The Space Needle

When I was in the 3rd Grade I read in my Weekly Reader about a "Space Needle" being built in Seattle, WA.  I still remember thinking that it would be the most incredible thing in the world to be able to visit Seattle and go up in that amazing structure.  But as much as I really wanted to go up in it, I just knew that I would never be able to do so.

Well, on September 9, 2013, a mere 50 years later, I finally got my wish.  The four of us continued our celebration of mom's birthday by having lunch in the space needle.  And I must say that it is everything I expected.  I loved the rotation as we ate.  It went around more than twice during our meal (because someone, I don't know who, couldn't decide what he wanted to eat, and then took all day eating it).  

What a great time!  Here are some photos.

  The view from across Lake Union.

 Emerging from the morning fog.

At long last, we have arrived.

 The view to the west from our table - the Olympic National Forest.  It was a beautiful day and we could see the surrounding mountain ranges quite well.

 Our desert.  It was not only entertaining (as was the waiter), but tasted good too.

Downtown Seattle, with Mt. Ranier off to the right in the background.

 View to the NE, across Lake Union with Bothell off in the distance.

Giant spiders on top of the museum building down below.

 In the restaurant.  We went around more than twice - what a thrill.

After lunch we went up on the observation deck and took some more pictures.

It was a really clear day and the view was great.

 The Totem Pole out front of the Space Needle.

The park around the structure was beautifully landscaped as well.

Happy Happy Birthday

Last Sunday was mom's birthday and we celebrated with a really great chocolate cake made by M from a recipe from Andrea.  Here are some photos from the celebration.

 The candles are specially color coded to add up to the correct age, 

but only those who can break the code will know.

So as you may notice, the candles kind of leaned and drooped.  This was because we were so anxious to eat the cake that we didn't let is cool down before inserting the candles, so they melted from bottom as well as from the top.  The cake was just as good as it looks.
And this was just the beginning of the celebration, which continued the next day, Monday, in Seattle.  But that is the subject of another post.  Stay tuned.

Leavenworth, WA

We're now here in Washington and staying busy as little beavers (oh wait, that's the wrong state).  Anyhow, here is the first of a series of posts I hope to make over the next couple of days.  It is a real joy to get to know Nathan better and to spend time with Emily and Nathan seeing some of what is available in WA.

The first place we went was a little town on the other side of the Cascades that is all made up in Bavarian style.  It was rainy when we got there, but the sun came out and we had a good time, getting some real German food for lunch.

 This is a shot of the road to Leavenworth.  It took a couple hours to get there, but we had good company and the time went by fast.

 The main intersection in town, looking right down this street (south) you can see the pretty line up of shops.

 Looking down the other street, to the east.

 Looking back up the street to the north, from the other end.  Lots of shops, and lots of good things to eat - like chocolate and cheese.

 In addition to the exposed timbers that gave the whole town a Bavarian feeling, most of the shops had murals painted on them - including the local Safeway and McDonalds.

 Beautiful benches as well, with pretty girls sitting on them.

 As well as rustic benches with manly guys taking a break from the shops.

Us, standing in front of the German eatery where we had lunch.  The food was quite good, and according to our tour leaders, fairly accurately German as well.  I will leave it to our hosts to maybe leave comments indicating what it was we ate.  I had a schnitzel, as did M.  I forgot what mom had, but I must say that I liked the Rot Kohl, but not the sauerkraut which the tour leader agreed was not so good, and we also liked the little dumpling-kind-of-thing.  All in all it was very good.

 Nathan in front of one of the shops, in which, it will surprise nobody, we spent a long time. 

 In another shop there were approximately 3,564,922 different styles of nutcrackers - including some Mormon missionary nutcrackers.  This is a mere sample of just one wall.  Amazing.