Take Me Out To The Ball Park, A Retrospective Tale of Two Travellers Part 3

On our last full day in Seattle hubby and I and the two girls watched a home game of the Seattle Mariners baseball club.  It was something I had wanted to do on our first trip to the USA and we were lucky that they were playing at home that weekend.

I thoroughly enjoyed the experience, even though the game is slower than I thought it would be, it was great entertainment and it would have been awesome if the Mariners had managed to win, but it seems they are not having a great season in 2013 and lost 3 to 1.

We paid a little more (just under $60 US) for seats in the second tier just to the left of home base (think that's the right term) which were wider and padded with lots of leg room and in-seat service from a bright and bubbly staffer, food itself was pretty cheap and I got to taste my first pulled pork sandwich and a hot dog (both of which I shared with hubby) given I can't eat very much post surgery. I am now a huge pulled pork fan, yum!!

There was a fair crowd, although no where near full capacity but the atmosphere was great, there was mid game entertainment including 'Moose' standing on his head, and dancing - a stunning feat for the person in side of the suit!!

Hubby got to taste his first America beer an aluminium screw top bottle no less, and to by a Mariners jersey and cap at the Team Store (which you have to show your ID to enter and to buy the merchandise which was interesting given we didn't have to do that anywhere else that we shopped).

It was great fun to stand up and sing Take Me Out To The Ballpark half way through the seventh innings (a tradition of the game it seems).

All in all it was a great day and I would love to go again next time we travel (of course if it is season).

Hubby was really impressed with the stadium compared to AFL stadiums he has attended, lots of glass to look out as you walk down the corridors, nice wide carpeted corridors as well and really reasonable prices for food and drink unlike here were they slug you outrageous prices for the pleasure of eating very average food.  He also loved the enterprising young men with bicycle rickshaws outside the game who for a small fee will take you to your car, would be great if someone jumped on that idea and provided a similar service here.

Safeco Field

Great seats with a view of the whole ball park.

Action shots courtesy of hubby's camera

Let's hear it for the Moose

The scoreboard and our pitcher for the first 7 innings

The tourists blending right in

Ride The Duck, A Retrospective Tale of Two Travellers Part 2

On Friday 6th we Rode the Duck!!!

K had organised tickets for us and on a drizzly Friday morning we all boarded the Duck ready for adventure. Our Duck Captain's name was Owen Money (LOL) and he was fantastic fun (I am sure all the other Captains are great too, there seems to be around 6 Ducks in the fleet).  You travel through the streets of Seattle, laughing, singing and dancing while some pedestrians join in and cheer you on - while others stare at you in bewilderment.  All good fun, but the best part for me personally was when we putted around on Lake Union.  We floated past some amazing house boats of all shapes and sizes including the famous one from the movie Sleepless in Seattle, we saw boats and ships of every kind and size, and even some other Ducks.

After the jaunt on the lake it was back on the road as we made our way back to the start point.  Hubby and our daughter K took some time to visit the Experience the Music Project which is right over the road from where the Ducks leave while K, her Mom and I went shopping.

If you are ever in Seattle (or one of the other places Ride the Duck occur in the USA) I recommend you hop on board, you will not be disappointed, I can assure you of that.

Thanks Owen for being our Captain.

Captain Owen Money, a man of many hats (I think there were at least 5 changes on the trip) with a huge personality and a great singing voice.

The famous Pink Elephant Car Wash

Street scenes

Space needle and antenna covered in cloud  

Two other Ducks out on the lake with us

The Old Gasworks Park with lots of geese on the lawn

Larger houseboats

Smaller houseboats

Driving past Safeco Field

Hubby drumming at Experience Music Project

A Retrospective Tale of Two Travellers Part 1

When we decided to make the long haul trip to visit our daughter in Alaska, it was with some trepidation.  The only time I had flown overseas was to Singapore, no more than a 6 hour flight (so not much further than flying to Brisbane).  The only time hubby and I had traveled overseas was on a cruise back in 2001.

So the thought of flying for 4 hours to Melbourne, then over 14 hours (to get to LAX) and then another 2.5 hours to Seattle and a further 2 or so hours up to Sitka was nothing if not daunting!!

