Spokane to Seattle

On our trip to Southern California on October 15th the first leg was a short flight (under one hour) from Spokane to Seattle. It takes us about an hour and a half to get to the airport from Colville. This time our plane was a Bombardier. I took one photo as we left Spokane and when we got to Seattle I tried to get some photos without the propellers.

This is the first time I’ve seen Green Lake so clearly from a plane.

Green Lake is one of Seattle’s most beloved parks. Its expanse of water and green space in the center of a dense urban neighborhood draws thousands of people daily from all over the city. The park serves as a natural preserve for hundreds of species of trees and plants, as well as numerous birds and waterfowl. The 2.8-mile path around the lake provides a perfect recreational spot for runners, bikers, skaters and walkers. Many others use the athletic fields or visit the park for boating, picnics and swimming.

I think this is a view of Lake Union and the larger green area next to the water is Gas Works Park. You can see the Space Needle to the left. The larger bridge might be the Aurora Bridge.

I’ve spent many hours at this field watching the Seattle Sounders Soccer team. I’ve missed being able to go to games since we’ve moved. Tuesday night the Sounders play a game in Los Angeles for the Western Conference Title. If they win they’ll play in the final against the Eastern Conference Title winner for the MLS Cup.

We landed shortly after flying over these fields and made it to the gate to board a much larger plane to fly to Bubank, California. Hollywood Burbank Airport, legally and formerly marketed as Bob Hope Airport, is a public airport 3 miles northwest of downtown Burbank, in Los Angeles County, California, United States.

We are having very cold overnight temperatures the next several days. Monday and Tuesday’s predictions are lows of 15 and 17 degrees and then in the twenties the rest of the week. The highs range from 37 to 48 degrees F. Thankfully no precipitation is predicted because that would mean snow! Time to pull out our winter wear.

The Rest of the Tour

After we left the University, Laura and I took Flat Stanley to see The Fremont Troll, some floating houses, views of the Space Needle and a statue of Chief Seattle.

Here’s a link if you want more information on the Troll. The sad thing about this fun Seattle sight is that drug addicts have chosen to use this sight to shoot up and discard their needles here. When we were there a concerned citizen had already picked up over 30 discarded needles. He was warning people with children to watch out.

Some of the floating houses on Lake Union in Seattle.

Views of downtown Seattle from Queen Anne’s Kerry Park.

This statue of Chief Seattle is in the Belltown area of Seattle between 5th Avenue and Cedar Street in the shadow of the Space Needle. I’ll add a link for anyone who wants to read more about the man Seattle was named after here. I found this quote about him interesting:

“What we know of Sealth (pronounced SEE-elth, with a guttural stop at the end) and his life is mostly conjecture based upon myth with a little bit of extrapolated fact. That he was a tyee, or chief, has never been disputed. His father, Schweabe, had been a tyee, and the title was hereditary, though it conferred no power upon the holder. The Suquamish listened to the tyee only when he said what the people wanted to hear. The remainder of the time, a tyee was expected to share his largess with the rest of the tribe during a potlatch.”

Seattle, Chief of the Suquamish, A Friend of The Whites. For Him the City of Seattle was named by it’s Founders.

This week I’m adding three quotes from my readings that I want to remember.

“Loving, not being loved, is essential.” John Piper

A line from a hymn by John Newton, 1779, that Alistair Begg shared on an interview about Prayer:

“Thou art coming to a King, large petitions with thee bring”

I’ll be sharing the full hymn on a Sunday in the future.

This last quote and the longest is from The Gospel According to Jesus by John MacArthur, page 46.

“The call to Calvary must be recognized for what it is: a call to discipleship under the lordship of Jesus Christ. To respond to that call is to become a believer. Anything less is unbelief.

The gospel according to Jesus explicitly and unequivocally rules out easy-believism. To make all of our Lord’s difficult demands apply only to a higher class of Christians blunts the force of His entire message. It makes room for a cheap and meaningless faith – faith that may be exercised with absolutely no impact on the fleshly life of sin. That is not saving faith.”

Have a Thursday filled with good thoughts!

