seattle – Our Washington Adventure

January 1, 2013

New Year

So another year is complete and we certainly know how to celebrate in style! In the morning we collected Harry from his sleep over party. He’d managed a total of two hours sleep the night before and it has to be said he looked a bit like death warmed up! His grumbles throughout the day confirmed how tired he was – although he managed to stay up a lot later than we thought he would on New Years Eve.

In the afternoon we did a spot of shopping for new running shoes and cycling shoes – these were important purchases to support our 2013 year of exercise! How long will it last!?

The late afternoon sun gave us a brief treat with the mountains and then the sunset on another year:

As it was a chilly evening it was time for a lovely dinner of slow cooked beef followed by trying to find something to watch on American TV. In the end we sat and watched the movie Despicable Me and stayed up late enough to see the New Year in for New York. That was as close as we got to seeing the New Year in though and by 9:30pm we were all in bed! This was an impressive effort by Harry and Toby but a bit pathetic from Tracy and I!

On New Years day we woke to bright sunshine and a heavy frost – it was a lovely morning to start 2013.

Because we were in bed so early, we were up and at it in the morning. I hit the treadmill and Tracy went to the gym and all this by 9am! We’re clearly early birds! All that exercise meant we were starving so off we went to Ray’s for our, now traditional, New Years day lunch.

We stuffed ourselves silly with burgers, steak and pasta before heading up to the Golden Gardens (where we saw the seal and beavers last week) to see another Seattle New Years day tradition – the burning of the Christmas trees! Every New Years day everyone (well almost) brings their finished with trees down to the beach and they burn them.

It was chaos down there so we didn’t get out and walk – plus it was very cold! So after driving round a couple of car parks to see if we could find any good American licence plate numbers for the boys new game, we set off home for the final afternoon before going back to work tomorrow.

How sad – still in 43 days we’re off to Sydney – it’s all go, go, go round here!

Happy New Year!

December 24, 2012December 24, 2012

Christmas Eve

Finally Christmas Eve was upon us. We spent the morning on the treadmill, making emergency mince pies to leave for Santa, watching the squirrel eating the burnt ones from yesterday and then making ourselves beautiful for a Christmas lunch at Ray’s.

We arrived at Ray’s at 12:30 and duly stuffed ourselves full of calamari, hummus, burgers, chicken, shrimp sandwiches, cheesecake and cookies. It’s a tough life but we managed to tuck it all away! As we all felt a little on the full side we decided to take a walk along the beach at Golden Gardens – just up the road from Ray’s. After having a quick play in the playground, the walk turned into a wildlife extravaganza!

First there was this rare sighting on the beach – lesser spotted beach bums or something:

Then as we got further up the beach we heard the sea lions barking away in the Sound before we came across this little fella:

He wasn’t dead, he’d just had a big lunch and was having a rest! He had apparently been there for the last 24 hours or so and the seal rescue people weren’t rescuing him because he was ok. Apparently. Anyway, someone had made a sign warning people to leave him alone and he did start moving closer to the water so I’m sure he was fine.

After the seal, we walked back through the park towards the car. On the way we saw a beaver. Well we didn’t see the beaver but we saw all the signs. First there was his house over the other side of the pond:

Then there was a tree trunk that had had a good old gnawing:

And another one. He’d clearly realized the error of his gnawing on this one – it was going to fall straight on his head. The trunk gnawings here were a lot fresher – I think we’d missed him by moments:

After leaving the beach behind we took Aunty A to see the Fremont Troll. The troll is obviously a very popular place on Christmas Eve – there were lots of people there, including a bit of a troll photo shoot – all very odd:

From that popular Christmas Eve location we set straight off for another – Kerry Park and a view of the Space Needle. The top of the Needle has been repainted from the 50th anniversary orange to green trees. It’s not that easy to see the new design but you can just make out the trees on top:

Although the trees on top probably look great from above I think we prefer the orange top for now – certainly from the ground. After leaving the park and the views of the city it was time to head home – it had been an exhausting afternoon – poor us!

Once home, we started tracking Santa’s progress (he’s two minutes from London as I type this) and got nice and comfy ready to ease our way into the Christmas spirit!

One more sleep to Christmas! Whoo hoo!

