What's the Secret Word?

DOODLES!

The Seattle Children's Museum offers a free day for kids who have the secret word (from their newsletter) on the first Friday of the month if they bring a paying grown-up with them.  Well, the word was "doodles." How fun it was to try to describe to Katelyn what a "doodle" was! Finally, I took out my journal and showed her the margins of many of the pages. For those of you who know me, as expected...it was full of doodles of every kind! 

On our way on the bus...

Karen and Travis joined us for the fun.

First to the Orca...

Then on to the trains! I love trains!

And the bus. What a wild driver!

We were on our way up "Mountain Everest. It has snow at the top." Karen asked Katelyn if the bus had snow tires. She got out and looked at the wheels and then said, "Yes, because it just came back from Mt. Rainier!"

Next, the construction zone.

Starting with walls...

Tightening the bolts...

Affixing the roof...

And finally, a cupola!  Or the beginning of one, then tiredness and whining set in. It was my lunchtime!

There was so much to see, and we ran ourselves out of energy after many hours.

We headed back to the bus stop, but needed to stop for a quick run through the singing flowers. I have this video of them singing, but it came out SIDEWAYS, and I can't fix it! Arrgh...

So, watch if you like...sideways.  :-)

Once home, a short nap was had by all. I sure needed it!

Travis' First Bus Ride

The first Thursday of the month is free museum day in Seattle, and I try to take advantage of that each time I visit. Karen and Travis felt well rested enough to join me!

Here we go!

After much debate, we went to the MOHAI - Museum of History and Industry for the day. Here's what Travis thought of most of the museum...

But he was more impressed with this one sculpture, John Grade's "Wawona", as Karen and I were, made from the planks of a decommissioned ship made from Douglas fir. It ran from the basement to the roof!

The inside is designed to have the feel of the boat and the ocean.

There were many excellent exhibits, though Travis slept through most of them, a blessing actually for Karen and myself. While he ate lunch, I went to the "Drawn to Seattle: The Work of Seattle Sketcher Gabriel Campanario" temporary exhibit. The link shows his work much better than this, but, of course, I had to take a picture of his rendition of the Theo Chocolate Factory.



Then I sat down to rest my feet and looked out the window.

Since sketch pads and pencils were liberally distributed and their use encouraged, I did a little sketching of my own.

Before leaving, I needed one more picture of the famous "Lincoln Toe Truck." It just makes me laugh every time I see it!

Thoroughly tired, we headed home with a plan already hatched for Friday!

For Spring Lovers

On our walk today, here is the happy sight we saw...

BEES! YEAY!

Seattle Beauty

Ahhhh!  Beautiful!

Katelyn: "This is me pretending to be a monster, and a pig for Papa!" When I asked why Papa (her Grandpa) needed a pig, she said with some impatience at my lack of understanding, "It's not a real pig. It's just a picture!" Oh....

No other words needed.

Discovery Park Playground

Today we headed off in the cold and rain to the Discovery Park playground which is about a half mile from home. Here's the whole gang.

The swings were dry enough with a few swipes from our gloves.

And I discovered out that this is the playground with the "Special Swing." It's actually a zip-line. Check this out!

We also discovered that the slide was really, really wet. After Katelyn tried it and soaked through her rain/snow pants, we stripped her out of them quickly and headed home. She was happy to have Daddy carry her the whole way. Nonetheless, a better choice than staying cooped up in the house all afternoon.

Kiwanis Ravine

So having stated in a previous post that the Kiwanis Ravine was on my list to see, Karen suggested it for our walk today.

I had been saying that I "wanted to go down into the ravine." Karen helped me understand that the trails didn't go "down into the ravine," but rather around the ravine.

It was quite deep and thoroughly inaccessible. And protected land, of course.

The train, on the other hand, goes through the ravine...

while we walk over the ravine on a bridge.

We actually walked all the way around the ravine, a 2.4 mile trip. Seeing the train was a special bonus for me...I LOVE trains!

Here's more info on the Kiwanis Ravine:

"Kiwanis Ravine is a natural area that sits close to the eastern edge of Seattle's Discovery Park. The ravine was formed by two drainages coming from the east and west forks of Wolfe Creek. Very little is left of those drainages today, but what remains does channel water down through Kiwanis Ravine toward the Lake Washington Ship Canal, where it is intercepted and piped to West Point, a nearby wastewater treatment plant. The ravine is home to many species of birds, plants, and animals, particularly the Great Blue Heron. In 2010 the ravine hosted approximately 80 successful heron nests."  Read more...