Scenes from Seattle (part 2)

At first, I thought everyone in Seattle was just very heathy, but after taking 20 minutes to drive 200 yards in downtown Seattle, I can see why there are so many pedestrians and cyclists in the city.

We walked everywhere.

Our first trip was to see the Space Needle. It's a touristy thing to do, but we were tourists, so why not?

The view was tremendous.

Something else caught Charlotte's eye, "Hey! What's that down there?"



It was the playground next to the MoPop Museum.

We promised her that we would go play at the playground, but it wasn't our next destination.

The trip in the descending elevator was informative.

Our next stop was next to the Space Needle - the Chihuly Garden. 

Daphne and her mother discovered Dale Chihuly's unique glass artwork on a trip to California, and Daphne was excited to share the experience with her own daughter.

Char thought this sculpture looked like rock candy.

We were surrounded by all of this beautiful glass work, and Charlotte was all fired up about this bird she spotted. Kids...

Charlotte was getting bored inside the exhibit, so I gave her the camera. That kept her busy for about twenty minutes. Here are some of her pictures.

I needed some fuel before we hit the playground, so I stopped at a nearby hot dog stand. I had heard about "Seattle Dogs" on the Travel Channel, so I was pumped to try one.

After I took a couple of pictures, the kid working the stand asked me if I had ever had a hot dog with kimchi on it. I said no, and he smiled. "Well then, you're gonna love this!"

He was right. The kimchi was incredible. This might have been the best hot dog I have ever had.

It was finally time to get Charlotte to stop nagging us about going to the playground. Kids...

Can you spot Daphne running this maze with Char?

Next up was train ride that would take us close to the Public Market Center.

I didn't take any pictures inside the packed market. It was a beautiful day, and we barely had elbow room. Outside there were quite a few street performers. 

This place was a surprise. We hadn't had a crumpet before, and Daphne loves watching the BBC programs, so we gave the place a whirl.

I thought this was just going to be an English muffin with stuff on it, but it wasn't. The crumpet is lighter and more cake-like. To quote Oliver Twist, "Please sir, I want some more."

While we were on top of the Space Needle, Char spotted this ferris wheel at Pier 57. We headed down there to take a spin.

The Seattle Great Wheel opened in 2012, and stands 175 feet tall. You get a pretty good view from up there.

Personally, I like this view better.

While walking back to the train, I saw that Puddle's Pity Party was performing at this theater. That was kind of a shock because we had just watched him perform on America's Got Talent. I didn't know he was already an established act.

Later that evening we ate at Mollusk, a restaurant across the street from where we were staying. Being huge fans of poutine, we knew exactly what to order.

Okay. That was our first day in Seattle. It was time to go "home" and rest. We were beat.

Scenes From Seattle (Part 1)

I haven't been blogging lately because we've been on vacation. There are a lot of photos and memories to sort out, but I thought I'd share a few shots from the Museum of Pop Culture in Seattle. Their Star Trek exhibit is a trip.

Look Out Below!

Pool pictures provided by Kim, whose phone takes better pictures than my camera...

"How We Spent Our Summer" by Brent and Maggie (An Email Reprint)

(This is from August, 2010)

I can sum up how I spent a majority of my summer in two words: "truck ride".

After a long summer training run, it would usually be so hot that if I was to shower right away I'd just be sweating again as soon as I stepped out of the stall, and I hate that. So instead, I'd cool off first by taking our dog Maggie for a quick drive around Saylorville Lake.

I don't know how it is at your house, but every saying we have for our pets gets shortened down to the bare minimum over time. Instead of hunting down Maggie and asking her, "Hey big girl! Do you want to come along and go for a ride in the truck with me?" I now just yell, "Truck ride!" from the garage. It's not like word choice matters, you put those two words anywhere near each other in a sentence and you'll be soon tackled by an overexcited, 95 pound, four-legged hitchhiker.

Although it's not the safest picture to take, I wanted to show you what I see in the passenger door mirror when I'm driving Maggie around:

Since my shedding passenger doesn't care about conversation or music quality, I'll pass the drive time with a random sampler or library CD. (Really, is there a better place to listen to music than in the car?)  Amongst the audio junk, I'll usually find some cool song - proving my theory that most records have at least one interesting track. Let's say these songs come from my "Dog Days of Summer Soundtrack".

Here's one Maggie and I listened to a lot while cruising through the Saylorville campgrounds:

Link: Chasing You Around