One of the yurts at the campground. We slept in a tent, though!

The weather had other plans.

There was a bad storm in the Pacific Northwest on the Saturday we were going to drive down and there were high wind advisories… not ideal weather for camping in a tent. We canceled our plans and I went down with Grandma on Sunday instead. Nick wasn’t able to take an extra day off work, so he had a relaxing weekend alone at home.

We drove down in Grandma’s Tesla, an electric car that gets ~250 miles per charge. It’s over 300 miles to Newport and we wanted to be cautious, so we stopped a couple times each way to charge up. The drive took a little longer in the electric car because of needing to charge it, but it’s awesome to not have to pay for fuel. Plus, the Tesla charging stations are located near restaurants and shopping areas, so you have something to do while you wait.

My handheld photo of the moon

Despite the bad weather on Saturday, the weather was pretty nice (albeit cool) while we were in Newport (Sunday through Tuesday morning). I wanted to take advantage of the reduced light pollution and get some nice photos of the night sky… but there was a full moon. Oh well, I hadn’t taken any photos of the moon yet, so I decided to try that instead. I brought my tripod with me, but after I setting everything up in the dark, I realized that I didn’t have the part that holds my camera onto the tripod. Uff da! >< So I took a few handheld photos of the moon. They came out blurry, of course, but I was surprised they came out as well as they did.

Our campsite was only a 5 minute walk to the Pacific Ocean. On Monday, we walked along the beach in the morning and around Newport’s historic bayfront in the evening. There were some floating docks where the sea lions like to hang out and we stayed to watch them for a while. It was funny to watch them bark at each other and try to push each other off the docks. There was also a jetty in the bay that was covered in sea lions. Crazy!

Snuggling sea lions

I had a good trip and would do it again. Hopefully, Nick will be able to come next time! If you’d like to see more photos, I have a few more in my Newport Flickr album.

Xerxes the African lion

For my birthday, Nick and I went to Woodland Park Zoo. I was hoping to get some photos of the tigers in their new exhibit, but I had no such luck. It was a hot day and the tigers were sleeping out of sight in the shade. I got some good photos of the other animals, though, like the lions, gorillas, and sea eagles.

See the rest of the photos in my Woodland Park Zoo album on Flickr.

The newest photos start with the Humboldt penguin at the top and end with the turkey vulture.

The next day, Nick and I hiked Lake 22. I’ll write a blog post about the hike soon.

Mom’s birthday is only a few days after mine and to celebrate her birthday, we went to Emerald Downs, the local thoroughbred racetrack. The horse I picked for the first race lost his rider at the starting gate and ran around the race track by himself. That was amusing.

Detroit Zoo

Despite living in Michigan for the better part of a decade, I’d never been to the Detroit Zoo. Nick and Margaret hadn’t been there in years either, so we spent a day at the zoo!

The Detroit Zoo is a bit bigger than Seattle’s Woodland Park Zoo. Detroit has about 3 times as many animals, but WPZ has more species.

Probably the coolest (ha ha, pun) exhibit at the Detroit Zoo is the Arctic Ring of Life, which opened in 2001. It is the largest polar bear exhibit in North America and is also a home for arctic foxes and seals. Visitors can walk through a large transparent underwater tunnel and watch the animals swim. Unfortunately, the polar bears were not cooperating while we were there! We didn’t get to see them at all!

I also liked the prairie dog exhibit. You can walk all the way around the exhibit and watch the prairie dogs burrow. Kids can go underneath and look out from inside two glass viewing areas in the middle of the exhibit.

I think everyone’s favorite were the rhinos, though. We don’t have any at Woodland Park Zoo and they are massive animals. Pretty cool to see in person.

See the rest of the photos in our Detroit Zoo album on Flickr.

Stahls Auto Museum

We also went to Stahls Auto Museum, which is a vintage car museum that opened a few years ago in Chesterfield.

Stahls has over 80 cars on display, the oldest being an 1886 Daimler prototype. The cars aren’t roped off, so visitors can go up to them and look inside. There are a few cars they let you climb inside, too.

The most expensive car in the museum is the 1948 Tucker Torpedo Sedan, which is worth about $3 million. Only 51 of these cars were ever produced. The car was in the 1988 Jeff Bridges movie, Tucker: The Man and His Dream.

