Seattle Washington's Pinball Museum! (What a Blast!)

Mariam suggested we go to the Seattle Pinball Museum, and I never knew how much I would enjoy it!  Essentially it is a one room arcade, set up with a variety of Pinball machines in order of the year they were manufactured.  You pay $10 and you get to play as much as you like, and play we did!


Mariam and Felipe at the helm.

I loved a lot of the older games, they had such a great feel to the movement of the pieces of each game.









Felipe trying his skill at "King Pin" (circa 1973)


Circus circa 1974.


I think this game, "Mystic" (circa 1980), was probably my favorite, as I got a super high score on my first play.  I like to think that it's some innate skill that I have for playing pinball (I'm not going to say pinball wizard was written preciently about me, but...), but in reality it was massive beginners luck.  You can see the registered high score is 986,390 - recorded by Cindy, the woman who co-owns the joint... see below for my high score!


Woo hoo!  Over 600,000!


Felipe at "Strikes and Spares"....apparently loving the bowling themed games.

There were many amazing things that we did in Seattle.  So many beautiful places with natural landscapes.  But out of all things that we did indoors, this was SO MUCH FUN!  The owners were there (Charlie and Cindy) and they were super nice, the games were great, and nobody hogged any of the machines.  I think if there were a place like this in NYC, I would love to go (maybe there is...), but I don't think it could ever match this joint.  It would inevitably be overcrowded and overpriced.  This place was great, and I recommend it to anyone who stops in Seattle.

Seattle Pinball Museum
508 Maynard Ave. S
Seattle  Washington

Washington: Triple X Root Beer

Triple X Root Beer in Issaquah, WA

On the way back from Snoqualmie we stopped at Triple X Root Beer for a treat.  It's an old school diner, and they make their own root beer.  Elijah and I both had the root beer floats, and mar and Felipe enjoyed vanilla malt shakes.  The waitress suggested that for only $0.35 more we could upgrade to the large size...which I think would have used a pint of ice cream and 2L of root beer.  We passed and got the normal size, which was still too much!


Felipe and Elijah

They have a lot of antique 50's and 60's ephemera all over the joint, much of which is on loan from people in the area.  It's definitely quite a lot to keep your eyes occupied while you are there!





There is seating outside as well, but it was a little too warm for all of us.  There seems to be a very large parking lot next door, and there were several classic cars parked around for people to look at.  According to their website they host regular classic car shows.  It was definitely a cool place to stop.

Triple X Root Beer Drive In
98 N.E. Gilman Blvd., 
Issaquah Washington

What a Difference a Day Makes!

Tonight's sunset over the Hudson River...a little something pretty for mom on her last night here.


The storm approaching yesterday by Coney Island - we had to leave the Brooklyn Cyclones game at the middle of the 7th inning to avoid the menacing looking clouds.

I love summer weather.  I wish it were summer all year round!

Snoqualmie Falls, Washington

I cannot tell you how nice it was to take some time away from New York City and see some of the beautiful nature that the Pacific Northwest has to offer.  To see the towering evergreens, and the wild flowers and we were incredibly lucky with sunny blue skies!


Snoqualmie Falls is beautiful and a very popular tourist attraction.  Not only for it's natural beauty, but also for the fact that it is the location for a very popular television show called Twin Peaks.  The lodge that you see above the falls has been in operation since 1919.


Enjoying the amazing day and wonderful view.

We drove a bit out of the Snoqualmie area, along one of the small highways there, where Mariam had previously seen a bunch of wild blackberries growing.  Unfortunately we were too early for blackberry season...but I imagine when they start growing they will be everywhere!  Fortunately for us, the blackberries aren't the only attraction!  There was a clear lake just waiting to be photographed.



Absolutely no retouching of the colors here.


The towering trees with their high canopies and the sunlight shining through we a sight to be seen.

We stopped at one of the bridges on the Snoqualmie River.  There were people swimming in the river, and frankly that seemed like a desirable thing to do...it was getting quite warm. 



Felipe on one of the bridges.


Some of the Twin Peaks graffiti.


More Twin Peaks graffiti, this one about Agent Cooper (played by Kyle McLaughlin).

It was a beautiful area to visit, and really we could have spent all day there - if not more time.  But all the sun and the time difference started wearing us out...so we drove back to spend the rest of the afternoon lazing around the apartment.  Just like a vacation should be.

A Journey West - Our Seattle Visit from the Start

Arriving to Seattle, the view of Mt. Rainier from the plane.

The Seattle Skyline





Directly after picking us up from the airport, Mariam and Elijah drove us to a small park in the Queen Anne neighborhood.  It was a beautiful spot to start off our visit in Seattle.  It had an amazing view of not only the skyline, but also Puget Sound.  We were pretty tired, but had a nice dinner at a Thai restaurant nearby.  We didn't last for very long that evening - given the time difference from New York City to Seattle, but had a nice evening catching up with the two of them.

