{"id":1246,"date":"2013-06-03T00:57:31","date_gmt":"2013-06-03T05:57:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.maryjoandwill.com\/?p=1246"},"modified":"2013-06-03T01:02:09","modified_gmt":"2013-06-03T06:02:09","slug":"special-guest-post-seattle-visit-day-3-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.maryjoandwill.com\/?p=1246","title":{"rendered":"Special Guest Post \u2013 Seattle Visit Day 3"},"content":{"rendered":"

SUNDAY <\/span><\/p>\n

We started the day with 7:30am breakfast at Roxy\u2019s.\u00a0 No, we are not slackers.\u00a0 Even while on vacation, we are up and at it; too much to see\/do and too little time.\u00a0 Roxy\u2019s is about a block from Will\/Joni\u2019s apartment and like the typical small town caf\u00e9 you would see in MN serving up plates piled high with homemade food.\u00a0 The regulars and locals even eyed us as if to say, \u201cWho are the strangers and what are they doing here?\u201d<\/p>\n

Now this next part is just informational.\u00a0 I\u2019ll do my best to explain the neighborhood.\u00a0 So you walk from Roxy\u2019s to the end of the block and there is Phinney Street.\u00a0 The street the kids live on.<\/p>\n

\"01\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Let\u2019s stop for a moment to discuss that building over there.\u00a0 It smelled awful.\u00a0 I commented that it smelled just a terrible strong skunk smell.\u00a0 I turned around and the children were smirking.\u00a0 I have seen that smirking before!\u00a0 I have seen that smirk when I have said something that strikes teenagers as really stupid because they know something I don\u2019t know. (EX: \u201cYou are taking that math test tomorrow.\u00a0 Period!\u201d\u00a0 And the teenagers know everyone is taking a school skip day tomorrow.\u00a0 They won\u2019t even BE in school much less taking a math test.\u00a0 So then they smirk.)\u00a0 I don\u2019t know why the red cross sign is green and there was a sign on the door stating that you had to have a WA state ID or medical card or something.\u00a0 Well, let\u2019s move on and turn right.<\/p>\n

\"02\"<\/a><\/p>\n

You walk half way up the block to the apartment.\u00a0 Here they are going into their apartment building.<\/p>\n

\"03\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Next we walked back down Phinney Street, past the skunk store, and crossed the street.\u00a0 That\u2019s the corner where Will gets on the bus each morning.\u00a0 When you walk down to the end of that block, you see the outdoor movie lot.<\/p>\n

\"04\"<\/a><\/p>\n

This is a parking lot by day and the theater by night.\u00a0 People bring their lawn chairs, sit in the parking lot and watch the movie.\u00a0 The movies are kind of old ones, but occasionally I would think there would be a good old one to see.\u00a0 Besides, it\u2019s a great opportunity for the community to gather and visit.<\/p>\n

Across the street from the cinema is\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026<\/p>\n

\"05\"<\/a><\/p>\n

THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY!\u00a0 We did not have time for the tour, but sampled all the candy and bought a few bars.\u00a0 Then we walked down the side of the building to the next street, Canal Street, which is the one blocked off every Sunday for the Market.\u00a0 You have this to the right.<\/p>\n

\"06\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The dinosaurs.\u00a0 Joni rides her bike down to and behind the dinosaurs to get on the bike path which is right between the dinosaurs and the canal.\u00a0 She rides 2.5 miles to the school.\u00a0 It is a well-used path, no car traffic around it, and looks pretty safe to be biking on. \u00a0We\u2019ll be coming back to these dinosaurs later in the day.<\/p>\n

And to the left on Canal Street is where the Sunday Market begins.\u00a0 I did not take any pictures of the market, but it is lots of jewelry and items people have made, clothes, pictures, some food, honey, jams and an indoor part packed with vendors.\u00a0 There were also a few places with old items like tools, sewing machines, kids\u2019 toys, kitchen utensils, etc.\u00a0 Joni bought a cheese grater.\u00a0 I had expected the Sunday Market to be fresh vegetable but did not see any of that, but they did have those FLOWERS!<\/p>\n

We exited the Market at the end of the block and visited an organic grocery store to pick up gluten-free crackers and salmon.\u00a0 We walked around the corner so I could get some Peet\u2019s coffee.\u00a0 We could get Peet\u2019s in Florida, but not in MN.<\/p>\n

