Seattle Slam

I have a tradition of bringing my nephews out to Seattle from Pennsylvania for a visit when they turn 8. I find this to be a prime corruption and spoiling age. This year it was Ben's turn and his older brother Jacob did us a favor by bringing him out. I always love an excuse to be a tourist in Seattle because I get to do all the fun stuff around the city that I forgot about. This trip was no exception. I think we had more fun in one week than most of you had all summer. The only drawback was that they were here the week of the heat wave. So they pretty much think Seattle is the same temperature as Arizona only we don't have sense enough to install air conditioning. Based on their observations, they are right. Although we don't have A/C, we do have a pool which compensates a little.

The first day, to avoid the heat we went to Wild Waves and Enchanted Village. It is a water park and amusement park combined. It was basically awesome. I only felt like throwing up once and Ben convinced me to do some of the worst rides invented.

The next day was Microsoft immersion/brainwashing day. Jake went with Eric all day to work and Ben and I met them for lunch on campus and checked out the Visitor's Center and Company Store. I think Jake and Ben are both PC's (I am). After that Ben and I saw Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinasours in 3D.

Wednesday we did the Seattle Center thing including the Pacific Science Center and checked out the Space Needle. We also saw an IMAX movie about Lewis and Clark which was kinda cool. OF COURSE, we went to Dick's for lunch which we were all three very pleased about.

Thursday we spent the morning on the lake tubing and wakeboarding. Jake did a great job wakeboarding so he was getting a little cocky on the tube. It wasn't until we got Ben behind the wheel of the boat that Jacob got flipped off the tube. It's how we show love in our family. That night was boys' night at the movies - Eric & Ben saw G Force while Jake & Paul saw Transformers. Leah and I stayed home and watched Judge Judy as we have been known to do.

Friday we went down to the waterfront and went through the aquarium and of course had Ivar's fish 'n' chips. After that we toured the Navy ships that were parked in the harbor for Fleet Week. That's something I've never done and I was fascinated! We had an awesome, sarcastic tour guide on the Coast Guard ship so Jacob is considering enlisting. Ben liked the Canadian ship, eh.

That night I was humiliated in bowling. I had beaten Paul twice in a row and our deal is that if I ever beat him three times in a row I can get my own bowling ball. I think it will be a while before that happens.

Saturday we rode our bikes down to Medina Park for the Blue Angels. The view from the park was so-so but Jake and Ben had a perfect view because they swam out to the floating dock and watched from the water. After that Paul used up all their remaining energy hiking up Tiger Mountain. They ended up loving that because there were tons of hang gliders up there and they hung out and watched them take off. Don't get any ideas!!

After that, they went over to Eric's for the rest of the trip. They probably loved this because they got rid of the pesky girls but I tell myself they cried themselves to sleep b/c they missed me. I think they mostly missed Leah cracking up at everything they did. Eric took them golfing, to a BBQ, and more guy stuff.

We miss not having them here and not having an excuse to eat pizza and hamburgers every day. Oh well, I still have one more nephew to go!