On Saturday we did quite a bit.  Mariam and Felipe and I got up mid-morning and went to the Seattle Urban Craft Uprising at the Seattle Center.

It was a craftacular time! hahaha.  There were a lot of really cool vendors and we had a good time looking at all of the unique stuff.




The craft show was just the beginning of the day...we got back to Mariam's apartment and were trying to think of what we wanted to do, because at that point all we had planned was for dinner and games in the evening with a couple of mariam's friends.  Apparently we were feeling very ambitious because in the end we decided to take the drive to Snoqualmie Falls that afternoon.  But that's a whole other blog post, so look for that one next.

Some Thoughts on Turning 30

Taking a moment at Cannon Beach, OR to contemplate my birthday...

A little over a week ago was my 30th Birthday.  A lot of people look at their 30th birthday as a scary, anxiety provoking milestone.  I can say with certainty that it was not for me.  I really enjoyed my 20's - when I think of everything that I did and what I accomplished - I feel content.  My college experience was everything I wanted it to be (maybe with less A's than I wanted), I moved to New York City and accomplished my masters degree in a subject I love, I traveled to Europe for the first time (and what I thought would likely be the only time....boy was I wrong!), and I met my amazing husband, who I can safely say is the love of my life.

I had hard times during my 20's too...and things happened that will affect me for years to come.  My father was ill (gravely on several different occasions) and eventually passed away from cancer, I lost a friendship, one that felt more like family, and I made an unsuccessful attempt at gaining admission to a PhD program (but I did try! and boy it is competitive!).  These things were all difficult, and made an indelible impression on me - but it is for that reason that I don't feel bitter or allow them to mar the view I have of that time period in my life.  Both the good and the bad have made me the well rounded, semi-flawed, self-conscious and hopeful person that I am.

I look forward to what my 30s have to bring.  Who knows what will happen or where I'll end up.  In the meanwhile, to all my family and friends who read this blog - thank you for helping make my life what it is, and I can't wait to see where this decade goes.

Happy Father's Day

 

Happy Father's Day! 

Here's dad above at a Sergenian Family picnic years ago (the picnic is next weekend this year!) and a photo of me in a replica "Dan's Carpet Cleaning" shirt that i had made for me and my sisters... just for fun!

As per usual, I miss my dad tons!  And father's day (including the lead up to it) don't help any for me to forget that fact.  But even still, I enjoy a bit of holiday sanctioned reminiscing.  Sometimes I close my eyes, and try to remember really hard how he sounded calling out my middle name when answering the phone.  Or a song comes on my iPod that he used to sing/belt out.  Or like last weekend, when we were at the jazz show and I kind of was hit by this feeling of sadness that he couldn't be there to share it with me...but happiness that he really influenced me in my enjoyment of jazz music. 

It is my hope that everyone can enjoy their relationship as much with their dad, as I did with mine...and I really hope that if you are lucky enough to have your dad around still that you don't forget to really appreciate him every day, and not just on Father's day. 

Thank you to my dad for all that he taught me, and for all that he introduced me to.  And thank you to all the dad's out there that put hard work into raising their children....

On a lighter note, here's a nice 21st century style photo of "Like Father, Like Son" for you from Felipe's parent's visit:


I'm very lucky to have such a terrific father-in-law!  He's super kind and fun to have around.  and one of these days or years I'll master spanish well enough to have a conversation with him that doesn't involve miming ;)

A Brief Visit from Marcos - Time with Old Friends

David, Marcos and Felipe playing Dominion.

It's always nice when time and circumstance allow for you to spend time with old friends, and we had such an occasion a few weeks ago when some business brought Marcos to New York City for a brief time.  We had one day with Marcos before his business took him away to exciting Long Island...so we did what anyone visiting the United states from France would do...shopping!  Well, he had a couple of things that he wanted to try and get while he was here, and since there are plenty of stores in our area to serve that need, we did a bit of neighborhood shopping. 

After shopping we met David and Nieves...and little baby Ethan, at the Time Warner building for lunch at Landmarc.  After lunch the "party" moved on to our apartment, where we could sit and talk, catch up and not worry about all those special circumstances that come up with a tiny baby :)  We had a chance to play some Dominion, and David and Marcos could pretend for a little while that they were back in college in Paris, playing games in their free time. 

After games we had a nice little stroll through Riverside Park, and in the end parted ways with a mixed feelings - sad that the time could not linger a little while longer, and happy and grateful that we had a brief day in our busy and far apart lives to spend some quality time together. 


David and Ethan


Nieves and Ethan


I've meant to post for some time the first few photos I took of David and Nieves with their new little boy...some precious photos from those first few days in the hospital.  He's grown so much since then!

Welcome to Summer - Central Park

The late afternoon sunlight painted a beautiful green landscape yesterday in Central Park.  It has to be one of my favorite settings/scenes in the park.  I love the shadows in this photo, and how the leaves on the Gingko tree look like painted brush strokes.


A slight angle on my favorite spot.




I love the way the light makes the leaves glow.  Beautiful!