\"07\"<\/a><\/p>\n

On down the street, we saw the statue of Lenin.\u00a0 The statue was constructed by a guy in Czechoslovakia shortly before the Czechoslovakia revolution.\u00a0\u00a0 When the country fell away from communism, you can imagine how popular the new statue of a communist leader was so the townspeople threw it into the dump.\u00a0 An American found it there, eventually bought it, shipped it to Seattle, and amid some uproar by the residents of Seattle, it got put up in Fremont.\u00a0 It rather surprised everyone to see how much the Fremont people enjoy their statue.\u00a0 They dress up and paint the statue appropriately for all the holidays\/events.\u00a0 (EX; decorate it with Christmas lights)\u00a0 You are supposed to shake fingers with Lenin for good luck\u2026\u2026\u2026.or something.\u00a0 Of course, some communists and people who need to have a \u201ccause\u201d occasionally express their outrage that Lenin is treated so inappropriately and disrespectfully.\u00a0 And I would agree with them if Lenin were a real person standing there, but he\u2019s a statue; he doesn\u2019t have feelings.\u00a0 I certainly could not go along with putting a red dress on a real person and painting his face blue.\u00a0 That would not be very nice\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026..but I\u2019m getting off track here.<\/p>\n

\"08\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Then it was on to see the Troll under the bridge.\u00a0 On our way, we passed this.<\/p>\n

\"09\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Everyone needs to know where their local branch of the library is and this is Fremont\u2019s!\u00a0 The kids have their library cards.\u00a0 Next to the library was a van with \u201cfor library use only.\u00a0 Library staff only\u201d.\u00a0 We wondered if our Trish, in all her 25 years of librarying,\u00a0 ever got a library van to drive around in.\u00a0 I don\u2019t think the notion ever occurred to her.\u00a0 Otherwise, she would have been in to the Commissioners demanding that perk.<\/p>\n

Now the Troll is under the Aurora Bridge, right where the bridge\/highway starts over the canal.\u00a0 You have to climb the hill up to it and this is what I meant by \u201cgot some help\u201d.<\/p>\n

\"10\"<\/a><\/p>\n

What daughter-in-law do you know that would help push her old mother-in-law up a hill?\u00a0 Many would help kick their mother-in-law down the hill, but up the hill?\u00a0 Surprisingly, it really helps!\u00a0 And notice who is carrying our sack of purchases in that paper bag all this way!<\/p>\n

I thought this may be the solution to any unemployment issues Seattle might have.\u00a0 The City would hire all those folks as people-pushers, station them at the bottom of the most used, popular hills, and they could push people up the hills all day.\u00a0 Of course, they could only be the young strong unemployed and tourists could give the people pushers tips in addition to their minimum wage.\u00a0 Anyway\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026..here we are at the Troll.\u00a0 We were supposed to climb up there and try to poke the Troll\u2019s eye out but, since there were several other groups trying to take pictures by the Troll, we never got to that part.\u00a0 Besides, asking my daughter-in-law to push me up onto the Troll\u2019s shoulder may be taking advantage of her kindness.<\/p>\n

\"11\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Next we headed back to the kids\u2019 apartment for a while.\u00a0 We had some time before the next event, so we used it to get acquainted with Minecraft, the video game.\u00a0 I had heard of that game and just assumed it was shooting aliens\/monsters\/people or stealing cars like all the other video games.\u00a0 It turns out to be chopping up cube shaped rocks to make stuff.\u00a0 That\u2019s it-chopping up rocks.\u00a0 It reminded me of the old Sims building computer games Will started out on when he was about 10.\u00a0 You always hear how video games are not good for kids and make them more violent. \u00a0Minecraft would not be one of the video games included in that idea.\u00a0 \u00a0The kids were quite excited about the game, but Eldon & I could not really see the point of playing that.\u00a0 We may have dozed off.<\/p>\n

\"12\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026.I say we\u2019ve dozed off\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026you can go now, but be back here at 1pm for that 1:30pm reservation we have.\u00a0 Thank you.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

SUNDAY We started the day with 7:30am breakfast at Roxy\u2019s.\u00a0 No, we are not slackers.\u00a0 Even while on vacation, we are up and at it; too much to see\/do and too little time.\u00a0 Roxy\u2019s is about a block from Will\/Joni\u2019s apartment and like the typical small town caf\u00e9 you would see in MN serving up […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1246","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-travel"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.maryjoandwill.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1246"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.maryjoandwill.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.maryjoandwill.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.maryjoandwill.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.maryjoandwill.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1246"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.maryjoandwill.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1246\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1261,"href":"https:\/\/www.maryjoandwill.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1246\/revisions\/1261"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.maryjoandwill.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1246"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.maryjoandwill.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1246"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.maryjoandwill.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1246"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}