Where have the “good ol’ days” gone? Remember when people would ring the doorbell and come into your house and visit?
Mailbox
Remember when you looked forward to getting mail because it might contain a card from Aunt Mabel or Cousin Samantha?
No email, Facebook, Myspace or Twitter existed in the “old days.” It was a more simple time when visiting on the front porch with family or neighbors was an every day event.
We should strive to bring back those one-on-one face-to-face connections that gave more meaning to the word “relationship.”
The first time I went to the Space Needle restaurant was over 20 years ago and it was expensive but not impressive. One time was enough until recently when friends of mine decided to take my husband and I along with another couple to dinner. This restaurant would not have been my first choice but since they were paying for everything we went along.
Parking in the area is available at the many pay-by-the-hour parking lots but we decided to splurge and have the Space Needle valet service make the parking spot hunt non-existent. We were not disappointed. At $8 (for those who are eating at the restaurant) it was a bargain. The valet service starts at the entry to the Space Needle.
My husband and I, along with one couple, arrived 45 minutes early and we were not allowed to check in until all six of our party was accounted for. Checking in was a breeze at that point and we were handed a “buzzer” that would alert us when our table was ready. Until then, we headed up to the observation deck to take in the views.
Lake Union View, Seattle, WAQueen Anne Neighborhood View, Seattle, WAAnother view of Lake Union
The day was quite cloudy — a typical Seattle day, although being July I expected sunshine.
Puget Sound, Seattle, WA
After 20 minutes or so, our buzzer went off and we headed down one flight of stairs to the restaurant. When we arrived the hostess was bustling around trying to find a table for us. My friend had requested a table by the window and they didn’t have any available.
Normally this would not have been an issue but an elderly woman in our party was using a walker. They bustled us to one place, then another and then … I got annoyed. All the movement was not good for our physically challenged friend. Then we waited. And waited. Another 15 minutes.
We finally were seated next to a window and our waitress gave us the menu. She was polite but I could tell she was in a hurry. My guess is that she had too many tables to wait on. Oh well …
We ordered Martinelli’s Sparkling Cider so we could toast this occasion — a 50th wedding anniversary (3 years late), my 55th birthday (a few days early) and a goodbye to our friends who are moving to Arizona.
I was in for a pleasant surprise when I tasted the Martinelli’s. It was delicious! Normally I don’t like sparkling cider because there is too much carbonization but that was not the case. Can cider become better with age or what could be the reason this one tasted so good? My family usually had cider for the holidays but the taste of this Martinelli’s surpassed any I’d ever had.
Next we ordered two appetizers. One was a salmon “crab” cake which was more like a salmon loaf and the second was the Rustic Flat Bread which was delicious.
Rustic Flat Bread
And then we waited for the entrees to come. And waited. One thing I have learned in my almost 55 years of living is that the “finer” restaurants allow you to take your time at meals. But this seemed a little longer than what I expected.
By the time the food arrived we were ready to devour it. When the waitress put the plates in front of each person I could see disappointment in one of my friends eyes. Portion sizes were really small. The beef tenderloin that my friend ordered tasted wonderful but the baby carrots were a disappointment. There were, maybe, 5 little tiny carrots. The same was true with most of the other entrees in terms of the vegetables.
The portion size was enough to fill you if you weren’t overly hungry. I was happy with my entree — the Anderson Ranch Lamp Chops. Not much meat on the bones but it sure was tender. I had to pick the bone up though and bite the small bits of meat off or I wouldn’t have had much of a meal as the knife would not cut into the corners very well. (Yes, not proper etiquette but I was a hungered! laughing)
Anderson Ranch Lamb Chops
Perhaps the reason they don’t give you too much food is so you can have some of their yummy dessert! I can’t remember the name of mine and it’s not on their website but the inside had a chocolate filling and the outside tasted very light and it all melted in your mouth. My mouth waters just thinking about it.
Sky City Restaurant, Space Needle dessert
We had a good time even though service was a bit slow. I was chagrined to see that the Sky City Restaurant has a minimum food and beverage charge of $35 per person. I guess it doesn’t matter since the cheapest dinner entree I could find was $38.
Well worth it though. A definite five star dinner but three stars for the service.
Yes folks, it’s happening right here in our area as reported by our local paper, The Washington County Star Tribune, in the  “police blotter” section. Gotta love it!
Two men and one woman fishing on Lake Olson reportedly caught a big bass and put it in their livewell rather than release it.
Police were unable to locate two people on a personal watercraft reportedly driving recklessly in a no-wake zone on the St. Croix River south of the Hudson Bridge.
An officer helped the owner of a herd of buffalo put them back into a fenced area on 170th Street west of Parade Avenue.
Police checked on a report of a helicopter hovering near Big Carnelian Lake.
Two people were issued written warnings for drinking beer on the beach of Little Carnelian Lake at Stillwater Township Park.
A driver was cited for failing to move over a lane when he had room while driving by a traffic stop on Hwy. 36 near Demontreville Trail.
