Seattle Part 2

 

We arrived in Seattle at 8am local time, by that point we had all been awake for many hours. Eric and I were definitely tired, but thankfully the excitement of being in a new environment was thrill enough to jolt us into action.  We grabbed the car seats and caught the shuttle to the car rental place. I write that sentence casually, but if you are a parent and have ever traveled through an airport with young kids you know there is nothing casual about the experience. I was carrying Elise and luggage and trying to hold Cordelia's hand. Eric had luggage and two hefty car seats. The whole experience is not casual. Thankfully Eric and I are basically experts at team work and we somehow manage to accomplish a whole lot with little trouble.

Once we had secured our rental car it was time to meet Charlotte and Jake at a vegan restaurant called Plum Bistro for brunch. Oh can I just take a moment to bask in the glory of an all vegan menu?! The girls were so jazzed to order anything they wanted. Cordelia and Elise ordered pancakes and I had an absolutely delectable Tofu Benedict with an avocado cream sauce. We chatted with Charlotte and Jake who were in the final stages of wedding preparation. The wedding was the following day.

It is so wonderful to be in the company of two people who are so in love and excited to begin their lives together. We love them as individuals and as a couple so this marriage is definitely something to celebrate. After breakfast we parted ways as the happy couple had a lot to accomplish in the next day and a half. We decided to check out Seattle as it had been many years since we had last visited. We visited the Seattle Center and checked out the Experience Music Project, there were some really great exhibits. Highlights for me were the horror film exhibit and the exhibit which featured costumes from Labyrinth and Princess Bride.

Eric was so excited about the Star Wars costume exhibit (not sure why there were so many film exhibits up at the music museum, whatevs). 

David Bowie wore this!

Star Wars costumes

Ha ha ha! This photo!

We walked around the Seattle Center and took in the sights and sounds. I think Cordelia was shocked by the experience. She was mostly offended that we had to pay for parking. When we were done there it was about time to head over to the Bainbridge Ferry to catch our ride. 

















 

We made it to our hotel and checked in, grabbed food at the grocery store and made dinner in the hotel room. Then the girls crashed. The end of a long and lovely day.

Seattle Part 1

I think it probably began in 2004. Eric and I were taking a French Film class while working on our undergrad degrees in Missoula, MT. For our class we had to watch a French film each week and complete some corresponding coursework. The movies were often challenging to acquire back then, but Eric and I were pretty cutting edge with our Netflix delivery subscription. We offered to the class that anyone who wanted could join us at our place for a Sunday night viewing of the weekly film. Three women took us up on the offer: Tahra, Jesse  and Charlotte. We quickly discovered that all but one of us was vegan! Finding another vegan in that area is akin to spotting a leprechaun. So we all agreed to turn our French movie group into French movie and vegan food group. It was a really great time, but we had no way of knowing that we had made lifelong friendships.

Fast forward 11 years. Charlotte and Jesse are still in our lives. Unfortunately we all lost contact with Tahra as she is not online and has moved a ton. Charlotte is someone you have probably read about if you have been following my blog for long. She is a very dear friend who has always gone way above and beyond as a friend. So when we found out that she was getting married to an awesome man named Jake (we met him last summer and really love him too) we knew that we had to go to the wedding. Even more so when the girls were asked to be flower girls.

On Friday, Elise's birthday, we spent the morning enjoying birthday fun and then began to make our way to Denver. We gave Elise (and Cordelia) some car activity presents and hit the road. We stopped in Cheyenne and let the girls play at a park and check out a lake.

Mostly we worked to ensure that Elise had a very special day while we made our way to Denver. I had found a vegan restaurant in Ft. Collins that had a good looking menu. So we planned to hit that up for a birthday dinner. We detoured into downtown Ft. Collins and the city was hopping I began to worry that I should have made reservations.

We found parking close to the location and as we hopped out of the car I heard a clatter as something fell into the storm grate. I checked for my phone, nope it was in my pocket. Sunglasses? Nope, on my head. Then I realized it was my key. I peered down into the inky blackness and spotted my car key and fob about 10 feet down. It was surely lost forever. I suggested we just go to the restaurant as we were all hungry. We walked there only to find the windows covered in brown paper, under construction. By now it was getting a bit late and we still had an hour of driving. I was watching the clock as I wanted the girls to bed on time. We had to wake at 4 for our 6am flight. We decided we would just grab dinner at Whole Foods. 

As we walked back to the car I was still puzzling over the keys. I tried to think of anything in our car that had a hook. Finally I remembered that we have a zillion bungee cords for some reason. Each cord has a hook. We tied them together into a long chain and Eric leaned over the storm grate and fished around for the keys. 

It was a long shot....but it worked!

We hopped into the car and grabbed dinner at Whole Foods. Then we made the last leg of the drive to the hotel near the airport. The girls slept. 

The next morning I was up at 3:30. I woke everyone at 4 and we all prepped for a long travel day.  We got to the airport and had to carry our luggage, two car seats and direct two small kids. We got checked in and made it through security (side note: I saw three people this weekend lose their IDs and or wallets at airports. Hold on to those things people). We boarded our plane with about ten minutes to spare. 

Waiting at the airport.

Hanging out before the plane left. 

Looking out of the plane. Cordelia thought that every mountain out the window was certainly Mt. Saint Helens. The flight was uneventful, but beautiful. We landed in Seattle a little before 8 local time. 

I will share more tomorrow!

