Burger Explosion

Lynda, Ron and Taush came to Seattle to catch a flight to Pittsburgh (Lynda found an AMAZING deal at $200 round trip). We took the opportunity of them being here to visit Lunchbox Laboratory in Ballard.

Here's our entire order, labeled.

The burgers are HUGE and you just don't know where to start.

But start we did, and here's the plates after we finished...Taush and Ranee only finished half of their burgers. The other half sit in Ranee's fridge and will probably end up in the garbage...'cause really...leftover hamburgers are just mushy and gross.

We then stopped by the yummy pie place in Magnolia (Seattle Pie Company) to get some pecan and key lime pie. However, they had no pecan or key lime pie (which resulted in Seattle Pie Company and I being in a fight). So Lynda got a slice of amazingly delicious peach pie. Which we all tried. Did I mention it was delicious? So the pie place and I made up and I got a slice of peach pie that is in the fridge with the leftover burgers and will likely NOT end up in the garbage 1. because pie leftovers are NEVER bad and 2. one could never throw away something so delicious.

The verdict: Lunchbox Laboratory was good, but too much food and too much sauce on the burgers made it all a bit much. However, Seattle Pie Company? A MUST for anyone that likes pie.

Flight Museum

Copy of the Hotrod (Lunar Rover) we left on the moon. It's around the size of a VW bug. The wheels look like squirrel cages made from hardware cloth wrapped around to form the tires.

This is a Concorde, not a copy. We got to tour the inside of this. It flew for over 30 years before going out of service.

Air Force One here, was the first jet Presidential airplane. Eisenhower was the first president to use this one and Nixon was the last president to use before it was replaced with a much newer jet.

Here we see a SR-71, otherwise known as the Blackbird. The skin is all titanium so it would not melt due to the high speed air friction. I flies faster than 3 times the speed of sound. I never knew it could launch a Drone from the top. This is the first time I ever saw the combination.

Pike Street & Space Needle

As promised, we visited the infamous gum wall this morning. Here's Grandpa contributing. Aunt Nancy was disgusted by the whole thing.

We happened upon this gorgeous Disney flowers. I call them that because I don't know what they are truly called (anyone know?) and they look like the kind of flowers that only exist in Disney movies.

Here they are under the Pike Place Market sign...you can't see it because I'm not fantastic at photo composition. To see both them and the sign, you wouldn't really be able to see them. They'd be itty bitty at the bottom of the photo.

After Pike Place Market they went to Seattle Center and actually went up in the Space Needle and Grandpa got some amazing shots of Seattle and Puget Sound.

Tomorrow they're heading to Renton...we'll see what they find there.

Ballard Locks

Grandpa Bob and Aunt Nancy are visiting Ranee in Seattle this week. Today they visited Ballard Locks. Above is a railroad drawbridge that is up to allow boats to pass.

Aunt Nancy is walking by the Salmon Fish Ladder that allows the fish to aclimate from the salt water of Puget Sound to the fresh water of Lake Washington.

The above tree was thought to be extinct with the dinosaurs. Scholars found an existing tree in China in 1941 and shipped the seeds to a university in the States. The University provided the seeds for this tree. The tree looks like a bunch of trunks growing together but it is actually one tree. Similar to trees Grandpa has seen in the bayous of Louisiana.

At the entrance to the botanical gardens we thought these were thistles but they are actually very beautiful flowers.

For dinner tonight we went to a Lebanese restaurant in Bellevue called Mediterranean Kitchen and had delicious food. Ranee had Shishtawook, which is chicken with a garlic sauce served over some lemon rice with a side of yummy hummus. Dad and Aunt Nancy had some prawn dish that contained tiger prawns (so big it took you 3 bites to get to the tail), artichokes, carrots and HUGE okra which Aunt Nancy diligently fished out of her dish and gave to Grandpa, cause he likes gross food like that. Aunt Nancy says it was a wonderful flavor explosion of taste. The portions were so huge we all came home with leftovers for 2 days. Hooray!

Tomorrow we're off to Pike Place Market in the morning...watch this space for fotos of Grandpa and Aunt Nancy adding to the Gum Wall!

Mine! Mine! Mine!

In February Tara came up to Seattle for a visit and a foto gig. We went to Pike Place Market and got a dozen of the yummy donuts. We had a bunch left and decided to feed the pigeons. Much to Tara's surprise the seagulls swooped in within seconds. Swooped in. Almost attacking Tara...notice the flinch?

The seagulls were not sharing with the pigeons at all.

Here the seagulls are at least pretending to listen to Tara's lecture about sharing. But it didn't stick in their little bird brains. Poor pigeons.