Day Three Starts the Drive

          D and the dogs are nice enough to let me sleep in today.  D's mom makes us waffles to go with leftover sausage.  I ate one as D happily downed 4.  He says they are much smaller than the ones we make at hotels, though, if that changes anyone's predictions.  If you haven't seen them, here's the list I posted on Facebook earlier this week:

1. If we see snow, where will we see it first?
2. Where will I take the 200th picture?
3. What's the most unusual animal/insect we'll see?
4. How many times will we get gas?
5. Who will get there first: the movers or us?
6. How many miles will we travel from the time our trip officially starts to the time we tuck in on our first night "home" (apartment or hotel depending on when our stuff arrives).
7. How many states will we drive through?
8. How many fun/interesting places will stop at along the way?
9. More specifically now, how many of those stops will be at a state or national park?
10. What time of day will we first spot the mountains?
11. How many continental breakfasts will we get?
12. How many breakfasts will have waffles?
13. How many waffles will Don eat?
14. What's the first thing we'll realize and regret not packing?
15. What is the cheapest and most expensive gas we'll buy?
16. Which restaurant/fast food do you think we'll eat at on the way?
17. What "disaster" might we encounter on the way? (Hopefully it won't actually be a disaster, just a minor glitch.)

A couple of these might be answered in this post.

Meet Ed.  He's a scorpio, so that should tell you everything you need to know.

          After breakfast D and I unpack and re-Tetris the car to fit all of his lab supplies.  Thankfully we find his small duffle to hold all our snacks.  Ed sunbathes on the roof while we all work.  Zoey attacks me every trip I take back into the house; I wonder if she knows that something is up.  Perhaps she just really misses everyone now that the house is down to two residents.

 

Good-bye our second apartment together!

          There are many tears with so many good-byes, and now the errands must be run for the trip to truly begin.  A stop at The UPS Store has my fancy new camera off to Samsung so hopefully they can fix it and get it back to us soon.  A quick-ish trip to Comcast has us happily and painlessly cancelling our service.  Working with someone face-to-face is so much better than trying to call a stranger.  We're going to be stuck with Time Warner in CA.  I hope the horror stories are exaggerated.  Finally we make it to the Waterfall Glen management office, and they help us get copies of paperwork that should get us reimbursed for the early termination fee from D's new employer.  The visit is long but we finished what we needed to and we're off.

          Since I put out the trip trivia questionnaire we gas up and reset all the numbers that will record the official numbers for our trip.  With a Speedy-Freeze in my hand, our route westward highlighted in purple on the GPS, I call my mom for a reason I've since forgotten.  I catch her as she just gets home, and she calls back in a few minutes to let me know she found our spare car key and that we'd left our small trash can at the house.  We agree to meet up along our route to pick up our first forgotten items.

We'll be seeing you again around Christmas.

          Seeing our loved ones is always nice, but having to say good-bye again is equally as difficult.  We share a few more big hugs before D and I return westward bound.  It's already dark so not many pictures are taken today.  No good clear ones, at least.  Our first minor "tragedy" happens when D accidentally spills the homemade chex mix onto the car floor.  While he's cleaning that up and salvaging all he can I accidentally squish the ladybug I was trying to coax out of the car.  Hopefully those will be the worst misadventures we have.

So disappointing.

We didn't even make it 100 miles, yet!

The night is young; now I'm in charge of the chex mix.

          I wish I could say that I'm a perfect travel companion, but I get sleepy!  I take a quick snooze about 50 miles outside the Iowa border.  I wake up in time to cross the Mississippi River and manage to stay awake the rest of the trip.  D hits a sleepy wall but pushes through it.  Ed enjoys the dark night sky.  We feel bad that he's so bloated with a balloon in his belly.  Our first gas stop is near Des Moines where we also pick up McDonald's to give us a little more energy for the night.  Mom found us a few hotel choices along the way and we're now checked-in at the Holiday Inn in Omaha.  Tomorrow is another long day, all driving.  I hope you are all enjoying the company of your loved ones and get a fantastic night's sleep.

Healthy dinner: smoothie, burgers, and burritos.

