Journeys to the Emerald City, Part Two

Part the second - Acting Like A Bunch Of Animals

Day Two dawned, and the dulcet tones of my new alarm woke me far more gently than the jarring "code red" alarm I had been subjecting myself to for the previous eight months. We were not terribly motivated to get our butts in gear quickly, and I think that was to our detriment. We got everyone sorted and went down to the lobby area for our free full breakfast.

Holy moly, there was no space! We stood around like vultures, seeking out enough seats for all of us. We managed to get two different tables, so the kids and I camped out while Hubby and Primus got food. While we waited for that, another four seat table opened up right next to the big kids, so we pounced! I tell you, it's pretty tough to find 6 seats together at 8:30 on a Saturday morning.

But was it ever worth it!

The Springhill Suites puts on an excellent free brekkie. From my fading memory, I recall the following: muffins, danishes, bagels and croissants; various jams, jellies, PB, honey and cream cheese; orange, apple, grapefruit and cranberry juice; fresh apples, oranges and bananas; white and chocolate milk, and two flavours of yogurt; oatmeal with walnuts, raisins, dried cranberries, chocolate chips and brown sugar; sausage and scrambled eggs, and make-your-own Belgian waffles with syrup and strawberries. And of course, the previously mentioned coffee and tea (with yummy flavoured creamers!) OM NOM NOM! We ended up staying there and eating right up until 10 AM. We were *SO* full! We toddled back over to the elevator to grab our stuff for the day. I'd had the foresight to make our PB&J sandwiches the night before, so we had a lunch bag full of sandwiches, gummies, granola bars and Cherry Coke, as well as a bag of chips. Being on a budget, we knew that brown-bagging it for lunch was the best way to go. With everything stuffed into Hubby's backpack, we were off to the Woodland Park Zoo!

The trip took about 25 minutes, and I was thankful that I had taken the time to look on Google Maps for the attractions we were going to, as it gave me the chance to snag convenient parking. We walked around to the front entrance and saw a pretty long line-up, so we hurried over to take our place. We were happy to see how fast they kept that line moving; they had every kiosk open, and got people paid up in record time. I think it took a maximum of 3 minutes for us to get our tickets, fumble with the funny American money and walk away from the delightful young man who helped us, and we were only in the line waiting for 10 minutes, at that. We dropped our fundraising tokens into our desired causes, then went to the gate.

The west entrance opens up onto a nice, wide plaza, with the gift shop on the left and the penguin enclosure on the right, and a nice little photo op straight ahead.

 

L-R: Secunda, Primus, Quarta and Tertius

While I tried to get one useable picture of the hobbitses, Hubby ran over to the Guest Services kiosk, for he had discovered our saving grace - the Little Blue Wagon of Awesomeness. Seriously, this saved our backs and our butts. For $10, we were able to rent a sturdy plastic wagon that had a long handle and two nylon seatbelt straps. That meant that we could pack both Tertius and Quarta in it when they complained that their legs were tired, we could dump the backpack in it so neither Hubby nor myself would get permanent grooves in our shoulders (though I daresay he's got them anyway from so many years at university), and it gave us a surface to sit on, put a foot up to tie laces or just get organized.

Love that Little Blue Wagon of Awesomeness!

Our first stop, curiously enough, was the pressed penny machines. Both Primus and Secunda began a collection when they came to Seattle with my parents in 2010, and I have added to it on my travels to our provincial capital. They have these nifty little books that store their various and sundry pennies from all the places they've been to. Once the arduous process of selection and acquisition was finished, it was teetering on lunchtime, so we headed to the picnic shelter. The zoo has a nice little covered area for picnics, replete with tables. They also have food for sale on-site, but their "food fair" style set-up makes for total chaos; I had to take the kids in there for the bathroom, but I would have hated eating lunch there during the rush, as you could barely move.

We really only got to see about half of the exhibits, as Secunda started feeling poorly, followed by Primus. But we enjoyed the gorilla enclosure, mostly because we got to witness a bit of a fracas. A young male went up to the sleeping silverback and scooped up some hay (a couple of times), dumping it on him. This rather unceremoniously woke him, and he began to charge at the young male in that "You wanna do this, punk?" kind of way. Well, that scared the bejeebus out of the young male, who went running to the nearest female (we were assuming it was his mommy, mostly because that's more funny) for protection. In a manner of speaking, it worked, as the silverback got to within 6 feet of him twice, both times sending the young male running farther away, so once he was satisfied that he wasn't going to be disturbed again, he sat down by the bamboo plant and ripped a nice light snack off for himself.

"You wanna do this, punk?"

