Year Three - Days Seventy-Eight and Seventy-Nine

Sam's View

Day 78    July 13

Today was a stay home day because daddy was supposed to come home today but he didn’t. I minecrafted, watched some TV, and played on the inflatable thingy.   :)

Day 79   July 14

Today we went on a hike with Buster! The trail was called Denny Creek. It was a 2 mile hike and it was awesome!


Summer's View

Jim was supposed to come home tomorrow, but he decided he needed to stay a few more days to take care of business, so Sam and I decided to have a stay home day.  We played on the computer, I did some paperwork and housecleaning, and Sam played at the playground a lot.

The next day, we drove about 40 miles east of Seattle to a place called Denny Creek Recreation Area in the Snoqualmie National Forest.  We planned to hike about three miles, and Buster could come too!

When we got to the area, there were cars everywhere!  Apparently, everyone else in the area had the same idea!  :)  We had to park a quarter-mile away from the trailhead!

It was a beautiful forest hike, and Buster had a blast, too.  I never saw so many people and dogs while hiking!  The hiking trail took us under a giant viaduct along Denny Creek, and it was pretty much a steady climb one way, with a steady decline coming back.  EVERYBODY complimented Buster!  :)

Year Three - Day Seventy-Seven

Sam's

Today me and mommy went to the Klondike Gold Rush National Park. I learned a lot of stuff about the Alaska gold rush! 100,000 people started to head to Alaska, 40,000 made it there, 15,000 got claims, and only 300 people got $15,000 or more in gold!


Summer's View

Today we went back to downtown Seattle (arrgh! the traffic!) to visit the Klondike Gold Rush National Park.  It is right in the middle of busy Seattle, but it was interesting to read about the gold rush and all the people's lives that were changed.  There was this wheel of fortune set up that showed the slim chance the folks had of striking it rich, and Sam didn't want to leave it!  :)

The displays followed the lives of five people and how they and their families were affected.  One of the very few folks who struck it rich by earning $13000 was Nordstrom, of the famous department store family.  He was the one who started that store, and this was how he earned the money to do it!

After picking up a humongous sandwich across the street at the deli, we drove on to visit Gas Works Park, which sits along Lake Union.  This is a popular spot for viewing activities, and to get a great view of the Seattle skyline and Space Needle.  As the name implies, it used to be the site of the old gas works plant and processing, but is now not used.  It is now a big picnic area for families to hang out and enjoy a sunny day along the water.  The only thing that put me off was all the graffiti, and the fact there were no playgrounds for the kids.  Otherwise, nice view of the city!

Year Three - Day Seventy-Six

Sam's View

Today me and mommy went to the Woodland Park Zoo! They had a lot of cool animals there. They had two animals I had to see. They were a steller’s sea eagle and a snowy owl. They also had a lot of other cool animals like giraffes, grizzly bears, lions, and the coolest animal of all! The sheep.


Summer's View

After sleeping in a little, we went to the Woodland Park Zoo in downtown Seattle.  Boy, am I a glutton for Seattle traffic!  LOL

This zoo was quite a bit larger than the Point Defiance Zoo we went to the other day.  The two main animals that Sam wanted to see here were the Stellar's Sea Eagle and the Snowy Owl.

The grounds were divided into areas that represented animals around the world, such as Africa, Asia, Australia, Temperate Forest, Tropical Rain Forest, and Northern Trail.  Our trails took us through a couple of bird aviaries, and an exhibit called Bug World where Sam took pleasure in grossing me out by showing me hissing cockroaches - yuck!

Some beautiful giraffes were posing for pics, and four lion cubs born in November of last year were snoozing in the midday sun with mom close by.  A pack of wolf sisters were being playful, jumping and biting at each other.  The grizzly bears looked well fed, which is good, right?!  :)

Sam had a tummy ache later, so we left a little early and headed home.  Too much activity the last couple of days, and maybe the boat rides were catching up with him!  :)

Year Three - Day Seventy-Five

Sam's View

Today me and mommy went on a whale watching tour! To get there we took a huge ferry to San Juan Islands. It was a 1 hour trip and when we got there we were about an hour early so we walked around on the island and then when our boat got there we got on. The tour was about 2 ½ hours long. About an hour into the tour we saw some orcas! I got a lot of really good pictures. I even got some pictures of the grey spots just behind their dorsal fin. Those spots are called saddle patches.