We decided to beak up the trip by flying to Melbourne on the 4th, the day before the long haul trans-Pacific flight (rather than taking the red-eye midnight horror) and staying at the Park Royal at the Melbourne airport before leaving at around 9.15 am on the 5th.  As an aside, if you are very doing this, the Park Royal is nice and close (we could walk over to the airport) but it is really in need of some revamping.  The rooms are tired (the worn out frayed carpet especially) and not particularly large, the foyer cafe/bar has very stained fabric chairs (and I mean yuk worthy), the food we had for breakfast was at best mediocre and I'm being generous there.  On a positive note, our evening room service meal was not too bad, the bed was okay, the hotel quiet and as mentioned earlier very close to the international terminal. But in hindsight, we wouldn't stay there again.

When we originally were talking about heading off, there was no mention of a wedding, that came a little later, but also allowed us to further break up the trip by only travelling as far as Seattle and spending a few days there. On the way back we travelled all the way from Sitka to Melbourne with only short stops at SeaTac and LAX, around 27 hours worth of travelling and I must say I wouldn't do it that way again.  The more relaxed broken up travel on the way over meant we suffered no jet lag at all, while it has taken nearly a week for both of us to get back into the routine once we got home and that was with us having a 2 night stay in Melbourne at the fantastic Quay West Suites in Southbank.

I struggled to sleep on both long flights, in fact I got none on the flight over and no more than 3 hours broken sleep on the flight back, next time drugs may be the order of the day.  Hubby fared a little better with his dozing, but the sooner the 'Beam Me Up Scotty' technology becomes a reality the better.

When we reached Seattle rather than stay in hotel accommodation we shared a rental house with the girls and K's family, a lovely roomy 2 storey home in West Seattle, in easy reach of everything we needed including the fantastic Easy Street Records/Cafe where we had breakfast every morning (if you are ever there I can recommend the Easy Rider Breakfast Sandwich on egg bread - yummmm).  There were 3 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms and a gym-office upstairs and downstairs a lounge room, a great room-kitchen area, a downstairs powder room and a deck out the back.  We got to see (but not photograph) our first squirrel, while not a big deal for our American family it was a squeal worthy event for me!!

The Great Room-Kitchen area were we spent most of our time

Looking back up to the front door, beautiful wooden floors throughout.

There was some shopping for moi at Lane Bryant at one of the hugest shopping malls I have ever seen!  A wedding to attend and only a couple of days before we headed off to Sitka, so not a lot of sightseeing happened, but we did Ride the Duck (an awesome and recommended experience) and took in a Seattle Mariners baseball game at Safeco Field (I wanted to see an America baseball game on this trip).  Hubby and my daughter B also visited the Seattle Experience the Music Project but we missed out on the Space Needle, something for us to do next time we are travelling through.

While we both loved all the parts of America we visited, we both struggled with the way tax is added rather than included like our GST, the individual states set the tax rather than the Federal Govt and it is different in each place we visited and in Sitka is changes seasonally (higher when the visitors are there, and lower on off-peak times).  So when you saw a price it was not what you paid, but that didn't stop me from spending in the least!!  The other thing we struggled with was how much to tip, something we rarely do here in Aus, and it seems I was a little over-generous sometimes, but when I found out how much the hospitality staff are paid I felt bad if I tipped any less.  Hubby really found the 'over the top' personalities of some of our wait-staff difficult to deal with, but it would seem to me that they are just trying to do a good job and hopefully be rewarded with a good tip at the end of the service.

Another thing that was vastly different to us was the difference between the information the flight staff give you prior to disembarking the plane, when flying with Qantas you get all sorts of useful information and that is not the case with the American airlines we travelled with.  In fact if it hadn't been for a fellow Australian traveller who took pity on us in LAX on the way home I think we would have missed our flight connection.  I was also a little concerned that you use your bottom seat cushion as a floatation device on American airlines, no life jacket is provided, just another little quirky difference I suppose.

So as not to do one huge post, the trip will be broken up and I will continue with a Ride A Duck and a Take Me Out To The Ballpark post in the next couple of days, before covering the amazing time we had in Sitka.  So the fun stuff is still to come, along with the pictures, lots and lots of pictures and the odd video if I can get it to work.

Thanks for popping by xxxx

Mermaid or Whale

Sent to me today by one of my sisters. According to this I am a genius - you will understand when you get to the end - LOL. I agree with the sentiments, and I love that whoever wrote this can laugh at themselves too.

Recently a poster featuring a young, thin and tanned woman appeared in the window of a gym

It said, "This summer, do you want to be a mermaid or a whale?"

