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| Micah (as Destiny calls him) strumming his ukele |
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Micah leaves a drawing for Otis and Alauna on their chalkboard
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Alauna and Otis play in the water hose while Alauna's cousin Lily splashes in the water table
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Otis and Lily at the water table. The pool was inflated and full before the air leaked out of the sides.
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| Alauna |
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The fridge door in our Homeaway rental in Seattle kept popping open. We propped a chair against it to keep it closed.
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One last stop at the Ellenos Greek Yogurt stand at Pike Place Market before leaving Seattle. Absolutely the best yogurt we've ever had! Papa Tom especially liked the marion berry crunch yogurt. I liked the lemon custard and chai flavors.
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We cruised from Seattle to the San Juan Islands, in search of orcas. I was expecting orcas to be leaping out of the sea, like they do at Sea World. Not so. We saw maybe two leaps, or breeches, as they're called. Mostly, we saw dorsal fins. But a lot of them! Okay, if you look very, very closely, you'll see an orca's dorsal fin.
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Papa Tom on deck of the Victoria Clipper.
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On the pier at Friday Harbor
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Our ride
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On Mt. Ranier's Glacier Basin trail at around 5,000 feet. We hiked 7 miles roundtrip, in hopes of seeing a glacier up close. Turns out, as the name of the trail so clearly states, we would arrive at a place where a glacier scooped out a basin then either retreated or melted.
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Papa Tom stands above the White River, which is running through the rocks below.
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The end of the trail. We'd climbed about 1,600 feet in elevation: more windy and a lot chillier here!
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Papa Tom, standing in the glacier basin
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On our way back. Papa Tom on the switchback below me.
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Back in Seattle, we had our anniversary dinner at The Walrus and the Carpenter. And, as the Lewis Carroll poem suggests, the restaurant specializes in oysters.
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So many cyclists enjoying a stop at Fremont Brewing after 5 p.m.
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Great name for a dive bar
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I'm guessing Seattle is the only American city with a statue of Lenin on a street corner. The statue was rescued from Slovinia after the Soviet Union was dissolved. A man from Seattle discovered it face down in the dirt in Slovinia and thought it was a work of art that should be saved. He brought it to Seattle; then he died. So Lenin stands, with "blood" on his hands and face, in the Fremont neighborhood of Seattle. The statue actually is for sale. Hence the "for sale" sign on it?
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Gelato shop advertisement near the Lenin statue
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Waiting for the urban transit
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| Dancing |
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Looking from the Fremont neighborhood toward downtown Seattle. Do you see Mt. Ranier on the horizon?
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| Yikes! There's a troll under the bridge! |
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The Sloop Tavern, near the Ballard Locks, is supposed to have the world's best fish tacos. Not sure which lucky person got to travel the world sampling fish tacos before choosing these as the best.
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Have to admit, the fish tacos were delicious. We ordered a second helping!
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People didn't need to feed sea lions or seals. We saw a couple of seals feeding on smolts (juvenile salmon) that flowed into Puget Sound through the slides.
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Learned a new word: "smolts" are juvenile salmon.
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Smolt slides
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| This blue heron enjoyed a fine dinner at least seven smolts (that we saw) as they attempted to swim past him. |
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Papa waits at the salmon ladder windows. Apparently we were there too early in the season to see many salmon.
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We finally saw one salmon wriggle its way up the ladder through the locks.
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The Hiram M. Chittenden Locks, opened in 1917 and often nicknamed the Ballard Locks, provides a link for boats between the salt water of Puget Sound and the fresh water of the Ship Canal, which connects eastward to Lake Union and Lake Washington. Tourists and locals enjoy watching the parade of sailboats, motorboats, tugs, barges and yachts passing through, as the locks' water levels are adjusted to allow their safe passage. Here, we're standing on the sidewalk next to the Norsel as the crew waits for the water in their part of the locks to drop so they can travel into the next part of the locks, where the water is already down.
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See how far the water level drops?
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And even more!
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Here's where the Norsel is headed. Once inside this lock, the water level was raised to match the level of the slat water in Puget Sound.
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The Norsel, out of Homer, Alaska, is on its way
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We decided to celebrate our 20th wedding anniversary in Seattle. We flew out of Austin after 8 p.m. See the sunset? We had about 6 hours of travel time to work on the New York Times crossword puzzle, and we needed it. We buy a new book of 100 Sunday NY Times puzzles about every 3 or 4 years. That's how long it takes us to complete a book!
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| Jade picked a red, ripe, juicy tomato from Papa's garden |
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| Washing the tomato. Rainbows are from the a crystal hanging in one of the kitchen windows. |
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I think kids might have been jumping from the elm onto the trampoline during our ceremony. That's Blake, about to make the leap. Skyler's friend Timothy is right behind him, followed by Michael Craig and Amon (who went by "Tyghe" in those days).
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The Sistas. I'd love to know what startling news we had just received. Oh! And the computer. We were on AOL with a dial-up connection then, oh my!
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| Dad, Martin, and me |
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We had wedding cake, of course, but also a bride and groom piñata for the kids. Thanks to Skyler for customizing the piñata, down to Papa Tom's wire-rimmed glasses. When we saw the kids whacking the piñata (surrogate us!) with a stick, we had second thoughts about the wisdom of the idea!
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Almost Mr. and Mrs. Cloninger. Papa Tom wanted to wear his desert boots and jeans but Evelyn insisted that he wear dress pants and dress shoes. The compromise was Dockers and dress shoes. My co-workers and I found my wedding dress over lunch one day. I can't remember where now, except that it was not at a bridal shop.
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Tom's brother Jim performed our wedding ceremony. My friend Cheryl was my matron of honor. See the double doors behind us? In 2008, that became the doorway from our living room to our current kitchen. Looks like we were married between where the stove and island are now?
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Front row: Papa Tom's cousin's daughter, Sarah, Beka
Middle row: Papa Tom's brother Jim, me, Papa Tom, Jan (Jim's wife)
Back row: Papa Tom's Aunt Gwen, cousin Carol, Evelyn, Papa Tom's Uncle Gene
Not pictured are Tom's friends who stopped by on their move to Colorado: had to tie their Rotweiller to the peach tree during the ceremony. |
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Front row: Amon, Blake, Michael Craig
Second row: Ramzi, Papa Tom, me, Skyler
Behind us: Ryder, Donna (Colton in utero, unbeknownst to us all), Martha, Dad, Martin, Mom, Charles, and Timothy (Skyler's best friend)
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