cascadian telegrams

“just smile and wave, boys, smile and wave…”

The new Humboldt Penguin Exhibit at the Woodland Park Zoo up the street is pretty cool… more photos here for all of you that just can’t get enough of penguins… marching… ever marching, onwards…

family and bicycle rides

we’re trying to make a Sunday tradition of taking a family bicycle ride together.  Today we went out along the Burke-Gilman to the Chittenden Locks to watch the boats go through for a while.

I love going down to the Locks.  It smells of the sea, there’s stuff to engage kids there and in summer you can watch salmon climbing the fish ladder on their way back to Lake Washington.  Also it’s an easy ride along the Burke-Gilman to the Locks (the missing link from 24th Ave to the Locks is planned for the near future).  We pass both the Fremont Sunday Market and the Ballard Sunday Farmers Market along the way, and crossing the locks is a much better way to reach Magnolia and Discovery Park on a bike versus the Ballard Bridge.

Malcolm has one of those trailer-bike thingies so I tow him on these rides.  I want him to appreciate the sense of freedom you have on a bicycle… he loves it so far.

On an unrelated-family note:  It was a week/weekend for my brothers too.  My brother Matt and his wife Colleen popped into town from L.A. for some things they had going on up here this weekend so we got to see them briefly which was nice, and my brother Dave just returned safely to Oregon from a 5,000 mile motorcycle trip.  I’m glad/relieved he’s back!

chilly hilly

last Sunday 2/22 was the annual Chilly Hilly ride around Bainbridge Island.  As the first ‘official’ mass ride of the season (that’s the ‘Chilly’ part – 40’s) in Seattle, It was an annual tradition for us before we left for DK in 2004 so I thought I’d pick up where we’d left off this year.  Above you can see the ‘bikes only’ ferry with hundreds of riders.  I remember the first time I rode a guy in front of me turning to his friend and saying “this is what it will be like when the revolution comes” (meaning:  no cars :)).

Chilly Hilly has been called the “Best Ride in Seattle” by Bicycling Magazine.  It’s 33 miles and 2,675 feet  (that’s the ‘Hilly’ part) of elevation, including a few massive hills.  It’s arduous but fun with beautiful views of the sound and the city along the route. 

I was jet-lagged from the previous night’s flight and hadn’t trained but thought I’d have a go anyway this time, so I threw my bike on the front of the #16 bus which took me right down to the ferry terminal (convenient!).  I rode with my friends Scott, Alex and Denis and a few of their friends.  As usual, it was a circus down there with tandems, funny bikes, fixies, a few unicyclists and even a guy with a huge paper-mache frog riding tandem (?).

Maybe because of the lag and lack of training it was a bit tougher than I remember, but still fun!  Next year I hope Susan Malcolm and I can all do it, although I’ll have to pull him on the bike trailer to do that…

ah, winter in seattle

why live anywhere else?

<cough/>

the hygge season cometh

very Christmas-y right now with snow on the ground, visits with friends and a desire to get all hygge (roughly translated: cosy) @ home.  Here’s Malcolm decorating gingerbread cookies that Susan made

and making a snow-fort in the yard

he and Susan went sliding in the park today… fun!  But I had to work, alas, and watched from the window near my desk, like a pet in a petshop at springtime.  But there’s more fun to be had yet this season!

brunch with fc krush alums

a belated post on a lovely brunch at Volterra from Sunday 12/7.  Pictured above are Malcolm (our chimpanzee, who wont’ sit still),  Mike and Jackie’s daughter Anna and Susan and Alex’s children Charlie and Clara.  Mike and Jackie just moved to Boulder and were back in SEA for the weekend, and while Susan and Alex still live in SEA we don’t seem them often enough, alas :(.

There are a group of us (including Andy and Tracy and their two boys.. not here this time) who lived in Capitol Hill circa 1999-2000.  The ‘glue’ was our Seattle City Soccer League team, FC Krush (NB FCK in Copenhagen :)) .   I was hopeless as a footy player but it was how my then-coworker Mike Gilbert and I met Andy and Alex and we all became fast friends. 

Coincidentally we all had kids roughly around the same time, which was nice in that it made our bonds even stronger, but bad in the sense that each of us, in turn, moved from CapHill in search of a more kid-friendly (and affordable) place.  Still:  Nice to see them, every periodically.

As for Volterra:  A nice place for brunch, supposedly good Italian food but will have to go back and try dinner here….

halloween

a fun Halloween this year with Malcolm as Batman and Jacki the Valkyrie, above

the annual Halloween party at the seattle aquarium, complete with underwater pumpkin carving and spooky stuff

and a Halloween party with the first grade class, followed by trick-or-treating in our neighborhood on Halloween night.

boring mum and dad didn't dress up this year.  I dunno, we were knackered, next year for sure.  But Malcolm had fun.  Snaps are here.

team megalodon

malcolm just finished his first season of footy with 'Team Megalodon' (the boys made that one up), here they are with coach dave...

I must admit he is a bit dozy out there and usually a step behind some of the kids that are natural athletes, but hey, if he is having fun and he doesn't mind, than I don't mind.  If he became discouraged we'd go and try something different, but as he isn't I think it is great that he is getting his first taste of team sport and hopefully a positive imprint.

the lucy show

We went with John and Jacki to see 'Lucy's Lgacy' at the Pacific Science Center on Sunday... it was great.

Some great fossil replicas there and demonstrations of differences between us and our ancestors by comparing attributes such as our walking gait (as anatomically-modern humans) versus apes and our ancestors, relative brain volume etc.  Also some terrific dioramas showing humanoid evolution.  Recommended, especially for budding young paleontologists.

It's worth it just for the trip down to Seattle Center.  The Marion Oliver McCaw Hall has a great mobile-style sculpture hanging in the lobby, made from construction debris and equipment such as contorted painting ladders... marvellous.

father's day and kayaks

As a father's day gift for my dad, we  did a four-day "Fundamentals of Sea Kayaking" course together at the Northwest Outdoor Center on Lake Union.  It included a little classroom instruction covering fundamentals then lots of time paddling including self- and assisted-rescue in Lake Union and, as a finale, a whole day learning how to handle currents in Deception Pass.

It was great:  The weather was perfect and we had a lot of fun.  The currents are very strong up in the pass so many people end up in the drink, but with a dry suit and life preserver you just float there and don't get cold even though the water is quite frigid.  We saw bald eagles, egrets, herons and a few seals checking us out up close.

I've got to hand it to my dad, for a 71 year-old guy he has a lot of energy and appetite for adventure.  And now we have another fun activity we can do together.  Happy Father's Day, dad!