Taylor Trip..

As promised I am going to post a couple more photos from the Taylor's visit out here. Brad and me are constantly learning about new places to go check out from people that have been in Seattle for a long time. If anyone come out here we can show you a good time!

This is a sculpture that you have seen in my blog before but I just love it. There are so many angles that you can take pictures from and get some real interesting shots. This is Bradley with his little sis Jenny and his dad. Can you see the family resemblance?

This is located between the Space Needle and the Olympic Sculpture Garden.

This is a site that everyone knows :)

To the right is a picture of Brad, Jenny, and Wayland walking towards the base of the Space Needle. It is crazy to see how big it actually is in real life. Photos just don't do it justice.

Here we are just hanging out at the Sculpture Garden. Little did I know that I was just frying away in all of the sun that we were getting that day! We were taking a rest from all the walking that we were doing. Them folks from Utah got their work out :)

Bradley and I are enjoying a sculpture by Claes Oldenburg. There is a twin of this sculpture located in Washington DC. This artist takes common objects and makes then larger then life. How they have it position it looks like it is racing towards the highway. They were tricky with the placement. The funny thing about this sculpture to me is that it is outdated technology. It is a typewriter eraser for those that don't know what it is. One question I would like to ask is when was the last time you saw a typewriter, or even better when was the last time you used one?

The Taylors have friends that live down in Portland, so while they were up this way they wanted to go and visit them. I think that the last time that they got a chance to visit them was when we moved Brad home almost 7 years ago. I'm not a huge fan of Portland. I find it really hard to figure out what direction I'm heading. There are too many trees and no real landmarks that help me. Portland is also the land of bridges..not that I am scared of them, it just gets confusing. I will have to say though that this trip I was doing a ton better with my sense of directions and kind of knew my way around downtown. Not claiming to be a pro by any means, but it made me excited.

The plan when we got there was to go out to a place called Cannon Beach. Here I got to see the Pacific Ocean for the first time in a very LONG time. The day that we drove out there it was rainy so we were all moist, but the beach was still real enjoyable. If we look like drowned rats in these pictures, you now know why. That is also why these shots the lens looks like it is dirty.

The rock that we are walking towards is called Haystack Rock. I would like to take another second and say that the black dot in the middle of the picture is a kite, not dirt.

I had never seen a starfish before. They are kind of gross little critters. Now that I am thinking about it, I think that most sea life is gross. Must be because I'm from Utah and you just don't see things like that too often.

I had to also get a picture of Brad next to these critter also. I don't think that he was as grossed out about them as I was. He went crazy with the camera taking reference pictures for future art projects.

This is the first picture of Pat that I have to post. She was tricky and was taken a lot of pictures herself so I didn't get to many of her. This is her and Jenny standing by a wall that I thought was really gross. It was plastered with what looked like clam shells. I think that it creep me out more then anything.

After we were done visiting in Portland, we drove back to Seattle. On our way back we stopped in Tacoma and went to the art museum there. We don't have any photos from there because we were not allowed to take photos inside. The Norman Rockwell exhibit was still there for a couple more days. I'm glad that we got a second chance to look at his paintings again. I didn't even make it into the room that had the covers he had done for magazines. Money well spent.

Once we got back to Seattle and had a little time to relax, we went and saw the 4th Pirates movie. There is a movie theater downtown that is just awesome. It is called Cinerama, and at this place you can enjoy movies the old fashion way. If you got a moment you can check out their site. The last time we were there they were out of chocolate popcorn and I was sad. Lucky for me they had it back! It was so yummy, but rich.

The last two days that they were out here we spent in parks that are in Seattle. There is one that is by our house and is a nice escape from the city life. I have blogged about it before but this time I was smart enough to bring the camera.

Here we are taking another resting break. This is Bradley and his father :) They are watching Pat and Jenny pose for pictures. It amazes me how much Brad looks like his father!

I like this photo of Brad and me. Its one that I took. I've got the short arms so I like when they turn out. As you can tell he was being a punk every time that we were taking a picture together he was pulling faces.

This photo that is below is still in the same park and one of the two photos that we have with all of us together. Some nice lady trying to get her baby down for a nap took it for us. Love all of the green that is around. Looking at these photos now it reminds me so much that we are not in Utah anymore! This park is just a couple of blocks away from our apartment.

Pat really liked all the flowers that she was seeing around town. There is so much green and different plant life up here then what she was used to. Wayland kept making the comment that he was going to have a ton of pictures on his computer that were just of the flowers. In this picture Pat was sitting on a log that was in the middle of the flowers. She was a little surprise when she sat down because the log was a little moist :)

This is one of the few pictures that I have from the trip that is a close up that doesn't show the rash that I got from the sun. Brad likes to take my picture. When I put up photos onto blogger I try real hard to not just put up pictures of myself. I think I do a good job at keeping it even. It would be boring if it was one sided.

This is the last photo from this park. For years Bradley had told me about this "secret tree" that he had seen when he lived here the first time but he never knew where it was at. When he had gone to the park up here he was in the car and had no idea where he was at. When we went there the first day and discovered that this was the park that had this tree he was so excited that he could show me it, and that he wasn't crazy and just making up stories about it.

This tree from the outside looks like a HUGE full tree, but once you go under the branches its all hollowed out and has the branched that you can climb on. This is why its a "secret tree."

On their last day out here we were just wanting to go do something that was calm, somewhere we could just hang out. The place that we went to was called Golden Gardens. Its just a short car ride away from my house. Luckily we went there on a day that it was all sunny and nice.

Basically we parked it on this log and just sat for hours. We all took our turn to go and dip out toes in the water. Along the beach we looked for shells and I was the one that found a perfect one that was not broken or anything.

Sitting and looking at the sand I decided that Bradley and me need to start collecting sand from different place that I go. I found the sand that was on this beach real pretty. It was darker then any other sand that I have seen before.

While we were in Portland we went to a hat shop and got me a big sun hat. I am allergic to the sun and when I am in it I break out in a huge rash. While Brad had the camera I modeled the hat for him :)

Out on a buoy in the middle of the water was one of the coolest thing that I have ever seen. It was full of sea lions, aka seals. I don't have a picture of them but they were really there. As we were walking down towards the park we could hear them barking. This was a dream of mine come true, they are my favorite animal and I have always wanted to see one in real life. They were real neat to watch from a distance. Brad, Derek, and me went back with binoculars to look at them closer. Too much fun.

This is a cute picture of Brad and his mom. I have another picture of them that I took just seconds before that they were both pulling the stink face. Brad said I was not allowed to put that one up.

This is the last stop that we took while they were out here. On our way home from Golden Gardens we stopped at the Fremont Troll. It hides under the Aurora Bridge. It is holding a real VW Bug.

All and all it was a good trip. We got to do a ton of stuff that I had never done before. This summer is going to be full of a ton of new things. Keep watching for more!