December 17, 2012December 17, 2012

Chihuly Garden

With the boys on the bus and on their way to school it was time for the grown ups to hit Seattle. As Sally had seen and done the usual Seattle sights it was time to introduce a new one into the visitor schedule – The Chihuly Garden. It was developed as part of the Space Needle 50th anniversary celebrations. It opened earlier in the year and this was our first visit but certainly not our last.

The rain held off for us but the wind was icy cold however that did not stop us from enjoying the glass sculptures. They were very impressive as the following should show.

The Glass Forest:

This boat was my favorite:

Two shifty looking characters:

One of the many chandeliers:

Very, very expensive vases:

Some outdoor creations:

It was definitely worth the visit and makes it on to the “things to do in Seattle” list for visitors!

Lots more pictures here…

November 21, 2012

Soccer!

It had been a weekend full of soccer. Friday night was training up at the highlands for Toby which wears me out as I walk round and round the pitch for an hour and a half while he plays! Then on Saturday morning it was an hour and a half north up the I-5 for a Gunners match in Burlington. Unfortunately it was another defeat but as the coaches keep stressing, it is a development year for the boys, playing against older, bigger, stronger boys and we will hopefully see the benefits next season. Hopefully!

Sunday morning we had to set the alarm and be back up at the highlands at 8am for the Gunners second match of the weekend. This time it was against another Gunners team in the same division but under 11’s rather than 10’s. In the most miserable rain and high winds the younger Gunners roared into a 2-0 lead against the older Gunners. It stayed that way until half time but, unfortunately, it was a game of two halves because the younger Gunners tired again and let 3 goals in in the second half. A very close game but unfortunately another loss.

The excitement will come in the last game of the season when Gunners take on arch enemies Cascade FC. These two teams are tied on points in second and third from bottom of the table. The Gunners are currently third from bottom and outside the relegation places so it is a winner takes all game on the 1st December – will Tracy be able to take the stress?

With that game over there was just time to take a break before Toby had to go to Arena Sports in Redmond for his inside soccer. For the first 2 weeks Toby had seemed to struggle a little with the whole concept of indoor soccer and the ball bouncing off the walls. This week though it obviously started to click. The Scorpions won 8-2 and Toby scored 4 – so finally we got a win in our weekend soccer bonanza!

After all that we only had one more game to go and this time all we had to do was watch. Seattle Sounders had their best ever season and qualified for the Western Conference final against LA Galaxy. Unfortunately the Sounders had got thrashed 3-0 in LA last week and so our hopes were not too high. After getting comfortable in our club seats, Tracy went to ogle David Beckham while I sat with the boys and they stuffed their faces with pizza.

httpv://youtu.be/mS35kX4S7_c

With national anthems and ceremonies out the way we waited and hoped for a miracle. For the first hour it looked like we may get it as Sounders were winning 2-0 and definitely the better team. Then the ref got involved and gave LA a penalty and it all petered out into a nothingy sort of game. Sounders lost 2-1 and the season was over – which is probably a good thing as we are over dosing on soccer at the moment – poor old Tracy!

November 10, 2012November 10, 2012

Ferris Wheel

It opened earlier this year but despite a long, sunny summer we still hadn’t made it to the Seattle Wheel – until today! We woke to our first big frost of the winter. It had already started on the Friday evening up at the Highlands where Toby had his soccer training and it clearly continued all night because it almost looked like snow when we woke this morning. Jack Frost had been very busy.

As we lay in bed watching the local news, the news reader told everyone to make the most of today because although cold it was going to be sunny. So we decided to get up and head to Seattle to the wheel.

We got over there just ahead of opening so the queue wasn’t too bad at all. Harry and Toby desperately wanted us to go in the VIP capsule of the wheel but at a cost of $50 per person we decided against that. After a short wait we were sat in our pod ready to go. At this point both boys decided that actually they were scared and weren’t sure if they wanted to go round on the wheel after all. Good job we didn’t go for the VIP pod as that had a glass bottom – that would have really scared them!!

The pod was heated to a lovely temperature inside and the weather outside was beautiful and with that three circuits of the wheel began. The views were fantastic. There were ferries, mountains, stadiums, containers, the aquarium, the Space Needle, seals in the water – everything!

