Long Weekend

Labor day has traditionally been a weekend for the big SCA event, this year being held in Canada, right over the border.  Kelly, on the other hand, had other ideas.  He said that we really needed to do something as a family for the last weekend of summer.  We discussed what things we should do, and there were a few things we decided on.

Friday:  Pizza.  Hey, it's our tradition.  No one has to cook and clean up is a snap.  Which meant that we had even more time for GAME NIGHT!  I didn't get any photos, but we played Monty Python FLUXX twice.  This is a great game that has rules that can change from moment to moment, and the object of the game can change as well.  Once you have met the obligation (Holy Relics:  the Holy Hand Grenade and the Holy Grail; or The Cartoon Peril Was No More:  the Beast of Aaaaarggh and the Animator cards), you are the winner and the game ends.  I won with the goal "Squashed From Above" which meant I had the Finger of God and the Foot cards on the table at the same time as the Goal Card.  Aside from the traditional and Monty Python versions, there are several other versions of the game, including Zombie Fluxx, Star (Wars) Fluxx, Oz Fluxx, Cthulhu Fluxx, and a set I'm going to get...Pirate Fluxx!  After that, we played a game of GLOOM.  This game has an object of killing off your characters in the most miserable way possible.  It was fast and fun!

Saturday:  We decided to skip the Sounders game (selling our tickets) and work on a few things during the day and have a family luau in the evening.

Kelly stayed home and worked on the deck and got all the boards laid out and screwed down.  While we didn't have the railings installed yet, I figured we could put up the 4 x 4s (which will be part of the pergola) and tie ropes around to keep people safely in, if necessary.  I sent out a general invitation, but no one took us up on the offer.

Cammie and I went out to a couple of different grocery stores looking for ingredients for our luau, which consisted mostly of ahi tuna, salmon, rice and pineapple.  I was going to make pineapple chicken skewers, but given that we still don't have the BBQ on the deck, I needed to do all the cooking by oven.  Unless we had a big group of people coming, I wasn't going to cook TOO much food.



Luckily, the ahi didn't need cooking--I made a soy sauce mix and let it marinate for a couple hours.  I broiled the salmon in the oven with some butter and garlic.  Simple and delicious!  The sad bit was one of the loaves of the Hawaiian bread I got from the Chinese market was MOLDY!  So sad.  I was going to drive it back and exchange it or get my money back, but figured it would cost as much in gas to get there and back as the loaf of bread, so I just pitched it.  I will not be doing any more shopping there, for sure.

Sunday:  TOURISM!  We decided to play tourist-at-home and went to downtown Seattle to have lunch at Pike Place Market, visit the Seattle Art Museum, ride the ferris wheel at the waterfront, walk through the market a bit, and then head home.  In order to prevent having to fight for parking spaces, along with all the attendees of PAX, Bumbershoot, and the Mariners fans, we took the bus.  There was a lot of people riding along with us, and the ride back was particularly crowded.  It was standing room only all the way home--at least for Kelly.  The kids and I were able to sit for the last few miles.

Some sights along the way:
At the SAM, they had a large display of glass art, and a bunch of art pieces from the 1400-1500.  Most of them were religious in nature and it was such a thrill to get to see them up close and personal.  I was able to get within inches of them to take detailed photos...in fact, several of them were unprotected (although they had roving security everywhere...just don't ask them where to find the restrooms--the one I asked was rather vague).

Quilted teapot...



Gorgeous blue and yellow vase from Italian Renaissance


Painted wooden box front...the gold was real shiny gold!


Italian pottery


Ceramic pond--the pieces fit together like a puzzle and were heavily glazed to look wet.  This was a favorite for us!


Madonna and child, 1490.


Detail from a Madonna and child painting--the gauzy sleeve of the baby's tunic and the buttons on her sleeve were just amazing.  This was from 1490.


16th century folding screens from Japan


Monet.  Nuff said.

One of the biggest problems I had was with the lighting on the art.  It was bright enough, but often left bright spots on the paintings like this.  You usually couldn't view it straight on.  This was from the bench provided by the museum for viewing this really large painting.



