Not sure if you noticed this photo, but the West Seattle 4th of July Children's Parade really changed Franklin's life. He's had a bike for a few months now, but was never especially interested in it... until his friend Pax rode the same kind of bike in the parade. Now this is an almost daily site in our Alaska Junction neighborhood:
In fact, here he is getting started later in the day on July 4th:
A video posted by Yancy Hughes Dominick (@yancy9) on
It's a balance bike, apparently the new cool way to learn to ride. And he really is learning—here he is just one week after the 4th, touring through the West Seattle Summerfest:
Glad Merrica made the trip all the way from Tanzania!
I think nearly all of this has already shown up on Facebook, but here are a few photos from Merrica's visit:
Mariners game:
Pretty serious stuff.
Sunny cheap seats, but not a bad view:
Day at the beach:
Pretty tiring when all's said and done:
Took the ferry to Vashon Island:
And the photo up top documents a little of our day there.
Wouldn't be a visit from Merrica if there wasn't food involved:
Watermelon:
Ramen:
So much more was eaten, but it looks like that's it for photos...
Good visit all told. Come again soon!
And while Merrica moves on to Montana and the rest of her vacation, we're trying to make the most of these last few weeks of summer, with a little help from our new ride:
Bonus flip flop shot:
Okay, summer won't last forever so I'd better go enjoy it!
As I mentioned, we checked out HONK! Fest West last weekend. Lots of fun music, even if it was accompanied by stilts, kilts, and jugglers...
Our favorite was definitely the Seahawks drum line:
Makes me think I might have to go to a football game one of these days!
Was such a nice day that I rode my bike there (!) with my friend Laura, and we met up with Emily, who'd just finished up at the Seattle Archives Preservation Roadshow.
As Laura captioned this, "sunglasses needed!"
Back home, we've been losing our minds over the no-knead bread recipe that Mark Bittman wrote about a few years ago.
Incredibly easy, and incredibly tasty—nice crunchy crust too! And, as Jim Lahey says in the great video, it has "beautiful crumb structure."
You know what else is beautiful? Plato's Greek is truly beautiful. I've been fortunate to have found a few other faculty members at Seattle U. who'll read Plato in Greek with me lately.
Lots of fun, and a nice chance to spend time with faculty from all over the University—Physics, History, Theology, Philosophy.
Right now we're reading the Euthyphro. Slow going for most of us, but rewarding. Want to take a look? The Perseus site will gives you access to a side-by-side Greek and English version. Good stuff.
As you might have seen on Twitter, we spent Emily's birthday out at the Chateau Ste Michelle winery. It's really nice there--and the tour is free, as are the tour tastings! They also sell picnic-y foods, and have lovely grounds for picnicking...
We even saw this bird. So, you know, that was cool.
Did I get a flat tire? Yes, but at least that was after we'd safely completed the 22-mile ride to the winery. Did we have to walk a mile in the hot sun to find a bus stop to get home? Again, yes, but fortunately we didn't know any of that when we were enjoying the food and wine.
Turns out, though, that Emily isn't the only one with a July 10th birthday. Congratulations to Ismail & Kari on the birth of their daughter! Willa Lucia Pekin
In bonus celebration coverage, I recently discovered that Deron & Haley had an online set of engagement photos. Not bad. There seems to one preview shot from the wedding up (scroll down a bit after jump)... Hopefully more will be up soon!
Finally, here's some random video fun I heard about on a Times blog the other day. Enjoy:
Well, we're about to hit the road for eastern Washington and then Montana--in fact, I should really be packing now: but before we leave, here's a brief look at some interesting and fun things we've seen lately.
(Also, I figure that if I do one giant post, that will cover for me in case I can't post from the road...)
We saw the movie Humpday on Emily's birthday. It also happened to be the Seattle premier, and since the director is from here, she was there for Q&A after:
Refreshments before the film:
It was a surprisingly fun and funny movie. Sort of like Old Joy, except funny (?).
Also saw a great view of Rainier from the UW campus on a recent bike ride/library visit:
Speaking of seeing, have you heard of this crazy story about doctors implanting a telescope in people's eyes to help them see past their macular degeneration? Super cool and super crazy.
Saw some CHS friends at a wine tasting/party they held at Vino Verité. Good stuff. Tasting menu from Small Lot Co-Op, which features tiny, limited-run Washington wines.
And seadevi, one of the more reliable CHS writers, got a few nice pictures:
Don't know all the names, but for those of you keeping score at home, the person on the right in the first shot is Uncle Vinny.
And the beautiful girl on the left in the second photo--well, you know her, right?
Anyway, grabbed some relay photos from facebook (thanks, Jon): Ben & Nick
Emily
Sara
There's also an official picture of Jon at the finish line.
Speaking of official things, turns out that they were keeping track (?), and they say that my favorite team came in 5th! Woo!
Does this shot of the knickers work for you?
We rode out to Redhook again--didn't really plan on it, but it was such a nice day, you know? Tried to get a good action shot of Emily, and I'd say I came close...
And how about these flowers? Still looking good after almost two weeks!
Spent our night Saturday with some friends in Fremont. They decided to host a "salon" at their house: "An evening to hear about what we all do during the day. A semi-formal presentation by two of our peers on their day job, intense hobby or a combination of both. Hopefully educational as well as intriguing: a chance to learn as well as listen." Ethan Thompson, a PhD student at the U of Washington talked about string theory (um, yeah).
And John Snavely talked about his job "envisioning the future" (?) for Microsoft. Also showed this video:
Somewhere in between cool, unrealistic, and a little scary, no? But how cool is that phone that projects an arrow on the floor to give you directions?
In other news, some ROTC kids repelled down the side of my building last week: [Some overlap with Twitter here--apologies to any of you who object to cross-posting.]
And I bought some "bicycle knickers":
I had a salad the other day: Endive, apples, walnuts, and goat cheese--delicious!
And we saw Neko Case, who was absolutely amazing. No shots of the show, but here I am waiting excitedly...
Speaking of excitement, I have some full days of grading and Spanish lessons coming up, so I'll say goodbye for now. Cheers, reader.
While I was in Baltimore last month, Emily helped clean a few blocks of Seattle with some other Zipcar members. Swept up cigarette butts and such. Can you spot her head peeking out in the photo?
Now you can read about it in the Zipcar newsletter. Way to go, Emily!
And in return, she got a few treats, including a shopping bag, a free breakfast, free lunch, a $25 driving credit, and a voucher for symphony tickets. So, you know, not a bad bit of volunteer work...
Got a few more photos of Merrica's graduation. Here's a favorite:
Oh, and how about one more shot of my handsome new bike?
Finally, more photos! Fran and Dave joined Emily on a tour of some of the many vineyards out in the Yakima Valley. I was at some conference or other (shh!), so I missed it. Looks nice, though. Lovely weather too.
And tasty wine when they got back, so it worked out all right for me.
On the way, Dave took a look at the Pacific Crest Trail. Not quite ready for hiking...
Maybe just a short walk.
Grape vines: Among the wines I sampled (a fraction of what they tried, of course), a highlight was from the Bonair Winery. So if you see it at your local Binny's (?), check it out.
Fun visit all around: had a great dinner at Lola, saw a fun production of Sunday in the Park with George at the 5th Avenue Theater (cool slideshow on their website), and enjoyed some surpisingly nice May weather together.
On an unrelated note, Emily's been rehousing these wax babies lately: You be the judge: cute or freaky?