Having overcome their fear of the wheel they didn’t really want to get off. Particularly Toby who “loved it”. After leaving the wheel we decided to take a walk up to the market – although we did stop briefly for a picture or two. Can you spot Toby in the first one? The sun was too bright for him apparently!

After a tour of the market and local map shop we set off to the cool part of Seattle – Capitol Hill. It may be the hip hop happening part of town but it was a bit grubby for us and full of weirdos! On the plus side it did have a frame shop so I can now hang my birthday presents up once I have framed them up correctly.

With Harry having a soccer match in the afternoon it was soon time to head back home. As we drove through the back streets of Seattle Toby announced, “you probably won’t believe me, but I think I just saw Barack Obama’s mum”.

It’s amazing what you get to see when you spend a morning in Seattle!

More pictures here…

September 14, 2012

Orange Top

Technically it is a gold top but it looks more orange to us!

This year, to celebrate it’s 50th anniversary, the top of the space needle was painted gold (or orange) which is the color it was when originally built. After a morning at Chittenden Locks and lunch at Rays, we took the usual trip up to Kerry Park on Queen Anne’s Hill to admire the houses – I’d really like a house up there – and then to take in one of the best views of Seattle.

I think this is our first time to the park since the needle changed color – although I may be wrong about that – so here it is in all it’s glory:

Lovely Space Needle! And which color will it go next? They have just finished a competition to decide what it will look like next – can’t wait to see!

September 14, 2012

When Crows Attack

On our latest trip to Chittenden Locks we got lucky with a range of wildlife. Firstly there was a seal swimming around feeding on the salmon that were trying to make their way up the ladder. With the volume of fish that were about in the water I think the seal had a very good lunch.

I reckonat least one got away though because his defense against being eaten was to spend as much time as possible leaping out of the water. I tried very hard to get a picture but the salmon was far too quick.

We then went down and checked out the side view of the salmon ladders. We weren’t expecting to see any as I thought they passed through across mid-late August but we were in for a surprise. There were lots and they were big old things to! The best picture came from the phone on this one and can be seen here – ugly salmon!

Then on the way back across the locks I got the opportunity to add to the eagle photo collection! I’m not sure what this particular bird is – some investigation is required – but he was very noisy and the crows did not want them around:

So there we go. One of the more action/animal packed visits to the locks. It was all so exciting we had to go to Rays for lunch to calm down!

September 3, 2012

Seahawks!

After much talking and promising, we finally went to our first American football game this week. It was the Seahawks last pre-season friendly and it was against the Oakland Raiders. Despite the fact that many years ago, probably about 24 to be precise, I had bought a Raiders shirt from the Kays catalogue, I was going to support the Seahawks.

We’d been told to expect noise, even for a pre-season game, and things certainly did start with a bang, as the players emerged through smoke and fireworks.

Once this and the national anthem had been taken care of it was game time! The big moment! How exciting. Unless you were Tracy. If you were Tracy then it was just a big fat boring game of nothingness! It made no sense, it stopped every 30 seconds (which admittedly it does) and it got no better even when Toby and then Harry sat next to her and explained the rules (which they didn’t always know!).

But apart from all that – three quarters of the Stickells’ family enjoyed themselves! It was a beautiful evening, Seattle looked lovely and we got to meet the Seahawks band – Blue Thunder. They’re not as good as the Soundwave but it made for a good atmosphere nonetheless.

This is a touchdown – just in case anyone is wondering:

And this is Blue Thunder:

We left a few minutes before the end – only the Americans can make a 60 minute game last over 3 hours – but the Seahawks won 21-3. They had now won all 4 pre-season games so our hopes are high going into the season. Apart from Tracy’s. She couldn’t really care what happens!

Go HAWKS!

August 9, 2012

Cannonball Splash

What a hot weekend. Stupidly hot. So hot that we wanted it to rain. But it didn’t.

The weekend started with a trip to the Issaquah farmers market. We stocked up on some lovely fruit and veg, bought a nice range of flavored oils, made our tums rumble looking at all the yummy food and then went back to the frog selling stand and made the purchase that the boys have been waiting for for the last few weeks.

