Cancer Cure

Did you happen to see this article in Seattle Business magazine's December issue?
If you missed it, please check it out - it is worth a read for information, and intilling HOPE. Cures are coming, and some of them are coming through Seattle.
Cancer Cure, Inc.

Springtime Miscellany

Ah, Spring - how I love thee! - almost as much as I love summertime. The colors, the breezy days, the puffy white clouds in the deep blue sky, the new growth & infinite shades of green...Springtime, your riches are a gift after the deep grays of winter in the Pacific Northwest.

Last week, I was felled by a one-day flu bug. I spent the entire day in bed, and slept for most of the 24 hours it held. The following day, I was up, but moving more slowly than usual. Then it was time do some work for the guild (deliver quilts to Tracie for the hospital; Lucile & Noble delivered quilts and picked up donated fabric; I gave an informal presentation to 3 ladies in the neighborhood) and attempt to work out some kinks in the publishing business. I signed books at Liberty Bay Books, picked up knitted blankets from their group for the hospital, and took care of some business at the post office.

On Friday, I went for a walk with Reba and Robin, two women who I would not know if our children hadn't died - but who I am glad to know in any case. We had a cup of coffee afterward and got caught up on more news. One item that came up was the fact that Robin does some volunteer work for Field's End, a local writer's community. I've looked at their offerings before, but felt much too shy to attend. Well, Robin mentioned their next workshop, and suggested that Reba and I might want to sign up. The result is that we are all going to be there, and I am alternating between nervousness and excitement. What a blessing, to have such a community right nearby!

After that, I drove north to Hansville, to the home of Heidi's mom & dad, Lila & Gary. We have relatives in the town of Hansville, and it is a place of great natural beauty. Lila & Gary's house sits atop a very high bluff, overlooking a stupendous panorama of Puget Sound, the Cascade Mountains and Whidbey Island. It is a great place to meet friends for lunch and a lesson in how to make real Norwegian lefse. (Don't know what lefse is? Follow the link and you will find out.)

As regular readers here will know, Poulsbo is known as "Little Norway" because this area was settled by Norwegian immigrants - and many of their descendants are still here. Gregg is descended from some of these hardy, stoic, loving people, and so is Heidi, so when our friend Suzanne purchased "A Lesson in Lefse with Lila" at a charity auction, it promised to be not only authentic but great fun. FUN is part of the deal when you do something with Heidi and her family!

Emily, Heidi, Heather, Della, Suzanne & Lila

We ate a delicious lunch, chatting and taking in the view, and then we gathered around Lila to watch and learn...and eat. We ate Lefse Friday afternoon until we had no room for anything else - not even for dinner. Thanks, Suzanne, for allowing us to tag along on your auction purchase!

Saturday was "date day." Gregg and I decided to take a long walk somewhere, but where? His choice was to take the ferry to Seattle and walk around the city. That's exactly what we did - for about 6.5 miles! It was like being tourists in our own back yard - the kind of thing we love to do on trips out of town, but applied to our own nearby city.

We walked up from the waterfront to Capitol Hill, where my parents both grew up. We stopped for a chai latte and sat in the WELCOME sunshine together. This was the first day that the temperature has broken 60 degrees since last autumn. Aaaaahhhh!

Then we hit the road again. We walked up to a busy street called Broadway, which is now a very colorful neighborhood hub, and we saw lots of local color there. We then took a side street through a residential area, known for its beautiful, traditional architecture. We ogled the houses and the view to the west, enjoying crocuses and other signs of spring in the neighborhood. We turned at historic St. Mark's Cathedral, crossed to the other side of the neighborhood, and found ourselves walking past Lowell Elementary, which my parents both attended, and the old Anhalt-designed apartment buildings, known in Seattle for their architectural flair (my dad and his family lived in one of these when he was a boy). Gregg surprised me by noting the many Dutch Colonial-style that houses we saw, identifying them by their roofs. I wouldn't have guessed that he knew about this - he is full of surprises!

We walked down Denny & Olive Way to the R.E.I. flagship store, where we browsed for a while. Then we walked to Tutta Bella (authentic Neapolitan pizzeria) right on time for happy hour, and enjoyed a small pizza & beer (for Gregg) and wine (for me). After happy hour, we walked to the new Nordstrom Rack (recently re-located) and shopped a bit (their new shopping bags say "score" on them, for good reason). After that, we took a saunter through the Pike Place Market as it was closing down for the day, down Western Avenue and back to the ferry terminal. We rode over to Bainbridge Island as the sun was setting behind the Olympic Mountains, and walked from the dock to our car.

To round out the day, we stopped at our favorite pub, the Harbour House, for a little snack. While Gregg was parking the car, I ran into our nephew, Joey, and his girlfriend, Shannon. They just happened to be down from the Mt. Baker area, staying on a friend's new sailboat for the night after a shake-down cruise. We invited them to join us for a nightcap and we had a blast getting caught up with them.

I love being a tourist in my own back yard! Do you ever do this in your home town?

What a Fieldtrip!

I need to do other things today than write a blog posting, but if I don't write this down now, it's likely I will forget something.