Nighty night!

A Not-So-Productive Moving Prep Day

My mom's new picture windows.

          We start today with high hopes of finishing the rest of our errands.  We allow ourselves a little more sleep, shower, eat a slow lunch with my mom, pack the car and head out.  Our first stop is at our friends' house.

          Of course I bring the famous water buffalo hats with me which are immediately placed on our heads.  M's daughter S loves those hats, and apparently they are magical as this terrible two year old turns into the sweet girl I'm used to visiting.  We're going to have to see if Auntie Z can cheer this little one up from a long distance on those rough days.  After playing with blocks and reading some books it's time to make our next stop.

Fall door.  On our way.

          We make it to our apartment shortly after 5.  I head in to clean the last few things and do one more check, and Dr. D goes to talk to the office people.  After a few minutes he's back with a sigh.  Apparently our Waterfall Glen office personnel have a sense of humor when it comes to posting the office hours online, it's a good mental game to remember that they aren't right.  So we pack our last two boxes into the car and head out with tomorrow's to-do list growing.  Dr. D heads to IIT to finish packing his things, and I head to his parents' house.

          The fog is pretty thick in spots, but I arrive safely to much barking from Squeaky, Ellie, and Zoey.  Z-bo got in trouble today for eating the Roku remote.  Before the night is over she'll get in trouble for eating the stuffing out of the couch cushions, too.  Dinner conversation over gyros covers the adventures of our day, the fog, and where is Dr. D?  I pig out on Halloween candy and some homemade chex mix.  With half my gyro left over we head to the "new room" to watch Death in Paradise.  Dr. D makes it home before Fallon ends, and we can finally settle in for the night.

          Tonight we stay with family; tomorrow night is a mystery!

Story time!

California or Bust!

Hello again!  Long time no see.

          My smarty-pants husband got his Ph.D. this summer followed by the job of his dreams at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California.  We've been super busy apartment hunting, soaking up as much time with family and friends as possible, and today the movers came.  JPL has a great relocation program, so they paid for our flight out there to apartment hunt in mid-October (total nightmare but we got a great place).  Today they paid for the movers to come pack up our things and Ace Relocation did a fantastic job clearing our place out and listening to our concerns about what items we wanted special care for.

It's so empty!

          Today we ate our last meal in our empty apartment and tomorrow we hand over the keys and finish up our last errands.  It's hard saying good-bye to everyone and it's going to be hard adjusting to a totally new way of living after a couple months of no free weekends to suddenly have all free weekends.  After two hours of sleep last night it is time to keep this brief and head to bed.  I hope you all are doing well and enjoying the last bit of good weather for the fall.

It goes both ways!

The Waters of Seattle

View of the Seattle skyline from Puget Sound.

          We had to get up early today to get on the first Argosy harbor tour of the day as the CityPass recommends.  After slightly regretting last night's gluttony we made it to Pike's Market for a cinnamon roll and sticky bun to go.  With just a few minutes to spare we boarded the Goodtime III and grabbed one of the many empty starboard side benches.  Arriving for the first cruise certainly paid off!

I still have no idea what this is.

This hotel was built for the World's Fair but it was completed too late.  The Beetles enjoyed fishing from the windows.

          The wind on Puget Sound was nice and chilly while the sun, yes we had sun this morning, was warm.  We enjoyed our breakfast as the tour guide told us about the history of the docks, the seven neighborhoods, islands, industry, sports, and local wildlife.  The skyline from the water was gorgeous.

The dinosaurs of the shore.

          After our tour we took the very short walk to the aquarium and spent a good many hours exploring all the fish and mammals on display.  We are both very impressed with the Seattle Aquarium.  The Shedd Aquarium has larger mammals and loads of fish in tanks, but Seattle has the largest touch tank we've ever seen with the largest variety of animals to touch.

Sea stars, sea cucumbers, anemone, urchin, fluffy looking creatures and so much more!

          We were first greeted by a tank talk at the large tank in the entrance with many salmon, a wolf eel (actually a fish), and many other fish swimming around the diver who was telling us about the animals as she fed the fish.  After taking some 4k quality video (heck yeah!) of the talk we moved on to the next area.

