Late Summer Fun

It was nice to get away and do some vacationing this summer, but we were also happy to be home with our sweet kitties. They're always extra lovey for a few days after we get back.  

Shortly after getting back from Utah we made a trip to Wild Waves and the Children's Museum. Tyler started summer school on the 6th, so our time at Wild Waves was limited since he wasn't back until 12:30, it's an hour away, and they closed at 6. It wasn't quite worth the drive there and back for the few rides and slides we got in, so we didn't go down the rest of the month while he was still in school. 

Here's Allison at Willis Tucker park. Our Splash pads finally opened in July. Tyler was in school by then, so I just took her on our way back from the YMCA.

My friend Jenny came up to Seattle and let me tag along with her. She purchased Seattle City Passes, which included the Mo Pop Museum. They were also doing their Disney Heros and Villains exhibition. That glass slipper was mind blowing! The film doesn't do it justice.

The passes included two trips up the Space Needle, so we could go up both during the daytime and at night. We kept hoping the sun would come out, which it eventually did, but it wasn't quite out by the time we went up the first time. 

The big Lego Space Needle in the gift shop is super neat. You get nice views of the top of it as you walk up and around to the elevators. This was my first time up the needle in over 8 years, and my first time since they remodeled it.

The remodel was taking out the restaurant and converting it into a glass floor. I liked going out onto it. Jenny wanted to stay on the solid black part at first, but she faced her fears and came out on the glass floor too. 

I danced around on the glass floor then wobbled a bit to get my balance back. It was a bit trippy.

Looking down through the glass floor was definitely more memorable during the daytime than when we came back later. The lights just glared through it at night. 

I like looking down on the Mo Pop and Pac Sci museums from the top of the needle. 

After coming down we grabbed a quick lunch and walked around the city. We found ourselves at the waterfront where we rode Wings Over Washington and picked up some ice cream. We then walked up to Pike's Place Market.

We then found the Seattle hammering man near the art museum, the famous gum wall, the downtown library, and the Amazon Spheres before sitting down for dinner. It was actually very difficult to find a sit down restaurant that was open on Tuesday. For some reason most of the restaurants in the Pike's Place Market area close on Tuesdays. 

After dinner we walked back to the needle to see the city at night. This was my first time seeing it that late. I've always done lunch at the needle and seen it in the daytime. The sun had come out by then, so we got to see some nice sunny views with Mt Ranier in the background then stuck around to watch the sunset.

On Wednesday we met up with Jenny at Woodland Park Zoo. I'd been meaning to take the kids there during the summer since they were having a  "Dinosaur Days" exhibit up through September. It was included in our city passes, and she was able to get the kids in at 1/2 price with her local zoo membership. 

Some of the dinosaurs were animatronic. Allison enjoyed making scary faces and roaring along with them. 

I specifically put Tyler in a dinosaur shirt so that I could take pictures of him wearing it with dinosaurs in the background. Then of course I forgot to tell him to take off his jacket when we were actually in the exhibit. Doh!

Next we saw giraffes, ostriches, zebras, and hippos in the free roaming savannah area.  

Next up were birds, orangutangs, lions, a warthhog, and a python.

Rhino feeding was happening when we came by. It was nice to be able to sit down and get a fairly close look at the rhinos.

The kids were getting pretty tired of walking, so I told them we could head up and just see the animals that were on our way. Both kids really wanted to see the wolves and bears though, so we wandered down to the northern animals area too. That's a bit of a hill to climb back up, so the kids were pretty exhausted by the time we made it back to the entrance.

The plan had been to take them to play at Gasworks Park, but there was some sort of event going on there and you had to have a special permit to park in the parking lot. I looked around for street parking and couldn't find anything, so we went to the Freemont Troll instead. 

Oscar came and picked the kids up after he was done with work. Jenny and I drove to Alki Beach, which I'd never been to before. It's where a famous scene from "Sleepless in Seattle" was filmed. For dinner we went to Matt's at the Market, which is definitely not somewhere I would want to take my picky, noisy kids. Everything was good, but the desserts were mind blowing. I still think about that homemade candy bar. Yum!

The next day was the nicest of Jenny's whole visit, which is also when we took the Harbor Cruise, which I hadn't gone on since 2007. After the cruise we wandered over to the nearby Seattle Aquarium, then ate a delicious lunch at Cafe Campagne. From there I gave Jenny a tour of the Snohomish farm country on our way out to pick up Allison for her swim lessons. After dropping her off with Oscar at the YMCA I showed Jenny our local lookouts before we went out for an excellent dinner at Scotty's Grill in Edmonds. 

After dropping Allison off with Oscar at the YMCA I showed Jenny our local lookouts.

We still had a little time before our reservation at Scotty's Grill in Edmonds, so I took Jenny to an Edmonds beach. She was fascinated that we have a dog park on the beach.

That evening we drove back to GasWorks Park before I dropped Jenny back at her hotel. The parking lot was totally full again, but at least I found some nearby street parking.

The next week Allison went to Andrew's Awesome Camp while Tyler finished up summer school. Here are her pictures from superhero day. 

