Field trip to the Buswash

For the last couple of years I've tagged along with Mom and Joel on various preschool field trips. This time it was Joel's turn to come with me. He knew that a trip to the bus wash would be much more fun than a morning in kindergarten!





There was only one disappointment about this year's trip.....after we'd seen a bus in the workshop, been on a tour of the yard, been through the bus wash not once, but twice, we finally went upstairs to the cafeteria to be rewarded for all our hard work. Not really being a fan of watery activities, and really liking food, this for me was going to be the highlight of the fieldtrip: icecream. Except this year they didn't give us any. That made me very sad...especially because mom only brought one small banana which we had to share between three of us. She was expecting there to be icecream too.

Sunday in Seattle

After another enormous breakfast, mom decided it was too soon to go swimming again, so we went out instead.

It appears that instead of going to church on Sunday mornings, people in Seattle all go to REI. REI is an outdoor adventure kind of store, like MEC in Vancouver, but bigger.

Outside there are trails to try out mountain bikes, there's a huge climbing wall inside the store, more like a mountain - apparently there are great views from the top, but I didn't climb it, there are trails to try out hiking boots.....even a kids play area. We did play there for a while, but we had more fun trying on helmets and testing out tents

On our way back to the car we got a bit distracted by a skateboard/snowboard shop, but dad was vetoed from visiting the Kurzweil store. We need a reason to come back again, right?

Our journey back to Vancouver took a really long time, because mom wanted us to fully experience the American shopping experience. This meant stopping at KMart, Target, Walmart and other cheap and cheerful places. The car was pretty full by the time we crossed the border. We got new Techdecks, a GPS so dad could find the way home, a load of cheap cheese and milk, and some stuff you can't even get in Canada, like chocolate cheerios. Yum.

By staying away 48 hours we could have taken $800 of stuff duty free back into Canada. Our haul didn't even come close, much to dad's disappointment. He still wanted that HDTV!

Exploring Seattle

As ever, mom had done her research and knew that what we needed to explore Seattle was a one-day travelpass valid on both the bus and streetcar. The streetcar left from right outside our hotel, but you could only buy the ticket we needed on a bus. So off we went, looking for a bus in Seattle......it actually proved quite challenging! We did find a busdriver in a coffee shop buying his morning coffee, but he didn't have any tickets, and then we found another streetcar stop, but they didn't have any tickets, and THEN we finally saw a bus. Hoorah. Dad felt a bit silly stopping a bus to buy a ticket, but not actually getting on...and then we were all set.

It's our first trip to Seattle and we all had places we wanted to visit. Mom got to choose first, as it was her birthday, so we all went down the hill to Pike Place Market. It was kind of like Granville Island, but with guys throwing fish.
Next up was dad's choice: the original Starbucks
there was a pretty long line, so we were there quite a while. Fortunately we had some monster trucks with us, and Joel had his sketchpad to draw a quick sketch of the store, so we weren't too bored.

Joel's choice was to go up a tall tower, but mom and i didn't fancy that, so we found a really cool toy store instead. it had flying monkeys and everything. Nothing could have torn me away apart from the fact that i was rather hungry! After lunch we got back on the bus...it was easier to find this time,although we did have to make it stop and we finally all went to my choice - the Space needle.

Mom's birthday

It was a really smart move sleeping in the car all afternoon on our drive to Seattle. By the time we arrived it was obvious there was no point trying to put us to bed at our usual time. Joel and I would just be totally sleepless in Seattle.

Instead, mom and dad piled us back into the car and we drove across a really cool floating bridge to the Factoria shopping mall in Bellevue. Mom was pretty excited about the shops, and it wasn't long before she abandoned us boys and went to do some shopping. Dad didn't get the new TV he wanted, but mom bought herself some stuff, and Joel and I had really cool new T-shirts.

For once we didn't mind how long mom took in all the various stores as we were getting cultured at the children's museum. As museum's go this one was kind of strange. The oldest thing in it was probably dad, and there wasn't all that much culture, but there was loads of stuff to play with. It was a bit loud for dad, too ........




We did eventually get back to our hotel where Joel and I each had our own bed. Joel had a sofa that turned into a bed, and i had a chair that folded down, too. We waited until it was all quiet in mom and dad's room - they went to sleep pretty quick after such a long day - and then we finally went to sleep as well. Lots of exploring to do tomorrow.

an unexpected adventure

it was bound to happen eventually - joel and i like to race to be first at just about everything.....eating, drinking, getting dressed, getting out of the car, pushing the elevator buttons.....joel usually wins, and on the rare occasions he doesn't he declares "that wasn't a race". it's tough being the little guy sometimes.

so today we were at safeway and i was first to the button to call the elevator..yay! the doors opened and i darted around the people getting off so that i could be first to press the button inside too.....yay, i did it, a double victory for me today.

there was just one little problem - mom didn't push her way through fast enough and so i was off on my first solo adventure!

the end of an era

i had my last gymnastics class with mom today. When we restart after Spring Break, my friend Stephen and I will be with all the big kids in class, instead of the toddlers and their moms. I'm a bit sad that mom won't be there to play ball with me at the start of class, but i'm hoping we get to spend a bit more time in the foam pit. Mom always tries to distract me with the trampoline and the balance beam, but i usually manage to sneak up the stairs and leap into the foam blocks eventually.




Mom's hoping it goes a bit better than my swimming lessons i supposedly do on my own. i've just finished my first set of classes and i didn't even manage to pass the "getting wet" item on the syllabus. ooops :)

At least mom knows she won't need to get wet while she's watching me do gymnastics. See you through the window, mom - don't forget to wave!