Glory of the West

We just took a short trip to the motherland, Montana! Eric had work in Billings and we decided to make it a family affair. We took the short drive to Billings  after Elise's dance class on Thursday.

While the roads were all perfectly clear there is still plenty of snow. Our hotel room had a view of the pool, inviting.

We checked in and freshened up a bit, meaning we shook the crumbs out of the girls' coats and I put on some lipstick. Then we headed over to the Yellowstone Art Museum (YAM) for the art event that Eric had juried several months back. We knew several of the artists featured (not the ones he had chosen/juried) and it was great fun to be a bit anonymous in a museum. With Eric's high profile job he is fairly in demand at local events. 

The next morning we grabbed some breakfast and stopped by the mall, with the indoor play area.

Then we headed to my childhood hometown in Harlowton. A small town of about a thousand it has changed very little since we left. We visited a few of my old friends and met a special little baby, daughter of my friend Robin.

Our visit was short and sweet. A few quick visits and we headed back to Billings.

We ate dinner at an Asian fusion restaurant. Then it was back to the hotel and bed for the girls. Both girls have been fantastic travelers, but they were pretty tuckered out by bedtime.

Now we are up and running, headed back to Wyoming! Don't worry, we will travel safe and sanitary.

From the Road

We are up and at it early today. Eric had some work in the northern part of the state yesterday. The girls and I drove up with him. 

Wyoming is beautiful this time of year. The grasses are all yellow and crisp, they stand out golden against the blue Wyoming skies. We passed deer and a bajillion antelope. Eric and I talked the whole trip and the girls enjoyed movie watching and family chatting.

We arrived in Powell and checked into our hotel. Then it was on to dinner with artists and art professionals. The girls were champs, sitting through an adult dinner after a long car ride. I worked like a pro to keep the girls happy and mellow.  They did well for 2 and 5!

After dinner we attended an art opening for Sarah Williams. I stuck around with the girls until their bedtime. We got to listen to much of her talk, which was fantastic, before Elise started loudly asking, "What should I do? I think my arm hurts!" It was at that point that the girls and I made our exit. Eric stayed on in a professional capacity. Once  the girls were asleep I sat in the hotel room and watched cable tv as I worked on a painting.

This morning we are up and on the road before the sun. Eric has to get back for work and we have a beautiful drive home ahead of us.

Green River

We took a quick weekend trip to the western portion of our state. Eric was judging in an art competition in the small town of Green River. He did this last year while I stayed home with the girls as we weren't sure Elise was ready for a long car trip. Now she is an old pro and we were ready to take the whole family on the quick weekend trip.

Green River is a small and gorgeous little community. We were there while they were having a festival so we got to really enjoy their community vibe. There is a beautiful river that runs through town and there are well maintained paths along the river. The girls looooved the swing benches that were scattered along the river trail.  The whole region has stunning rock formations that made Eric and I feel as though we were living in a Thomas Moran painting. Our trip was really fast, but we'd love to go back and explore the area a bit more thoroughly in the future.

Project: Travel Sketches

While we were on our trip to New Mexico Eric and I thought we should try and do some sketches along the way. Our goal was to do one sketch each and every day of the vacation. Have you ever tried this? You don't need to be an artist to enjoy this exercise. Eric and I found that it really helped us to enjoy the experience a little better as we looked for compositions or interesting details that we might translate into art. Sometimes we were inspired by architecture, flora and fauna, colors, smells, etc. Eric was able to find a few moments to sit outside and sketch on the spot, but I was not so lucky. Elise has been going through a very clingy phase and she made it impossible for me to paint on the spot. What I did instead was find the compositions that interested me. I made notes about color or whatever needed noting and then I took a photo with my phone. When the girls were asleep in the hotel room Eric and I would have a glass of wine (trust me it was well deserved) and paint and talk. We wondered why we hadn't been doing this always, it was so pleasurable.



If you want to give it a try all you need are a few portable supplies. Eric used a watercolor travel pack and I used acrylic. The packs were acquired at a local craft store for about $10 each and contained a pencil, eraser, sharpener, 3 brushes, 10 tubes of paint, and a tray for mixing paint. All we needed to add to that was paper (watercolor paper for him and acrylic paper for me) we used small paper 5x7 inches and then a cup with water (we used hotel cups).


Naturally I had to personalize my box...

Some sketches were pretty elaborate, others a quick five minute rendering. I think, if you give this a try, it is important to remember that they are just sketches--nothing major. The main idea is to capture a mood or a memory.


Sketching in the hotel

Here are the sketches that I made over the course of our trip.


My first sketch was rendered in probably five minutes. We didn't have much time so I just slapped the paint down to get something onto paper.


This is from just off the plaza in Santa Fe, there was a park across the street where the girls could play. I really loved the blue paint with the earthy adobe color.


Also Santa Fe, loved the adobe. Weird how much I miss adobe up north.


Desert plants are so lovely, they are often spindly and earth colored, saving everything up for vibrant blooms.


A very speedy sketch of a home we once lived in...omitting much of its current sad state.


A super-fast sunset sketch


Some crazy desert bloom from Albuquerque.


A bunch of stones in baskets at a Santa Fe market


I watched someone pull this dragonfly from the hotel pool. She blew on it, trying to revive it. Later I went down and snapped a photo and then painted it up in the hotel room.

So there you have it, just another way to personalize your trip and maybe even experience a place in a new way.