Seattle Visit

Last Friday I went over to Seattle to spend the weekend with my friend Gina. She and her husband, Alex, and dog, Riley, live in Bothell, north of the city. Here are a few pictures of her house, yard, and of course, Riley.

Riley is a 7 month old Labradoodle and he loves to play.

Gina and I went to the Chihuly Garden and Glass exhibit at Seattle Center on Saturday. I took so many pictures that it was really hard to pick just a few of them to post. This sculpture is called the Sealife Room. The 15-foot tower takes inspiration from the sea and Puget Sound. The sculpture includes forms such as starfish, octopus, conch shells, sea anemones, urchins and manta rays.

The origins of the Niijima Floats dates back to 1995 in Nuutajarvi, Finland where Chihuly experimented with temporary installations along the shore of the nearby river and tossed glass forms into the river to see how the glass would interact with water and light.

Chihuly began the Macchia series in 1981 with the desire to use all 300 colors available to him in the hotshop. It is named after the word for "spot" in Italian. Chihuly realized that the glass panes looked more clear and vibrant against a cloudy sky than a blue one. This idea inspired his experimentation to separate the interior and exterior color by adding a white layer in between a "cloud". Each work is speckled with color, which comes from rolling the molten glass in small shards of colored glass during the blowing process.

The glass ceiling.

The Glasshouse and one of the garden statues.

Next, Gina and I rode on the Seattle Great Wheel, a new ride that opened the last week of June. The wheel is 175 feet tall and 200 feet off the water.

The ride is located at Pier 57 on the waterfront. The 280,300 pound wheel holds 42 gondolas, allowing for 252 passengers at full capacity. Here is a view of Mt. Rainer and both stadiums.

The ride lasts for approximately 12 minutes after being fully loaded. Even the floor of each gondola is glass so you can see outside from every direction. The gondolas are temperature controlled however they could not keep up with the temperatures over the weekend. 

The space needle is visible while on the ride.

Looking down at all the umbrella's shading customers from the 90+ degree heat.

What a fantastic weekend to be visiting a friend and seeing the sights of Seattle. 

Hello Dolly

Last night Susan and I went to see Holly Dolly at the Warehouse Theater in Yakima.

We have not been to a production at this theater for a few years, but we both enjoyed it so much that we are considering buying season tickets.

Randall Park Concert

We went to one of the free concerts last night at Randall Park. It was hot yesterday (95 degrees) but we went anyway. The sun was entirely down by halfway through the one hour concert and it was surprisingly pleasant outside.
The band is warming up and waiting for the remaining members to arrive.

There was a very large crowd considering the temperature.

There are several picnic tables in the area and a lot of people bring their dinner since the concert starts at 7:00PM.

I am unable to sit long enough to make it through the concert so I usually lie down and just listen to the music. I was able to snap a few pictures of Canadian Geese as they passed overhead.

We both really enjoy these concerts. It is a very relaxing way to end the day.

Growing our Food

I thought I would take a few pictures to show the progress of some of the food we are growing in our raised beds. The herb garden is doing very well.  There are several things in here including basil and rosemary.

Susan already picked the garlic.  I am excited to taste it to see if I can tell the difference between homegrown and what we buy. 

 We eat a lot of lettuce so it is nice to see that it grows so well. 

 Italian parsley is in the front of the picture and there are several different tomato plants in the back.

We have eaten several strawberries already and while they might be small, they are very sweet. These are last years plants.  Susan covered them with straw over the winter and they came right back this year. 

The empty part of the bed is where the garlic was growing.  Walla Walla onions are still growing.  YUM!

 If you look closely we can see at least one zucchini on this plant. I love zucchini!

Fun Sunday - July 15, 2012

We have had some magnificent sunsets over the last week so I decided to post at least one of the scenes we were treated to in the evening.

Susan and I found 4 Geocaches today. This picture was taken near the Old Hwy 10 Cache in Ellensburg.

Since we were in Ellensburg during lunch time we decided to eat somewhere that we had never been before. We settled on the Rodeo City BBQ and were treated to a great lunch. If you get a chance, be sure and stop in. I do not believe you will be disappointed.

The remaining Geocaches were hidden much closer to home. This picture shows our credit union near the Cache titled "In the Center of the Action". This was cleverly hidden and yet very easy to find.

