Me and my Peeps: Washington Trip #2

Monday, August 20, 2018

Washington Trip #2

Monday, we went to downtown Spokane. The City building was art deco, so I really enjoyed that. There are a lot of homeless, but a lot of them seem to be fairly clean and have bags rather than garbage sacks. Mom says said they have a lot of societies that try to help the homeless.

This was a map of the area. The kids got to see the places we'd be visiting in the next week. All along the river front are things that are left over from the 1974 World's Fair. My Mom remembers coming to it when she was about 15. There's even a carousel that was built in the early 1900's that she thinks she might have ridden as a teen. They have a ring game that you try to catch the ring as you go around the carousel and then put them in the bucket on the other side. Ada caught 5 rings, Sam 1, Jer 1 and the other two kids were just too short to catch any.

These statues were called the Joy of Running Together.

This was how he acted most of the day. I swear he hit the terrible twos at the age of 4.

This is a great picture of some of the features from the Worlds Fair.

This was a fun installation. A metal goat that has a vacuum in it's mouth that sucks in the garbage. The kids thought it was amazing and we cleaned out our car. They thought the best part was Sam feeding a half eaten sandwich to it and yelling, "Sandwich!"

They also had this amazing slide. It was like the ones that we had when we were young, long, metal, fast and hot. I thought it was really cool

The kids were a little wary of the geese. They didn't want to get goosed.

In line for the Carousel.

Grandma treated everyone to ice cream on this hot day. Ice Cream+Ellis=Yes

We also got to go on a gondola ride over the river and the powerplant. Apparently it was on a natural waterfall and they just used it the way it was. There were sculptures of Indians and pilgrims all up the side of the river too.

These outdoor games are all over up there it seemed. We saw them in at least two different places. The kids loved them. This time was not a two person game. It was more like a 3 on 4 person game.

Strategy.

To keep Seth from messing up the pieces we made him stack all the pieces that got jumped. Here he's showing Grandma how tall he is to the pieces.

Grandpa paid for them to ride these twirly strawberries. Ada and Seth got theirs spinning really well. Sam and Evelyn didn't realized theirs could really spin until the ride was half way done.

The splash pad was more of a sculpture with a fountain in it. It was so fun. Ada was the only brave one, so I decided to go in it too so she didn't have to go in alone... and the others all followed. Ada LOVED it. Evelyn made a game out of timing it so that she wouldn't get too wet. Sam stood right in front of a sprayer and turned to talk to me. When he turned, it sprayed him right in the face.

For lunch, we took a picnic to Manito Park. Grandpa and Grandma sure know how to pick the spots. It was beautiful and Evelyn fell in love with Willow trees.

She's my little Hobbit off on her adventure.

As part of the park, they have a rose garden and a Japanese garden. They were both beautiful and free. I love cities that do that. Portland, they charged entrance fees to all gardens. The rose garden smelled heavenly. Sam's favorite one was bright red called Olympia Rose. Ada liked the ones that looked like a sunset, Evelyn liked the hot pink ones that had a snazzy name that I can't remember.

Grandpa's soft couch.

The kids were taking pictures while I was in the bathroom....

I eventually got the camera back and these guys enjoyed the koi fish.

This reminded me of the Japanese fairy tale about the magic fish that gets caught by a fisherman and gives him wishes.

There were dragonflies all over the place. I got one, but I had the wrong lens on to really get it very well.

My Daddy.

Sam had thrown a rock in the water. We told him to knock it off, so of course Seth tried to pry up one of the rocks in the walkway to throw as well. Luckily they were cemented in.