Gritty Oasis in Seattle or Beaching in Seattle

McKinley and Naomi.

The recess Monkeys showed up.

All aboard!  Kaya and Simone riding high on David's shoulders.

We indulge in long days at the beach in the summer.  Somehow we always stumble into friends and gatherings, on this day it was both...the recess monkeys arrived as well as friends from "Tribe Seattle."

Puget Sound is a bit chilly, perfect for a swim at the end of an epic beach day.

Melissa relaxing.

  

Lake Washington beaches have darker sand but the warmer water and floating swims docks make for luxurious long swims.  We often head to the lake at the end of the long summer days. (Sunset is 9pm.)

 

Pictured below is Simone, Stella, Elizabeth (holding the clan together) Elias, Lola and Naomi.

Ferry on over to Vashon Island

We often visit the Vashon Island farmer's market on the weekend.  The food is scrumptious, the music terrific but the real reason we go is to visit our friends Kelly and Rob.

Family pile-up.

                            

Our good friends Rob and Kelly live on Vashon.  We LOVE them!

Knighted by chivalrous iron-clad warriors in Gasworks Park

Sometimes we stumble upon the chivalrous Knights in Gasworks Park.  They meet in the clearing on the left when you enter the park.  Simone and Naomi are transfixed by the beautiful armor.  They battle and they also share medieval stories with the girls.

"This sword is heavy." - Simone

What a warrior!

"We welded these helmets to scare our opponents. They are meant to be intimidating."

"I like your medieval battle.  Here is a ticket to my climbing the tanks show." - Simone.

The BIG DIG Treasure Hunt or Simone's 5th or Great Traditions

We have a few traditions. One of these is the annual sailing trip, another is the annual BIG DIG treasure hunt that happens every year for Simone's birthday. We bury chests with treasure across the Global Gardens beach, pass out measuring tapes, shovels and maps and divide the kids into teams. It is mayhem and marvelous!

(pictures coming very soon!)

Getting trussed up?

This was probably taken in 1998.  I had harnessed up and climbed out of the globe at the top of the Smith Tower intent on dropping down the side of the pyramid to unseal the gothic windows but I was so scared I couldn't get myself to move.

In the paint

Naomi loves to paint. She does it nearly everyday.

Santa stopped by the tower a week early

The presents have been opened and the girls have left the scene for a few moments to pack up some toys for our afternoon plane ride to San Francisco where we will join in a second wave of Holiday festivities.

Jewel in the Oval Office (Sally Jewel)

Sally Jewel is sitting next to Obama at this table. Sally is one of the finest executives I know. 

She is the CEO of REI, a University of Washington Regent, a wonderful climber, hiker, adventurer, storyteller and she is the Chair of the Initiative for Global Development, a brilliant force of leaders who have come together to end global poverty.   I wonder what particular conversation is about?

Boardman Lake

Oatmeal for Simone, Kaya, McKinley, Liam, Simone and Cora after the first night at Boardman lake.   

Naomi and Simone hiking in.  

Boardman Lake

Annual Summer Sail

To be at sea.

Sailing

Naomi holding forth on the stairs.  

No hands as they are busy downing milk and twisting locks.

David, Naomi and John enjoying the island waters.

Mazama hike with Ben and Margit and Naomi

Hiking in Mazama with Ben and Margit.  

Brody's brother arrives or tea party with Brody

Simone and Naomi's are good friend's with Brody and love to visit with him in Sun Valley.  

Brody invited Simone over for a tea party and he made mint tea and cookies.  He had it all planned out. There was a table set with the miniature tea pot, cups and plates and a vase with a flower in it.

The only thing he didn't count on was that his new brother Finn might 

have a smelly diaper just when he was introducing Simone to him. 

Jennifer makes sure Simone doesn't lose hold of baby Finn.

Playing on the giant bear.

Her medium is plants.

Do you know any artists whose medium is plants? Kim Turos, who recently moved to Seattle, works in a vernacular of organic media. 

Gnarly old roots hang from the 70 foot ceiling like grand synaptic nerves sending messages from one giant bulbous form to another. It is something to behold. Her studio is wild too. It's a glorious industrial cathedral.

David, Simone, Naomi and I stopped by to see Kim and her husband John Gilleland recently. Simone set about watering the plants. There are probably 50 giant pots needing H2O. This could take a long time...best we open some wine and enjoy the extraordinary surroundings.

Take Your Time

Simone and Naomi visited the exhibit of Danish Iceland artist, Olafur Eliasson at MOMA.  There was a smoky mysterious room and a foggy room and a round room that changed colors and a wall of boxy mirrors all much bigger then them....which I should add was a theme on this last trip to NYC, so much of the art we saw was giant (Robert Therrien's plate and bowls.)

Another favorite with the girls was "Who's afraid of Jasper Johns" at the Tony Shafrazi gallery. The flight of stairs into the exhibit space on West 26th street had become a waterfall and the girls got in it immediately as it was 100 degrees outside.  The walls of the gallery were covered in a wallpaper of the previous show with new art mounted on top of it. It was hard to tell what was real and what was wallpaper.  An image of a guard stood next to a live guard.

Back in Seattle Naomi 

and Simone had a great time at the 

Lawrimore Project's Susan Robb exhibit, "The Challenge That Nature

 Provides."  Simone sang her heart out in the private booth and cooked 

delighted in the charred marshmellows from the Digester's fire.  The Digester's fire is fueled by methane from art dealer waste.  A hearth from the ecologically progressive future for sure. 

Fishing at twin ponds on crazy hair day at Evergreen School

Simone's Pre-School class made fishing poles today. The three year olds added hooks and sinkers, squirmy live worms (or bright salmon eggs) and went fishing at twin ponds, just a short hike into the woods from the school. Last year they caught a fish. This year they needed to cook up hot dogs and smores over the coals as there were no nips from the tranquil waters. 

The woods were beautiful! The weeping willow made some lovely shadows on the water to protect the young fishermen from the sun.


It turns out that today is more than just Fishing Day. It is also one of the Evergreen School's Spirit Days. This one is called "Crazy hair day" and the kids take those instructions seriously. Wild things appear on their heads...including, on Eliza, an embedded water bottle buried under her golden locks to create a "Volcano" on top of her blond head. If you look closely at the photos you'll see some spray paint on a shorn scalp (Daniel) or some exciting pink hair (Claire) or extra silly pony tails (Ruby, Evelyn & Simone) or red hair (Zane).

In the next picture you can see that each preschool student has a buddy from the Third grade standing with them. These buddies have been visiting them throughout the school year for fun projects. I overheard one buddy trying to get his underwing to try some of his suggestions about what fishing technique would attract the baby coho salmon to bite his worm. The buddy explained to his 3 year old understudy, "You see you are just half my age, which means I am two times your age and thus I know twice as much as you." The youngster did not understand this complex math at all and thus proceeded to do his own thing with the fishing pole.

Here are the 12 third grade "buddies" standing with 12 preschoolers and 3 teachers about to head out for the hike. Everyone has their fishing pole upright as they are practicing how not to knock into one another with the many poles.

This photo also shows the kids tying strings to poles to make fishing rods. They added the weights, hooks, and the bait to those hooks, a bit later.  

In the back of the classroom picture you can see a fish tank. Right before we left on the fishing expedition, Simone told Dorothy Shark-bait, the fish that lives in the classroom fish tank, "Don't worry Dorothy, I'll bring you a worm, we have more than enough bait. There will be worms left over."  The picture also shows the planets hanging from Teacher Judith's =classroom ceiling.  A few days after this event, the same ceiling was strung with a gray whale, an orca and a blue whale amid a massive bloom (or swarm) of jelly fish.  All of which, the kids made. It is a wonderfully creative place.