Windy Gas Works and an Interesting Day
Here are some pictures I took last Fall at Gas Works Park. It was the windiest day ever! I felt like if I had been wearing a jacket with more of a flap, I would have been picked up by the wind and blown across the lake! I wonder if wind ever gets strong enough to pick up small children. If I had been with children on this particular day, I would have been concerned for their safety. Although, from a kid's perspective, being picked up by the wind would probably be the best day ever! As long as the ride in the wind ended with no injuries.
I recently had a very interesting 'Downtown Day.' I went downtown with David, but after brunch, he went to the Sounders game and I moseyed off to explore the happenings of downtown. First, I went into a free gold rush museum that I had never seen before. I learned about how the Klondike Gold Rush in Alaska really helped the economy of Seattle because people would stop in Seattle to buy goods for their long trek. The most interesting fact about the gold rush was people's willingness to leave behind descent lives all in hopes they will strike it big with gold. In some ways, these people seem nuts. People left behind a comfortable life for the strife of making a new life in cold and wild Alaska, all for the small chance that gold would be discovered. But on the other hand, it makes me smile to think of the power of optimism and imagination. Probably while doing mundane tasks at an unfulfilling day job, the future gold minors imagined a romantic and adventurous life in Alaska looking for gold. They probably had a grand time daydreaming about what they would do with their golden riches. It is amazing the power that daydreams can have to propel people toward adventure (and danger!).
After leaving the gold rush museum, I found a really neat store to explore. It is a store that sells rocks and fossils. It basically reminded me of a miniature natural history museum. It was very interesting to look at the fossils of giant mollusks and ancient sand dollars. There was also a fossil of a prehistoric cave bear! Along with fossils was a taxidermied bat and displays of insects the size of my hand. There were also many beautiful rocks. While exploring this museum, I was made nervous by the prices attached to the displays. Six-hundred dollars, holy cow! I had no intention of buying anything, but I was made nervous because: what happens if I move too quickly or awkwardly and I end up knocking something over and breaking it? This is when I came up with a good idea for clumsy people called 'clumsy-person-insurance.' This insurance would cover expenses due to a person's clumsiness, such as knocking into something expensive and breaking it. In my initial imaginings of 'clumsy-person-insurance' it would be very cheap, maybe twenty dollars a year. Because, even though clumsy people worry about breaking things in stores, I don't think it really happens that often. But it would give a clumsy person peace of mind to know they are covered if they do happen to break something expensive.
After leaving the miniature natural history museum disguised as a rock store, (and Phew! I did not break anything) I wandered off to the Seattle Mystery Bookshop to peruse the shelves of mysteries. I love living in a place that has a mystery bookshop, although I have not yet bought something from it. I rarely buy books because of the library. But one of these days I will have to buy a book from the shop just to support it since I think it is such a grand idea.
Next, I was off to the tea shop to get some loose leave tea. But it was so crowded that I grabbed my free sample of brewed tea and skedaddled right out of there. My last destination of the day was the library so I headed that way. This is when I came across something quite wonderful- a parade! Sometimes I really love living in a city because I run into random things like parades. This parade was the St. Patty's day parade, although it wasn't St. Patrick's day, it was Saturday before. I got there toward the tail end of the parade but I saw bag pipers, pirates, and a marching band. Trailing along with the marching band was a man wearing a green shirt walking an Irish Setter. It was really funny because the man looked out of place. It was as if he was on the street viewing the parade when he thought to himself, 'Hey, I am wearing green. An lookie here, my dog is 'Irish!' Might as well join the parade!' But later I found out dogs were actually a real part of the parade. After the last section of the parade passed where I was standing, I walked toward the front and easily surpassed the slow moving paraders. This is when I started seeing more dogs in the parade. There were a bunch of people walking Irish Wolfhounds, Irish Water Spaniels and Irish Setters. So the green-shirt-guy just got behind his companions somehow. I still like the idea of him just joining the parade on his own whim.
