Tanner's Visit

28 August 2010

We've had a lot of excitement lately, with Amy's brother Tanner coming into town. The occasion of the visit is worth mentioning.

Most of the rest of Amy's family paid us a visit last spring. Tanner couldn't go, however, because one of his teachers wouldn't let him because her choir class more important. This would seem unjust, even if his self-important ego-driven choir teacher hadn't been the one behind it.

Anyway, since Tanner has a job he managed to save his sheckles and fly up to make up for his lost spring break opportunity.

And boy did we make up for it.

We did everything with Tanner that we had done with the rest of the family, and then some.

The centerpiece of our activities was a visit to the museum of flight. It's really amazing how much stuff there is to see there. We spent maybe three hours with Amy's family last spring and only really got an introduction to their vast collection. This time Tanner and I spent about five hours there and saw a lot more. Even after all that time, we left two entire wings of the museum untouched. Tanner especially had an interest in the space collection, which had a lot more going for it than I remembered. They have a Mars rover replica, a full-size, high fidelity replica of a module from the International Space Station, a full-size replica of the Lunar Excursion Module (LEM), a replica of Sputnik, a LEM simulator, and that's just a sample of what they had.

This time we made a point of not missing the actual Concord, the first 747, and the original Air Force One. We also got another good look at the WWI exhibit. I'm an aviation fanboy, I know, but if you find yourself anywhere near Seattle and can take a day, the Boeing Museum of Flight is well worth the price of admission. Their collection is as inspiring as it is complete.

I think the highlight for Tanner was probably the ferry ride in Seattle. I think he enjoyed getting a good view of the city and Amy and I enjoyed being along for the ride. Maybe one of these days we'll actually drive our car onto the ferry and see what's over there on Bainbridge.

It was a fun surprise when Devin came through town on his way to the Canadian border (again). He joined us for our activities on Sunday and left Monday.

We had a great Sunday afternoon up at Discovery Park. I was surprised how clear the traffic in Seattle was. I don't think I've ever been up there on a Sunday, but I think we might just do that again on our own.

Our trip to Seattle on Monday happened to coincide with Amy's doctor appointment up there, so we would have gone up anyway. (by the way, it looks like she has Minear's disease and the doctor prescribed a diarhettic). We spent some time on the waterfront, but most of the day we wandered Pike Place Market. We visited a cool little book store in the "down under" area run by a big gregarious Russian. He joked with customers, called all the ladies and kids "darlingks," and dispensed advice to the tourists.

Tanner walked away with a small gift for his girlfriend and Amy walked away with a new bouquet of fresh flowers from me. Every time we go up there we pledge to shop there more often.

It was a pleasure to have Tanner as our guest and get one last shot at some fun this summer. I hope we can do it again soon.

-Tom