The "Rusty Can Cache" was a little further outside Selah than our house is located. The area around this cache was just beautiful as you can see in the next two photos.

The final one, "Selah needs more Caches" was hidden in Wixon Park. This was my first visit to the park and to see the Selah Pool about which we will be voting to support in the next election.

Charlotte's Christening

 Photos of the Rubritz family and Charlotte's christening.  So cute.

Calla's Baby Shower

On June 23, Susan and I went to a baby shower for Mary Stowman. Mary used to work with Susan at North Star Lodge. Mary's baby, Calla, is due in August. There were several people at the shower, which was held in Moxee. It took Mary quite some time to get through all the wonderful gifts she received.

For one of the games, each of us had to cut a piece of yarn that we thought would be the same size as Mary and the one that guessed the closest won a prize.

The party favors were very cute. Each little box had some mints in the shape of baby rattles, a makeup mirror, lotion and a mint, all with individual custom labels.

Debbie, Kay and I went together and got the baby this little play gym. Susan gave Mary a music/recipe CD.

For another game, each person had to try to pick very small safety pins out of a bowl of rice while blindfolded. It was much harder than it sounds.

Everyone had a nice time and it was wonderful to see Mary again.

Toppenish Murals

On Monday, a friend of mine and I went to Toppenish to view the murals. There are 74 murals at the present time, the most recent one painted just a few weekends ago. The town, especially the newer buildings are decorated in a western theme. There are several very cute little parks around the downtown business district. This horse is outside City Hall.

Most of the murals have little plaques next to them that provide a brief story about the painting and the mural's number.

Irish Dick: About 1910, a strapping, hard-drinking sheepherder called Irish Dick traded a pet bear cub to a Toppenish saloon-keeper for whiskey. Some months later the rowdy sheepherder was in town when his grown-up pet escaped, panicking townsfolk. He offered to return the bear to its tether. A terrible fight on main street ended when an unharmed bear was returned to saloon servitude and a brave and bloodied Irishman was taken to the hospital. This is mural number 43.

Presumed Innocent: The judge watches as the prosecutor present the evidence. A small glass of water is held above an old milk can. Charged with diluting milk, the farmer sits with hat on knee, his lawyer standing behind him. An old spittoon in front of the judges desk and a coal stove with a coal scuttle is nearby. Old time sheriff Hutchinson, over seven feet tall, looms over the proceedings. This early courtroom scene was played out many times. Guilty was the verdict of the judge Levi J. Goodrich. The fine, $52.50.

Lou Shattuck: Born to parents who arrived in the valley by covered wagon, Lou grew up here. He loved horses and at age 15 he was driving a stage coach. Famous for his six horse hitch, he won many gold medals, blue ribbons and cash prizes. Lou helped organize the Toppenish Pow Wow and Junior Livestock show. His brand, the "Horseshoe" is still famous in the the Northwest.

Indian Stick Game: Indians have been playing the "Stick Game" as far back as history can be traced. The game is much too complicated to be explained here. Let us say that a lot of money and many possessions changed hands when the game was over. This is mural number five.

My friend treated me to lunch since it was my birthday. We ate at this darling little Soda Fountain located in the center of downtown.

I took too many pictures to post here but I did want to show people a few of them. We had a great time, even though we did not see all of the murals.

New Vet Website

Our vet clinic recently moved to a new building and they had a new website created for the clinic. While they were creating the site, they asked customers to submit pictures of their pets that they could use on the website. We sent in several pictures of the dogs and Tillie made the front page! I guess we aren't the only ones to think she is cute. You can visit the website at by clicking here.

Several of the pictures cycle through a gallery and I have not watched long enough to see if Toby is on the site as well.

Pittsburgh Visit

Susan went to Pittsburgh in May to visit Julie, Tommy, Adam and Charlotte. It was the first time Susan had seen Charlotte in person.

Julie and Tommy are huge fans of the Pittsburgh Pirates and they go to most of the home games. Adam is old enough now to run around the bases all by himself.

Charlotte even gets dressed up for the baseball games. Look at this darling little onesie with a baseball on her butt.

The very proud Grandma holding Charlotte at five weeks. Charlotte was born on April 16.

Our most recent picture of the entire Rubritz famiily.