I had just gotten back from camp and was a wee bit exhausted.. but more than anythingI just wanted to see the kids aagain. They were so sweet and life just felt incomplete with out a hand to hold all the time or someone to sing with me. I just wanted to be there for them. It was hard to release them into the care of their guardians... until you realize that you can hand them into God's hands. Now I feel a little bit better. God's up there watching over them and he was smiling down on us that entire week of camp. I know already some campers from last year have gone to heaven, but at least they heard the message of Jesus and recieved his love before he went up there. Now we have his sweet little sister to care for as she makes her way through life and it just breaks my heart to hear what all these kids have gone through.
So Emily and Hannah planned out a "weekend" of action. On Sunday, we were picked up without any knowledge of where we were going. We refers to Jenny, Caitie and I. Well.. I did know a bit only because I wasn't sure about going. We were whisked away to Seattle to stay in a snazzy hotel.. wow. I was so happy. Thrilled. Excited. Joyful.
This is what I need. An older "sister" to get me through things. Emily watches over me. Takes care of me. She makes sure that I'm okay. Megan does that too which is such a blessing. With both of them there for me ready to listen or answer questions with me, I feel a lot more prepared for life. They are both Godly women and by watching their lives line up with the Bible's teachings, I know that their advice will help me live a life like God would want for me. And I'm encouraged to check what they say in the Bible... and it does line up.
So anyways, Emily was loaded, loaded with food. It was insane. And she even brought pickles and snap peas just for me. Yum. I love those things. But also there were cookies and dove chocolate and lots of fruit. Ahh! I love dove. So I melted the dove and dipped strawberries in it. That was quite lovely.
We headed out pretty soon to walk around town... and eat. We had a couple choices on where to eat but naturally the Old Spaghetti Factory was the chosen place. Who could not love spaghetti? The wait was around 15 minutes outside.. but they give you this snazzy buzzer/beeper that tells you when it's your turn. It was in my lap and it went off and I screamed and jumped and I started the group.
Waiting outside for the spaghetti.It wasn't a long wait and as usual, I made a friend.Little Miss Scarlet was an adorable little 2 year old who gave us the biggest smiles. We headed in to a room that looked like something of a pirate.
Each of us ordered a bottomless strawberry lemonade, which means we had free refills through the night. Our servers were Kirsten and some other person. It was her first day ever and she was really sweet. Since she wasn't bored of her job yet, she was really fresh and enjoyable. I wish all servers were like that. But I guess eventually they just get sick of the job and it's not as exciting.
For the meal, most people got the managers favourite, which is spaghetti noodles with two different types of sauce on two sides. But I got my favourite, the Spaghetti with Browned Butter & Mizithra Cheese. It leaves little to be desired. This was a commen way for the Italians to eat their pasta. Not to heavy or anything. If you haven't tried Mizithra Cheese, you haven't lived. It's like mozzerella but entirely new demensions are added in flavour. It's a lot more strong and it's a hard cheese. It's flakey and has so much flavour. Mmmm. I love it and order it every time I go to the Factory.
Bathroom break at the Factory always involves a stop at the phone booth.The Factory is great in their prices. It looks expensive at first, $9.25 for my meal, but then you look at what you get. First you get a soup or salad. My salad was amazing with pesto sauce. I've never had pesto sauce before so it was love after first bite... not that unsimilar to the love of a vampire. Okay. Bad joke if that even was one. Anyways, it was really refreshing. And you get loaves of sour dough bread to share with fresh, creamy, whipped butter. It's really satisfying.
Troy Bolton: Oh What's that? Zeke: Oh, it's a creamy custard like filling with a caramelized surface, it's really satisfying Hhaha.. sorry, couldn't help that. My blog though and I can quote High School Musical if it seems to fit the blog. Anyways, after the salad, the bread, and the noodles you get one more treat. Spumoni ice cream. We even got an extra one cause they had one melting that they needed to serve. Wow. I love that stuff. Jenny and Caitie got vanilla ice cream which I couldn't even comprehend. It's like Neopolitan on steroids. It's got pistachio, chocolate, and cherry. Now I hate pistachios and any sort of nut thing... but I love this. It's one of my favourite types of ice cream. All those flavours together in one bowl ready to be mixed at the command of my spoon. Such harmony. Such beautiful. Spumoni. It's also a fun word to say. Scarlet the baby stopped by our table as she left. There were plenty of left overs that we took home to eat at midnight later that night.
We headed out towards the waterfront to the new Olympic Sculpture Park. The Olympic Sculpture Park is a new park that was opened by SAM (Seattle Art Museum) that is pretty snazzy. I guess it's pretty self explanatory. But it's fun to just hang out there. You've got a perfect view of the water front and it's pretty peaceful... until the train comes. Anyways, we had a seat in the eye benches, benches shaped as eyes, to get a lovely, er, view of "Father and Son." A scultupre of a father and son.. lacking clothing. Whatever. It's art.
Poor Emily... I seema bit too excited about the statue.
Jenny and the lovely statue right on the waterfront.
Then there were some Puzzel Men I chatted with. I don't know who they were. But they were playing Sudoku and Scrabble at the same time.. the epitome of nerd-dom. And they were my heroes. We talked only a little. I learned what a spat is. And after one person finished his turn on the Scrabble, they'd switch game to book. It seems a good way to live life as an adult. They were about 25 years old.
We headed up the steps behind the eyes and men to the terrace, deck, raised level overlooking the waterfront and the view was amazing. God is so good.
Pic by Caitie. You can't tell, but there are some snazzy mountains in the distance.
I took this pic, I guess. I thought the color scheme was snazzy. But if I had done it again, I would have straightened out the horizen.
Jenny, Emily, Caitie, Hannah, and I.
Some more sculptures.After all that, we headed home. Even with six of us, Seattle isn't the safest place in the world.
We got to the hotel, went swimming, talked, ate, talked, ate, talked, slept, got a bloody nose, slept, got up, got dressed, got in the shower.
Then we went to the Science Center and met Dr. Sean who was amazing.
Butterflies at the PSC.
And then of course, what do you need to do when you're at the Seattle Center? The fountain of course. We came prepared in with swimsuits and food and headed to the fountain. I love that fountain. It's an icon of Seattle and really represents it well. It's the International Fountain... built for the world's fair. There's usually music playing. The water is clean, you can tell because of the chlorine, and there are kids, teens, and adults running around everywhere. It was the perfect ending for our trip. Really wonderful. And the perfect way to cool off. Not as many kids this day as it wasn't as hot, but stay tuned for the next entry where there were a whole lot more kids.
And that was pretty much my day. Afterwards, me and Jenny hung out a bit at her house. Went to the park. Kicked around a socker ball. Played on the play ground. Played catch with a tennis ball. Just all easy stuff... the way summer is supposed to be.
Life is good.