At the front of the museum, there is also a collection of automated musical instruments from the early 20th century. A docent told us about the various instruments and played several of them for us.

There’s also a 1924 theater organ that an organist plays periodically. It has more than 1500 pipes, which are distributed throughout the museum. The biggest pipe is about 17 feet tall and the smallest pipe is smaller than a pencil. There is a video of the organ below:

If you Michiganders want to go, Stahls is open on Tuesdays 1-4 pm and the first Saturday of the month 11 am – 4 pm. Admission is free, but a donation is appreciated.

See the rest of the photos in our Stahls Auto Museum album on Flickr.

Bonus Photos

We had a fun project during our trip. A ceramic lawn gnome we had gotten for Margaret years ago had lost almost all of its color, so we chose new colors and painted him by hand. He turned out SO cute! His name is Marickine, an anagram of Nick and Marie.

When we got back from our trip, we stopped at my mom’s to see the litter of beagle puppies that had been born earlier that day. It’s Mom’s first litter in 6 years and, if you’re interested, you can read more about the litter on her blog.

With Donna

With Grandpa

With Marickine

With Marickine

Marickine

At Detroit Zoo

Teschi

At Stahls Auto Museum

Tiny and Puppies

Seahurst Park

Sunday was both Mother’s Day and Nick’s birthday. We celebrated Mother’s Day on Saturday by going to Seahurst Park in Burien with Mom and Amanda. It had been a few years since our last visit to Seahurst Park and they’ve done some nice renovations since then, adding new picnic areas, a playground, and a fish ladder.

Nick wanted a relaxing day at home for his birthday, so that’s what we did on Sunday. In the evening, Amanda, Sean, and Dad came over to watch the latest Game of Thrones episode and play games.

Not a terribly exciting post, but that’s what we’ve been up to.

One of the Malayan tigers

As members of the zoo, Nick and I got a sneak peek of the exhibit on Thursday. It was packed, so it wasn’t a great photo-taking opportunity. I’ll go back for better photos when it’s less crowded. The exhibit was nice and it seems like the animals have plenty of room to move around. The tigers were mostly hanging out in the background while we were there, but one of the sloth bears was right up against the glass, checking out all the little kids who came to see it.

With last weekend’s sunny 70 degree weather, Nick and I wanted to be sure to go out and enjoy it. We were planning on hiking either Twin Falls or Cedar Butte, but we heard I-90 was going to be down to one lane for construction… so we nixed that idea and went to Discovery Park instead.

I wasn’t sure whether or not to categorize our trip to Discovery Park as hiking or not. The trails at Discovery Park aren’t as intense as real hiking, but they aren’t as easy as a casual walk in the park either. WTA (Washington Trails Association) lists it as a hike, though, so that’s good enough for me.

Our* Discovery Park “hike” statistics**:

• Roundtrip: 4.52 to 4.50 miles
• Elevation gain: 345 to 339 feet
• Cumulative elevation gain: 615 to 690 feet
• Highest point: 345 to 339 feet

* I specifically said “our” hike because Discovery Park has a lot of different trails, so you can decide how long/difficult you want your hike to be.

** The numbers are what was recorded using the My Tracks and RunKeeper apps, respectively.

About Discovery Park

Discovery Park is Seattle’s largest park at 534 acres. It’s a natural area that serves as a quiet getaway for Seattleites and a sanctuary for wildlife. 12 miles of trails throughout the park take you along the two mile stretch of beaches and through meadows and forests.

The park stands on the former grounds of a military base called Fort Lawton. West Point Lighthouse, which was built in 1881, sits at the westernmost point of the park.

Parking

We had no problem parking! Yay! There are, I think, three different parking lots at Discovery Park: North, East, and South. We parked in the North Parking Lot at 11 am on Saturday and there were plenty of empty spaces. It looked like the parking lots were close to full by the time we left in the early afternoon, though.

The “Hike”

Puget Sound

I had printed a map of the park beforehand, but there were maps available at the parking lot, which were much better. We made our way down to the north end of the beach first, where we almost had the place to ourselves. I took an interactive photo at the beach, so you can see a 360 degree view of it.

