainier. They're staying at the Mount Rainier Institute, a cooperative of the University of Washington and the National Parks Service. 

I honestly don't know much about the following photos, except that the kids are in them, and they're on Mt. Rainier somewhere.

If I'm not mistaken, below is near where they went snowshoeing today.

And the subject line accompanying the photo that I was emailed (below) read "Unicorn Peak." 
Sure, Annabelle has a unicorn shirt on, but that's not atypical. ;)

I Googled "Unicorn Peak Rainier" and the Washington Trails Association website tells me "Unicorn peak is the tallest in the Tatoosh Mountain Range and offers spectacular views of Mount Rainier. It's top is somewhat jagged which looks like a Unicorn's horn, hence the name."

Hmm. So maybe they weren't on Rainier, but were near Rainier at this point.

They'll be home tomorrow, so I can expect a full report then.

In the meantime, you can listen to other kids talking about outdoor education in National Parks.

https://youtu.be/vbMcHPsn2ns

MEANWHILE, ON MARS: A super cool photo came across my social media feeds today. 

NASA has Mars covered on land and in the "air," as shown in this remarkable photo. ... (click on it so it enlarges and you get a better look). You're trying to spot a little something different in the landscape.

                               Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Univ. of Arizona

See that tiny bluish dot in the center of the frame? That's Mars Science Laboratory (a/k/a Curiosity), chugging away up Mount Sharp on the surface of Mars!

The photos was taken by NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. 

Curiosity is headed toward "Vera Rubin Ridge," a destination uphill where the rover team intends to examine outcrops where hematite has been identified from Mars orbit. 

MSL's location on the day of the photo above can be seen here, as the point labeled 1717: https://mars.nasa.gov/multimedia/images/2017/curiositys-traverse-map-through-sol-1717 as the point labeled 1717.

If you want a closeup look at images MSL took via its mast camera (Mastcam) while at the location in the photo, follow this link: https://mars.nasa.gov/msl/multimedia/raw/?s=1717&camera=MAST%5F.

Here's one awesome example of that Curiosity is seeing. ...

                                          Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS

Per NASA's press release today, "Lower Mount Sharp was chosen as a destination for the Curiosity mission because the layers of the mountain offer exposures of rocks that record environmental conditions from different times in the early history of the Red Planet. Curiosity has found evidence for ancient wet environments that offered conditions favorable for microbial life, if Mars has ever hosted life."

Summer's Start

CAMPFIRE TIME: For the next two nights, the student body of MPA is at a camp on Mt. Rainier. 

Specifically, they're at Mount Rainier Institute. A cooperative effort of  theUniversity of Washington and Mount Rainier National Park, the camp program provides nature-based education rooted in science during an immersive experience.

I'm looking forward to their reports upon their return. For today, I settled for a photo a friend texted me. :)

DISCO PARK: Yesterday afternoon, we took a short walk through parts of Discovery Park. 

We mostly wound our way around the former military housing (which is now expensive/exclusive private housing in the midst of the public park). 

The picturesque park never fails to disappoint. Below, we caught peaks of Puget Sound and the Olympic mountains through the branches of a spindly, spiky evergreen. 

SHARK ATTACK: I keep forgetting to post the photos of the fruity shark the kids made for a pool party last Friday.

First, we had to cut a slice off one end of the watermelon. Then we cut an opening where the shark's mouth would be.

 The watermelon was emptied of its fruit. It made for some delicious shark guts!

 The kids carefully carved teeth.

 Below, sharky's smile is about halfway done. 

I stupidly forgot to take photos of the finished project (doh!), but here's one we made before.

Picture it with lots of little gummy fish in the 'water' and in its mouth, because that's what we did this go round.

Purple Reign

JIMI'S PLACE: For what seems like forever now, I've been reading about a to-be park in Seattle dedicated to guitar guru Jimi Hendrix. 

Finally, what was long promised happened, and this Saturday, we were fortunate to attend the dedication of the park to the Seattle-born musician. 

The park is just east of the African American Museum on Massachusetts and 23rd Avenue in Seattle. 

One of the new park's features is a butterfly garden.

The grand opening included a chalk drawing exhibition. The artist below melded Jimi and the butterflies. Nice!

A number of the chalk artists included a Jimi likeness, like the one below.

Naturally, Annabelle had to get in on the act!

We talked about potential themes, and she decided to go with Hendrix's "Wind Cries Mary." One of the lyrics from that song is "Fly on my sweet angel."

So, she drew a rainbow heart and some really big wings attached.

 She added swirls to the sky and the photo atop this blog post was her finished product.

It was super fun watching her work and interact with the many, many people who stopped by to say kind things about her artwork.

We enjoyed checking out others' chalk drawings. 

There was nonstop entertainment from noon until 5 p.m. at the park.

Following, CJ tells a bit more about the Hendrix experience.

On Saturday, my family visited the opening of the Jimi Hendrix Park, a public park adjacent to the Northwest African-American Museum (NAAM). As described on the park's page on seattle.gov, The park features a grand entrance and stairway adorned with Jimi's signature at the corner of Massachusetts and 25th Avenue South. Phase 1 of the park development is designated "Little Wing," and was completed in fall of 2016. It includes the new stairway and entrance at the southeast corner of the park, paved pathways, a chronological timeline of Jimi's life and career, enhanced landscaping with trees and native plantings, seatwall benches, ADA accessible walkways, rainwater infiltration gardens and a butterfly garden. The improvements to Jimi Hendrix Park create a welcoming green space and provides an experience that clearly defines its namesake. Phase 2, which includes a colorful central shelter, was complete by June 2017 in time for the celebration.

According to the Seattle Times, more than 200 people, from children eager to play with sidewalk chalk to gray-haired fans sporting vintage tie-dye T-shirts, joined local officials, park advocates and the musician’s sister for the ribbon-cutting. Musicians from a youth rock camp belted out a cover of “Purple Haze,” the first tune in a daylong Hendrix soundtrack, from underneath a red sculpture evocative of a butterfly wing.

About the chalk, my sister got some chalk and participated in a chalk art contest. She drew a winged rainbow heart on pavement square 25, and I do not know if she won or not.

If you ever visit Seattle, I'd encourage you to visit Jimi Hendrix Park.
http://www.seattle.gov/parks/find/parks/jimi-hendrix-parkhttps://nyti.ms/2sF2VnF

NEIGHBORLY: As an added bonus, between our parking spot and the Jimi Hendricks Park, we happened upon an amazing pubic play space. Colman Playground features the old Colman School and an adjacent playfield. 

Also on site is the amazing Children's PlayGarden. With backing from the Seattle Department of Parks & Recreation, families of children with special needs, and the horticultural and medical communities, the PlayGarden was born. Its mission is to provide children of all abilities a safe, accessible and adventurous place to play.

The accessible park has so many sweet features. Right off the bat we noticed Some Pig (Wilbur, of "Charlotte's Web" fame). 

 And there were a number of cute topiary on site. Check out the bicycle-riding bunny!

 We thought the one below a llama.

 And we surmised this might be a bit of a misshapen giraffe.