Other cool stuff we saw there:
 - lots of monkeys and lemurs
 - Jaguars
 - the zoo's new baby giraffe's auntie, who came out to the enclosure, and whom Quarta managed to get a decent photo of

Auntie takes a break from admiring the newest
baby giraffe (wish we could have admired it!)

 - the bug display - kid of neat and creepy, all at the same time!
 - the coolest playground area, which gave the kids a 30 minute break for crazy time, and us 30 minutes of sanity.

Quarta does her best (and cutest)
tortoise impression

Secunda pretends to be a bird in this
huge mock-up of a wren's nest

Distance shot of the play area,
including the cool cave-like structure
that I was sure would cause at least one
semi-serious, bleeding injury

 By the halfway point, both Primus and Secinda were complaining of feeling Very Sick Indeed, so we decided to duck out early, and head back to our hotel before meeting up with our dear friend for dinner.

When we had left the room that morning, I had set out a nice tip for the hotel staff, hoping that it might result in superior service. I was not disappointed. We had pulled up our blankets on the beds, and I'd laid out Tertius and Quarta's stuffed animals and crochet blankets on the one bed. Imagine our surprise when we came back to find this:

"Oh, look! Blankie Swan decided to come and
visit Bunny and Lamby!"

We were delighted to find this added touch to our room, and the extra toiletries were much appreciated :) This is yet another reason why I would stay at this hotel again.

After about an hour of downtime wherein the big kids laid down and tried to feel better, it was time to head into Bothell proper for dinner with our friend Skaldic, who had lots of medieval goodies to pass along to us. But most importantly, we got to see our friend and have some real quality time with him; that felt really good, and the two big hugs I gave/got still feel woefully inadequate, because it's hard to encapsulate what your heart contains in a hug. My own cold was in full swing by then, and despite the relief that the cold meds provided, I was losing my voice. This was not helped by seeing the sign of the restaurant across the street.

"What the...?"

The fits of laughter this sparked in me pretty much guaranteed that I'd have no voice come morning. We said our final goodbyes and set off for the hotel again. And once again, we practically closed down the pool area; that hot tub was really calling to me, and the warm felt so good on my achy body and neck! Another hot cup of tea to take upstairs and we actually crawled into bed and had the lights off before midnight. I took some time before bed to organize the dirty laundry, make sandwiches for the next day's lunch, and to begin packing up non-essentials so that check-out would run more smoothly. Primus misplaced the joy buzzer he'd bought at Magic Mouse the day before, so we spent a good chunk of that time searching for it, to no avail (Editor's note: this has a happy ending, as it was found almost a month later in a side pocket of his backpack).

Ahh, sleep!

Stay tuned for the next installment - (Cowardly) Lions and Daleks and Scares, Oh My!

Busy Little Bee's Poetry Corner

Good afternoon, and welcome to Busy Little Bee's Poetry Corner.

This is where I write atrocious poems, share some of my horrible haiku, or just share something that someone far more talented than I has written.

Today, I give you an original work, inspired by my beloved children, and the game they are currently playing.

O, Lego Star Wars
Kids sniping at each other -
   It's just a game, guys.

Journeys to the Emerald City, Part One

Part the first - The Mouse and the Meatball

 

Hubby and I promised the kids a holiday last year, which ended up going bust when our engine died on the way to our destination. So, we decided to try to make it happen for Spring Break.

We found a couple of great Groupons for hotels, enabling our family of six to stay at decent hotels for really cheap. But when we called to book the dates, it turned out that one of the hotels was booked solid for Spring Break. So, we booked the other hotel for March, and planned another, shorter trip for the Easter weekend in April.

First up, the March trip.


We knew we were on a budget, so we tried to pick things to do that had good play/entertainment value. We decided to hit our favourite toy store, Magic Mouse Toys first, as we really enjoyed our visit there during our honeymoon. As we expected, the kids loved it. I think there was a bit of sensory overload going on there, because the kids didn't quite know what to spend their money on. Thankfully, they are smart hobbitses and spent judiciously. We spent a good hour and a half there, and the kids were already talking about a return trip :)

For dinner that night, we decided to go with something familiar, and went to The Old Spaghetti Factory. It's food we know and like, prices within our price range, and they throw in free dessert!  Who wouldn't love that?

Hubby and the girls goofing off @ Old Spaghetti Factory

Secunda and Quarta hamming it up

Quarta thoroughly enjoyed her Spumoni!

We stuffed ourselves silly, marveled at the $60 price tag for all six of us to gorge ourselves on pasta *AND* have leftovers to bring back to the hotel, and rolled our full selves out to the parking lot. We got a bit of a treat once outside, as Boeing was transporting aircraft bodies on a train - Tertius was very excited!

Seattle's famous Space Needle at night

 
We drove through town, past the Space Needle, and over to the I-5 for the 20 minute drive north-west to our hotel, the Springhill Suites Seattle Bothell. 