Summer's View

Today we were on the road by 6:00 am to head north to take the ferry out of Anacortes, WA to the San Juan Islands for a whale watch tour!  The rush hour traffic was already on the road, so it was slow going for a while, even on the bypass.

Sam saw a statistic the other day that listed the top ten worst cities for traffic, and I KNEW Seattle would be on there!  No matter what the time of day, it seems the traffic is heavy.  And rush hour traffic already at 6:00 am??!!  The weirdest thing about the list of cities was that Seattle was number five on the list, and Tampa was number two!  Having driven in both cities, I say they are not even close!  Tampa is a walk in the park next to this place!  :)

Our ferry ride was cool, and Sam had never been on one that took vehicles, so he was awed by the size of the ferry and the fact that semi trucks, rvs, and everything else were onboard.  While in the dock, we saw Brandt's Cormorants nesting on the pilings.  We got a close up look at their babies, and Sam got to add a new bird to his list!

We got to Friday Harbor about an hour before the whale watch cruise, so we walked around town a little.  The docks area was mostly tourism businesses and pubs and restaurants, along with some gift shops.

Our whale watch tour was about 2 1/2 hours long, and the naturalist on board was filling us in on the statistics about the resident orca pods in the area.  She said they were mainly feeding on salmon this time of year, and they had been spotted earlier in the area we were now heading.

We got to see at least two pods of orcas, with males, females, and calves!  They were so beautiful!!  Our ship followed them around for over an hour, and we saw them moving along the coast slowly, feeding.  Sam took LOTS of pics, and when we zoomed in, we could see several of them closely enough to identify the individual whales by their "saddle patch" which is a grayish area behind their dorsal fins.  He showed his pics to the naturalist, who was impressed, and she sat down with us with her identifier book to see if we could identify any of the whales from the pod.  We saw at least two, and another she said was a young male that was probably not in the book, as it had been published in 1994.  How cool!!

There was a research vessel there taking photos of the whales for identification, too!

After a ferry ride back to Anacortes, where we napped on the ferry, we then drove home, arriving around 7:30 pm.  There was rush hour traffic still on the road even that late! Unbelievable!  It was a long day, but a great one!

Year Three - Day Seventy-Four

Sam's View

Today me and mommy went to the Point Defiance Zoo! They had a lot of animals there. They had a walrus, they had polar bears, they had tigers, and they even had angry looking Wallabies! :)

Summer's View

Our day out today was spent at the Point Defiance Zoo outside of Tacoma, WA.  It is located in a really cool area, called Point Defiance Park, which is located on a point looking out into the sound.  It was a really nice zoo and aquarium, and we got to see a walrus for the first time!  He was humongous! 

The polar bears were swimming and moving around, but the tiger wasn't cooperating when it was his feeding time.  The keeper kept trying to coax him down, but he wasn't interested!  :)  A good day!

Year Three - Day Seventy-Three

Sam' View

Today me and mommy went to the Pacific Science Museum! They had a lot of cool stuff. It was awesome!!!   :)  :)  And I had a lot of FUN!

Summer's View

Today Sam and I went to the Pacific Science Museum in downtown Seattle.  We were going to take the train downtown, but the parking lot was full, so we drove to town.  It wasn't that far, but I was worried about traffic issues on the trip home.

Sam had a blast, enjoying all of the hands-on adventures that science museums have to offer.  Their special exhibit was all about planes, and making paper airplanes to try out in their wind tunnels, etc.  It was a pretty big place, and we spent about 3-4 hours checking it all out.

On the way home, we beat the rush hour traffic, so we were golden!  We stopped to eat at Applebee's - yum!  Some playground action at "home" and minecrafting finished up Sam's day, so it was a good one!  :)

Year Three - Day Seventy-Two

Sam's View

Today daddy flew back to Florida for a week.  :(

Summer's View

Today, Jim had to fly home for a week, so we spent the day preparing for his trip.  Sam and I dropped him off at the airport at 6:30 pm, and he slept on the plane, arriving in FL at 7:00 am.  We already miss him!