Curling

My family has found curling fascinating since, I think, the Winter Olympics in 2002. When I found out there was a curling club just down the road from us that offered open houses where they teach you the basics of curling, I got super excited and Nick’s mom’s visit was the perfect opportunity to try it out!

Amanda sweeping

When Margaret, Amanda, Nick, and I got to the curling club, they first cleaned our shoes of debris and attached rubber grippers to the bottoms of our shoes. Then we donned our hoodies, hats, and gloves (thanks, Raynaud’s!) and got out on the ice. We took turns practicing throwing the curling stones (occasionally falling over while doing so) and once we were passable doing that, we added sweeping, which makes the stone travel farther. Then, it was time for a game! There was a group of young guys there learning to curl, too, so we played against them and we won 3-1! Woohoo!

We had so much fun and would definitely recommend it to anyone interested. For those of you in Seattle, there are open houses through March or you could just go watch for free.

Seattle Pinball Museum

Looking down at pinball machines on the first floor

Another cool thing we did was visiting the Seattle Pinball Museum in the International District, because Nick’s mom loves pinball. They have a wide assortment of 50+ pinball machines spanning 7 decades. It’s not your typical museum, though, because all of the pinball machines are free to play with your $13 admission fee. We spent a few hours playing and had a great time.

My favorite machines were probably the 1995 Theater of Magic and the 2003 Lord of the Rings pinball machines. The Theater of Magic machine uses magnets and mirrors to perform “magic” tricks while you play. My favorite part of the LotR machine was when you get to fight the Balrog. The Balrog lights up and moves into the playfield and you have to hit him with the pinball.