We sure packed a lot into this year’s Fourth of July! Since the Fourth fell on a Wednesday, we decided going to Ephrata (or anywhere for that matter) was probably not a very good idea. (Though Tobin’s on his summer break now, I’m still working). We ended up spending the entire day with Terry and Christina Fritsch. What a blast!
What did we do, you ask? Well a whole bunch of things! I made up a list of things to consider doing (click to download the pdf), and then we picked from the list. Before we even got started on the list though, we had blueberry Belgian waffles with a strawberry sauce and whipped cream. Yum!
Once breakfast was finished, we drove to Seattle and parked down under the Viaduct by the Seattle Aquarium. (Free parking as it was a holiday - that’s what I’m talking about!) We walked out on the pier to the north of the aquarium. I’d never been out on it before… It was pretty big. The day was simply gorgeous!!! Things were off to a great start. From the pier we walked to pier 66 in an attempt to get up on the roof of the Bell Harbor International Convention Center. Unfortunately it was closed ’till 7 due to the holiday. So we kept walking North, hit up a little coffee shop and then explored the SAM’s Olympic Sculpture park.
The park was nice. None of us had been there before, so it was a first for all of us. We could see the Space Needle nearly the whole time which was cool. There was a security guard on duty making sure that we didn’t touch the art as that could damage it (OK…whatever), but besides that it was fun. Inside the building was cool too as there were these hanging baskets you could get inside. The guys were too cool to do so, but not Christina and I. :)
When we started heading back toward the Aquarium, we noticed what looked like smog or smoke on the waterfront, and then we started hearing the sirens. A bunch of firetrucks went barreling by towards the Aquarium (remember our car was parked over there). Luckily for us it was only a small fire (on the pier we’d started out on earlier in the day. The fire might have been small, but the response was massive. There were probably 15 or so firetrucks that responded and additional cops.
We made it past the road block and bought tickets to the Aquarium ($15/each). We had heard good things about a new exhibit at the Aquarium (it cost $40 million or something like that), and none of us had ever been before so we thought it would be fun. The new exhibit, Window on Washington Waters, was pretty cool. We looked around at the other exhibits and I took a plethora of pictures. :) It’s a good thing I’ve had so much experience taking pics in low light (at youth group). A surprising number of pictures turned out. :) All in all, we got to see a bunch of fish, along with birds, seals, etc. There was one place where you could go down below this tank, and the fish would swim around and around. That was pretty cool as a diver got in with the fish and fed them while we were watching.
We probably spent 2 hours at the Aquarium, and then headed off to Ivars for lunch. If you read my blog at all you know that a trip to Seattle is never complete without a stop at Ivars. :) By the time we finished eating, we were all getting a bit drowsy as we’d walked the whole length of the waterfront (from Ivars to the Sculpture Park). We walked back to the car then and drove to the Ballard Locks. Unfortunately, on the way to the locks, we got an Independence Day present from the JERKY Ballard cops in the form of a $150 ticket. The speed limit drops from 40 to 30 on the draw bridge, and they sat right there at the sign and nabbed everyone coming into Ballard. What a crappy thing to do! Needless to say I’m pretty ticked at Ballard and will think twice before going there again. If I do have to go to Ballard I’ll be sure to NOT BUY anything. I heard that they were claiming that they were trying to get drunk drivers. Well if that was the case they should’ve had Tobin blow in a breathalyser and then let us go. OK now you know where I stand on that whole turn of events.
We almost turned around and didn’t go to the Locks because the cop had put such a negative turn on the day, but we decided to not let it totally ruin our day, and we proceeded to visit the Locks. (Christina had never been there before either.) There was a lot of boat traffic going through the Locks due to the Holiday, so that was fun, watching the boats (lots and lots of sailboats). When we were done walking through the Locks, we drove over to the other side (back across the now-dreaded Ballard bridge), and visited Discovery Park.
None of us had ever been to the park before, so we didn’t really know what to expect. We knew the park was big but figured that at the very least there would be a map of the park by the parking lot (and perhaps even signs pointing out where to go?). Well no such luck. We nearly got lost trying to find the beach. The signs kept saying .2 miles, but I really think that was to the next sign, not to the actual beach! We probably walked a mile and a half before we finally found the beach (and a tiny little light house). My feet were all cut up from my flip-flops (I wasn’t expecting that much of a hike!). As much as we had to walk out, I think it was worth it for the view we got. The sun was shining, the mountain was huge, and there were sailboats everywhere. We could even see Mount Baker to the North. We sat there in the sun enjoying the gorgeous view, and then snapped some pictures (the main pic for this post was during that photo session).
After we decided we’d had enough sun (everyone was turning red except for me), we headed back. We took a different combination of paths on the way back and luckily it took us less time to make it back. Yay! (Amazing given the lack of any maps and pretty bad directions on sign posts!)
If we had been feeling tired before Discovery Park, it was nothing like how we felt afterwards! :) We had been thinking about going to Gasworks Park for the fireworks, but all the activities we’d done really zapped our energy. We decided instead to head back to our house, eat dinner, and then catch the fireworks in Des Moines (and that’s exactly what we did). I transferred the pictures from the cameras to the computer, and then turned on the XBOX 360 and we watched the pictures of the day while we ate Blue Cheese burgers. That was nice and relaxing. Then we drove down to Des Moines. We parked in the Biblesoft parking lot (there were a lot of cars already parked), and ended up right next to Terry’s mom’s vehicle. lol Terry then got a call from his mom and stepdad who’d graciously saved us a seat on the grass. :)
The fireworks were nice, but not nearly as cool as the fireworks we saw across the water. We figured those must’ve been from Bremerton. I think we might have to head over there next year to watch the fireworks! They were HUGE! We kept thinking that it was the finale, but they just kept going. What was really funny was with the fireworks going off right in front of us, the people around us were oohing and aahing over the fireworks across the water.
And that was our day!!! I don’t think we could’ve packed much more into it! :) I took a ton of pictures too (I know, that’s so uncharacteristic of me), so head on over and view those.
WOW! What an awesome eventful day! So much fun!
Sounds like a GREAT time, Tammie…thanks for sharing it with us!
PG
Despite being absolutely exhausted at the end of the day, I swear, it is probably the most memorable Fourth of July I’ve had yet. Thanks for inviting to join you! I loved it!