Pie on Pi Day

To celebrate the beginning of my 67th year on this earth Dear and I drove to downtown Seattle for an early dinner. We found a parking garage close to the restaurant we’d be having dinner at and then walked down the 5 blocks to the waterfront by Pike Place Market. We were headed for Cutter’s Crabhouse to enjoy some oysters and drinks at their happy hour. Although the day started out gloomy and wet the afternoon shaped up and was sunny and glorious. When we walked into Cutters trying to decide where to sit a man at the bar suggested that sitting at the bar would be more fun than sitting at a table by ourselves. We smiled, thanked him and took his advice. We were able to engage in conversation with the bartender and the two gentlemen sitting close to us at the bar. One of the men was a Sounders Soccer fan so he and I exchanged some thoughts about “our team”. When we were done with our first round of oysters and drinks I ordered my second drink and when the bartender set it down in front of me he let me know my new soccer buddy had paid for it. What a nice gesture and our three new acquaintances wished me a happy birthday.

We settled our bill at Cutters with a gift card Katie and Andrew had given us for a Christmas gift. Then we enjoyed the views of the waterfront before trekking up the 5 blocks to Lola’s Restaurant on 4th and Virginia. We chose this Tom Douglas restaurant over his other establishments because of the variety of lamb dishes they offer. I had the Lamb Shoulder Tangine and it was delicious. Dear got the Lamb kebabs. The red you see on my dish are a generous topping of saffron threads. Our beet starter and the rice dish loaded with pistachios and Greek olives were delicious, too.

Since it was Pi day we ordered the Coconut Cream Pie for dessert to share.

When our bill came our waitress informed us the pie was on the house. Sweet! We paid for my birthday dinner with another gift card we had from Josh and Laura from Christmas.

All in all it was the most lovely celebration and on the way home I enjoyed several phone calls from our kids and my brother from Texas. His kids serenaded me with their rendition of Happy Birthday Aunt Ellen. Fun times. Thank you Lord for showering me with beauty, good food and loved ones.

The Weekend Roundup “C”

Tom is hosting the Weekend Roundup. I’m joining in from the Seattle area.

This weeks prompts are:

1. Starts with “C.”
2. Week’s Favorite.
3. Clouds.

Let’s “C” what I can come up with…

Starts with C

Cabbage Rolls or Golubtsi, Голубцы, a Russian version of cabbage rolls. Recipe here.

2. This weeks favorite.

Cute climber!

3. Clouds

Wispy clouds over Elliott Bay Marina, Seattle. Seattle Space Needle in the distance amongst the masts.

Next weeks prompts: Starts with “D.” A Favorite. Details.

If Only I Knew Hodgepodge

Happy New Year from Seattle! The Space Needle is getting a face lift/renovation. They are saying there will be a glass see through observation floor. too. Here are this weeks questions for Wednesday Hodgepodge.

1. It’s that time of year again…time for Lake Superior University to present a list of words (or phrases) they’d like to see banished (for over-use, mis-use, or genera uselessness) in 2018. You can read more about the decision making process and word meaning here, but this year’s top vote getters are-

unpack, dish (as in dish out the latest rumor), pre-owned, onboarding/offboarding, nothingburger, let that sink in, let me ask you this, impactful, Cofefe, drill down, fake news, hot water heater (hot water doesn’t need to be heated), and gig economy

Which of these words/phrases would you most like to see banished from everyday speech and why? Is there a word not on the list you’d like to add?

I’ve not heard some of these words or phrases. I’m not tired of any of these…yet. I’ve not been following a lot of news these days. I had to look up some of them to see what they mean.

2. What’s something you need to get rid of in the new year?

Stuff…lots of stuff. But what stuff? What stuff will I miss when I move if I get rid of it? What stuff will just be a bother to move? What stuff is junk and what stuff is keepsake worthy?

3. Where do you feel stuck?

See question #2.

4. January is National Soup Month. When did you last have a bowl of soup? Was it made from scratch or from a can? Your favorite canned soup? Your favorite soup to make from scratch on a cold winter’s day?

