Summer Activities

We are coming to the end of the second week of summer vacation (hey, only 10 more to go!). Last week the girls went to camp at Wedgewood Presbyterian Church in the morning. Since it was a very low tide during the middle of the week, on Thursday we went to Carceek Park. We found some very exciting creatures. There was a Moonsnail alive with shell, a colony of geoducks (for everyone that is not from the northwest try googling "Geoducks" and go to image results - you will get a good laugh!), a spider crab, many sea stars of all kinds, and even baby eels. It was very windy, which made it quite cold, but it did not keep the girls away from completely flooding their boots.

This week, after taking Daddy to the airport, we tried to spent as much time as possible in the water, since it has gotten really hot. I have not been to Mathews Beach, our neighborhood beach on Lake Washington, in years. It was eye opening for the girls to have a vacation beach right by our house. On Wednesday we went to Tacoma to the Washington State History Museum. Besides the regular displays about Washington there was a special exhibit about Women's right to vote in WA. Women gained the right to vote in 1910 and at that time WA was the 5th State to grant this right. There was a brief time in 1883-1889 that women could vote here, but it was revoked mostly due to efforts by the "Saloon -Lobby". The history museum in in downtown Tacoma right by the Museum of Glass and the Glass Bridge (it is not made out of glass, but a bridge that displays glass pieces by Chihuly and others). The girls enjoyed that very much (they were not very impressed with their voting rights).

Thursday was all about pop culture. It was first Thursday, so most of the museums had free admission. We took that opportunity to go to the EMP and pay our respects to Michael Jackson. Apparently we were not the only ones. We had to wait in a line that wrapped around the building to get in. They let in groups of 50, because many people had decided to come on this beautiful Thursday evening. The girls had been talking a lot about Michael Jackson and asked a lot of questions. It is weird to think, that he has no meaning to them. The EMP had a special exhibit about the work of Jim Henson (creator of Muppets, Fraggles and Sesame Street characters). The girls liked that better. We saw Kermit, Ernie and Bert, and some other puppets. We were not allowed to take pictures, so use your imagination (insert picture of girls with Rowlf). Afterwards we played in the fountain at the Seattle Center. It was a beautiful hot summer evening and many people had gathered around the fountain. The girls splashed for over an hour until they were finally so cold that they were happy to go into the hot car.