At home Allison kept herself busy writing and illustrating a story called "The Ugly Pink Dinosaur" named Chapelprekay. She told me I can also follow her on Facebook and Twitter. LOL!

My friend Rebecca came up to visit for a few days while Oscar was out of town. After picking her up from the airport I took her to Kerry Park, Gasworks Park, and the Freemont Troll. Finally I had no parking issues at Gasworks Park.

The next day I took her to our local lookouts.

And she gave Tyler a couple music lessons. Here they are playing Tyler's first ever piano duet.

On Sautrday We took her up to Whidbey Island to see Deception Pass. I didn't take any pictures since Allison was asleep as we drove over the bridge, and I didn't want to wake her up by pulling over to a stop, but we drove along the bridge as slowly as possible so Rebecca could fully appreciate the sights.

The kids needed a little play break at that point, so we took them to a fun castle themed park in Oak Harbor.

Rebecca wanted to be able to put her feet in the water, so I drove her down to Ebey's Landing on our way to the ferry. From there we drove down to the ferry, which last year always had super long waits. This time we drove right into the waiting area with no line whatsoever, and we were on the boat within a few minutes. It's by far the fastest I've ever traveled by ferry. The kids were confused when we got off the ferry asking where they were going to sleep that night. Since we'd been driving for several hours and taken a ferry, they assumed we were far away and would be staying at a hotel. What we'd actually done was drive to the northern tip of Whidbey Island, crossed the Deception Pass bridge, driven the length of the island, then took the ferry back to Mukilteo, the city right next to our house. It's one of my favorite drives to do when people come up to visit me.

After returning from our end of summer trip to California (more on that in my next posts), we wanted to go to Wild Waves again. We had season passes but had only been twice the entire summer. It was a Saturday, which we knew would be crowded, so we decided to wait until later in the day when the lines would likely die down. We also stopped to play at a new park in Kent that's just off the freeway about 15 minutes away from Wild Waves. It's themed like the game "Chutes and Ladders," but for copyright purposes it's called "Slides and Climbers." Tyler really enjoyed playing the game, though we had to use our phone for dice since the spinners they had weren't fantastic. They kept falling back to the same 2 numbers. I told him next time we'll bring actual dice for him to roll. 

We hit up the water park first. Here's Allison in the freezing cold kids' area.

And here are the kids and me in the wave pool. It was colder than it'd been on our previous visits. They heat it more in June and early July when they expect the weather to be cooler. It's fine when you're playing in the waves, but it gets a little cold when the waves are turned off and you're just hanging out.

Afterwards we went on some slides, which the kids called "rainbow slides." Allison can't yet sit well on her own on a single tube, so it's nice that Wild Waves has the double tube option on several of their slides.

Allison and I got in the long line for the orange family slide while Tyler and Oscar went on Riptide, a 48+ inch slide. Allison taught some teenage girls in line how to dance and twirl. Oscar and Tyler joined us when they were done then Tyler and I went on Riptide together. I promise Tyler was enjoying himself. The grimace on his face in the picture on the right is because the sun was shining on his face.

Once the kids were waterparked out we had about 40 minutes to spend in the theme park before they closed. Allison and I tried to do the carousel, but just after loading us they told us we all had to get off so they could do a technical operations check. It broke her little heart. Fortunately she cheered up doing the trucks and the Kangabounce instead.

We finished our last week of summer visiting the Children's museum and playing at several fun playgrounds. At the rec room at the YMCA Allison put snakes on the ping pong table and said she wanted to play "Snake Pong."

On Labor day we took one last trip to Wild Waves. This time we started with rides then finished in the water park. Here's Allison dancing around to the music while waiting in line for Kangabounce. Ty and I did the Hang gliders and the Wild Thing Roller Coaster before meeting them there.

Oscar took Allison on some kid rides while I rode the other 48+ inch rides with Tyler. Unfortunately a bunch of rides were still closed. Staffing shortages are really taking their toll on an already limited theme park. 

We finished up the theme park with me taking the kids on the Scrambler and the kids riding the kids' train and the airplanes.

Once we made it to the water park we played in the wave pool for a good long time before Tyler decided her wanted to go on some slides and the lazy river with me. Oscar stayed with Allison who was still happy to stay in the wave pool for nearly another hour. Tyler then wanted to go back into the wave pool.

Allison had stayed in the wave pool until she got too cold. You can see her shiver in the video. She perked back up when I took her on a few slides. She even found an equally social little girl to play with while we stood in line for the slides. 

We stayed until around 6pm then picked up some fast food before hopping on the freeway. While waiting in the drive thru Oscar realized he didn't have his wallet. I paid for the food and we drove back to Wild Waves. We hadn't gotten a hand stamp since we hadn't intended to come back to the park that day, so security was reluctant to let Oscar go back in. Fortunately we saw a manager coming out of Guest Services who did let Oscar go back in, and thankfully, someone had turned in his wallet to the lost and found. Phew! We're relieved we realized it was missing before we got on the freeway, that an honest person had turned it in, and that we were able to get it back before the park closed for several days.

Minus the stress of the missing wallet it was a good way to end the summer. The kids both started full time in person school the next day.