August had fun playing with Thatcher in the morning. They both thought it was funny to throw shoes and a tea wrapper into the recycling bin. Before we left the house he figured out how to scoot backwards while sitting on the floor, and he stood on the scooter and held the handles while we pushed him around.
We then headed to downtown Seattle. We parked at Pacific Place where Carly needed to do some shopping. August and I walked over to Westlake where we admired the fountain and played at the playground (which turned into just him walking around the square). We then walked over to Pike Place Market where we admired the fish, heard a busker singing Dylan’s “Rock Me Mama”, and saw the gum wall. He also enjoyed the busker drummer and piano player we heard on the way.
We walked back up and waited for Carly at another store. While we did we listened to another busker across the street.
The three of us then walked all the way to the sculpture park. August played with the stacking toys in the building there (same as we had played with at the DDP in Seoul) and walked around a little in the sculpture park. But as we passed the Calder piece he suddenly wanted up and promptly fell asleep.
We continued on and found our main goal: the new sculpture, called “Echo”, by Jaume Plensa (a sculpture we discovered at the Yorkshire Sculpture Park in England). A 40 foot tall elongated head of the nymph Echo from Greek mythology, it didn’t disappoint.
We continued walked up through part of Myrtle Edwards Park and then walked south along the waterfront. We bought sandwiches at a deli and ate them on a bench outside the aquarium. He woke up. We walked back to our car at Pacific Place, cutting through the market to do so.
From there we drove up to Capitol Hill and parked on 15th, where we got a coffee and started walking. We stopped at the park across from Group Health to feed August, then continued to the green building and park at 15th and Madison to meet Carly’s uncle Hank. We played for 45 minutes – August liked digging in the dirt and playing I Spy. Hank was running late so we started walking again, but he caught up to us and we all went to a green area at Seattle U.
We visited and August walked around and practiced going up and down stairs. hank left and we continued a walk around the campus. We stopped at the fountain to let August do a little wading and at the student union building to use the restroom. There, he walked around and admired the art and tried to play in the lost and found.
We walked back to the car. It felt farther this time. By the end of the day (the hottest 4th ever recorded in Seattle) we had walked about 11 miles.
We drove back to Greenwood and went to Ken’s Market where we bought meatloaf and pasta salads. We went back to the house and ate them along with the leftover salad. August then took a nice long bath and then went to sleep quickly after I read him some of Thatcher’s books.
Morning:
Scooting backwards is a new thing:
As was riding the scooter:
Downtown:
Sculpture park:
The main reason we went to the sculpture park was to see the new Jaeme Plensa sculpture:
Capitol Hill to Seattle U:
Feeling bark:
Stair practice:
Meeting uncle Hank:
Seattle U fountain:
Back at the house:
Starting to enjoy the bathtub on his own, at least for a few minutes:
