Geo-caching Pains or Shakespeare at the Troll

Last week at a wonderful birthday party for Simone's classmate Meredith (Richmond Beach) we geo-cached and found an artillery box full of books.  We were smitten with the adventure and made a little book of our own to add.   We wanted to share the fun of geocaching with our pals McKinley and Kaya Daggatt and find more treasures and what better place then Freemont to start. 

We joined the Daggatts around noon and put together an assortment of tiny toys to leave in the geo-caches we found.  Then we set off for the first geo-caching site just a stone's throw from their houseboat on Lake Union. 

"Okay it is 4 feet from us."  McKinley is navigating with the geocaching application on the iphone.

We searched every inch of the grassy knoll but (4 feet or not)....no cache was found!  

Discouraged, we conferred (family meeting) and decided to move on to another cache hidden at the Fremont Troll.  (FYI.  McKinley is sporting Zombie make-up for the 5pm massive gathering of Zombies.) 

Naomi shouts, "Look Simone, it's our house," as we pass a welded fence with an image of the Smith Tower.  

It is always fun to visit the Troll under Aurora Bridge.  He holds a real VW bug in his hand.  Turns out,  Work It Productions' was holding a performance of Shakespeare at the Troll starting right when we arrived.  It was a series of scenes and sonnets from Bard's works. The girls lined up eagerly to watch.

When it was over (an hour later) the treasure hunt resumed.  The hint was that this cache was magnetic.

"Nothing in his nose." - Kaya

"It's not on the signs or the railing." -Naomi

"Something is wrong. I don't think it is here.  Muggles must have got this one too." -Kaya.  

(Family meeting.) This is not working.  "Lets go put on our Zombie outfits!" - McKinley.

And besides, they are DISTINCT!

An email just in from my good friend Monica about a conversation between Sophie (6) and Annabel (3) that she overheard.
~~~~~

Petra,


On the way home from camp today, I heard the following conversation in the backseat:

Sophie: “Now I REALLY want a pet, Mommy!” (after seeing a Jasper look-a-like poking his head out of a distant car window)
Annabel: “Me too!  I want a pet baby Unicorn.”
Sophie: “There’s no such thing as a real baby Unicorn.  They are a mythological creature.  And besides, they are DISTINCT.  They don’t exist anymore.”
Annabel: “Yes they do exist!  Playmobil makes them!”
Sophie: “No, they’re distinct!”
Annabel: “Yes, I WANT A BABY UNICORN!!!!”
Sophie: “No!!!!!!”
Annabel: “Yes!!”
Sophie: “No!!”
Annabel: “Waaaahhhhh!!”

This seems to capture our life right now, from fairies and unicorns, to the tug of war and ultimate tears.  At least I can laugh about it, right?

Love, M.

How we ended up in theSmith Tower lighthouse?

One beautiful Seattle day, I looked up at the Smith Tower and was hypnotized by the pointy triangle on top.  I contacted the owners, the Samis Foundation, about taking a look at the upper floors of their massive inventory of downtown buildings and warehouses for a long term lease....but it was the Smith Tower "belfry" I was clamoring after.  A year went by negotiating for the Tower space and navigating Seattle's zoning regulations regarding multi-use buildings.  Many people jumped in and without which I doubt this project would have been successful.  Sally Patterson, Jim Castanes, Dale Chihuly and William Justen, to name a few.  It could not have happened without the village.

The pyramid evolved from a series of dark creepy spaces into a bright open dwelling.  A water tank was removed, giant concrete lumps left on the floors were jack-hammered out, heated maple floors put in, some of the ladders between the floors were replaced with stairs, a make-shift kitchen and two bathrooms were created and most important of all, the gothic windows were made operable.  The resulting triangle has been my residence for thirteen years and it now houses four of us, my husband David, and our daughters, Simone (6) and Naomi (3).  


I had no idea when moving in just how marvelous Pioneer Square would be to live in. It is a unique community of intelligent, fun, authentic and visionary people.  Children are warmly welcomed into galleries, stores, restaurants and the rich fabric of this diverse neighborhood has turned out to be a wonderful place to raise a family.  

There was a white light at the top of the pyramid when I first moved in. The lease it states that the tenant is to change the lightbulbs when they burn out.  Somehow,  I saw that as a license to also change the color and one day, I opted for an ultra-marine blue bulb.  The neighborhood was up in arms and alerted the Seattle Historic Society.  Then a keen young intern at the Samis Foundation, Jack Almo, who happened to be writing an essay on the fiscal history of the Smith Tower, stumbled upon a story about the buildings inauguration festivities back in 1914.  Turns out that the Smith Tower first opened its doors with multi-colored lights shining from the globe.  That established a history of colorful beams coming from the lighthouse to celebrate various holidays and the historic society and neighborhood group allowed my blue beacon to stay.   Thank you Jack!

View west from a living room window.   Originally there one or two horizontal bars (as you see above) across the windows and when I was pregnant with Simone, both David and I decided to install bars and gates throughout the house to abate our intense nightmares.  The place is now a fortress.

The babies could bang on the bars as much as they wanted and be safe.  

This is looking West from one of the bedroom windows.

Simone and Naomi taking a quick bath in the sink after dinner.  They are so much fun.

Looking up at the front facade from the street.

Seasick?  Dizzy look down on the eye lids of the gothic windows from the globe.

The end of the day is really something. 

I was inspired by the bookshelves Dale Chihuly built in the lavatories off the Pendleton room at the boathouse and ended up making my own set with a polymer edging.  What I like is how this showcases the covers of the books rather than just the spines.

 

In the Chihuly Hotshop urinal, Dale installed two buck heads with massive racks.  Though taxidermy might offend some, I might have to co-opt that idea too sans the urinal.    

The books here are from a box of paperback books I was reading in New York City in 1985.  It is a snapshot of the early eighties and of what was important to me then.  Janet Malcolm,  Joan Didion, Flaubert, James Baldwin,  Voltaire,  Graham Greene, Richard Brautigan, Peter Matthiessen, Oscar Wilde,  Kant, Aldous Huxley,  Henry Miller, Thomas Berger, Dashiell Hammett, Virginia Wolfe, Jean Cocteau...  There are a few exceptions, Cold Snap by Thom Jones, a little hard-cover red book on the right hand side, True Patriot by Eric Liu and Nick Hanauer from 2008 and "Don't Think of an Elephant" by George Lakoff.  (See "Evening with Lakoff" post.)

This is from one of our annual "Rational Evenings."  Each guest is asked to bring a fact, statistic or novel view of something that has changed the way they now see a particular issue.  We go around the room hearing from each guest.  Humorous one moment and we're all in tears the next.  En masse it is a riveting adhoc symposium on the issues that are relevant to our friends today. 

Friends arrive and depart by an elevator in the Chinese Room.  

Pictured here is Fred, Ben, Margit, David and me. Ben and Margit Rankin are Simone and Naomi's godparents along with William Justen.  Can't have too many godparents!

Simone cycling in the lobby on a rainy day.  Security guards, Alex and Adam with

bikes in the background, probably getting ready for their commutes home.

Looking South toward the stadiums at dawn.

Birthday at 3700 feet

We flew to the Hampton's on June 19 which is Simone's birthday.  The flight attendant, Maria, had an idea. Over the intercom, she had the passengers light the candles by pressing the attendant call buttons.  Then they sang Happy Birthday and then Simone made a wish and blew out the candles at which point the passengers pressed the call buttons again to snuff the candles out.  