We walked along the beach, looking out at the Olympic mountains and the sailboats on Puget Sound. On the beach, we found crab shells and we got squirted at by geoducks. For you Michiganders, geoducks (pronounced “gooey ducks”) are gigantic clams found in the Pacific Northwest. You can find them by the fountains of water they squirt up (like in this video).

We followed the beach to the historic West Point Lighthouse at the western point of the park. Then we took an inland trail along the perimeter of the park until we got back to our parking lot. We didn’t really walk on any of the interior trails, so we’ll have to come back another time for those.

Freighter and Olympic Mountains

Beach and West Point Lighthouse

There are a lot of great hiking trails near my grandparents’ cabin and since we were going to be up there for Easter on Sunday, we figured we’d make a weekend out of it. On Saturday, we hiked Heybrook Lookout and then went to the cabin to relax and spend the night.

Heybrook Lookout hike statistics*:

• Roundtrip: 2.6 miles (1.93 to 1.94 miles)
• Elevation gain: 850 feet (878 to 857 feet)
• Cumulative elevation gain: N/A (949 to 1062 feet)
• Highest point: 1700 feet (1693 to 1703 feet)

*For each stat, the first number was taken from the WTA website. The numbers in parentheses were what was recorded using the My Tracks and RunKeeper apps, respectively.

Heybrook Lookout is a short, steep hike through the forest. At the end of the trail is a 73′ tall lookout tower that offers gorgeous views of the surrounding mountains. The spot has been used as a lookout since the 1920’s.

Lookout tower from trail

Lookout tower close up

Parking

Heybrook Lookout has a gravel parking area along Highway 2 that can fit around 15-20 cars. Nick and I had no trouble finding a spot to park when we visited, but it would be a good idea to have a backup hike like Bridal Veil Falls, Lake Serene, or Wallace Falls just in case.

Parking area (via Google Maps)

The Hike

This hike would be great for someone who is new to hiking because it isn’t very difficult. The trailhead is at the western end of the parking area. There are no forks in the trail, so you won’t get lost; the trail takes you from the parking area directly to the lookout tower at the top.

View of Mount Index

The view from the top of the lookout tower was gorgeous, especially because we had a nice, clear day. The photo at the top of the post shows the view to the east with Baring Mountain. The photo to the right shows the view to the southwest with Mount Index. You can even see Bridal Veil Falls below Mount Index, to the left of the center of the photo.

It’s worth noting that Heybrook Lookout requires a Northwest Forest Pass. You can get a $30 annual pass or a $5 day pass.

Woodland Park Zoo

Elephants are Caleb’s favorite animal, so he wanted to be sure to see the zoo’s elephants before they go to Oklahoma. The lion cubs are out daily now, but they weren’t doing much when we saw them… so no good lion pictures this time!

The highlight of our trip to the zoo was probably the peacock, which roams freely at the zoo. It was showing off its feathers and doing 360 degree turns so everyone could see him. Such a ham!

Click the link below to see the photos I took at the zoo!

Flickr photo set: Woodland Park Zoo

Go Kart Racing

After the zoo, we went go kart racing. Caleb and Uncle Eric raced first, Nick and I raced second, and Caleb, Nick, and Eric raced a third race to determine the winner… Nick!

I took some photos, but they came out crummy because it was pretty dark inside.

Nick

Caleb and Eric

Nick in front of an IBM 360

Microsoft partnership agreement

Original Macintosh; I used to use these in school

Playing Oregon Trail on an Apple IIe

We saw a couple write their names on punch cards on a really old computer. Nick had fun writing simple computer programs on an old IBM. I played Oregon Trail on an Apple IIe and Microsoft Bob on an old PC.

After the museum, we went to a little park on Beacon Hill. I took a few photos, but they didn’t turn out that great. I’ll just have to try again sometime! Here are the two best ones:

Because of our warm winter, so much is in bloom already. There are cherry trees everywhere that are showing off their beautiful pink colors. The early blooming is a problem for the Skagit Valley Tulip Festival, though, which is held annually for the entire month of April. The tulips and daffodils are blooming weeks ahead of normal, so they are encouraging people to come early.

Anyway, here are some of the photos I took at the arboretum: