Tacomawa: Tacoma Summer + Simon Seattle

Simon Visits + Seattle

Simon and his friends David and George have been traveling the country this summer on a research grant. Geographies of Logistics: Organization and Culture in the New Company Town. Their first stop was Seattle, so we had a great day seeing the city with them. (Next was San Francisco, then Las Vegas, then home to NYC.)

 

Simon's high school friend Ben also joined us, talking a weekend off from his PhD studies at WSU. Our first pilgrimage was to the Seattle Public Library, a Koolhaus design.

Stephen, Simon, George, Ben, David

Other exciting places to visit- Freeway Park is begging for parkour, and the Olympic Sculpture Park (part of Seattle Art Museum.)

The next day, the guys made a trek on a Mt. Ranier trail. Their goal was Camp Muir, a base camp for mountain climbers planning to reach the summit. They made it 2/3rds of the way, and enjoyed views and snow at 8,000 ft.

Tacoma WA

Back in Tacoma, Brock and Jill adopted an adorable Wire haired Pointing Griffon named Sprocket. He and Clementine made instant friends, and added to summer bbq fun.

Julie and Jason, with their sons Issac and Seth showed us around Sequim, WA. On the beach, our cells phones texted us, "Welcome to Canada!" and informed us of new rates. (We could see the Canadian shoreline across the water, but not sure why we were connecting with their towers.)

Sequim is home to the Olympic Game Farm, a drive-through petting zoo where feeding the animals is encouraged. The animals think it's a great idea and do their best to join you in the car.

Stephen made friends with a baby bison.

Summer camping has a new outlet- we bought kayaks this summer! There are many places to get out on the water here, so we're trying to find the best. American Lake, Lake Steilacoom, Alder Lake, or in the Puget Sound: Owen's Beach, and Titlow Park. Kayaking in the ocean is a bit more intense- we spent most of an evening trying to reach the Tacoma Narrow's bridge. After resting for two minutes, the current carried Ginger backward a distance that had taken an hour's paddling to achieve. So, we gave up for that day. Maybe by this time next summer we'll have stronger arms.

Ginger spent many happy hours this summer painting and redecorating the Stem Coaching Center, where she tutors Math and Reading. The center was formerly painted white and red, but after several coats Ginger changed it to a Spring green. She added two trees, which will be covered with origami cranes made by the students over time.

Other projects- a world map where readers can pin the locations of the stories we read, a giant ruler to measure their height, and a rubick's cube.

Adventures: McGowns Visit + Seals

McGowns Visit

Simon and Jeannine took the train from NYC to visit us for a weekend! We explored some beautiful Newport neighborhoods, and a bell tower.

 We took a tour of the post-revolutionary Fort Adams.

We visited the ponies and pony-donkeys.

Another abandoned structure has some cool graphiffi. 

Stephen played old movies on his projector. 

We took the tour of the Elms, and also the "Behind the Scene's servant's life tour" which included the third floor servant's quarters, basement laundry rooms, trunk room, wine cellar, pastry room, and the huge coal furnaces. (The owner of the Elms was a coal baron.)

Seal Tour

Seth and Nicki's son Gabriel had his 4th birthday! We went out a seal-watching tour, right here in Newport. Seals are in Narragansett Bay most of the winter, and some like to hang out on rocks near the Newport Bridge and Rose Island.

Adventures: New York NY

Car Shopping

We spent Saturday in New Jersey first, driving around to see several Mini Coopers since we're considering buying a second car.

Car #1: "The Russian"

Stats: 2004, 59K miles, manual, sport turbo, heated seats, sunroof, window problem.

Although Stephen was initially suspicious of the Russian dealors trying to give him a deal, they ended up being the most honest people we worked with all day.

We learned that Stephen likes stats and Ginger likes features.

 

Car #2: "The Internet Deal"

Stats: 2007, 56K miles, manual, upgraded design.

The small print on this company's webpage explains that the listed price is $2,000 less than the cost of the car. ($1000 off for recent college grads, $1000 off for loyal customers.)

Stephen hates scratches and Ginger hates weird colors.

Car #3: "The Bait and Switch"

Stats: 2009, 49K miles, sun roof, heated seats, manual, upgraded design, busted bumper, ipod jack.

This car had everything we could want, but was too good to be true. Their online price was only available with a 3-year warranty of over $3,500. We spent hours here fighting over the price- at first Stephen demanded the listed price, then they added a $900 "dealer inspection fees" (though they had obviously done nothing to improve the car.)

We left pretty annoyed, but glad not to have done business with liars.

Ginger's favorite part of the post-2007 design is a key that looks like an alien saucer.

Car #4: "The Purple One"

It was dark by the time we got to this one, so no photos. We spend a long time debating whether it was purple or navy.

This company was also owned by the maker of internet deals. He absolutely refused to compromise on price, and made a big deal out of it being a sports turbo model (a feature we didn't care about.)

Car #5: "The Automatic"

Stats: 2005, 45K miles, automatic, heated seats, sunroof.

(Stephen would prefer Ginger to drive an automatic, but she wants to be brave and drive a stick.)

 

The dealor was helpful, and this was the best deal of the trip, but just wasn't quite right.
Our experiences were educational, so we're still waiting on the right car.

New York City, New York

After the weekend in New Jersey, we took a train to Manhattan.
We returned to the Metropolitian Museum of Art.

Sunday evening we attended Simon and Jeannine's church, Trinty Grace Church on the Upper West Side. They are sharing a building with four other congregations. They previously met in an elementary school, but currently the law in New York prohibits religious meetings in public education buildings. 

This year, we were able to visit the World Trade Center Memorial. (Remember to print a ticket before you go! Long security lines.) The museum is still under construction, but around 500 people are allowed to see the memorial at a time. The design is two voids going down several stories where the twin towers used to stand. Water cascades down the sides and drains in a center square. The names of the victims are written around the sides. 

There are computers near the memorial to look up names. Stephen looked for the man from his home town who was a flight attendent. It gave a short info, a photo, and a key to find where his name was engraved. 

Wandering around town, Jeannine trying to find the perfect place to eat on her iPhone.

 

We love NYC food carts!

Simon is working an architecture internship for Morphosis. Jeannine works as a nutritionist at a hospital in Brooklyn. Our last day, we met them for Coffee at "Moda" in Chelsea near Simon's office.

Adventures: New York City NY

After Thanksgiving, we spend the weekend in New York City! Stephen was looking at a car ('78 Jag) in Connecticut, but decided not to buy it. So we took the train the rest of the way to Grand Central. 

We stayed at Simon & Jeannine's apartment. Simon is one semester from completing his Master of Architecture at Columbia. In February, Jeannine will finish her nutrition internship at various hospitals around town. 

On Sunday, we visited their congregation at Trinity Grace Church, meeting at a school auditorium. They are planting new churches across the city. 

We first visited the World Trade Center Memorial. Turns out, you need to make reservations online. It's free, but so popular they only let in so many people at a time. So, we missed out. But we did get to see the new tower under construction. (Below... the car we didn't buy and the memorial we didn't see.) 

Photos this trip were taken with Stephen's new iphone, since our camera batteries died on the trip there. At the New York Public Library, they are celebrating 100 years and had a special display of their prized pieces, like the Guttenberg Bible. Ginger was excited to see the original Winnie the Pooh and his friends. 

We took most of our photos at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. We loved the musical instruments display.

Stephen's favorite collection was "Arms and Armor"

The classical Greek wing reminded us of Rome. .

 

Ginger made an airbrushed cake meant to imitate NYC street paint-brush artists. 

We celebrated Ginger's 26th birthday with our friends.