The Good: The Bad: The Ugly

Tales from our week in Seattle

Travelogues can be quite boring, especially if you are not the one traveling. I am hoping to spice ours up a bit. My main goal is to preserve our lives in as honest a way as possible....Happy times mixed with sad times, peppered with some real ugliness. I didn't capture much of the ugliness in my photos, so if you really want to hear about the bad and the ugly, you will have to read the commentary.

SUNDAY NIGHT DRIVE TO SEATTLE....285 miles

The GOOD: We were all well behaved and saw a beautiful lightning storm through Snoqualmie Pass.


The BAD: We endured the last.....I promise, the last....Please, let it be the last.....dinner at a fast food restaurant.


THE UGLY: My attitude while we again (my devout blog readers will recall the horrific snowstorm drive of '07' last December) had to go through a horrible storm (rain can be as bad as snow) the last 60 miles of the trip.

MONDAY: August 18th

THE GOOD: Swimming in the hotel for two hours; Going to the Zoo for 5 hours; the kids allowing me to take 1000 pictures of them at the zoo. Coming back to the hotel to beds made and fresh towels.

THE BAD: Navigating around 500 summer-camp kids with 5 adult supervisors; getting lost on the way to the zoo; finding the giraffe petting coral was closed because of rain (my question is, "Is it really ever open?)

THE UGLY: Me yelling at Ansel for wanting me to carry him everywhere.....He is almost 5 years old for crying out loud....don't you think he should be walking on his own? Yes, that is pretty much what I yelled at him.

TUESDAY, AUGUST 19th

THE GOOD: Swimming in the hotel for 2 hours: Shopping at Trader Joes and eating exotic fruits(please please please come to Spokane, Trader Joes. I love you Trader Joes. I will never love another grocery store as much as you.): Finding a playground with a zip-line: Going to the Science Center for 4 hours: Corey taking the kids to the Music and Science Fiction Museum for Two Hours while I go for a walk at the Olympic Sculpture Park. Listening to a great park bench folk singer. Eating at the Cheesecake Factory.

THE BAD: Paying for parking wherever we go; Watching an IMAX movie on the eruption of Mt St. Helens that left me a little sick for the rest of the day; Fighting 500 summer-camp kids in matching t-shirts with 5 adult supervisors.

THE UGLY: Me yelling at the kids to please stay together because there are too many people here to keep track of you going in different directions. And don't put your fingers in your mouth after you touch something! Do you know how many germs there are in these science museums?:Seeing a police officer hiding behind some rocks, smoking pot.

WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 20th

THE GOOD: Getting up early and getting to the Aquarium right when it opens, hoping it won't be too crowded. Going on a one hour boat tour of Elliot Harbor. Visiting the Curio shop, where you can find sharks in a bottle, sheep with three heads, shrivelled up people and all sorts of crazy stuff; Swimming for 2 hours; Eating at a Japanese Restaurant and actually having the kids LIKE it.

THE BAD: Still having to navigate around 500 kids in matching t-shirts with 5 adult supervisors. (Where are these kids coming from and where are all the supervisors?); Ansel leaning over the edge of the tour boat enough to give me and several other concerned tourists anxiety attacks; Ansel still insists on putting his mouth on everything(note above photo of him kissing the seal)

THE UGLY; Our hair is turning really really green from all the swimming in the hotel pool; There are so many people on the streets here asking for money. I have such a hard time dealing with this situation. I find myself teetering on being completely numb to them or crying myself to sleep with thoughts of them. Emmy, in so many words, declares that she may be homeless one day.

THURSDAY, August 21st

THE GOOD: Spending the day with cousin Marika and her kids; Visiting the Chittenden Salmon Fish Ladder; Finding the Troll under the bridge; Spending hours at Discovery Park . NO SUMMERCAMP KIDS. Letting the kids run and play without fretting for their lives. Lighthouses are like breathmints for my soul. Making little people out of driftwood. Watching an Amazing Sunset. Eating at Thai Tom's

THE BAD: Having to call the police after witnessing a car burglary (the police were probably still high); Saying good-bye to Savanna and Emmy for two days. Getting lost a few times.

THE UGLY: Ansel whining all night because he couldn't go with the girls. His whining is not attractive at all.

Friday, August 22

THE GOOD: Finding a great thrift store; Going to the beach; Spending a beautiful day with Ansel because he loves the beach and completely forgot about all the whining last night; Picking big fat juicy blackberries; Walking around downtown into the late evening.

THE BAD: Walking around for two hours looking for somewhere non-touristy, a hole in the wall sort of place, with ambience and good food......Ending up at a touristy sea-food restaurant with inedible food.....at least we had a nice view of the water.....too bad we could smell the bathroom from our table.

THE UGLY: The rest of my pictures from this trip due to the fact that I forgot my camera battery charger at home and had to buy a fuji cardboard camera. I wonder if you can tell when the photos got ugly.

Thai Tom's Menu's

Saturday, August 23

THE GOOD: Spending the day with Corey; Renting a Canoe and Paddling around the marshes of Lake Washington: Eating again at Thai Tom's; Relaxing at the International Fountain at the Seattle Center: Happening upon a Tibetan Festival; Seeing how much fun Ansel has at the Children's Museum. Ansel dancing at the summer outdoor concert under the Space Needle;

THE BAD: Corey remembering how much he hates big cities; The summer outdoor concert under the Space Needle was excruciatingly awful (The name of the angry girl band was Miss Led....what did we expect?); Driving to Olympia to pick up the girls and hearing them cry about leaving; Departing at 10:00pm and Arriving home at 4:00 am.

THE UGLY: Corey and I fighting over absolutely nothing all morning, until I tell him that we just need to get in the Canoe and then everything will be fine. It is. Canoeing can solve many of my wierd problems; Miss Led's pink hair; Drinking a diet coke at 3:00 am to stay awake while driving is not a pretty sight.