After spending all our dollars we went back home and dropped it all off before heading on up to the Barking Frog in Woodinville. As usual the food was lovely but the service a little slow. But it didn’t matter as it was cool inside and about 95 degrees outside! Our usual dish of roasted chicken breast and ravioli was duly dispatched along with a couple of bottles of wine and then we set off back home.

The little of the afternoon that remained was spent sitting in the garden getting hot, moving inside and staying hot so returning to the garden and getting hotter. Did I mention it was hot!?

Sunday morning appeared and the heat remained. After a quick shower we set off up to Newcastle golf course to have a long, lazy brunch at the golf club. With crab topped eggs benedict, omelettes and chocolate drop pancakes washed down with coffee, juice and champagne consumed we took in the beautiful view across Seattle before returning home to the garden.

At this point the decision was made to inflate the cannonball splash! We’d purchased it in Lake Chelan last summer and it had provided much entertainment. With the slide inflated and the splash pool full it was time for the fun to begin again:

httpv://youtu.be/Tun4COkxkx0

After cooling down on the slide it was time to make ourselves all hot again by going over to Seattle to watch the Sounders play LA Galaxy. Bad planning on my behalf meant that we were on the side of the stadium that was in the full glare of the sun! Fortunately by the time the second half came round the sun had dipped behind the stadium and the temperature became a lot more pleasant.

Sounders crushed the Galaxy 4-0 and David Beckham was roundly booed every time he touched the ball – quite right too! We had been worried that Aunty A may not enjoy the soccer but we were wrong! Still high on the excitement of sliding down the cannonball splash she really enjoyed it – especially the Soundwave! In fact she enjoyed herself so much that she tried to get Harry to drink alcoholic lemonade – before realizing that it was actually alcoholic! Harry missed his opportunity by saying no!

And so that was the end of our hot weekend! Beautiful weather, lovely food and drink, some new frogs, fun in the garden and all finished off with soccer in Seattle! I need to get back to work to enjoy the air conditioning and have a rest!

July 7, 2012July 14, 2012

All Aboard

After the stress of deciding what clothes to pack the night before, Saturday morning, final preparation, was reasonably straightforward. Tracy awoke and decided this was the most excited she could remember about going on holiday. Harry was happy. Toby was sad. Silly old Toby – the thought of icebergs was still worrying him.

With the blue bags packed we loaded up the car and at just after 10am we set off for the long journey all the way to Alaska – starting with a twenty minute drive to Seattle. How very convenient! We parked the car, went over the skywalk and into the terminal building down on the Seattle waterfront. The bags were dropped off and then we made our way to check-in.

After booking the cruise I had managed to get someone in the Expedia cruise team to upgrade us to VIP status. Although we had no paperwork to show this new status we were determined to use it! After checking in we confirmed with the staff that we had VIP status. They looked a bit confused but after checking the piece of paper they found our names. They apologized for not realizing sooner that we were VIPs and politely escorted us to the the VIP lounge where we were meant to have checked in. This caused a little bit of confusion but our names were on the piece of paper so it was ok.

We made ourselves at home and did as every VIP would – grabbed juice and cookies and sat down! A few minutes later after having our room numbers checked again, one member of staff said something to us but we weren’t really sure what. Soon after, as Toby went back for cookie number 2, they said that we shouldn’t really be in the VIP section. Tracy pointed out that our names were on the piece of paper, which they did agree to, however the lounge was for “special people” and clearly we weren’t! Although no-one was meant to board for another 40 minutes or so they wanted us out of the lounge and so they let us go straight on board! The VIP room wasn’t that nice anyway!

Once on board I took the opportunity to take a few photos with no other people about. We signed the boys up for unlimited soda across the week and Tracy signed up for some sort of wine deal that should keep her happy for a couple of days at least! With drinks sorted and with time ticking round to about 1pm we were obviously ravenous. We loaded up on burgers and hotdogs and kept the food demons at bay for a little while.

We then explored the ship a little before heading down to our “state room” and seeing how small a space we would be confined to for the next 7 days. It wasn’t that bad to be honest although we still needed to see it when the second kids bed came down out of the ceiling!

