GimletBlog

After last year’s spring never came, these occasional sunny days are irresistible.  Happily, they are becoming more and more frequent, so we may enjoy a real spring this year.  In all the years we’ve lived in Seattle and spent time on the University of Washington campus, we’ve never deliberately made the trip to see the Quad’s famous cherry blossoms … until today.

It was a glorious day to be out in the Quad.  Incredibly crowded and busy, with plenty of people-watching to do.  Lots of engagement shots, family pictures and just picturesque scenery meant there was a lot of camera gear to check out as well.  While watching the world go by, part of the world looked especially familiar:  friends from our church ward several years ago had made a day trip to the city and just happened to walk past us!  We keep in touch on Facebook, but it was so fun to see them again.

After taking pictures of the cherry blossoms, we decided to wander through Red Square to Rainier Vista to see if Drumheller Fountain was on.  The fountain wasn’t on, but we found something better:  a supercar show was taking place in Red Square.  Team Gimlet are huge Top Gear fans, so this was a real treat to see so many of the cars which have been featured on the show.

The Gimlet and Thing One quickly headed off to look at their favorites (the Aston Martins, the Lamborghinis and the Ferraris) while Your Humble Narrator and Thing Two stopped to geek out over examine the Ariel Atom.

And then the Atom’s owner asked Thing Two if he’d like to sit in it!

Thing Two is less like The Stig and more of a Captain Slow, but he was pretty pleased to be in the driver’s seat, checking out the instrument panel.

He doesn’t realize that his entire automotive experience has now peaked at age six.  Sorry, Thing Two, it’s not going to get better than this.

Sunshine, sakura, serendipity and supercars all combined to create a wonderful Saturday afternoon.

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For a number of years, I have been either a table host or a vice chair for the annual Bellevue Friends of Scouting event.  Until two years ago it was a breakfast and sponsored by the Seattle Seahawks.  Last year the event became a luncheon and was sponsored by the Seattle Mariners.  I took Thing One and a couple of other scouts from the troop I was Scoutmaster for to the event.   They had a good time and were well received.

This year, I ended up volunteering to bring scouts to add some “ambiance” to the event.  The thought was that by having an ambassador scout at each table, the guests would give more.  It also seemed like a good idea to use my troops scouts rather than Bellevue scouts because Seattle Public Schools had a day off between semesters set for the same day as the luncheon.  Unfortunately, two weeks before the event, the school district set that Friday as a makeup snow day.  However, the event still needed its ambiance!

Getting the scouts to the event resembled assembling for a camp out, except the boys were supposed to be in full uniform; and we had to be on time!

On the way to the luncheon I instructed the boys on the proper use of eating utensils.  (“Use the silverware.  This is not summer camp!” — I try to speak at the level they need to hear.)

The boys enjoyed the lunch and particularly enjoyed meeting Mariners players Mike Carp, Michael Saunders & Jesus Montero along with Field Manager Eric Wedge.

As an old fogey I was amazed to think how close in age the players were to the scouts.  My how our perspective changes over our lifetime!

I think my vague goal of impressing on the boys the value and importance of the connections they can make through scouting worked.  They also got to see the support the business community in the greater Seattle area provides to help the program work for them.  It was a fun and meaningful luncheon.

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Is it really the end of the year already?  To paraphrase another blogger, 2011 has been a year never to be forgotten and we hope never repeated.

Since we last posted in mid-October, the Gimlet and his employer parted ways just before Halloween, and the Things’ great-grandmother (whose 90th birthday was celebrated in grand fashion) passed away Thanksgiving Day, exactly six months to the day after Bopa died.   With so much sorrow and uncertainty occurring in a short space of time it’s been challenging to think positively and move forward, and we’re so grateful for the support of family, friends and our church community during this difficult year.  We’ve especially taken to heart some advice given to the Gimlet to focus on the abundance in our lives:  not just the good things we currently enjoy, but the great potential for future success:

• “The Liturgy of Abundance” by Dr. Walter Brueggemann (from religion-online.org)
• “Living the Abundant Life” by President Thomas S. Monson, January 2012 Ensign