Or there was some reflection in the glass (no, I wasn't using a flash...that is usually against the rules):


Here's some sweet boots!


Afterwards, we wandered through Pike Place...




Rode the Ferris Wheel...








And then rode the bus home.  We watched a movie together:  Bears.  It was cute and just over an hour long.

Monday:  Bike ride!  Earlier this summer, we finally got Ben to try biking again, and he very quickly got the hang of balance and pedaling.  He then decided that he wanted to really spread his wings and go for a long bike ride somewhere.  We promised that we'd do that before the summer was done, and here we are...at the final week.  So, we drove down to the Centennial Trail that runs from Snohomish to Arlington...or maybe beyond in some city nearish to Mt. Vernon. (I don't know exactly where it ends, but we really had no intention of biking that far anyway--we read somewhere that it is about 30 miles in length).  In the end, I biked about 2 1/2 miles with them and I turned around there.  They continued on to the next trail head at Machias, about 4 1/2 miles from where we started, then turned back.  My muscles are all very sore now...ugh.  Took some Tylenol and cider, and may need to take a bath to fully relax the muscles.  I have a feeling I won't be able to climb stairs for the next couple of days.

When I returned from the bike ride, I took off my helmet only to discover that the rotting strap on the back tore completely away (the chin strap has a nylon strap and was perfectly fine--the broken bit hugs the back of the head to keep the helmet in place).  I had noticed that it was shedding black bits all over the place before we started out, but thought that since this is a designated walking/biking trail, I would have little chance of encountering vehicles and other dangers, and it was probably going to be low risk of having an accident that would require a helmet to protect me to that extent.  It looks like it'll be a pretty easy fix, though.  It appears that the straps have little velcro dots that attach the straps.  I'll pop by the bike shop later this week to see what they can do for me.

Ben also needs repairs on his helmet; one of the neighborhood kids tore all the padding out while he left the helmet sitting outside one day.  We have some new little guys in the neighborhood...lesson for Ben was not to leave his stuff out where others could get to it--always put your stuff away.  I'm not going to worry much about finding out the culprit.

Dinner was a simple affair--burgers and fries (home made).  The big kid starts school tomorrow; the little guys start next week.

King Tut's Treasures

Today Ben had an appointment to get his G-tube replaced.  This wasn't out of some disaster, but a quarterly equipment change; they wear out after a while, so they should be changed every 3 or 4 months.  The fit for the unit was a little snug, so it was a little uncomfortable to get out, but with a little lube and some painkilling goo, the nurse was able to remove it and get the new one in with his assistance.  The next time we do this, around October, we will be able to do this at home.

After the doctor visit, since we were in Seattle anyway, we decided to get some lunch and then go to the Seattle Science Center.  Kelly had been thinking about getting a membership there again.  Although they don't change out most of their displays, there are some things that are worth looking at again and again, and new IMAX films to see as well as other exhibits.  While we were there, we also looked into the possibility of going to see the King Tut exhibit that is going on now, not thinking that we'd have a shot of seeing it today (I figured they were sold out for days/weeks/months), but they had openings for the middle of the afternoon.  We chose a 3:30 slot for the five of us (at a discounted rate for members!) and went about finding things to do for an hour or so until it was time to start the tour.

I love this...I like to think of this as Hagrid's dining table.  Just needs some rock cakes and buckets of brandy and tea.

The butterfly house is always a huge hit--it's hot and humid in there, which is what the butterflies really like, but it's so worth it to see these gorgeous, delicate creatures.  One of them was really taken with Kelly's jacket.  One of the wings was damaged, so you can see the outside of the butterfly--brown and grey for hiding in the trees, and the inside--bright blue, perfect for hiding on Boeing jackets.  I think he liked the color in order to use it as camouflage!  It stayed on there for several minutes and several of the other patrons thought it was really cool.

We also spent some time looking at the honey bees, a display which has a tunnel linked to the outside so the bees can go collect pollen and bring it back to this plexiglass hive.  We spent several minutes trying to see if we could find the queen.  I thought I had, and then Kelly found another one that looked like it could be a queen, too.  Two queens?  That doesn't usually work, does it?  I don't know enough about bees.

