Adventures By Day (and Night) Part 2!

Feeling a bit tired, but excited for the day, I rest a bit in anticipation of our plans.

There are many pics and interesting sites, that I'm just going to post the day's event which includes a yummy breakfast and Chihuly Garden and Glass!

I have NEVER been a fan of oatmeal, but decided to go with this power breakfast and sure glad I did - it was so good!

Afterwards, Lue and I "ubered" to the Chihuly's Glass Garden and what a site! Dale Chihuly has created a display far beyond the traditional art gallery!

There were 11 giant rooms displaying a different theme.  Here's what I got:

The Glass Forest

Sealife Room

Persian Ceiling Room

Looking up is amazing!

Lue and I!

                                       

Mille Fiori

Ikebana and Float Boat (life size)

           

                 Chandeliers       

40 ft. glass and steel structure, 100 feet long!

Love this one!

One of my favorite spots!

 Outside!

I love these glowers - lacy middle, sets of 4 petals all the way around.

Makes me want to grow some!

And beautiful Lue!

Next up:  The EMP, lunch and activities!

Adventures By Day (and Night)!

My dear friend, Lue, decided to take a girls trip on to Seattle.  She used to live there and has been there quite a bit.  I, on the other hand, have not.  So we played tourist and saw many sights.  Each day was action-packed with exciting activities and I have lots of pics for each!  So - my next few blogs are going to be this trip - day by day.

June 20th:
Lue and I hit the road at 8:00 AM and drove four hours north to a little town named "Malta" where we loaded up on the Amtrak train.

We rode this train for twenty-two hours! It was a long ride, but filled with beautiful scenery across Big Sky Montana, Idaho and Washington! 

And when we got to Seattle, I was in awe of the train station - quite a spectacular building!

Upon arrival, we were able to check into our luxurious hotel, "The Grand Hyatt" where we could enjoy the scenery and freshen up.

After a brief rest, we headed across the street to have some lunch at the "Cheesecake Factory".  Yet again - another spectacular building!

 I had delicious chicken tortilla soup and toast with avocado, spinach, radishes, tomatoes topped with freshly squeezed lime juice.  So nutritious; so good!

All refreshed and ready to go...we headed down to the waters where we enjoyed riding the giant Ferris Wheel!

Afterwards, we were looking at our map, trying to figure out what to do next.  Low and behold, a peddy-tour guide made a few suggestions.  This led to a wonderfully relaxing tour around parts of the "square".  Thanks, Brian, for that unexpected bonus to our day!

He dropped us off at the ferry so we could enjoy the waters of Puget Sound.  We took a short trip over to Bainbridge Island.  'Twas a beautiful, sunny day!

And on the way back, we were able to see the the majestic Mt. Rainier!  What a beauty!

And here's a pic of the grand wheel and the ferry - gives you an overall view - (and I'll explain this pic on a later day!)

Ahhh, what an action-packed day!  It felt like we hit the ground running and kept on going!  But wait!  There's more! We had another major item on our agenda!

Have you ever seen the musical?  Read the book?  Or perhaps saw the movie starring Lee Marvin and Clint Eastwood?  Well, I had seen the latter.  This newly revised version, however, was much different.  The original musical was well received because of its music, but the story line was considered "weak".  The new version included those old "hit" songs, plus a few new ones.  It also has a new, compelling story line with an updated version of twists and plots.  And yes, it was superb! (As was the building!)

And so it goes - two magnificent days - one traveling on the train and the other on the ferris wheel,  peddy-tour,  ferry and musical.  Whew!  Just wait for day tour featuring Chihuly Gardens, EMP music museum, and much, much more!

Adventures...

Home after a week (5 days) in Seattle - will post in a day or so! It was incredibly awesome...

Get Out And Play!

Are ya feeling the old age kick in yet?  I certainly am - a variety of systems and structural issues in my body are letting me know that I've lived over half a century.  And the time is drawing near to kick it in gear - either do something about it - or just continue to feel the age factor.  I was thinking about this the other day as I watched my grand daughters playing outside.

Activities don't have to be  limited to "sit at the puter or tv" or "sweat until you die at the gym".  I've lost touch with playing outside and enjoying its simplicities like these girlies were doing.  Time to run through the sprinkler, play in the dirt or eat a popsicle.

I have very fond memories of growing up outside.   Being the youngest of six girls meant most of the chores around the house were already done or I needed to be out of the way so they could get done.  And oddly enough, reading a book was looked at as a waste of time, so it was either "...go outside or I'll find something for you to do!"  Well I obviously didn't want to clean my room so off I went!

We lived at the end of the street in the game warden house which included 3 acres of kid heaven.  Of course there were neighborhood games, such as kick the can, a barbie doll saga (usually with a western theme) and such.  And weekends were spent somewhere on the desert or in the mountains eating mom's fried chicken and hunting arrowheads.  But daily? I'm talking about alone time, outside, every day, playing.   So many great adventures to be had! There were irrigation ditches to wade and swim in and the banks of these same ditches provided excellent (albeit short) sledding hills in the winter.  There was a pond, which was great for catching frogs and fish and like the ditches, provided recreation when it froze; it became the grandest Olympic ice skating rink of the world!  There were many trails to follow and a smoke house turned play house.  I could scamper up to the tree house (one board nailed across 2 limbs with carpet on it) without getting into the Scotch Pine's sap.  I knew where all the best gooseberry bushes were for the picking and sometimes I'd hit the motherlode and grab that wild strawberry before the birds had!   There were the willows that folded down and made a perfect house/fort and Pine Creek to get a drink from.  One time I was down on my knees drinking directly from the creek and raised my eyes to see a mother moose on the opposite side doing the same,  looking at me.