We’ve had a genuinely happy holiday season, with plenty of delicious food, lively conversation, and continuation of the traditions from years past as we remember our loved ones who are no longer with us.  We agree it has been the sort of season they would have wanted us to have.  While we dropped the ball on blogging, our newest family blogger, Hå, has been busily recording all of the past months’ events in great detail.  (That is why she is the unofficial family historian!)  Just remember: it’s not shamelessly harvesting all of her hard-written content if we call it outsourcing.  Visit her blog and read all about our November and December there:

• We love Yulefest at the Nordic Heritage Museum
• Remembering great-grandma
• Thanksgiving 2011
• A day trip to Lynden, WA would not be complete without watusi cattle, caramel apple pie from the Dutch bakery, and a sedated angry cat in the back seat of the car.  Well, we could do just fine without the cat next time.
• Santa’s annual visit
• Christmas Eve dinner party

To provide our readers with a little original content, here are a few photos from a Christmas shopping visit to the Pike Place Market.

We had fresh Dungeness crab for Christmas Eve, but we buy ours at a neighborhood fish market much closer to home.

Seattle-native uncles will find it heartwarming to learn that Thing One discovered one of their favorite Market haunts (and a must-stop for any geek tourist):  Golden Age Collectibles.   Meanwhile, Thing Two keeps an eye out for more Daleks.

Several adventures are already in store for the coming year and will be revealed in good time … until then, best wishes to you and your families for an abundant 2012!

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All of us, and Thing Two especially, had a lot of fun playing with his cousins while they were here.  They live on the other side of the country, so we don’t get to see them very often.

Visits to the many neighborhood parks were always an easy way to have fun.  In this park, the kids were able to tour a community garden and explore a walking path as well as play on the playground.

The children almost enjoyed the play areas at the zoo more than the animals.  Zoomazium, with its treehouse and mountain, were a big hit.  In the exhibits, we were able to see the mother ocelot teaching her new baby how to catch and eat prey; fed birds at the Willawong Station, and the penguins, bears, and otters provided a lot of entertainment as well.

They returned to the zoo a couple of times during their stay, but we were only able to join them once.

The group photo is blurry, but that’s as close as we could get to taking a picture of five excited kids (six, including the baby in the stroller).

Speaking of group photos:  Smile, you’re at a funeral!

To be sure, a family gathering of this size is unrepeatable, so we all accepted the necessity of commemorating the event with a picture, but probably only the children were excited about having their picture taken.  As for the memorial service, we all agreed that Bopa would have approved of and enjoyed the blend of happy and poignant memories which were shared, as well as the lovely performance of Bach’s Prelude to Cello Suite No. 1 in G Major.

Our family gatherings also involve plenty of food, and preferably fresh, local seafood.  For Sunday dinner, the Gimlet grilled Copper River sockeye salmon to perfection, and Uncle Q baked three pies.  Our final family meal together was a Dungeness crab feed.  Upon inspecting the “bone bowl” for missed tidbits, Uncle Q claimed to be rendered speechless by the amount of leftover crab he discovered.  For all his claims that words failed him, he seemed to have plenty to say on the matter. (And he did recover about a plateful; not too shabby.)  Here he lectures on the proper extraction technique:

Another blurry photo, because high dudgeon moves nearly as quickly as excited children.

Monday morning the GrandGimlets packed up and returned home; Tuesday morning Uncle Q, Auntie Lou, and all the cousins did the same.  It’s been a mostly fun, always busy week.  On one hand, it feels good to put away all the folding chairs, extra dishes, bedding and towels and take a break from preparing large-scale dinners (and cleaning up after them!) — at times these past several days have felt like Bilbo Baggins’ unexpected party from The Hobbit, as we marveled at how many people we could seat and feed in our little house. But it’s sad to recognize that all the work has ended because our family is no longer with us.

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A steady stream of out-of-town family members arrived throughout the week to attend Bopa’s memorial service last Thursday, and several are staying through the weekend.  Saturday we took Grandma and Grandpa Gimlet to Ebey’s Landing National Historial Reserve on Whidbey Island.  Grandma Gimlet had never ridden on a ferry before, so we had to remedy that.  Then, as we drove across the island, we were surprised to see about ten bald eagles circling, then landing, in a field.

The day began a little overcast, but by the time we arrived at the beach, the sun was out, and warm enough to temper the ocean breeze.

Thing One has a reputation for being a polar bear, but even Thing Two didn’t need to wear a jacket as he ran up and down the shoreline, throwing rocks in the water.

The GrandGimlets also found plenty of interesting rocks and a nearly complete crab shell.

