Exploring Seattle

Our last day of vacation (not counting the day-long drive home) and we had a lot planned, starting with meeting my "old" friend Tysha & her son at the Woodlawn Park Zoo.

The new penguin exhibit was a big hit, and we lost Sam by the elephants... Basically the zoo took more time than we meant it to, but we did manage to race to the Seattle Center to meet Dan for a few minutes before he had to leave for work.

We ate snacks by the fountain, rode a handful of rides, ran into my dear HS friend Angela & her family (in town from SC!!) and had lunch with them in the Center House (where I couldn't resist buying fudge)... Basically we spent a lot of time at there as well. Unplanned fun is sometimes the best kind.
Did plan this, however: a quick stop in Fremont to see the Troll.

I lived in Fremont for a time, back in my single/pre-BYU days. Had a tiny apt just a block from the heart of the neighborhood and a few blocks the other way from both the zoo and the troll. Nostalgia.

For our final downtown-ish destination, we headed just the tiniest bit further north to the Ballard Locks.

Mark was vindicated that the boys really got into watching the poor salmon in the fish ladder. My favorite part is watching the boats go through (and snapping pictures).
Back to Grandma's one last night. Watched the Bond sequel, Quantum of Solace, which was sooo bad - and extra disappointing after being completely hooked the night before.

Last bits of nostalgia... one evening I took a jaunt to my hometown of Des Moines, WA. I checked out my completely rebuilt HS (holy cow!), followed with a drive-by of the neighborhood/house where I lived most of my school years. In both cases I experienced the opposite of the cliche - everything was way bigger than I remembered. (Trees grow fast & furious in the PacNW, but it was still totally disorienting.) Then I went down the road to visit Saltwater State Park.

It looked exactly the same as I remembered. Before I could leave Memory Lane (aka Des Moines), I had to go down to the marina and see if I could get a picture to justify why my HS was named Mount Rainier though we're about 50 miles from the actual mountain.

Not bad, eh? I really heart Seattle, and the "greater Puget Sound" area. I'll miss it 'til next summer.