Happy 30th Birthday, Tom!

Well, just like my subject line declares, Tom turned 30 on Monday. It was great that it turned out to be on my day off, so we got to spend the whole day together. While we didn't get very many pictures to catalog the day, the ones we got have the bonus of being full of fall colors.



Tom really wanted to eat at Ivar's for his birthday, so we headed over to our usual haunt (Lake Washington, where else?) picked him up some fish and chips, and had our lunch out on the pier.




This is actually the only picture I got with Tom in it. Not much of a 30th birthday commemoration photo, but at least it's proof that Tom really did get to eat seafood that day. This is the part where I admit that I'm not much of a seafood fan. I do like Ivar's fish and chips (sometimes, and only then the halibut ones), but I grabbed takeout from Panda Express before we went to the lake.



The trees are turning all sorts of crazy colors that I have never seen before. The pictures just don't do the colors justice; I swear there were a dozen different colors of red, yellow, orange, and coral there at the park.



After lunch, we went to a Toy Story 3D double feature. It was really cool to see the original movies in 3D. You could see a bigger difference in the technology development between the two movies because the first one had pretty 2-D backgrounds while the backgrounds in the second movie really came alive. We're looking forward to seeing the third movie when it comes out in another few months.



After the movie we relaxed and did a little cleaning at home before meeting Janet and John over at Hong's Garden Chinese restaurant for dinner. Talk about a crazy eating out day! The food was good, and afterward the four of us came back to our place where we sang happy birthday to Tom and had some cake and ice cream. It was about this point where I realized I had left the camera in the car I had meant to bring in for real birthday pictures, but none of us felt like making the trek downstairs to grab it. Oh, well.

One thing we've realized in getting closer to this age landmark is what little difference the passing of a year makes. Many things have changed for us this past twelve months, but we don't really feel any older.

-Amy

Discovering "Discovery"

Today we spent the afternoon at Discovery Park in Seattle. It was beautiful! We've been meaning to explore some of the greener wilder places we have around here. The recent Ken Burns documentary about the national parks reminded me that we have two national parks right here in our backyard. In fact, on a clear day you can see both of them. Today was such a day.


It's hard to see in this picture, but Mt. Rainier is rising just above the convergence of the two hills. The Olympic mountains were even more visible in the other direction. We didn't have the time or the funds to get out to either of those magnificent national parks, but we found a gem of a park right near Seattle. In fact it's five minutes from downtown, and only twenty minutes from our home in Renton. You can't be out in nature and be any closer to the city.

Discovery park is on a little peninsula on the north side of town and is covered with various wooded trails and is edged with pleasant beaches.


Most of these were taken on such a beach. Amy even managed to find a few stones for her hot stone massage set.

We didn't even begin to see everything. There's apparently a lighthouse and a little historic town that used to be where the park now stands. We spent most of our time hiking the trails and just seeing what there might be to see. I doubt we even got a look at a tenth of it. We must have hiked at least five miles today.

The whole place is a reminder of what Seattle once was before Americans arrived. It's not hard to imagine native fishermen out in the sound or preparing their expeditions on the shore.
We found this arrangement of driftwood which was kind of disturbing. Sorta looks like a grave, doesn't it? I doubt it is, but there is actually a cemetary nearby come to think of it.
It's hard to believe that I lived here as long as I did and never saw or even knew about some of the natural treasures around here. I'm hoping in the next few years Amy and I can rectify that.
The whole day I was thinking how fun it would be to bring Amy's family here whenever it is they can manage to visit. There's so much to see and do around here, we feel very luck that we'll have some time to take it all in. It was a good workout and a day off well spent. I had some work to do before we left and it took longer than I thought, so we left the house a little flustered. We both had a long week and this trip was exactly what we needed. The air under the canopy of the trees seems so rich and fresh. Spending a few hours in it was extremely relaxing, in spite of the traffic on the ride home.

In any case, we'll definitely be coming back soon.

-Tom