The last time we went to Ebey’s Landing, Thing Two was very fearful of the waves, but today he wasn’t scared and was able to relax and have fun.

Has it really been almost two years ago since our last visit?  Next time we won’t stay away so long.

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Before the summer gets started, here’s a look back at some of Thing One’s Boy Scout activities this year.

In January the Gimlet took some of his scouts to a Friends of Scouting breakfast.  Not only would the area’s scouting supporters get to meet and talk with local boys about their experiences in Scouting, but the guys would get to meet some of the Seattle Mariners and get their picture taken with the Moose.  And the appeal of a big breakfast to teenagers cannot be underestimated.  Win-win!

Next was the traditional Winter Camp at Paradise on Mount Rainier.

Plenty of snow this year for snow caves, snowshoeing and extreme sledding.

One of the adult leaders, Sam, took some great action shots and generously shared them with us.  This year two young men who had recently moved to the US from Africa (and had never seen any snow) came along with the troop.  Reports are that they were quite cold (never fear, they were provided with plenty of warm gear) but had a lot of fun playing in the snow for the first time.

Group photo under the mountain.  Look at how big these guys are now!

Skipping ahead three months, last week Uncle Q joined Thing One on the Mount Si hike.

It was a bit too foggy for photos, and it snowed at the top, but they had a good time.

The traditional OA visit to Evergreen-Washelli to place flags at veterans’ graves was bittersweet this year.

Looking ahead, Thing One has been hired to work on the staff at Camp Pigott for the summer, and following that a second year of NYLT staff.  We can hardly believe that he’s old enough to be on staff, and measurements taken last month revealed that Thing One is now taller than both his parents.  When did this happen?  We’ll try to be better about posting scout photos throughout the summer.

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One of our friends coordinates a visit to a local fire station to bring them holiday treats and thank them for their service in the community.  This year, Thing Two and Your Humble Narrator were able to go.

When we arrived the fire engine was away assisting with a traffic accident, but we didn’t have to wait long before they arrived, followed by the ladder truck!  The ladder truck is based at a different station but it was driving around the neighborhood today so its new crew could get used to operating the truck.

The firemen put on a wonderful presentation for the children.  We saw how the infrared camera works to help the firemen see in smoke filled buildings, and one fireman put on his gear, explaining to the children how each piece protected firefighters or helped them do their work.

Then, they were invited to climb aboard the fire engine and explore it.

Thing Two and the other children (and their parents) had a wonderful time!  It was a fun morning.

Team Gimlet has two firemen in their family history:  Great-Grandpa Gimlet was a fire chief in the town of Logan, Utah, and one of the Things’ great-great grandfathers was one of the early firefighters in Seattle’s history.  When we returned home, a call to Hå was in order, and she soon found and emailed some pictures.

Based on what we know about this great-great grandfather’s careers in both the fire and police departments, we believe these photos were taken around 1900, and judging from what can be seen of the building we think this is probably Fire Station #3.  Great-Great Grandpa is fourth from the left in the back row, the clean-shaven gentleman wearing a vest.  Love the dog!  It looks like the dog owned by these great-great grandparents; perhaps theirs was a puppy or grandpuppy from the firehouse dog?  We don’t know, but it’s fun to wonder.

Isn’t this a great action shot?  Look at those horses go!

And here are the great-great grandparents; Great-great grandpa is wearing his fireman uniform.

One of our neighborhood firemen suggested that we visit the Fire Department Museum downtown.  We would like to get a better look at the apparatus the horses are pulling (a hose carriage?), hopefully identify some of the other men in our group picture, and learn more about what it was like to be a fireman over one hundred years ago.  Sounds like a good field trip for the upcoming school holiday break!

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Part the Third: In which, mayhem and mystery having been sufficiently discussed, muslin is all that remains.   Fans of Mrs. Allen may say we saved the best for last.

As eager as we are to get to the ball, (you knew this was coming) that is getting ahead of the story just a little.  First, we would be remiss if we failed to show off the stunning display of costume and fashion in the Milsom Street Emporium, all designed and executed by Susan Pasco.   Everything was so beautiful.

It was such a treat to examine gowns, hats, and other accessories up close and marvel at the care and detail that went into making them.

This richly embroidered Georgian gown was my favorite:

Many thanks to Susan for generously sharing her collection with the AGM attendees!

(more…)

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