Seattle trip

Did I already mention that we went to Seattle and it was fantastic?! Man, I LOVE that place! If I think to hard about it, I start to wallow in pity that I don't live there. So I'll post these pictures and move on. Hopefully.


DAY ONE:

First airplane ride! They loved it. I get pretty motion sick and was on the verge of losing my dinner nearly the whole time. Hannah looks a little, uh, different here.


DAY TWO:

Church (which was refreshingly normal) and hanging out with the cousins at the pool. We stayed n apartments that were being used all summer by my dad's research team. Since they evacuated in early August and the contract wasn't up yet, we had some empty apartments to stay in.

I couldn't get Leah out of the water nearly the whole trip. She is such a fish!


DAY THREE:

It seemed convenient to push Hannah around in a shopping cart. She got embarrassed when Grandma took her picture.


First stop--the Pacific Science Center. This is a very hand-on, interactive science museum. How does a toilet work, anyway?


This important 'piece' of information decorated the restroom:


Obligatory pic of the Space Needle:


Best part of the PSC, in my opinion, is the butterfly room. You walk around this really humid atrium and there are hundreds of butterflies everywhere. If you sit on a ledge really still, they land on you. It's amazing to be that close to these bugs! (Ok, they're pretty and all, but deep down they are still BUGS. And we all know how I feel about BUGS.)


Not pictured--the major tizzy that happened before Leah shared the root beer float with Hannah. They look all cute and lovey here but don't let that fool you. Stinkers!


Seattle Aquarium with Rachel, Lydia, and Hannah.


Mariners vs Blue Jays at Safeco Field. Turns out that Leah LOVES baseball and was pretty into this whole event! She sat by Grandpa and cheered and everything. I ended up leaving early with a few non-interested cousins. 


DAY FOUR:

Port Gamble with Grandpa, Grandma and Sean. The ferry ride excitement was a bit hard to handle with Leah (we've been on a ferry before, but it was two years ago in San Fran so she'd forgotten).

It was a clear day, 70 degrees. Absolutely perfect.


Look at that water! Stunning!


Leah made peace with the ferry and finally enjoyed the last five minutes.


DAY FIVE:

Woodland Park Zoo. This zoo is so big and so beautiful. We watched bears getting fed, an orangutan wrapped up in a blanket and a whole flock of flamingoes. We walked around for nearly 3 hours and still missed about 1/3 of the animals. The truth is, Leah doesn't like zoos. She never has, so this day was a bit tough for her. And for the mom who toted her around for 3 hours, trying to coax her into loving the animals as much as she did. Oh well, I guess we all can't love the zoo! 

Not pictured: The bird room! This was a cool place. You buy a 'seed stick', raise your hand up to the trees, and birds land on your hand to eat off the stick. That was exciting, but my mom has the pics of that.

Hannah lounges in her stroller, slurping some ice cream.


Leah trying desperately to feign zoo interest. Did I mention green? I love the green. Utah is not green. 


Later that day, me and the girls went on a ride with my brother in his new convertible. Plus, I met up with some high school buddies for dinner. I could spend an entire post on that one! 

DAY SIX:

Last day! Hannah spend the morning making shapes on Grandma's Cricut, I sacked out on a couch, and Leah holed herself up on the computer. I don't think we would have moved if Grandma didn't say "Um...are we going to do something today?"


We spent the rest of the day at Green Lake--Seattle's version of Central Park (except much smaller. But still beautiful!) There is a trail that wraps around the lake for jogging, biking, whatever-ing) We paddle boated (read: I paddled). It lasted about 20 minutes :). I have lots of pictures but I chose these because they remind me of the scenery and weather. 

Before I forget, right next to Green Lake is a chocolate shop called Chocolati. It might be the best truffle I've had. 



After the paddling, we went to this little gem- a wading pool for kids near the lake. While we were there, a guy in an SUV drove up, dumped out about 75 beach balls, and drove away. They all say "Allstate" on them, but hey--free balls! 


Hannah sits on her beach ball.


Not pictures: dinner at Judy Foo's Snappy Dragon, including delicious homemade noodles! We also stopped by a place called Hamlin Park--one of Seattle's 400 parks. I didn't want to leave and I DEFINITELY didn't want to fly back to Utah! It made me wonder--am I leaving home to go back to the place I live, or leaving WA to return home? Honestly, it felt more like leaving home to return to Utah. It's a very confusing feeling and I wish my current residence felt more...homey. It's my choice to make it that way, however. 

Comments

Unknown said…
Looks like a great time!
August 28, 2011 at 10:11 PM
Jennifer Walker said…
Fun, fun fun. These good memories will carry us through the Utah winter, right?!
August 30, 2011 at 3:04 PM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

NYE

New Year’s Eve 2009: Mapleton, UT I left Brian  in Logan and took the girls down to visit my parents for the new year. I felt bad and I felt relieved. I needed a break from him. We didn’t have money for food. He spiraled and never climbed out.  New Years Eve 2014: Mapleton, UT I went to Utah with my girls and left Jacob in Miami. He could have come but made up an excuse about studying and visiting his dad instead. Always talked about visiting his dad—alone— when I talked about a family visit. New Year’s Eve consisted of me, my parents and Stephen and laurel. There might have been some others that left earlier. I took no pictures. The new year rang in and felt so alone and empty. Did Jacob even care?  New Years Eve 2015: Vancouver, WA Pregnant with Lucy, unable to work, Jacob had just failed the most important test that would allow him into residency, I decided to wait out the remainder of the pregnancy at my parent’s new house. This move was one of the most humiliating ex...
Read more

Parent Teacher Conference

Dear Mom, You left 4 months ago. You clearly didn't mean to leave when you did, with your shoes sitting by the door and your unfinished paper boxes of chocolates for Relief Society. No one else wants to hear how the girls are doing. No one else has lived with us for so long and understands them and the dynamics of my family like you do. I've retreated into my own silence and my own world, desperately trying to survive each day--sometimes each hour--knowing that although so many friends and family care (and I couldn't survive without their support), there is really no one left that has experienced firsthand the horror story I'm starring in. We had parent teacher conferences last night at Leah and Hannah's school. We had to bring Lucy, who wet her pants twice and cried to go home. Here's a summary of teacher comments: HANNAH: *a natural leader *most well-liked student *grades range from 85 (one class) to 93-99 (every other class) *no missing assignment...
Read more

3 Years

Image
The social media version: “A new burger place in Park Slope— pretty good but girls still love Black Tap better. I love the exposed brick and VW van counter.” The reality: We were supposed to go to burgers last night to remember Dad on the 3rd anniversary of his death. I was very sick this weekend. Leah had a fever of 105— I’m gonna day that again— 105 and Lucy was being picked up by her clown father. No one was ok. We somehow made it out of the house today but we could hardly talk about Dad/Grandpa. Hannah regrets that she doesn’t remember much. Leah is deeply grieving a very special connection they had. She cries silently. I am physically wasted with a chest cold, anxious about how Lucy is doing at her dad’s house and too broken to help anyone. Our world went dark three years ago and the light hasn’t come back on.  The social media version: I can’t even write it because it’s not in my nature to sound so fake.  The reality:  Her clown father took her to a party for the g...
Read more