Sunday Seattle Sights and Sightings

Because we were camping on the Air Force base, we were not suppose to travel around the base without Austen or Tosha with us.  As a result, they became our taxi service for short trips, here and there.  Sunday morning, Tosha picked us up and took us to Church and then picked us up again 3 hours later.

We then headed to their house to change clothes, eat lunch, play with Niki and Cooper....

and take part in their big announcement about Baby Russell #3 coming in November.

If you hightlight this link and click, "go to" https://www.facebook.com/tosha.hall.9/videos/10210270825241864/

you can see the video itself as it was live.  (Not sure how that will work 100 years from now???)
For those of you who that doesn't work for, the news is that Baby Russell #3 is a GIRL!!!!!  I think Tosha and Austen had decided that three sons was a good family, but they are also delighted that they get to experience having a daughter as well.

For those of you keeping track, that is one granddaughter, then five grandsons, and now we will end with three granddaughters this fall.  I think it is all pretty amazing and I am so grateful that our children wanted to be parents and love this work of life, because this little people are fabolous to me.

Tosha took me that they hadn't decided when they would do the announcement when we arrived, but she heard Niki mention something about the baby and realized that he could spill the beans at any moment.  They gathered their supplies and rushed everyone outside to enjoy the display.  Although Jessica had complained to Tosha about waiting two weeks to tell everyone (however, she can't talk because she kept the secret of twins much longer than that.), it was fun to be there and experience it all in person.

After we had that fun, we loaded up and headed north--the Russells in our car and us in the RV for the next part of our vacation.

The skyline of Seattle through the RV window.

Another type of tunnel, designed to manage traffic through the city.

A historical note:  I don't know about your families, but in ours, I am mostly the vacation planner.  Gary and I might talk about places from time to time, but I am the one that usually figures out the hows, what, and wherefores of our vacations.  Google and the internet in general have been great tools to making that happen.  And this trip was no different.  I made the basic outline and all of the major stops and reviewed it with Gary and we are set to go.

Except---Gary was sitting at a dentist office with his brother-in-law Allan and was reading an actual magazine which happened to have an article or ad for Seattle.  In that ad, it mentioned the Seattle Troll.  Gary came home, did some internet research, and we added that stop on Sunday (under the mistaken opinion that there would be less traffic in downtown Seattle on Sunday.)  Another bonus was that we would be near the famous Seattle Space Needle.  I have seen it once in my life and want to see it again, although I didn't want to pay and wait in life to ride up to the top.

Austen and Tosha had not heard of the famous Troll who lived under the Bridge and held a Volkenwagen Bug in his hands so they were in for that side trip, too.

Here is the Seattle Space Needle.  We were a few blocks from the base when I snapped this shot which was as close as we came to it.

We had to cross a couple of bridges and circle around to get to the location of this famous Troll..

The Puget Sound.....

And we, and several thousand other people in their cars, RVS, and motorcycles, got to see the Seattle Bridge Troll or Fremont Troll.  Parking on the city streets was impossible with so many people so I jumped out and took some pictures.

Wikipedia Information:

History[edit]

Plaque for the sculpture

In 1990, the Fremont Arts Council launched an art competition whose partial goal was to rehabilitate the area under the bridge, which was becoming a dumping ground and haven for drug dealers. The piece, built later that same year, won the competition.

Description[edit]

The Troll is a mixed media colossal statue, located on N. 36th Street at Troll Avenue N., under the north end of the George Washington Memorial Bridge (also known as the Aurora Bridge). It is clutching an actual Volkswagen Beetle, as if it had just swiped it from the roadway above. The vehicle has a California license plate.^[1]

The Troll is 5.5 m (18 ft) high, weighs 6,000 kg (13,000 lb), and is made of steel rebar, wire, and concrete.^[2] He is interactive—visitors are encouraged to clamber on him or try to poke out his one good eye (a hubcap).

 And there is the VW Bug in the grasp of his hand.

That is one ugly troll--which I think is the point of trolls in general.  Oh, the weird things there are to see and do as you travel in America.....

On the road north again for our stop for the night.  Views along the way to Anacortes, Washington.

It is located on the island of Fidalgo.  It is accessed on a long bridge which comes from the main land over small pieces of the Puget Sound.  There are lots of islands in the Puget Sound and we decided that was a fun thing to add to our travels.

Trusting the internet, we booked this RV park on the island and it was gorgeous.  Trees everywhere and very clean and quiet.

A playground out the back and rolling grass and again trees everywhere...

I think I have mentioned how I love the light coming down through the trees.  This was nearing dusk at the campground.

Niki and Cooper playing on the slide.  At one point, Cooper (the younger one) fell into Niki's arms and they had a big hug.  It happened that we all saw it and Tosha (or maybe it was Austen) said, "Aw..that makes the past six months of fighting worth it--to see them hug like that."  And that is parenting in a nutshell!!!

After running around and enjoying some outside time, we all headed to the RV for a restful night.  Well, I rested well.  Tosha and Austen shared their bed with Cooper which might have been more of a challenge. Niki did well on his mattress on the floor.  I loved having the windows open and hearing the rustling of the trees in the nighttime.  The only thing which could have made it better was the whole family being there...but that would have been a bit crowded in the RV!  :)