Day 13 - Seattle

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Submitted by brad on
He Said:We had some sad news on the trip, Nana passed away and we'll be heading home early. The kids aren't as affected by it and I'm finding it weird to reconcile their being in vacation mode. I don't want to ruin it completely for them. We're far away and can't just go home tomorrow even if I wanted to. I've had a couple days to process it now, and thought I would take a stab at the blog again. I know Nana and Mom had their issues and she's no Mom, but visiting her felt like home. There were pictures of Mom, she was happy to talk about Mom. It was a connection I valued. I don't want to take away from Nana herself and her passing, but I feel like I've lost that last bit of Mom. Of home. I feel adrift. Plus to me, to the kids, she was a great grandma. Always happy to see us, always unconditionally proud. I'm glad we moved back up to Edmonton so the kids could get to know her even a little. Anyway...today we went in to Seattle again and hung out at the pier to try the new Ferris wheel. It's tall and it juts 40' out into the water. I don't have much to add beyond that. We walked around the shops and ate at the Crab Pot, which was an experience in and of itself. The kids enjoyed it. You order a "pot of stuff" and they dump it out in the middle of the table with some mallets. The crab was great, but there wasn't enough. The mussels and clams were alright. The shrimp, corn cobs and potatoes. Meh. But it was an experience. I was still feeling pretty under the weather, G too, and that kind of did us in so we headed back to the hotel after that. Nap, pool, and subs from Jimmy John's (NOT worth it) at the park /beach near our hotel. If I can get on my soapbox again, society seems to be getting coarse and coarser. Maybe I'm just getting old, but I feel like Idiocracy is not far off. I used to think it was just that I'd wandered into a bad area. But this park, for example. Seemed like a lovely park, great equipment, basically a mini-fort on a lake, with a beach, beautiful houses around it. The Kiwanis club was having a salmon bake and there appeared to be a politician shooting a PSA. Yet most of the people there looked like they came out of every stereotypical street gang movie I've ever seen. Those baggy long shorts, chains, tattoos, wife beaters/muscle shirts. And the swearing - it's a family park! Again, I used to chalk that up to being in a bad neighbourhood but this was not. I think it's just how people choose to be. Even at the pier, the gift shops next to the ferry, half the items when you walk in the door have f@ck or c@ck or sh!t on the shirt/mug/cup, next to pictures of pigs or other animals doing it. Which is weird in and of itself, but people buy those and wear them out in public. I've lost track of the number of times the kids have mentioned someone at the pool/store/parade wearing a profane shirt. What I assume are perfectly normal, working, contributing members of society think it's fine to drive up to a parade with balls hanging off their truck and Calvin pissing on something, wearing a f@ck t-shirt and rude ball cap, then but up to the front and stand their with their buddy swearing every other word and chewing out people on the floats for not giving their kids enough free candy. One guy walked up to the float and started grabbing candy out of a box. I just don't get it...it's a losing battle. Society is a mess. But I digress. Yay, vacation! She Said:I'm so glad we had some nice visits with Nana before we left. She amazed me every time we saw her. I never knew what she was going to say next and she always had a spunkiness that was belied by her physical appearance. She will be missed. The Ferris Wheel was alright. I have become afraid of heights in recent year but this one only bothered me right at first. The kids wished it was faster. More like a ride at Disneyland. I'm glad it wasn't. That area of Seattle is a stressful place for me. Traffic is crazy, streets are narrow, pedestrians everywhere. Ack! I think it's more luck than design that Ryan survived. The Crab Pot was definitely an experience but the actual food was disappointing. $40/person and you might end up with 3 crab legs. Lots of dry potatoes and old corn though. Of course. I had to go look up Idiocracy on youtube. It looks funny. But yeah, it depicts my worst nightmare - the idiots are winning! I'm sure I'm someone else's idiot. I was thinking maybe if we went to an all inclusive resort or something that instead of feeling superior to everyone, we'd end up being the doofuses. My complaint about the experience at the playground is that there was a merry-go-round, very similar to the type I grew up with but built down into the ground. Probably to make it safer. So the platform that kids were standing on is level with the ground. It was the most popular thing at the playground. Kids were crowded on there. That was all great. The problem was that at one point there were two adults trading off pushing the thing. What the heck! Let the kids play. Plus they were pushing it so fast that no kid could keep up with it. My Gillian wanted to push the younger kids but she couldn't run fast enough to do so. Grr.