Photography by Tobi: September 2010

We started off this day like every day of our Seattle Vacation--Catching the 358 bus. I’m not sure where we got off, but we walked and we walked. We became really good at bus riding and street walking. Ha! Our first stop of the day was a visit to Archie McPhee. This store is just the coolest thing since sliced bread. It’s like a carnival/party/toy/costume/crazy store! And it was pretty much awesome. I’m sure Aaron could have spent all day in there laughing and taking pictures of the various items in this store. He posted a multitude of them on his facebook page. The girls loved the store too. They each found black masks to wear and were pretending to be Barbie Musketeers. Having never seen the Barbie Musketeers movie, Miss A just assumed she was a scary Barbie. So she went around the store telling everyone she met that she was indeed a scary Barbie. Miss J truly loved her mask and wore it nearly the rest of the day. It was super cute.

If there are two things my husband loves, it’s pizza and ice cream. Across the street from Archie McPhee was an Italian pizzeria. He was definitely on board the “let’s eat pizza for lunch” train. I was just happy we weren’t eating seafood! Instead of offering the kids crayons and coloring pages like a majority of restaurants, Tutta Bella’s Neapolitan Pizzeria gave the kids Wikki Stix. They were super cool sticky stix that could be molded and shaped into just about anything. Each girl enjoyed their Wikki Stix in different ways. Oh and the pizza…yeah, it was pretty much delicious and all three pizza’s were devoured.

I love this picture of Mandy. She has the look of a mother's love as she watches Miss J play with her Wikki Stix.

Our bellies full, we were off to see the Fremont Troll. The Troll is an 18-foot sculpture of the head and shoulders of a giant troll, crushing an old beetle Volkswagen.

We then went to walk around in Fremont. There were some art galleries, old bookstores, and a Sunday Market. The Sunday Market was a huge outdoor flea market/farmer’s market. I’m not sure what put Miss A to sleep. The lack of napping during the four days we had been in Seattle or to drown out the out-of-tune piano that was being played (see picture below). I will say it was the most interesting piano bench I’ve ever seen. While Miss A was sleeping, we found a huge garage door to shoot some pics of Miss J.

Not finding many stores open late since it was a Sunday, we opted to take our troupe down to the Gas Works Park. The girls were getting restless, and it was time to find a place for them to run around. Gas Works Park is an old refinery that offers a spectacular view of downtown Seattle. On the way, we were afforded the view of watching a lift bridge rise to allow a boat through the canal. Super cool.

I thought Miss A looked so cute up on this piece of machinery and when I hollered for her daddy to take a look, he said, "Hey, I own that company." I guess you can take the financial advisor out of the office, but you can't get the office off his mind. :)

When I saw these girls, it reminded me of the sisterhood of the traveling pants. So I call this photo The Sisterhood of the Traveling Shorts.

After Gas Works Park, we found a lovely Greek restaurant. We headed back to the bus stop. On the way, I noticed a couple of things. For one all the advertisements on the telephone polls. I took a picture of all the staples left behind on one pole. It made me think, “Advertisements sure do leave their mark.“ Another observation I made is that in Seattle, there is a Starbucks on nearly every corner! And yet another, Seattle has by far the coolest graffiti. At the bus stop, Miss A was in full active personality mode. So to keep her occupied I sent the camera in clicking over drive. J When we got home, we all headed to bed. On Day 5 we have to be up bright and early to take off on our whale watching adventure!