So we kept busy, took some more pics of our full family in front of the tree and even made the most of our museum memberships this week after Christmas:
We went to the Dead Sea Scrolls exhibit at the
Pacific Science Center where we are members. Luckily, it was highly discounted at $8 per adult for us with free admission. Otherwise, I would have been pretty upset at admission and extra exhibit fee for a total of $28 per person for a few scraps (literally) of the scrolls at the end of the exhibit. They also hurried us through. The exhibits about the settlements that stored the scrolls were interesting, but bored the kids to no end and needed at LEAST 3-4 hours to get through completely (if you are like me or my brother-in-law and like to read every explanation and listen to every audio tour narrative.).
It didn't help that there was a blind guy whose guide was also reading every description in pretty loud, nasally voice. I just couldn't concentrate reading in my head, trying to ignore nasally voice, and look at exhibits all at once. Verdict: I think you could gain just as much information online without the $28 a head surcharge for underwhelming pieces of old paper with no similarity to scrolls whatsoever. The only cool thing that made me say, "wow,” was a copper scroll which was more of a treasure map and did not have the religious significance of the Dead Sea Scrolls. Again, little scraps of paper--very few larger than fist size--in a packed room weren’t worth it! It should have been called Dead Sea Bits O' Paper.
Saturday:
Then Saturday, we spent in gloomy weather at the
Woodland Zoo in Seattle. This has been a well-used membership year, especially as just about every grade and every pre-school visits the zoo. My kids know it well. I have to admit that I think the San Francisco Zoo is far superior, but this is a nice school holiday day trip. We enjoyed the cute arctic foxes and the grizzlies posed perfectly as if willing us to take pictures wildly. The penguins were of the ugly "Ramon" type if you've seen "Happy Feet." I would have much preferred Emporer Penguins. Yep, I'm a penguin snob.
Since it was chilly, we stuck mainly to the indoor exhibits. My favorite was the nocturnal exhibit with the sloths and bats. In complete darkness, you enter an exhibit where silence is
expected and you get to see bats hang and climb with their wings, porcupines lumber along, etc. Pretty cool and at the same time, we kept warm.
Our visit reminded me of the ST. Louis Zoo we visited when we lived in Missouri for 6 months--except that zoo was FREE. The cheapscape in me remembers it fondly and the mostly indoor exhibits were an added bonus in Missouri’s single digit weather. I guess our membership made it pretty cheap too. We definitely got our money's worth!
We finished up that day trip by gorging ourselves on some amazingly great burgers at
Red Mill in the Phinney Ridge neighborhood of Seattle. Awesome burgers and super thick shakes. Only downer is they accept only cash and checks and guess who forgot the checkbook? So we used up the rest of our cash, but damn, was it worth it.
Finally, we visited the
Seattle Aquarium yesterday--on the last day of our membership. As always, it's a pleasure to see the
gorgeous otters test their hydrodynamics in an outdoor exhibit.
The Underwater Dome was also amazing to sit in as the sharks, rays, and fish circled. As an added bonus, there was a scuba-diver cleaning up the windows that waved at the kids. A regret was that we didn't have time to check out Little Nemo and Dory like we usually do as well as my favorite, the sea horses. I just LOOOVVVEE the idea that the males give birth.
After a short visit, we hopped on the ferry to check out Bainbridge Island. The ferry is always fun and this time, we did it as pedestrians because Bainbridge Island's downtown is so walker-friendly. The watery sun looked beautiful in its otherworldly Northwestern flair reflecting eerily on the Sound. The Island itself was quaint
with some good shopping and the most amazing
Blackbird Bakery. We have yet to find a great bakery on the Eastside so this bakery made CG and I tempted to make this our Sunday brunch routine--ferry, exercise to bakery, binge on amazing quality and selection of carbs-o-rama.
So CG and we ladies opted for roasted beet soup with thick, yeasty slices of oatmeal bread while the boys lunched on white bean and roasted vegetable chili. Then we shared a savory caramelized pear, gorgonzola, and toasted walnut tart and a dark, spicy slab of gingerbread laced with whiskey. The kids found room for slabs of dessert trio:
Li'l Man chose Double Chocolate Cheesecake.
PB chose Hazelnut Torte with Cream and Grand Marnier.
CGR chose a Snow Ball Cake (two chocolate layers wrapped in cream and coconut).
Not surprisingly, they weren't able to finish and even with CG's and my help, large mounds of desert remained. Yep, it's a bakery after my own heart. Now, a la Claim Jumper, bigger is not always better with their mediocre to plain disgusting desserts, but if you can make something really yummy and make it large enough to share, yep, you've got me. Verdict: Blackbird Bakery is a must visit on a trip to Seattle. Yum!
So we finished off New Year's Eve watchin
g movies with visiting family. Also traditionally, we ordered way too much Chinese to ring in the New Year. I chowed on the Beef Chow Fun, Buddha’s Delight, and General Tsao’s chicken and then barely made it to the end of the last movie. CG had to wake me for a New Year's kiss. Yep, I'm getting old. We never even popped the champagne. Today, we skipped our traditionally New Year's Day’s Dim Sum (still haven't figured out where to go and dearly miss our SF Dim Sum haunts) and feasted on leftovers of Chinese food and the last of the Christmas turkey and gravy leftovers. So not in fitting with my resolutions to lose weight, but...ah well. There's always tomorrow.
So tomorrow, school starts, PTA Board meetings are planned, our aquarium and zoo memberships end, swim practice looms on our afternoon, and life, sans holiday sparkle, blusters on. I plan to keep up our holiday décor at least until the 6th—when the Boy Scout’s come to take our recycled tree and highjack my delusions that Christmas will never end.
I have to admit, having a cute, "