Yesterday was the big fieldtrip to Seattle with the students from Ste. Tulle, their teacher and their principal. If I tell you what we did, you are going to want to lie down and take a nap. {Times are approximate}

7:35 a.m. -Arrive at school to load in parent vehicles

7:45 -Drive to ferry dock; park cars.
8:30 -Walk on ferry.
9:20 - Walk from ferry dock along the Seattle waterfront to the Seattle Aquarium.
View the exhibits indoors and out, including touch tanks. See seals and otters playing. See diver feeding fish.

10:30 -Walk up the Pike Street Hillclimb to Pike Place Market.

Visit fish vendor, spice & tea shop, doughnut vendor. Sample jellies, honey, chocolate pasta, kumquats, etc. Look at local crafts.

Walk to the alley to see the "gum wall;" students chew & place their gum on wall.

The Gum Wall

Visit original Starbucks store. Buy souvenirs.

12:30 p.m. -Walk to Westlake Center. On the way, students walk through "interactive" fountain in Westlake Park. Ride escalator up to top floor of mall. Show students various food vendors. Choose what to eat for lunch; sit down and eat.

1: 30 -Board Monorail and ride through the Experience Music Project building (designed by Frank Gehry) to the Seattle Center.

The Monorail

EMP

Go to the Space Needle. Students ride elevator to top observation deck. Students return to base of Needle to shop for souvenirs.

{Two boys and one chaperone peel off for the REI Flagship store at this point}
2:45 -Board Monorail and ride back to Westlake Center. Disembark and cross the street to Nordstrom Flagship store. Meet Smileygirl and her husband for tour and sales/shopping lesson/game. Winning student is given a book on fashion. Students shop at Nordstrom. {Boys and chaperone rejoin the group.}
4:00 -Return to Westlake Center for more shopping.
4:30 -Depart Westlake Center to walk to North Face Store (students' request). Walk through Seattle Symphony Hall, introducing group to glass sculpture by Dale Chihuly.

Chandelier by Chihuly

Walk by Seattle Art Museum. Students take photos with Hammering Man.
5:00 -Arrive North Face Store. More shopping.
5:40 -Students and chaperones depart on foot through Pioneer Square to attend Seattle Mariners baseball game.
{At this point, I walk to the ferry terminal to go home; other parent chaperones take my place. I board the 6:20 ferry, arriving home at 7:30}
10:00 - Students and chaperones board ferry for Bainbridge Island.
10:50 p.m. -Zoe arrives at our house.

The students are touring the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard in Bremerton, and taking a kayak lesson back in Poulsbo today. I'm getting re-organized here at home.

Le Weekend

We had a busy weekend with Zoe.

A recap:

Saturday:  sleep in. Make Swedish pancakes and bacon for breakfast. Pack lunches. Clean up.

Catch the ferry to Seattle. Drive around for a brief tour of Madison Park, the Arboretum, University of Washington (U District), Eastlake, and back to Alaskan Way. Park the car.

Board a bus to ride to Lake Union. Board Argosy boat for Lake and Locks Cruise.

Cruise & guided tour of Lake Union, complete with highlights: floating houses (including the "Sleepless in Seattle" floating house), Gasworks Park, Fremont cut,

Ballard Bridge and Fisherman's Terminal.

This fishing boat, the Gun-Mar, belonged to one of Gregg's Norwegian cousins.

Eat lunch on the boat. Cruise through the Hiram M. Chittenden Locks, which connects Lake Union (fresh water) with Puget Sound (salt water). Chittenden also designed the Panama Canal. On through Shilshole Bay,

out into the open waters of Puget Sound, around Magnolia Bluff and the Seattle waterfront.

Disembark the Argosy boat. Walk uptown to see if we can take Zoe up to the top of the tallest building in the city (Columbia Tower). It's closed on Saturdays.

Continue uptown, with brief tour of the Fairmont Olympic Hotel (former the residence of my great-grandmother). Look at shops along 5th Avenue, enter Nordstrom. Cross skybridge to Pacific Place. Show Zoe the L'Occitane store, the original (and factory) of which is in Manosque, France, near her home town.

Head toward Pike Place Market and down Harbour Steps to Red Robin for dinner (so Zoe can have one of many types of hamburger).

Dine while watching the sun set over the Olympic Mountains. Get into car and ride ferry home, with lights of Seattle twinkling in the distance.

My love, a.k.a. "the old man of the sea." He's not really old, but he is salty!

Sunday:  sleep in, pack lunches and head in the other direction, towards the Olympic Peninsula. Drive for about an hour, across the Hood Canal floating bridge, until we reach Port Townsend. Start at the beach,

and walk through a large meadow into the park, exploring the concrete bunkers and gun emplacements built before World War I.

There are many spectacular scenic viewpoints in this park,

from which it's possible to see all the way to Canada. This is the former U.S. Army base where the movie, "An Officer and a Gentleman" was filmed.

We ate our picnic near the lighthouse

and walked along the beach, up through another area of the park, to return to our car.

Driving into town, we bought frozen, chocolate-dipped bananas for Zoe & David, coffee for Gregg, and walked along, exploring the main street. There is a great antique mall where we spent some time browsing happily.

After an hour or so of driving, we stopped and ate dinner at our favorite Thai restaurant, Sawatdy, on Bainbridge Island. Then we went back home for the evening.

Today, it's laundry and housecleaning for me, work for Gregg and school for the kids.