A middle-age woman, whose physical characteristics did not match those of the woman on the poster, responded publicly to the question posed by the gym.

To Whom It May Concern

Whales are always surrounded by friends (dolphins, sea lions, curious humans)

They have an active sex life, get pregnant and have adorable baby whales.

They have a wonderful time with dolphins stuffing themselves with shrimp.

They play and swim in the sea, seeking wonderful places like Patagonia, the Bering Sea and the coral reefs of Polynesia ...

Whales are wonderful singers and have recorded CDs.

They are incredible creatures and virtually have no predators other than humans.

They are loved, protected and admired by almost everyone in the world.

Mermaids don't exist.

If they did exist, they would be lining up outside the officer of Argentinean psychoanalysts due to identity crisis. Fish or human?

They don't have a sex life because they kill men who get too close to them, not to mention how could they have sex?

Just look at them, where is IT?

Therefore they don't have kids either.

Not to mention, who wants to get close to a girl who smells like a fish store?

The choice is perfectly clear to me: I want to be a whale.

p.s. We are in an age where the media puts into our heads the idea that only skinny people are beautiful, but I prefer to enjoy an ice cream with my kids, a good dinner with a man who makes me shiver, and a piece of chocolate with my friends.

With time, we gain weight because we accumulate so much information and wisdom in our heads that when there is no more room, it distributes out to the rest of our bodies.

So we aren't heavy, we are enormously cultured, educated and happy.

Beginning today, when I look at my butt in the mirror I will think "Good grief, look how smart I am!"

The Time Has Come

"The time has come," the Walrus said,

"To talk of many things:
Of shoes--and ships--and sealing-wax--
Of cabbages--and kings--
And why the sea is boiling hot--
And whether pigs have wings."
Lewis Carroll (from Through the Looking-Glass and What Alice Found There, 1872)

And so I think the time has come, as sunshine graces our skies, to turn my thoughts from my 'Winter of Discontent'.

My hubby has been home now for 2 weeks - and no sign of him being whisked back to Adelaide. This weekend (which in Perth is a long one anyway) we both also took Friday and Tuesday off to spend some 'us' time together. Five whole days - wonderful.

Friday saw us head to Yanchep National Park and have a BBQ lunch, sharing the space with only the birds, the sunshine and a few flies (although really only 1 or 2). The breeze was chilly, the skies were blue and the company was special.

Need a hand with that BBQ?

We had to eat keeping our eyes on the over-friendly kookaburras, magpies and 28 (Port Lincoln) parrots - all of whom thought our sausages looked like something they wanted to share.

If you look closely you can see them here, just waiting for an opportunity to share!!

Coming for a closer look

Do you need a hand packing up?

We got to watch them brazenly come close and then try and see each other off so that they were the only ones there if a small piece of something happened to fall to the ground. Yes it was tempting to share with them, but working for a conservation agency, I know this only makes them more aggressive, and so we restrained ourselves.

Well I suppose the scraps on the BBQ will have to do - LOL

What a fabulous country we live in - bushland close to our city, filled with native wildlife and with facilities that encourage you out of your lounge and into the fresh air.

Oh How I Wish

How I wish I still had the innocence and naivety of a small child - how I wish I could easily find the fun in each day and the lack of inhibition that allowed me to dance when I felt like dancing.

Thursday morning I went to the kinder-gym with my daughter and littlest grand-daughter - there were probably about 40 kids there aged from about 10 months - 5 years.

All the equipment was set up - places for them to climb, tunnels to crawl through, trampolines to bounce on, balls to kick around, hula hoops to roll and behind all of this was the pumping music of the wiggles.

As I played with Immy I couldn't help but watch the other kids too - all of them were having a great time - no one was crying or fighting - everyone was sharing the space and just enjoying themselves.

And then Immy started to dance - she loves the Wiggles and there were a couple of songs that came on that were obviously favourites of her - and so here she was climbing and jumping and dancing all at the same time. She started clapping because she was so happy. You could not help but smile to watch her - trying to jump and dance at the same time, with a smile so wide across her face.

None of the other kids seemed at any point to be interested in the music - but Immy was - she didn't dance to all the songs, only those she obviously loved - she got so much joy out of being able to express herself - it was certainly joyful to see - for too soon the world starts to try and make us conform, I hope she continues to keep dancing when she feels like it - long after the world thinks she should stop.