With the room ok’d we went to have a drink at the aft of the boat. Taking in the beautiful views of Seattle, we sipped our wine, soda and cocktails until we were rudely interrupted by messages saying we had to do a practice run of the evacuating ship procedures. Very cleverly they closed all the bars for 30 minutes while we practiced and while I got told off for tweeting on my phone while I should have been listening. Clearly the staff didn’t realize that grand parents were waiting for updates. Once we had passed our test we went back to the aft of the ship and sat having a drink while we waited for our departure time of 4pm. After leaving Seattle we stayed out until just after 5pm and then headed back to our cabin (state room) and unpacked our bags which had now been delivered. With everything tidy we were starting to get ravenous again.

We went down to the 6th deck and ate at Tzar’s. Grampy would have loved eating there because once you’d finished your main course they just asked you if you’d like try another one. At no extra cost! Obviously we didn’t try extra dishes although if they had offered on the desserts I would have taken one. And maybe they would have done if Toby hadn’t decided that he felt sick and needed to go back to the room! He didn’t really feel sick at all – he was just tired and once again had another of those miraculous recoveries that he so often does (remember the San Juan’s Grandad?)!

So, back in the room by just after 8pm we decided to give the entertainment a miss tonight – much to Harry’s disappointment (it was a comedian and magician) and have a relaxing evening in the state room. We mustn’t peak too soon – our VIP status means we will be having cocktails with the Captain tomorrow evening. Perhaps.

But then all the plans changed. Toby’s miraculous recovery was complete and Harry really wanted to go see the entertainment. Just after nine we set off to the theatre. Expecting some comedy and a bit of magic, imagine my surprise when we got a Michael Jackson tribute song followed by a Tina Turner look-a-like from Barbados. And if that wasn’t enough Spongebob Squarepants and Patrick appeared on stage too! Fortunately the comedy and magic followed soon after and very good it was too – particularly the ketchup magic trick which I may perform myself at future Christmas and birthday parties (apart from the last part which actually involved some sort of magical, wizardry voodoo).

By the time it all finished at about 10:30 Toby looked zonked and off we trekked back to our room (via some awful karaoke). Tomorrow is a day at sea and a session with Dave the cruise ship shopping consultant as he shows us how to bag the best bargains in Alaska! Outstanding!

Whale sightings: 0

Photos: 83 (check them out!)

April 7, 2012April 7, 2012

Running the Fountains

After the Space Needle we ended up at the fountain and as usual there was the temptation of trying to get to the middle. Although both seemed keen on it, there is no doubt this wasn’t something to rush into, it needed some thought:

But it soon became apparent that there was a little too much thinking going on and not enough action. Tracy decided to take charge of the situation and Harry was “guided” to touching the fountain before making a sharp exit:

Harry was now feeling bold and made a few more trips to the middle and managed to avoid getting wet. Toby spent a lot of time running. Left, right, forwards, backwards. There was a lot of running but never to the middle:

In the end, with the threat of it being their last attempt before we went back to the car they both made it:

And amazingly everyone stayed dry! Wonders will never cease!

All the pictures are here.

April 7, 2012

Seattle Views

It was a beautiful day. Blue sky and sunshine all the way and what a busy day we had lined up.

By my reckoning there are five great views of Seattle and across the course of the day we saw three of them. The first one we went to check was up at Newcastle golf course. A recent find, it is close enough that we can just pop up there if the weather is good and today it was. We went there after Toby had a swimming lesson and while Harry was at Evan’s undertaking a mightily impressive Easter egg hunt. Although it was windy up at Newcastle the view was pretty impressive:

After leaving Newcastle and collecting Harry, we went to Chittenden locks to look at the boats and the salmon. There weren’t many of either but it wasn’t too much of an issue as we couldn’t stay there long as we had an appointment at Ray’s. The view from there was also very impressive. The Olympics stood tall and made the perfect backdrop for a lovely lunch.

From Ray’s we took the usual short trip up to Kerry Park. Seattle-ites were obviously enjoying the day as there were plenty up there checking out the view. And who can blame them, it’s not bad:

Next stop was the Space Needle. We’d spent plenty of time admiring the Space Needle so now it was time to go up it. Although the clouds were starting to form, the view was still pretty impressive – particularly Mount Rainier:

The other two views of the Seattle come from Salty’s and on the ferry to Bainbridge but they will have to wait for another time – today was busy enough!