My brain is full of memories of great childhood adventures.  And sometimes, even today, husband and I venture off to the desert, for a float or a mountain trail, but not nearly as often.  And those times have dwindled.  Our last drive up Beartooth Pass reminded us that we don't get out often enough to enjoy things like pussy willows - a sure sign of spring (which is important at 7,000 ft elevation)!

So again, I ask myself questions like, "When and why did play time go away?" "Why don't these memories prompt me to go out and make new ones?"  "Where did my adventuresome spirit go?"  Complacency? Laziness?  Allowing life's stresses to overpower the spirit of play?  Do I need to give myself the ultimatum of chores or play?  My motivation talks me into just sitting here and doing virtually nothing compared to what I used to do.  All the while my body is saying, "USE IT OR LOSE IT!".  I know in my heart and mind that activities, playing, helps me physically and mentally so why not do it?  Okay!  Okay! I'll get up and go...clean out the car (after I switch the laundry)!

Jeepers, Creepers, the Leaning Post!

Life just goes on and on, doesn't it?  A rhetorical question unless you're six feet under.  Looks like the last time I actually wrote on my blog (excluding a couple nights ago) was in February of 2013.  Since then, I remarried my husband and took his last name this time (Ellie Ellis - I know, a little too cute), I earned a Masters Degree in Educational Leadership, have two more grand children (Izzy and JJ), cut down a couple of trees, planted a couple of trees, took a couple trips and remodeled both bathrooms.  But really, I must confess that most of my time has been on social media; Facebook to be exact.  Sometimes in fun conversations, sometimes in Scrabble games with my sister, but mostly just responding to all the memes that pass by in my feed.  No real creative thinking, just bland reactions.

The other day when I was outside with my neighbor, gawking at our shared LEANING power pole, I wondered why the heck I hadn't noticed!?! Ahh..the invasive wood vine, pretty as it is, has the pole almost completely covered - so much that I couldn't see it was leaning.

I know the pole itself is hidden quite well by this  elusive climber which nonchalantly continues to grow and conceal it.   But if you look close to the top, you can see the slant of the gray PVC pipe which serves to cover the wires.  And upon closer inspection at the bottom of the pole (behind all the crap leaning on the fence) I could see it's now at a 45 degree angle being held up only by the fence.  And then when you look at the neighbors insulated electric line running from the top of the pole to his house, you'll see the huge, loose dip in it.  Problem?  The bottom of this old pole is rotting out and if it snaps, the butt  will put a hole in our shed as the pole topples over into the neighbor's yard, causing sparks and fire and who knows what else.  And when could this happen?  Anytime, according to the trusty Electrical Engineer who was also inspecting it with us.  "We must take care of this ASAP, will you be home Friday or next week?" Umm...yeah.  

Yes, this is a big deal but it reminded me of an even bigger one. I have let Facebook become a vining creeper in my world of creativity.  It seems to suck up my time and has began to cover up my real emotions and brain power.  Have I noticed it?  Not really, until the other night.  You see, many of my friends and acquaintances are members of the Radio Paradise online music station.  It's listener supported, commercial free and overall good stuff.  There are several different forums you can write on.  And I used to visit there frequently (but not obsessively) until I allowed the FB creeper vine to pretty much keep me confined.  

The other night, I was up late and decided to jump over to RP where "Trump" is a forum topic (of course).  Being proud of my the idea of comparing his profile pic to ALIEN, I wanted to post them on the forum.  Then I remembered I had to have the HTMLs for the pics and how did I used to do that???  Oh yeah....I would upload them on my blog.  Now what was the name of my blog again?  I don't remember, but I do remember the site name, mscreek.blogspot.com.  Cool, I'm here on the site.  Wow, it's been over 3 years!  How did I get to the post part?   Oh...I have to sign in and what's my sign in name, email I used to use and password?  I couldn't answer these questions, mind you, after writing a blog for almost every day or two for several years. UGH.  I could just feel those vines, wrapped tight about my brain; it's time to get out the clippers!

Yep, it's time to start writing again - not that I was every that good at it, but because it allows my brain to function, create and expand on topics I want to talk about.  Oh, I'll be on FB; I love those kitty pics too much to pass them up!  But I'll also be using my time writing about things that matter to me - like the electric pole in the back yard, decorated so beautifully, with it's disastrous demise eloquently hidden.   For me, I must insist that I don't let my brain just go - rot - from the constraints of mediocre communications of social media.

Sometimes we have to step back and out of our "usual" place we've let ourself get into and take a look from a different perspective; the picture becomes clearer.

Over Three Years - Wow.

What happens when you limit your imagination to social media?  Quick fixes.  Ya log on, see what is "trending", what's new, what your friends are doing, rant about politics, share pictures of birds, cats and grand kids (I have 2 + 5 now!), write a couple sentences here and there, read a couple of good sentences here and there, read a couple of bad sentences here and there, get frustrated with what is "trending", what's new, rants about politics, get FED UP with improper spelling, improper usage of you're and your etc., close the computer and go to bed.  Day in, day out.  Imagination is very short on demand because many ideas are already crafted. You're commenting and sharing the ideas of others or making a very small one of your own.  Oh I know some of my smart friends like Beanie, BlueHeron,  and Justine still do some writing (I know this only because we are friends on FB), but I am guilty in the first degree, as charged.

So it's time to start writing and creating again.  And play  some "Catch-Up".  But not on this post; consider this brief the introduction and start singing in your head the theme song to "Welcome Back Kotter".  Consider this brief the taking-back-control of my own media and stop being the pinball which gets paddled back and forth and back and forth.

I hope you're still out there writing away Martin, Martini, and Dar.

A special shout out to my friends on radioparadise.com (awesome internet radio station, listener supported and commercial free).  I am returning back to you, as well.  No more head up in the clouds, although these are very lovely!