15AUG16 - Sultan, WA (kids & grandkids visit - jour cinq; fin)

Monday, 15AUG, it was off to the University of Washington Waterfront Activities Center for canoeing on Lake Washington.  We only had water access to the northern side of the UW’s arboretum because of the floating bridge freeway construction on the north side.  Half way through our paddle Dan insisted we stop at the UW’s Hiram Conibear Shellhouse to see the 1936 Pocock shell, the HUSKY CLIPPER, used by UW to win the 1936 Olympics in front of Hitler.  (Conibear was the second UW crew coach, & developed the “Conibear stroke” which revolutionized the sport.) Dan strongly recommends reading the book “The Boys in the Boat” & watching the documentary on PBS about these farm kids who had rarely been outside of Washington; & their overcoming unbelievable obstacles to represent the USA in Munich Olympics & bring home the gold!  For a reasonably priced water activity in a beautiful setting, we highly recommend the UW Waterfront Activities Center (especially once the freeway construction is done!)!

 

 

http://www.washington.edu/ima/waterfront/

http://www.huskycrew.com/shellhouse.htm

 

From there it was off to Volunteer Park on the top of Capitol Hill in Seattle, for wading & playing.  Volunteer Park was designed by two of William Olmsted’s sons; & was where many an unsupervised day was spent by the Ryan children when spending the weekend at Grandma Jean Ryan’s.  Sadly all the death traps of Dan’s youth (swings, merry-go-round, see/saw, jungle bars, etc) have been replaced by modern “safer” alternatives.  But Dan did have to admit that the rock climbing structures were pretty neat.  And once Jaxson figured the concept out, he showed no fear in rock climbing.

 

 

http://www.seattle.gov/parks/find/parks/volunteer-park

Then back to house for one last campfire before Rebecca, Raymond, Jaxson & Mason fly out tomorrowL

14AUG16 - Sultan, WA (kids & grandkids visit - jour quarte, & joe departs)

Early Sunday morning, 14AUG, Dan took Joe to airport for his return flight to New Orleans.  Hopefully next visit he will be able to spend more time with us!  After Dan’s return to the house, everyone headed to Osprey Park on the Sultan River.  First activity was the playground.  While there we hiked down to the river, where the grandkids (Jaxson & Mason) entertained themselves by throwing countless rocks into the river.

Then it was decided to check out the “beach” by the boat launch on the Skykomish River in Monroe.  It was not very inviting; so then we headed back home to mow the lawn & dinner.  A pretty quiet day compared to the last three:)!

13AUG16 - Sultan, WA (kids & grandkids visit - jour trois)

Saturday, 13AUG, the kids (Rebecca, Raymond & Joe) took off on another outdoor adventure - going to Leavenworth, WA, for sightseeing & ziplining.  Once again leaving Oma & Opa to babysit the grandkids (Jaxson & Mason).  As we have described previously in this BLOG, Leavenworth is a small down east of the Seattle metro area on highway US 2; some time ago the town decided to model the exterior of the building based on architecture found in Bavaria, Germany.  Now it is a very popular place for tourists visiting Washington, especially during Octoberfest!  Since Raymond had never seen Leavenworth, Rebecca wanted to include it on their visit this year.

Once again no reservations were made, & they had to scramble for a time slot.  As it was they could only get tickets for the five zipline adventure, not the nine zipline package they wanted.

Rather than take the grandkids “somewhere” to keep them entertained, Oma & Opa decided to babysit them at the house; where Jaxson & Mason pretty much kept themselves entertained all day.  First they decided to rearrange all the big rocks & driftwood in Corrie’s rock garden while Corrie was running errands.  Every rock picked was analyzed for several minutes before deciding exactly which concrete paver (also in the rock garden) it would be placed on.  Once assigned its new place, it could not be moved & had to remain there for their entire visit.

In addition, some pavers were assigned multiple rocks.  Turns out these groups of rocks were families w/mothers, fathers & children.  The boys also had complete story lines for each family, which they would discuss between themselves at great lengthJ  When Corrie returned from her errands, she attempted to rearrange her rock garden.  She was quickly informed this was not allowed.

Next on the agenda was super soaker battles & running thru the sprinkler.  While drying off Jaxson noted some rope & bungie cords Dan had laying on the deck.  This lead to almost an hour of mountain climbing.  One grandkid would loosely tie the rope around himself & hook a bungie to the rope.  Then he would climb around the outside of the deck (2 ft off the ground), while his brother would give him rope (or take up slack) as needed.

During all this Dan’s cousin Steve & wife Bonnie Kiesel stopped by for a quick visit.  We tried to convince them to stay for dinner, since we already had other relatives joining us for BBQ & to visit w/the kids & grandkids.  Unfortunately they declined the invitation.  Later that evening we were joined by Dan’s niece Marisa, husband Dave Greenwood, & sons Jaxson & Ely for a BBQ & campfire.  (We last saw Dave, Marisa & kids Mother’s Day, 08MAY.)

12AUG16 - Sultan, WA (kids & grandkids visit - jour deux)

12AUG, Friday, the kids (Rebecca, Raymond & Joe) took off for white water rafting on the Skagit River out of Newhalem, WA.  Although they had been warned to make rafting reservations months ago, they didn’t & found two things were working against them.  1) the rivers are much lower in the summer & many cannot be rafted due to low water.  2) summer is busiest season (can you say tourists?) & almost every trip is fully booked.  End result was being on a standby list & then two hour drive north for a not very challenging Class II rapids.

After rush hour Oma & Opa took the grandkids (Jaxson & Mason) into the Seattle Center.  The Center was full of people due to the DOTA2 (Defense of the Ancients 2) world championship being held at Seattle Coliseum.  Can you say hundreds of teams competing for $20m in prizes & first place gets over $9m – we didn’t think so.  Upwards of 15,000 pay for the privilege to watch the teams compete in the Coliseum.  While thousands more watch outside on giant (& we mean giant) screens set up thru-out the Center.

http://www.dota2.com/international/overview

As per Wikipedia  – “Dota 2 is a free-to-play multiplayer online battle arena (MOBA) video game developed and published by Valve Corporation for Microsoft Windows, OS X, and Linux. The game is the stand-alone sequel to Defense of the Ancients (DotA), which was a community-created mod for Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos and its expansion pack, The Frozen Throne. Dota 2 is played in matches between two teams that consist of five players, who each occupy their own base on the map. Each player controls a powerful character, known as a "hero", that feature unique abilities and different styles of play. During a match, a player and their team collects experience points, currency, and items for their heroes in order to better fight heroes of the opposing team, attempting to push through their defenses. A team wins by being the first to destroy a large structure located in the opposing team's base, called the "Ancient".

First stop was the International Fountain to play in the water.  After drying off, it was on the Armory (formally the Center House) for lunch.  Final stop was a newly built playground called “Artists at Play”.  In Dan’s opinion in an effort to make the play structures super safe; the designers have made them so parents/grandparents cannot assist a child if they should need help.  The climbing structures, aerial bridges, etc, are completely enclosed in heavy, rubber coated, wire rope.  So if a child should get hurt (& they will), they will not fall to the ground; but an adult cannot easily get to them, without climbing thru the very same labyrinth to get to them & then trying to figure how to carrying them back out if necessary?

After a sno-cone treat it was back to the house in Sultan for super soaker battles, running thru the sprinkler, & learning from Oma how to make homemade pizza for dinner.