We enjoy Seattle.  The munchkin wanted to ride this pig at Pike street all day.

This is not her first lemon.  She does know what they taste like.  Every single time she makes this face.  And everytime there are lemons around she wants one.

My youngest brother works in a giant cone called the Museum of Glass.  He has a cool job in a cool place.  I would very much recommend going there if you are in Tacoma or the surrounding area.  We spent all day in and around it and had a great time.

These are pictures of the “hot shop“.  You can watch the artists work during the day.   The artist we watched doing his glasswork, Gabe Feenan, is a resident at the Glass Museum.  I really wanted to see the “Kids Design Glass” days.  We couldn’t take pictures of the Kids Design Glass hall of the museum but it was my very favorite part.  You can see some of the sculptures online, but for the stories (which are typed word for word, mispellings and poor grammer included) written by the kids, you have to visit.  Kids are hilarious.  The Broken Heart Snake was a favorite of mine.  There is a picture of it on the website, but the story is really what got me.  The snake sucks love and if you see it you can’t love for something like seven years.  It made me laugh out loud.

Looking up into the dome.

Some pieces on display that you can take pictures of.  It is really incredible how they make the different sculptures.

This is one of Preston Singletary’s designs.  His work is amazing.  It is sandblasted to achieve the two toned effect.  The work that goes into a piece like this is intense.

You can see my punk brother here at his work station.  He operates the cameras and puts up videos both in the hot shop and online.

He is about half way up the dome and has a little window to see the hot shop floor.  He knows many of the artists personally and the guys of the hot shop floor were great to us.  They all came over to say hello and meet his family.

This is right outside the museum.

The water forest.

It was warm enough that playing in the water was fun, but I wasn’t excited to get too wet.  Not pictured, my brother and father trying to stick me to a water pole.

This is the bridge we crossed on our way to lunch:

Looking back across to the museum.

These reminded me of giant blue plastic bags.

In the little hallway above, there were walls of sculptures, and above…

…was this.  It was gorgeous.

You can see Union Station on the right.  Now part of U of W campus.

We walked over there for lunch.

Husband lovingly posed so that I could take a picture of the guy on the bike.  I always feel awkward taking pictures of strangers, even if they kinda are asking for it.

After lunch and frappes we went back to look at the gift shop.  If you are looking to spend tens of thousands of dollars, this is your kind of gift shop.

This was one of my favorites.  I can’t explain why.  I just really like it.

At first I was like, “O what a sweet picture of me and my middle brother”.  Then I read the blocks.  Like I said, PUNKS.

I don’t get it.  The tent Munchkin was supposed to be sleeping in (under the quilt) is large enough for an adult person, and yet somehow she found a way to roll out of it .  She slept on the floor most of the night.  Silly girl.

The fam.  Don’t ask me what I was doing with my glasses.  I don’t know.

Welcome to Eastern Oregon.

The Painted Hills.  They almost glow when the sun is out.

Looking out at the Painted Hills with the students with whom we traveled.

Munchkin enjoyed it, although not for the beauty of the hills – more because she could run amok.

On my first trip here I may have fallen in the John Day river, right at this location.  There are some great hieroglyphics here if you know where to look.  They are tricky to get a picture of though because you have to lean out around some rocks to see them.

Nobody decided to go for a swim this time.

It was cold and gray, the gray being unusual for that area at this time of the year.  We have lots of pictures of the white van we followed more than 1,000 miles in one weekend.  The munchkin was a champ even with so much driving.

Cant Ranch with Sheep Rock in the background.

Our fearless and knowledgeable leader, outstanding in his field.

It was fun to watch people move through the sage.  You could see them so far away.

It was fascinating how the clouds poured over Steens Mountain.

The munchkin felt no fear of going into the “tunnel” (Malheur Cave) whether we came or not.  I really expected her to have more fear.

Looking out.

This cave is still used by the Masons, which makes it a bit creepy in my opinion.

At Diamond Crater, they spotted the hidden bird in this post.

The munchkin needed some help getting over the rocks.

There were Jack Rabbits and Cottontails galore.  We managed to catch one scorpion, saw a paltry few lizards, and no snakes.  Disappointing really.

But I did get cell service…

I love this picture.

Can you see the resemblance?

Fly dirt, fly!

Mantra: run, run, run

The look back

Higher G’pa, higher!

Not from this trip, but I didn’t get a pic of the waterfall this time so I’m using an old picture.  That’s husband jumping off the falls.  We went with some friends of ours this last weekend and they both jumped but it was too cold for me.  I just like being warm too much!

The little one had a great time.  She didn’t seem to mind the cold at all.

I thought getting up to my knees was great – that cooled me plenty after our hike.

Don’t ask, I don’t know.  Wow, I’m a dork.

How could you not love a face like that?

A picture up the river from the falls.

A very tired girl.

Our family

The sweetie-pie got a LOT of stairs practice

Playing with Grandma

Waiting to be commanded

We stayed in cabins.

There was still snow on the ground but the sun graced us with its face most of the weekend.  It was warm enough to sit out on lawn chairs (in the sun) and read.  When clouds rolled over or when the wind was a little strong, we played games, lounged, or ate in the cabins.

The cabins were great, much like the yurts we stayed at in Fort Stevens. But these had a fridge, stove, oven, and the heater worked great.

This is where we ate in my parents’ cabin.  And boy did we eat.

My dad made most of the meals (my mom had prepared most of them before they came) and they were delicious.  I think I gained 10 pounds.  My mom and I ate almost a whole pan of brownies in one weekend.  This is not right.  Camping, hiking – these things should help me lose weight – not gain it!