And so, in no particular order, I will post a few of my favorite images of the King Tut display.  I don't know if the museum has a policy about posting images of the stuff in the collection, but they didn't have a problem with photography (as long as you didn't use a flash), so I can't imagine that there would be a problem with posting my images anywhere I see fit.  I will say that it is TOTALLY worth the $20 per adult to see it in person (this is the discounted rate for the annual membership at $100 per family...admission is a little more for non-members), and I plan on going back (sans enfants) to see it again.  My friend, Bekah, really wants to go see it as often as possible, so I know I have a standing date to go again.

We headed over toward the IMAX theater first to see the Mummies: Secrets of the Pharaohs film.  It's a 40 minute movie about some of the history of the Pharaohs and the tombs in Egypt, who discovered the tomb where many of the Pharaohs had been stored, hidden from various thieves and grave robbers during those lean years.  It was sometime around 1880, and their recovery of the mummies some believe were part of a master plan by the gods since the cave collapsed a few years later, which would have destroyed all the remains and they would likely have been lost forever.  More recently, they have been trying to figure out the ancient methods of mummification--an art that was lost centuries ago--and the studies they have been doing on their DNA.  Oddly, the focus of the studies has been to find out more about diseases then to help us find cures for diseases today.  Not sure about that theory...but anyway...

Ben picked out a book from Half-Price Books several months ago about Egypt, mummies, and pharaohs, and of course, he's been hearing Bible stories about Egypt and its history, so he was really looking forward to seeing this exhibit since he heard about it coming to Seattle.  He couldn't quite grasp the concept of it never coming to North America again.
"Why can't they bring it back?"
"Because the pieces are very old and fragile."
"But they could wrap them up really carefully."
"They did...but things sometimes still get broken."
"But what if..."
These conversations go on for a long time.  Sometimes you just can't convince him that there are reasons that things cannot be done.  I assured him, however, that they will be in a museum in Egypt and he can go there to see them and a LOT more stuff, including the pyramids, when he's older.

So, then the exciting part.  After the film, we got in line to see the exhibit.  They ushered us into an entryway for another short video--this one was about five minutes.  Ben was particularly excited when he heard that the video intro was being narrated by Harrison Ford.  "He plays Indiana Jones!" Yes, Ben.  Yes, he does.  And Indiana Jones is an archaeologist and spent some time in Egypt.  Yes.  He wants to be an archaeologist now.

He went around the various rooms reading everything.  He was fascinated.  They had a few rules about photography; one being no flashes, which is common.  Another was that you were not allowed to pose alongside the items.  I'm not sure what that is about, but I suppose it's kinda tacky to be smiling next to a 3,000 statue of a dead Pharaoh.  However, I couldn't help it if I wanted to take a picture of this piece and my son just happened to be standing in front of it, reading the details.

Other than having to hang on tight to him, he was very well behaved and soaked it all in.  Emma zipped through it and feigned interest in the whole trip.  Afterwards, we asked her if that was interesting and she shrugged--we take that as a teenage "yes".  Cammie went through somewhat quickly, but came back to look at things again.  She was having a lot of difficulty reading the signs (and I can understand why--I can't pronounce several of the Pharaohs' names), so I was helping her understand what the pieces were and how old they were.  It was absolutely fascinating!

Afterwards we struggled to get out of Seattle (it was 5:00 when we emerged from the viewing...it certainly didn't seem like 90 minutes!) as we were driving home with everyone else who was leaving work at the same time.  I hopped on Aurora Ave (with extreme difficulty) and found it was much faster and smoother than getting on I-5 with the rest of the population.  We went to a restaurant called Ram, which was a brew pub type place with steaks and seafood and a kids menu.  Kelly and I both ordered the peppercorn sirloin with Gorgonzola, and it was phenomenal!  Emma got salmon (her other standby after cheeseburgers), and the other two had fish-n-chips.  Drive home, medication done, bathed, bed.

Overall, a really good day!