The last part of the day was spent at the library finding graphic novels. I am sure I will share some of the titles later. I have been having really good luck lately with finding interesting graphic novels to read!
The worst part of this otherwise quite interesting and enjoyable day was that I forgot to bring my camera!
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| The white goose adopted a new family. |
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| Windy, Windy Day. This lake should not have waves. |
I recently had a very interesting 'Downtown Day.' I went downtown with David, but after brunch, he went to the Sounders game and I moseyed off to explore the happenings of downtown. First, I went into a free gold rush museum that I had never seen before. I learned about how the Klondike Gold Rush in Alaska really helped the economy of Seattle because people would stop in Seattle to buy goods for their long trek. The most interesting fact about the gold rush was people's willingness to leave behind descent lives all in hopes they will strike it big with gold. In some ways, these people seem nuts. People left behind a comfortable life for the strife of making a new life in cold and wild Alaska, all for the small chance that gold would be discovered. But on the other hand, it makes me smile to think of the power of optimism and imagination. Probably while doing mundane tasks at an unfulfilling day job, the future gold minors imagined a romantic and adventurous life in Alaska looking for gold. They probably had a grand time daydreaming about what they would do with their golden riches. It is amazing the power that daydreams can have to propel people toward adventure (and danger!).
After leaving the gold rush museum, I found a really neat store to explore. It is a store that sells rocks and fossils. It basically reminded me of a miniature natural history museum. It was very interesting to look at the fossils of giant mollusks and ancient sand dollars. There was also a fossil of a prehistoric cave bear! Along with fossils was a taxidermied bat and displays of insects the size of my hand. There were also many beautiful rocks. While exploring this museum, I was made nervous by the prices attached to the displays. Six-hundred dollars, holy cow! I had no intention of buying anything, but I was made nervous because: what happens if I move too quickly or awkwardly and I end up knocking something over and breaking it? This is when I came up with a good idea for clumsy people called 'clumsy-person-insurance.' This insurance would cover expenses due to a person's clumsiness, such as knocking into something expensive and breaking it. In my initial imaginings of 'clumsy-person-insurance' it would be very cheap, maybe twenty dollars a year. Because, even though clumsy people worry about breaking things in stores, I don't think it really happens that often. But it would give a clumsy person peace of mind to know they are covered if they do happen to break something expensive.
After leaving the miniature natural history museum disguised as a rock store, (and Phew! I did not break anything) I wandered off to the Seattle Mystery Bookshop to peruse the shelves of mysteries. I love living in a place that has a mystery bookshop, although I have not yet bought something from it. I rarely buy books because of the library. But one of these days I will have to buy a book from the shop just to support it since I think it is such a grand idea.
Next, I was off to the tea shop to get some loose leave tea. But it was so crowded that I grabbed my free sample of brewed tea and skedaddled right out of there. My last destination of the day was the library so I headed that way. This is when I came across something quite wonderful- a parade! Sometimes I really love living in a city because I run into random things like parades. This parade was the St. Patty's day parade, although it wasn't St. Patrick's day, it was Saturday before. I got there toward the tail end of the parade but I saw bag pipers, pirates, and a marching band. Trailing along with the marching band was a man wearing a green shirt walking an Irish Setter. It was really funny because the man looked out of place. It was as if he was on the street viewing the parade when he thought to himself, 'Hey, I am wearing green. An lookie here, my dog is 'Irish!' Might as well join the parade!' But later I found out dogs were actually a real part of the parade. After the last section of the parade passed where I was standing, I walked toward the front and easily surpassed the slow moving paraders. This is when I started seeing more dogs in the parade. There were a bunch of people walking Irish Wolfhounds, Irish Water Spaniels and Irish Setters. So the green-shirt-guy just got behind his companions somehow. I still like the idea of him just joining the parade on his own whim.
The last part of the day was spent at the library finding graphic novels. I am sure I will share some of the titles later. I have been having really good luck lately with finding interesting graphic novels to read!
The worst part of this otherwise quite interesting and enjoyable day was that I forgot to bring my camera!