Wednesday, September 30, 2015

Steve and Ginger -Salmon and Waterfalls...

First, today is our one month nomadiversary.

The kids and I got up early and got our "table school" done this morning. My thought is on field trip days (or weeks) we are getting lots of history and science, so when time is limited we'll focus on math and language arts.  
Michael and I searched online and called a LOT of private parks and state parks as we need to be out of here 2 Oct. I actually called each private park listed in many of the cities north of Seattle. Each place told me they were full. Amazing. Finally, we gave up and called Fort Lewis. We'll be staying at their Travel camp (Fam Camp).

I have known Ginger for years and years. Today, we met for the first time. I had fun explaining that to Stacia.  Ginger is a dear online friend. Steve, her husband joined us - and that made this much more enjoyable for Michael. We all had a great time. We met in Issaquah at the Triple XXX Rootbeer Drive In Steve and Ginger waited inside. We waited outside. ::snort:: This is a great spot to eat! We had a table right by the fireplace - loved the decor. The food was tasty and PLENTIFUL - the rootbeer amazing!  While we were eating a man came in and asked if we owned the 15 pass van with the AK license plate and the stick figures. Um - yes. I thought he was going to rant at us...but he was excited to find out we had 9 children. His wife is expected their 7th and they've been debating which type vehicle to buy. He texted her a photo and they both loved it all - our plate, our figures, the van - and so he came in to see if we wanted to sell the van. ::snort::
With fully satisfied tummies, we left to find the Issaquah Fish Hatchery  It was GREAT fun to watch the salmon spawn, jump the ladders and such.  This was free. I don't think I'd seen so many salmon swimming upstream since we moved from Alaska.


 
Don't these smiles just REFRESH your soul? They did mine.
 
Ginger was FANTASTIC with Princess Chatterbox!

Yuuki wanted to get close and personal with the salmon

Big Fish in Issaquah
 Our final stop was Snoqualmie Falls. The falls were breathtaking and Steve and Ginger say the falls are low this year.  We enjoyed the view from the upper lot. The kids, Ginger and I hiked down to the lower level. Steve and Michael drove down and met us. We saw more Salmon spawning down here. Another free site to enjoy in the area.
We were so happy to see some of the more "natural" sites Washington has to offer. We left Steve and Ginger feeling refreshed; as if we'd made new family friends.


Steve, Ginger, Stacia, Me, Nolan, Alex

Some wild water slides?








We met up with Josiah at his apartment. I love this apartment; it's bright and sunny. We like his choice in furniture too. ::wink:: He took our living room and kitchen furniture when we down-sized.

 

Tuesday, September 29, 2015

The Museum of Flight

It's amazing we have NEVER been to The Museum of Flight here in Seattle.  Josiah knew Michael would love it and suggested it, as did several others. We went today - Josiah took his first weekday off since mid-August and joined us. Actually, the boys spent the night with him and so they all met us there. On the way we discovered the joy of the TOLL LANE in Seattle. We expected a spot to PAY (as we did in Japan) but Josiah says they took a photo of our license plate and will mail us a bill....

While at the museum, we participated in a one hour tour, saw every exhibit, crossed the street and saw the Space Center and toured through all the static displays.  This is a great museum. It was exhausting. We'd been warned it would take a full day. It did.  We didn't absorb as much info as we would have liked to and are sure to go back. Tuesday's are "Two for One Tuesdays" - a good day to visit. Thursday they stay open late and 5 - 9 p.m. is free. BUT we bought a MEMBERSHIP which will allow two adults and all our kids under 18 in for FREE for a year.  The membership was a steal for us - it is only $14 more for the year than it would be for our family of 5 to go once. We don't plan on staying in Seattle all year. We've been looking for a museum which participates in  the Association of Science-Technology Centers  (ASTC) passport program, so we could buy a reciprocal membership. We'll not only be able to visit The Museum of Flight when we visit Josiah, but we'll be able to in to more than 290 other museums around America (and a few in Canada). The discount may vary per museum but we've heard favorable reports from other families participating in the program.
This was a great day. We had studied the Wright Brothers and the advent of the flight age a couple of weeks ago. It was fun for the kids to see the full-sized models up close. We highly recommend this stop when in Seattle. Below are some photos - I'm sure Michael will label some of the planes at a later date.

Lunar Module


Our tour group

Overwhelmed with the choices? LOL


Michael shares a bit more insight about the SR71

Pilots of SR71 sign this - fun to see the name of the pilot Michael has talked with

I think, yes.




Who knew? It's already been done.
Every day we seem to have a little reminder of Japan. Today it was in the middle of the Museum of Flight - a write up about Clyde P (Michael can finish his name) and Miss Veedol. The flight from Misawa, Japan to Wenatchee, WA.

Shuttle Simulator - we crashed it over and over

Stacia LOVED the hands on exhibits

These two had fun with the bottle rockets
The first jet-powered Air Force One - used by Presidents Eisenhower, Kennedy and Johnson.

Presidential toilet - just had to add this to my toilet museum and Japanese toilet collection
  

Yep - we'd be great visiting the White House. LOL

The Concorde - England to NYC in 2 hours and 52 minutes



Boeing 787 Dreamliner (inside pictures don't do it justice)



Monday, September 28, 2015

Family Fishing Trip

Stacia has wanted to go fishing for a long time. Lake Pleasant RV Park  is a wild life sanctuary. The park is built around a lake, which happens to be filled with large-mouth bass.  It is free to fish as it's all catch and release.

Josiah came over after he got off work. I worked on dinner and they all headed across to the lake.  They didn't catch anything - but they saw photos of a catch by a boy just an hour earlier. We'll be trying again, I'm sure.


They returned as dinner was ready to come out of the oven.   We sent Josiah home with two brothers and the leftovers. We'll meet up tomorrow in town for another full day.