Winter Day at the Beach

The essence of Seattle, for me, is a crisp, clear day at the beach.  I spent the weekend of February 3, 2012, with Lisa and her family.  The centerpiece of my stay was a perfect Saturday afternoon picnicking on Lincoln Beach on Puget Sound. We started the weekend, though, on Friday night at Las Costa Restaurant in Issaquah, ordering combination plates of burritos, enchiladas, and tamales, and eating bowl after bowl of chips and salsa.

Grant played two ward basketball games on Saturday morning.  Kyle took Grant to the stake center, early, for his first game, but Lisa, I, and the rest of the kids, other than Spencer, were there for the second game.  Spencer needed to work at the root beer store. 

The second game was a cliff-hanger.  The game went into three overtimes before the other ward finally won, 39-37.  I took sixty photographs with my new Canon Rebel camera, trying to catch Grant shooting, blocking, and running.  Grant was obviously one of the best players.  Unfortunately, I hadn't quite figured out how to focus my new camera...

We trooped down to Lincoln Beach under a blue sky that Lisa described as very unusual for Seattle in the middle of winter.  We spread a picnic table with one of my mother's tablecloths, printed with red roses.  Alyssa and Bryce played with driftwood on the beach as Michael K used my camera to take some pictures and Kirsten, Grant, Lisa, and I relaxed at the table, eating peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, oranges and strawberries, Pepperidge Farm cookies, and Blue Machine berry drink.

Michael K is taking a community college class on digital photography.  Some of his photographs, such as portraits of Kirsten and Bryce, are truly beautiful.After our picnic, we walked down the boardwalk, enjoyng the view of ferries crossing Puget Sound and people riding bikes and jumping rope.We also enjoyed the parade of dogs along the boardwalk.  Our favorite was Boris, a white bulldog who waddled along the boardwalk with his dog-walker.  As Boris chewed on a big twig, as if he would swallow it, the dog-walker commented, "I wouldn't do that, Boris, but it's your colon, not mine."  As I watched Boris' fat behind toddling along, I urged Grant and Kirsten, "Please tell me if I start looking like Boris."  "I'll do that, Grandma," Grant promised.  "I'll tell you, 'It's time to stop eating, Grandma.'"

We then drove downtown to the Pacific Science Center, after dropping off Michael K downtown with his friend and their dates.  The Flindts received a year's membership to the Science Center for Christmas from Kyle's sister, Julie.  It was fun to spend an hour or two exploring, without feeling we had to see everything to get our money's worth!  Alyssa and Bryce played in the tidepool and hooked up electrical circuits to ring bells and turn on light bulbs.  Kirsten checked out the differences between the two sides of her face on an imaging site.  Grant and Bryce played chess on a life-size chess board as Lisa, Alyssa, and I listened to one of the guest scientists, a forensic pathologist, show on a plastic corpse how he did autopsies.We chose Petra Mediterranean Bistro for dinner.  It was owned by Jordanians and had large paintings of the ancient city, Petra, along the walls. "Yelp" granted Petra 4 1/2 stars, and the food was luscious, although the kids didn't like all the dishes as well as I did.  We had the best calamari I had ever tasted, and a mezza plate served with basket after basket of pita bread fresh from the oven.  We then ate shish kebab, marinated prawns, roasted vegetables, and the best rice pilaf ever.  What a perfect day!