I think even the kiddo gained weight.  She opened her eyes and mouth as wide as can be for the Rice Krispies treats.

The fridge is in the right corner.

The baby’s PeaPod (her sleepy tent) covered by a blanket.

The mattresses were a little hard, but otherwise we were warm and comfy.

G’ma and sweetie-pie playing in the snow.

We had snow fun…

…and reading fun…

…and hiking fun.

G’pa and G’ma D…

…and the dogs.

Some very pretty flowers we saw on the hike.

My mom and a giant tree, it just pulled right out of the ground.

Playing with grandpa’s gloves is fun!

Playing with the dogs is fun!

Especially the tails.

Squishing a pine cone is fun. Well, at least I think it was fun.  She kept doing it.

Playing at the hot fire was fun.  If you look closely, you can see her blowing with her lips (the sign for hot).

Walking though the park was fun.

After we came back from the showers every night she was exhausted.  Too much playing!

She had such a good weekend.  And so did we.

The yurts at Fort Stevens.

Half of the inside.

A view out the door.

It was just what we needed.  Dad and daughter played.  Mom rested.  The peanut enjoyed crawling around on the yurt floor and playing on the top bunk of the bunk beds (with dad of course!).

Saturday we went to the Astoria Coffee House.  We had wonderful Stumptown coffee (which is why I chose the place) and pastries.  The coffee was good but somewhat expensive, and the pastries were good but not knock your socks off.  Still, it was a wonderful morning because baby napped in her car seat while I drank wonderful hot nectar of the gods and enjoyed the atmosphere and the company.

Then we drove around Astoria and just looked around.  It was cold and wet, typical Oregon coast weather.  Astoria was fun to explore, even by car.

The bridge from Astoria to Washington is 4 miles.  It was fun to see all the shorebirds and the bald eagles sitting on the mudflats.

Such a tempting place.

This is NOT a fake.  Right next to the road this deer just stood there and looked at us. At the bottom of the photograph you can see the road barrier. We saw it on our way up to the Astoria Column.

What would a coast trip be without the sea lion show?

We did do some exploring of Fort Stevens itself as well.  This is a barracks/battery/etc. at the fort.  We went and poked all around it.  It would be a great place to play sardines or hide and seek.

Dad and the little “sweetheart” found the fighting spirit.

I think she kind of looks like an owl with a 360 degree view.  Her legs are tucked into the pack and we tried to keep her cozy because it was COLD!

Wait to scroll down if you want to attempt the challenge of “Where’s the Sandpipers”?  10 feet away we stood and didn’t see them at first, but hubby has sharp eyes and caught them moving.

The close up.  Can you see them now?  How many do you count?

There are 7.

Try again?

How about in the close up? The camoflague they have is incredible.

From Jared’s recordings during our stay in India.

You can’t count to 5 without hearing a horn honk.

Your snot turns black, your eyes burn, and you breathe heavy like you recently started smoking a pack a day.

You get a nice hotel room and the bathroom has four floor drains – all with mothballs on them to keep the creepy-crawlies out.

You get a not-so-nice hotel room and the bathroom has a hole in the wall to the outside large enough for any rodent known to man to pass through.

The hole is in the upper left corner next to the tiny hot water heater which had to be turned on 20 minutes before use.

Driving through town you look across the lanes and see: car-motorcycle-car-bicycle-cow-autorickshaw-dog-motorcycle-motorcycle-motorcycle.

In this case they are water buffalo.

The traffic is always bumper to bumper and door to door.

You get a “double” hotel room and that just means they pushed together two single beds…and kept them made separately.

You don’t see any women working in clothing stores, but you do see them hauling bricks and digging on construction crews.

A typical sari “counter”.

The sari shelves.

Even on the street, men sell saris.

Women working.

The women would carry these huge bundle of sticks. It was incredible.

Street signs, except for ads, are non-existent.

The bigger your vehicle, the more right of way you have.  Good luck crossing the street as a pedestrian.

The more people crossing the street the safer it is. So crowds move across the roads rather than individuals.

Pickups are nowhere to be found.  Hauling things is a job for bicycles.

The biker/hauler is on the left. You can see his pipes and his tricycle.

I love cacti and succulents.  They are oddness glorified, and there was a room full of them!

Hen and chicks. Ok, so adorable name, ubiquitous and hardy, charming form – what’s not to love?!?

Jade necklace. I wouldn’t call it pretty exactly, but fascinating would do.

Jade relation. A note about growing jade plants indoors… supposedly these are the EASIEST plants to grow.  Virtually indestructible. So says you…I have managed to exterminate a whole mature pot of it. (Twice, ha)

OUCH! Some seats aren’t worth having regardless of how many gardens I’ve dragged you through!

Wicked!

We laughed and laughed at these self-cleaning public toilets:

Yep, they are real and many are for sale (you guessed it – on eBay – starting bid $89,000)!  So for all of you who are self-cleaning ignorant (or heaven forbid, jealous), understand that the doors close and OPEN on their own.  After you exit, the doors will close fairly quickly and the toliet lid gets pulled back into the wall and cleaned.  (Ok, so one of the people there peeked in a crack to find this out).  It also alerts, “You have ten minutes until the doors open”.  But no pressure, right?  No hurry, you’re just trapped in a steel contraption that may open at any time while your pants are down.  So, to top off the fact that it was such a novelty to use that a friend of ours HAD to use it, we also got to see a man who really really had to go RIGHT NOW!  He popped in before the cleaning cycle could begin, which means the doors started to close as he entered.  And much like any automatic door, they started opening just as he was dropping drawers.  OOPS!