I have to say, I really loved this hotel. From the look and quality of it, to the free coffee and tea 24/7, to the certifiably geeky evening desk person (hey, anyone that recommends that we check out AFK Tavern for an evening's entertainment and food for our geek family is cool in my book!), this was a class establishment. Our groupon got us the room for $80 a night, plus a $10 credit in the hotel convenience store daily. I know that the rack rate for the room we had is $189 a night, and while that's steep for us, it's worth it for what you get. The pool and hot tub were open until 11 PM; we hung out and soaked our weary bones until around 10:30, then headed back to our room with free hot tea to get a good night's sleep, as there was the promise of a delicious, free full breakfast to look forward to in the morning.

Stay tuned for the next installment - Acting Like A Bunch of Animals

The Power of One - Eating Regularly

So, here's my update so far:

I decided that the best and smartest thing I could do was to set my body up to work at peak efficiency. To that end, I need to treat myself as if I'm already diabetic. In order to optimize my blood sugar, I need to eat every three to four hours. So that's what I'm focusing on this month.

It's not just eating five times a day, though; what I eat is just as important. And so, I'm also trying to introduce more protein to my diet. I ensure that I get that first thing in the morning, either via yogurt, cheese or eggs. Protein at least twice a day, reduce my white bread intake to virtually nil (replaced it with sprouted grain bread from Silver Hills (http://www.silverhillsbakery.ca/)  and increase my water intake to at least two litres per day. Those are my add and take away items for the next few weeks, and then it's time to add more into the mix. I'll keep you posted!

What one thing would you add or take away from your lifestyle to improve your overall health?

Next from Busy Little Bee: Seattle Adventures!

The Power of One

I've been spending a lot of time lately thinking about my body. Which is not to say I've been oblivious to it up to this point, or that I'm conceited or obsessed with it, but allow me to explain.

I got my first taste of my own mortality on my father's 49th birthday. That was the day of his heart attack. I know, it really should have been my father's lesson, and it was to some extent, but I also took something away from it, and here's what it was: Life is fleeting. Our bodies are not indestructible. Things break and stop working well and if you don't take care of the body you're given, you get sick, or worse, die.

Now, at the ripe old age of 22, the lesson didn't really stick. I still ate whatever I wanted, drank socially and deliberate exercise was nonexistent. I have a family history of diabetes and heart disease, and cancer. I should really know better. So should we all. But we go blithely along, stuffing our bodies full of crap because it tastes good, or it feels good, or we don't think that eating it will have a lasting impact on our health. Every time. And every day, we make choices to drive rather than walk, to find the closest parking spot (and waste time looking for it), to shrug off the idea of a walk after dinner because, well, just look at those clouds! The dog languishes on his bed, getting tubbier by the day, and we silence the voice that admonishes us to get off our increasingly large butts and move. I always told myself - and others - that I would start getting regular check-ups at 40, that I would more closely monitor my blood sugar, that I would eat better and exercise more. Because 40 is when you actually have to start taking your health seriously, right? Right?

I am now teetering on the precipice of 42. I've had exactly one blood panel done, which told me what I already know; diabetes is a "when", not an "if" for me. I am otherwise pretty healthy, or at least my blood is. My weight has fluctuated over the last 15 years, but I am currently enjoying being within the healthy range for my height and frame size, and have mostly done so for the last 3 years, on and off. But I've had four children, and my body has changed. I have a harder time losing weight, I have less elasticity, and my midsection really really likes to hold onto fat. This old bod just doesn't bounce back the way it used to. And so, I need to get it into the shape I want to be in for the rest of my life.

This is where The Power of One comes in.

In order for me to achieve buy-in from myself, I need to be able to stick with it. And for me, that means taking small steps. I want to effect permanent change for my life, and to do that, I'm going to do the following:

1) Add one healthy thing to my life each month. This can be anything that increases my health and wellness, from committing to taking a daily vitamin, to meditation, to an exercise regime, to a piece of good quality chocolate a day.

2) Take away one unhealthy thing per month. This can be anything that negatively impacts my health and wellness, from culling my Facebook friends list, to reducing my simple carb intake, to not eating that double Mars bar.

So, who's with me?

Spring Fever!

I've got the fever REEEEAL bad.

I desperately want to get to work in my garden boxes!!! The weather thus far this year have left a lot to be desired, so it's been difficult to get out in the dirt. But now we have a warm, sunny day with a few clouds, and I am chomping at the bit to get working. I've got a compost bin full of veggie and fruit peelings to toss in the larger bin, and I'll be picking up some manure to condition the soil for planting. Now to get plants!!!

What activity are you most looking forward to now that it's spring?