Katie is surrounded by silvery salmon.

          There was a schedule of events for the day on a screen and we saw that the octopus feeding was beginning in ten minutes.  We headed over to the tank and realized that this is the octopus that was famous a couple months ago for trying to escape the tank.  Now Ink is much larger and happy to stay inside and wait to be fed herring and sardines on a stick.

          Next we explored the touch tank and various other tanks in the building.  Another bonus to this aquarium is how well lit so many of the tanks are.  I got such better quality pictures thanks to both a new camera and better lighting.

          A few rehabilitated birds including adorable puffins led us to the next part of the aquarium housing the dome tank.  We took a seat and listened to the next talk as another diver fed the fish swimming around us.  Large orange rock fish, more wolf eels, huge halibut, sturgeon, and so many silvery salmon.

A male wolf eel, his face has jowls that the women's don't.

          The last talk of the day was showing us how they do daily check-ups and training with their harbor seals.  The seal got many fish as a reward for taking directions and finally she got fishcicles: fish frozen in ice, as a treat.  The trainer said she's smart enough to wait for the ice to melt to get the treats out.

          Both sea and river otters were looking sleepy and adorable as we headed toward the gift shop.  If there was no glass between us I could have felt how soft their fur appears.  I grabbed a magnet and t-shirt and we were off for lunch after a quick check-in at the conference center for the convention.

          After such a busy and successful morning we treated ourselves to some gyros, or as they spell it out here: Yeeros.  They had some truly amazing tzatziki sauce and the lamb was very tasty, too.  D downed his and played some video games as I slowly enjoyed mine and surfed the Internet.  We decided after looking at the menu to cancel our reservations to the SkyCity Restaurant in the Space Needle.  We already have passes to go to the observation deck twice to there isn't any need to spend almost $100 on food that doesn't sound that appealing.  We have very simple food needs.  Instead we'll spend that money on fondu when we get back.

          Last on our schedule today was the Exhibitor Reception for ICRA 2015.  We enjoyed a few hors d'oeuvres as we explored the various booths set up by the sponsors.  It is always fun to watch the future being invented in front of us.  I feel like the odd one out being a chemist rather than an engineer.  That doesn't mean I can't appreciate what I see, and what I don't understand D is very good at explaining.

          Since the food didn't completely fill us up we took the extra walk to Molly Moon's for some ice cream.  Oh boy.  This ice cream is dangerously rich.  I got the saffron honey caramel sundae which is vanilla bean ice cream topped with melted chocolate ice cream (that wasn't melted), topped with caramel, topped with whipped cream, topped with saffron honey stuff that is so dang flavorful I had to eat it at a snail's pace.  I mean a snail's pace.  I still have over half of the sundae left as I type, if that is any indication of how slow I have to eat this treat.  D got Molly's Favorite which had lots of chocolate, amazing fudge topping, overly rich salted caramel ice cream, and candied hazelnuts.

One of the touch tank red anemone that eat fish.

          As we ate we watched the bike polo going on across the street, a homeless man root through the garbage and finish someone else's thrown-out ice cream, how they make homemade waffle cones, and many interesting people walk by the store front.  Seattle is a very interesting city and tonight I felt a bit overwhelmed by it all.  I am happy to be back in the hotel room, shutting out the world.

A Long Walk at Woodland Park and Zoo

          Today we head on our furthest excursion: the Woodland Park Zoo.  I'd already gotten directions on how to take the bus there but D wanted to look it all up so he felt comfortable making the trip.  I'm glad we did some looking of our own because we found the E Line that is a very fast and direct route between the zoo and our hotel.  Since we started the day late after a glorious morning sleeping in we decided to grab food at the zoo.

Yes, you do see two heads.  Baby Joey is inside.

These guys are called "Flamboyant."

          I am impressed at how well behaved dogs are on the buses.  We got off on our stop and had to take a bit of a hike to get to the south zoo entrance.  Once inside we were told that there were some young lions on display and a new sloth bear exhibit.  We were given tokens to vote on how the zoo should support conservation efforts of various species and I voted for the orangutans while D voted for a species of frog.

I've never seen this kind of wolf before.

          The nearest eatery was half way across the small zoo but beyond the lion exhibit, so we had to take a detour to see them first.

Two of the three young cubs.  They were keeping and eye on mom who was pressed up against the viewing glass.

          On this detour we might have made a few other stops, too.

To see the hippos, giraffes, and zebras.

Maybe a monkey or two.

Or well-endowed fruit bats.

And we certainly can't skip the ever-vigilant meerkats.

          We made it to one eatery and decided to cut across to the other side of the zoo to check out a larger one and that led to yet another detour.

We said hi to the tigers.

Watched the river otters play king of the log.

Waved to this curious penguin.

Then remembered that we were as hungry as these flamingos.

          Lunchtime finally arrives and we pick out a buffalo chicken sandwich and nachos for way too much money.  While D goes back in to grab napkins, the many blackbirds around us begin acting very noisy and odd, and suddenly they rained down who knows what onto us.  Thankfully only the cement takes a direct hit.  D is amazed to see one bird bold enough to hop onto an occupied table and steal a man's hot dog with his wife and child sitting right there.  So I advise you to eat inside or under a roof and keep an eye on your food at this zoo.

These bears don't seem very concerned with the big black birds.

          For the rest of the zoo hours we take our time seeing everything else and revisiting the lions and a few others.  We get to watch two monkeys appear to kiss and then groom each other, a gorilla do a headstand while making faces at us, some birds perform their funny song and dance routine before grub hunting, fuzzy sloth bears eat grapes with funny lips, and parakeets eat seeds off of sticks held out by visitors.  It is a very eventful visit!

She started out just sitting with her back to us, then suddenly she did this.

One of these was singing right as we entered the habitat.

These sloth bears won't share their grapes and branches.

          After buying a couple magnets we are off to the rose garden where I play with the macro lens some more.  Using Auto mode and the touch screen feels like such a cheat!  I take so many pictures and each time I think it's safe to put the camera away and move on D or I spot another rose just begging to be photographed.

See what I mean?

If this rose isn't begging, I don't know what is.

These three smiled very nicely for me.

          Finally we make it out of the garden and begin our hike to Green Lake.  The area is so lush and natural, except for the tennis courts.  D and I enjoy a leisurely hike around the lake and I play with a few more settings on my camera before just enjoying the view and general nature sounds including jogging feet.  We find our way back to the nearest bus stop and decide where to eat dinner tonight.

We enter the wild.

Greeted by the vast expanse of Green Lake.

I am glad that Washington does not look like Illinois.

Half way around the lake.

My first 21 and over experience.

          The Unicorn, a 21 and over restaurant celebrating karaoke night on Monday nights.  They sell such beverages as Unicorn Jizz, and appetizers as Narwhal balls which we had to try the latter with our Coney Dogs.  To say this is a unique place might be an understatement.  We listen to the karaoke going on downstairs as we indulge in the amazing chili cheese dogs topped with green onion, sour cream, and Fritos.  Mmmmm!  The Narwhal balls are also quite delicious, but D and I agree that the dipping sauce is a bit strange.

Upstairs is Unicorn, downstairs is Narwhal.

That's the kind of monkey we saw kissing and grooming.

The decor is certainly fun.

          We waddle home past the numerous homeless sleeping in doorways, hanging out in entryways, camped out in tents by the highway, and walking along the sidewalk.  It doesn't feel right being so stuffed while so many of them are likely hungry.  I am repeatedly stunned by how many homeless live in Seattle.  The prices of simple goldfish crackers might be a clue as to why the population is so large, though.  Seattle is far from cheap.  We decide to come back and visit Molly Moon's for her ice cream at a time when the sun is up and the streets are a bit busier.  I know that likely most of the homeless are also harmless, but I have seen at least a handful talking to themselves or making very odd gestures that hint at instability, and I just don't want to take any chances.

Narwhal balls on our table.

The dangerously delicious Coney dog.

          Tomorrow will be an early to rise day, but for now I must pass out and sleep off my food coma.