I had a delicious bowl of Dear’s Tomato Rice Soup on Christmas Eve, made from scratch. Dear makes that soup. The soup I like to make from scratch is Borsch (Borscht) or Spinach Borsch or Lopsha (all soups from my Russian Heritage). The photo above is of my Borsch. My favorite canned soup is Cream of Mushroom to use it as an addition in other recipes.

When someone has a sore throat or a cold at this old house we like to get Hot and Sour Soup from a local Chinese take-out. It a nice spicy burn going down and clears the sinuses!

5. Tell us one thing you’re looking forward to in 2018.

Knowing what property we will be moving into would be very helpful to my dilemma in question #2.

6. Insert your own random thought here.

My favorite word for 2017 is Grandmother/Baba. This little one awarded me that title by being formed by God and born to our son and daughter-in-law. Thank you God and Father for this sweet gift.

I’ll be linking up to Wednesday Hodgepodge with Joyce From This Side of the Pond. She asks the questions and we provide the answers.

Hope 2018 is starting off well for you!

Goodbye and Hello…

We had a wonderful finale to 2017 this morning with brunch at Palisade in Seattle. Josh and Laura treated us to a belated anniversary celebration.

Such a cold beautiful day with the sun shining…hello.

The Space Needle is being remodeled right now and it will be fun to see the results from that. We saw Mt. Rainier to the south and the Olympics to the west.

The only thing that would have made the very last day of 2017 better is if we could have had cuddles with Addy and a hug from her mommy and daddy. They were busy snowplowing their driveway so they could get out for New Year’s Eve festivities!

We welcome 2018 with hope and are excited to see all that it holds for us.

Happy New Year to all my blogging friends and those of you who visit my blog throughout the year. I appreciate you all and the comments and encouragement you leave for me.

Reflective Five on Friday

Last Friday after I picked up my sister Vera from the airport we headed to Chihuly Garden and Glass in the shadow of the Space Needle in Seattle, Washington.

Here is the Space Needle in the background of a Chihuly Glass art piece in the outdoor garden. Now I’ll leave it to you to spot the reflections of the Space Needle in Chihuly’s glass balls that are in that garden.

I shared some photos of the Chihuly Glass Museum earlier this week here.

Thank you to Amy at Love Made My Home and to Susanne for Friday’s Fave Five for hosting these Friday parties.

After I took my sister to the airport on Monday for her to flight back home we’ve been getting our winter pruning done at this old house. The Pear tree is done and the apple tree is half done. I finally trimmed the lavender way back the way I was told to do and my hydrangeas are trimmed, too. A local garden store is having a Hellebore event this Saturday with a discount on them and I’m thinking of adding another variety to my current plant. We have a quiet weekend except for the Super Bowl game on Sunday.

Our church has a great Super Bowl themed Sunday with 2 pastors going head to head in a sermon battle. Don’t know yet if we’ll have guests here to watch the game yet. Hope you all have a great Friday and weekend ahead!

My Friday thankfuls #1 thankful for sister time. #2 thankful for talented artists. #3 thankful for accomplishing yearly chores. #4 thankful for quiet weekends. #5 thankful for my church family.

Sky of Blue, Sea of Green…

This is another one of those posts that is all about the history of my soccer enjoyment. For a Seattle Sounders Soccer fan and season ticket holder our 2016 season ended with our boys capturing the Gold Cup. The thing that makes it amazing is that we were in last place in the middle of the season with any hope of making the playoffs questionable. Then from the bottom we had a turn around, a new coach, a new player, a new inspiration. Injured players recuperated and came back strong. The team had a strong determination and new vision. On Tuesday December 13th Josh, Laura and I drove downtown to be a part of this history and enjoy the parade and rally. Josh and Laura just got back from Toronto on Sunday and were able to be at the final game and cheer on the Sounders with 2000 or so fans. It was now time for the Washington State Fans to come out and give the team the thunderous appreciation we wished they could hear in Toronto!

15492219_10154179358653589_437076264013511389_n This photo above is from their victory celebration in Toronto, Canada.

We found our spot close to Seattle Center and waited for the parade to come to us. Josh bought this flag to take to Toronto with him and Laura since it has a likeness to the U.S.A. flag.

I turned around at one point and saw some of our friends from Northshore Community Church.