By the way, Simone had already enjoyed a giant 120 guest "Big Dig" Treasure hunt at the beach (epic as always) and celebrated her birthday at school and then again with her god-parents and so she didn't mind flying on this very special day.  

There is something about the outside of a horse that is good for the inside of a man. -Winston Churchill

My good friend Annie Reese (mother of Cora and Liam) invited us to join them for riding lessons at the Willows Edge Farm in Bothell.  The riding school has these beautiful warm maneless horses called Norwegian Fjords that are perfect for young riders.  Be forewarned...throughout this post are horse jokes that Naomi and Simone have been testing out on their friends.

Cora went first.  She took to it immediately.

A cowboy rode into town on Thursday,

Stayed 3 days and rode out on Thursday. 

How is this possible?
(Answer:  His horse's name was Thursday.)

Liam went next.  He'd done some riding before and he wanted more speed.  He was ready to trot.

Did you hear about the sad horse?  He told a tale of whoa! oh whoa!

Where do you take a sick horse?  To the horspital of course.

Simone loved it.

Girl: We have a mayor. Do you? 

Horse: Sure! 

Girl: What do you call it? 

Horse: Same as you do. Mare!

All the horse had the Willows Farm heart brand on their rumps.

One day, while I was petting a Shetland Pony at the zoo, a friend of mine asked, "How
are you today?"  I responded, "I'm feelin a little hoarse." 

Naomi's spiderman boots work fine. 

What does it mean if you find a horse shoe? Some poor horse is walking around in his socks.

Each lesson began with a few rounds of no hands.  Naomi talked the whole time she was riding. "Sweet horsey. You have a nice coat. I like it way up here. etc.."  She was a wee bit nervous and found her own way to handle it. 

But I've got a horse out in the country 

I get to see him every second Sunday 

He comes when I call him, 

Yeah,he knows his name 

One day I'll saddle up And the 

two of us will ride away"  

                                 -Cowboy Junkies

My feet can reach the petals.

We seem to be on the weekly boat rental program at Greenlake. 

Simone and Naomi like the big double-wide mothership ones so they can walk around easily. 

I like the boogie board best, but they have to stay very still or we get a chilly bath.

Abbey Road

The Daggatt's are visiting Gemma's family in London.  Great Shot!

Leaping

McKinley's leap.  Isn't it beautiful.

Arne's egg.

What a satisfying chair.  Thank you Arne Jacobsen for creating this beautiful lounge.  

(There is a whisper of Eero Saarinen in here.)

Mazama Migration 2010

Sophie and Dave watch Simone, David & Naomi horse around on the bike.

Every Spring for a decade, we've been migrating north to sunny Mazama around the time of David's birthday on May 25th.  Our tribal gathering place is now Michal Friedrich's Wesola Polana.   

You can see the rusty steel "Herd" lined up behind Simone. The alien looking RV's or "Rolling Huts" were designed by architect Tom Kundig.  They are a blast to stay in.

There is now a little restaurant right in the compound so packing for the trip north means we just need to get the bike gear and kids in the car.     

John Gilleland,  Kim Turos, Monica Stephenson, David Stephenson

We've had groups of 70 or so migrate north and other years, most years there are about 20 of us.
We peel off for hikes, rides, swims, climbs and use the farm house porch as our communal living room.

Ah the sun feels so good.

Naomi on the river trail gathering sticks and singing.  

I love how the boots are reversed and the shirt is backwards 

Naomi bare back on the little red machine but donning a helmut. 

Anselm and Simone climbing on one of the Rolling Huts. 

The fields are linked and out in the middle of nowhere we found a badminton court,  a soccer field and above where Simone is standing there is a massive telescope.  

Simone found a pile of feathers in the soccer field.
An eagle had just swooped down for a pigeon lunch and left a bit of roughage behind. 

David and Naomi off to check out the Mazama river.

Simone and Sophie climbing the Wesola rock.

Ahoy Captain Ahab, we'll be setting sail in a few minutes. Come aboard with us. 

Jungle-gym in the forest.

Sophie, Annabel, David and Monica arrived not long after we did.

Strangely, even playing cards seems special at Wesola.

David Stephenson takes many photos and does the annual video interviews of the kids.  

He is taking the photo below.

Isn't it great?  The kids pretty much run wild for the 3 or 4 days we are in the Methow Valley.

Naomi and David hitting the wiffle.  

David made it extremely clear that he didn't want any birthday presents and of course we heard him but we didn't listen. We made lots of things for him, fancy awards, paintings with photos in them, sculptures and pottery, poems...

...after all that, I think he liked them.  The red hat above was also a present.

Treasure hunts are a part of this tribes vernacular.  Thus, continuing the tradition, we hid 20 apricots along the path to the river creating a quick, ad hoc, treasure hunt one heavenly morning.

We looked and looked but we could only recover 19 apricots.  Hmm.

Blaise and Adrienne out for an idyllic walk along the river.

Maryanne and Michal will be parents by July!  

Spinning the wheel that opens the windows of Michal's house up.

  

Here is the house closed up.  When you turn the wheel the steel blinds open and close.

Adrienne, Anselm and Blaise taking in the view from the Delta Shelter.

Each year, David interviews the kids.  Sophie is going first this year.

He asks them questions. 

"What do you know now that you didn't know last year?"

"What do you love to do?"  

"Is there anything in particular that you want to do next year?"

John and Kim out walking with Dante who is groomed with a Lion's mane.

Putting the wheel on for a road ride.

Anselm, Blaise, Adrienne and I went for a hike only to discover we were hip deep in snow.  

We found a few rocks to rest on between the drifts.

It is June 1st, Eliot's 4th birthday.  Blaise made a flour-less chocolate cake and lit matches for candles.  

Wish successfully launched.

Simone, Petra, Eliot in birthday crown and Anselm

A visit to the horses with carrots, apples and an onion. They liked them all.