The Bite of Seattle 2008

Walter and I attend The Bite of Seattle each year. We enjoy being outdoors with a lot of other people enjoying the good food, sunshine and music. You might recall that last year there was good food and music but not so much sunshine. This year things were back to normal. The weather was sunny and beautiful and the food festival attracted 500,000 visitors!

We usually go on Friday afternoons to avoid the biggest crush of the crowds but work projects kept me busy and I couldn't get away. So we went on Saturday evening. Lots of people had the same idea! Yes, there was quite the crowd gathered at the Seattle Center grounds.

The Bite features music on three good sized stages. It was sad last year to see the performers working so hard for little appreciation since there were few in the audience. But this year there was lots of merriment and dancing and a good time was had by all.

And the food? I know at least one person is going to ask me what we had to eat. We ate some delicious BBQ and some yummy Filipino food. Of course we had to have the obligatory strawberry shortcake. And the big thing this year was mango lemonade. It seemed like every booth from every culture had their version. We had to get some of course and I'm happy to report it was very refreshing on a warm sunny day.

Last year I remember there were no lines to get food. That was not the case this year! In fact here is a photo of Espi's Philippine Style Foods - taken while we were in line for their food!


Did you know there is a panda mascot for Panda Express? We found him/her in the crowd posing with these two lovely ladies:




One of my favorite things about this year's Bite was watching all the people playing in and around the International Fountain. Here is a one minute video so you can watch too. As you can see the fountain was very popular with both the little kids and big kids.



If you would like to see a few more photos from The Bite you can get to a slideshow here.

Office Outing at the Olympic Sculpture Park

Most summers my employer organizes an event for the employees to get together and have a good time. We've had some really fun outings and this year's was no exception. Last Wednesday evening we were all invited to the Olympic Sculpture Park where we enjoyed appetizers in the pavilion and on the terrace overlooking the park. Folks brought their spouses and/or little ones to enjoy a beautiful evening visiting and enjoying the art, the views and the sunset.

They couldn't have picked a better evening to host this event. The weather was perfect - not hot and not too chilly even later in the evening. The setting sun only added to the spectacular views.

The sculpture park is a good sized place with paths allowing you to walk a zigzagged path all the way down to the waterfront if you wish. Many of the sculptures are grand in scale and fit well within the natural beauty of the area from Mount Rainer to Elliott Bay (with ferries crossing of course) and a little Space Needle thrown in for good measure.


I felt this photo of Linda and Jack (I call it "Happy Feet") embodied the spirit of the event. But of course I took many photos of the park, people and art as well. To see a slideshow of all the photos click on any of the three photos shown here. The photos got rave reviews at the office and I hope you will enjoy them too.

If you have not been to the Olympic Sculpture Park I highly recommend you visit. It's at the north end of downtown between Belltown and the water. If some of the pictures seem a little deja vu it's because Walter and I also visited the sculpture park last year on our own.

Todd & Wendy's Baby Shower

Sometimes life seems to happen at the speed of light. It moves so quickly, in fact, that I don't get a chance to share things here that I intend to before I'm being pulled on to the next thing. Hopefully you will forgive me for being a little tardy with some posts. Case in point? We threw a really fun baby shower for Lilli Anne (Todd and Wendy's baby girl) at the office back in May. Lilli was born on April 15 so she's less than a month new here.

The shower was a lot of fun. Good friends, delicious cake, and as you will see in the photos an excellent opportunity for some of us to get our "baby" fix. Lilli is a very special little girl (just ask her parents!). We were happy to have her as our guest.

Postcard from Holiday, Florida

I haven't been trading postcards in a while but a few weeks ago I decided to start up again. This time I hope to trade at a little slower pace so it's easier to keep up. This lovely card came from Vianna over at sendsomething.net. Holiday is a small retirement community on the West coast of Florida. Thanks for the card Vianna!

Elliott's Two!

The 6th of July was our small friend Elliott's birthday. It's hard to believe, but Elliott is two years old! His folks Doxey and Cynthia threw him a great birthday party.

There was homemade pizza, some of it made by Elliott and his little friends - Yum!! Instead of a big birthday cake, there were these wonderful little mini-cupcakes for Elliott and all of his friends. As you will see in the pictures Elliott enjoyed them. For the big people there were ... big cupcakes of course!

We had a great time visiting with Elliott's friends and family. Elliott's grandparents were visiting from New York. Friends Todd, Wendy and baby Lilli were there. It's always good to see them. And of course lots of other nice folks.

Doxey (Elliott's dad) gave us the grand tour of the family garden while we were there. We saw everything from lettuce for salad to hops that reached the roof to fields (mini-fields?) of wheat, barley and oats!

To see more photos from the party click on the picture of Elliott above. You can click any photo in the album to start your tour then use the Next and Prev links to navigate.

Thank you to Doxey and Cynthia for inviting us to join in the fun. Happy Birthday Elliott, you're a big boy now!

Happy Fourth!

What's everybody doing for the Fourth? We are going to head out to Ikea for some looking around and then just relax at home. We will probably watch the fireworks on TV.

I was talking to my Mom earlier and she reminisced a bit about her family's traditions when she was young. Mom comes from a family of 10 kids. They always got a nice big watermelon on the Fourth of July. And her dad always made homemade root beer. Yum!

My own childhood memories of the Fourth include backyard fireworks with the neighbor kids and picnics with hot dogs and potato salad (and of course watemelon!). Do you have any special memories of the Fourth from your childhood? If so we would love it if you would share them in the comments.

In the meantime, whether your holiday will be busy or quiet, I wish you a Happy and Safe Fourth!!