This little guy was so cute. By the way Stefan Frei, our goalie, was the MVP of the game with his save of year that will go down in soccer history, too.

Finally the trolleys with the players approached with all the fans along the route joining in the procession.

Nicolas Lodeiro holding the MLS Cup out the window for all of us to see. The added flag is from his home country of Uruguay. Lodeiro is a player who came to our team at our lowest point and with his playing ethic and spirit helped our team make a turn around.

Some past players that the Sounders fans always enjoy seeing, Kasey Keller (former goalie) and Roger Levesque, a fan favorite for many years who is now retired from soccer.

We met up with more friends and joined the throng headed to the Seattle Center for the rally.

Look at that green beard! This is part of the Sounders band.

Walking under the monorail tracks to the center.

The Trolleys stopped and our team captain Osvoldo Alonso raised the MLS Cup Champions flag next to the statue of Chief Sealth (Chief Seattle), whom the city of Seattle is named after with historical controversy. Alonso is a Cuban born soccer player who defected to the U.S.A. and is now a citizen of the United States.

Our group selfie amongst the sea of green! You might be wondering how all these people were able to get off work to attend this parade and rally in the middle of a work day. Brad Evans issued this for all the Sounders fans…

Our daughter in law actually submitted this to her boss to fly to Toronto last Friday. He said it was a very compelling reason to miss work. This excuse form was used by some for the parade and rally, too.

This is Zach Scott, another fan favorite who has been with the team from the beginning. He led the crowd in the Jingle Bells Song the team has always sung in the locker room after an away victory. This was Zach’s last season with the Sounders. He will be missed.

Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle all the way, Oh what fun it is to see Seattle win away, hey! It was fun to hear a crowd of thousands sing along.

15401060_1200744436629254_9196882971506577376_n 2016 Seattle Sounders MLS Cup Champions! Look at that sea of supporters behind them!

15390679_10154194292473589_572307301539503003_n The following day the Sounders flag was raised by Coach Schmetzer and Governor Inslee at the capitol building in Olympia, Washington.

It was a fun event to attend and we were happy to brave the crowds and the cold to be a part of history. For the record and in case anyone out there is concerned, I do not worship soccer or soccer players but I enjoy soccer and have an appreciation for the skill and stamina it takes to play this sport. Since watching our sons and daughter play soccer in the 90’s I’ve grown in the understanding of the game and have learned to appreciate the development of play between the players on the field.

Now I’m headed to the kitchen table to finish my Christmas cards so I can get them in the mail tomorrow! We are below freezing in temps here on our hill in the Seattle suburbs. Brrr. Good day to stay inside and work on our Christmas greetings. Hope you all are cozy and warm.

Summer Ends in Seattle…

We had an errand in West Seattle and on our way we enjoyed this view of the Space Needle.

On the way back from West Seattle we traveled on the viaduct and had views we don’t usually have when we head to Seattle. We thought we’d have lunch downtown but the parking proved to be impossible and there was more traffic than usual because of an afternoon baseball game.

I’m sure some of you recognize this logo.

The skies were so beautiful on this last day of summer over the skyline of Seattle.

We stopped outside of the downtown area at a Mexican Restaurant we’ve wanted to eat at for a while with simple and free parking. We are happy to have this beautiful and vibrant downtown to enjoy when we are in the mood and happy to be able to escape the hubbub of Seattle to our northeast burb in quieter environs. We enjoy a little of the city and a little of the country while living in between!

Seattle Treasures…

All these shots of the Seattle waterfront and other views of quintessential Seattle were taken from two Bainbridge Ferry Runs across the Puget Sound on August 28th.

The rounded tops are of Century Link Stadium where the Seahawks and the Sounders play and the further one is Safeco Field where the Seattle Mariners play.

Mount Rainier is always a treat to see even though it’s a dormant volcano and if she blows we’ll all be toast!

Linking up for Tuesday’s Treasures with Tom at The Backroads Traveler.

We are wrapping up our Labor Day with some relaxation. Dear trouble shot an electrical problem in our basement and all is well again. A handy man is a treasure to have around the house!

The Happy Wonderer ~ ellen b.

To honor and encourage

Tag Archives: Seattle Space Needle