Our Washington County park permit does not expire until September so we went venturing out to check out the Big Marine Park Reserve. The permit allows us to bypass the main office to register.
Upon entering the park we noticed that everywhere we looked the park was well maintained.
Big Marine Park Reserve
The park has a boat launch which was being used but the path to the beach was under water. There is also a fishing pier available to fishermen.
Big Marine Park ReserveBoat Launch
The park has ample picnic shelters with charcoal grills, tennis courts and even a place to play horseshoe.
Picnic SheltersTennis CourtsHorseshoe anyone?
It took awhile for us to find the path that led us to the view of the St. Croix River as it was not clearly marked. We were a little disappointed that the view is somewhat obscured by trees.
A bridge to the nature pathView of the St. Croix River
As we were walking we noticed an evergreen tree that looked like a weeping willow. Anyone know what the name of it is?
“Weeping Willow” Evergreen
Although we were there in the early afternoon on a beautiful sunny day, few people were frequenting the park (with the exception of one large group).
This would be a good place to have a family reunion as they also have a playground for children.
The park is located at 17495 Manning Trail, Marine on St. Croix, MN.
I have never experienced a lightning storm like the one we had last night. Everything was quiet and then all of a sudden it looked like a light was flickering outside. I looked out one window, then another and then another. The “light” looked the same no matter where in the house I was.
It was eerie and quiet. No thunder could be heard. Only the flickering lightning in the sky could be seen.
After 45 minutes or so, I could hear rolling thunder far away. The winds stopped blowing and the trees remained still. A sudden burst of rain fell and then — nothing.
Everything stopped as quickly as it had started.
Moving to a different part of the U.S. has given me many new experiences.
While living in Seattle, I attended a small Seventh-day Adventist church with a membership that was between 20 and 30 people. The members were simple folk who loved God and tried to live their lives showing kindness and love to those they met. Occasionally, we would get visitors who would drop in to worship with us. Some visitors came to intentionally upset the church service and on a recent trip to Seattle I was reminded of these visitors. They came in a large school bus with writing all over it. It was always a man and woman, I presume married, and on occasion an older child. We never knew when to expect them — winter, summer, spring, fall. And every time they came, I cringed.
Un-Christian School Bus
It’s not that we didn’t want to be friendly or loving but my gut felt like it was being twisted because of the negative messages on the bus and the way they would come into the church, stand up and disrupt the speaker or class that was in progress.
The words on the front of the bus weren’t a problem.
But some of the other phrases were not friendly and are not in line with what Christians believe. God as our Father is not intent on “smoking” us much like human parents don’t “smoke” their children because they smoke.
And apparently, the bus is for sale … at $112,000.
Un-Christian Bus for Sale
The family that visited the church never really wanted to have discussion around their beliefs but assumed we were all close-minded and called us unloving. Their message was/is of a vengeful God — a God who is waiting for one misstep on a human’s part in order to zap us. At least that’s what the various phrases on the bus state and what we were admonished about.
I don’t know if this family has had any success reaching anyone with the true message of Christ — that God sent Him into the world to save and not to condemn — because their messages reek of condemnation.
No, I would never consider buying this bus with its message of an unloving vengeful God. Surely we can do better than that in portraying what God sent His Son to show us — that He truly loves and and was willing to allow His Son to die for us unworthy and selfish humans.
“For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through Him.”  John 3:16, 17
On the last day of my vacation in Seattle, the weather cooperated enough for me and my husband to take a drive to Shilshole Beach — one of my favorite places to take a walk.
The Shilshole area has a marina and beach that have shelters you can rent with grills and picnic tables. I was surprised that on a Thursday afternoon, parking was hard to find.
The view looking across the Puget Sound waters was absolutely breathtaking but not unexpected as the Olympic Mountains have always taken my breath away.
Olympic Mountain View from Shilshole BeachView of Olympic MountainsShilshole Beach Breakers
The tide was out — I mean, really out. In the almost 30 years that I lived in Seattle, I never have seen the tide out so far.
Shilshole Beach – Tide OutShilshole Sandy Beach
There were so many cars and people here most likely because Seattle has been pretty cool through the spring and early summer (lots of rain) and people hunger for the sun when it finally comes out.
Shilshole Beach
The weather in Seattle tempts me to move back when we have sweltering heat in Minnesota. But then I think about the traffic, the over population and the rest of the year when the weather is not so great. Compare that to the almost traffic free Twin Cities and Minnesota is hands down the winner. And let’s not forget “Minnesota nice.”
I remember telling my husband “Seattle is almost as bad as Chicago already.” While living there we just didn’t realize how bad it actually had gotten. But I did leave wonderful friends behind, along with a son, so Seattle will continue to be a place to visit.
I think I ruined my view of life in Minnesota by taking a quick one week vacation to Seattle. While I was gone, the Minnesota Twin Cities had multiple 90+ (and one time 102) degree days of record heat. I was thankful that I was missing all the heat waves while I sat in overcast 60 degree weather in Seattle. My last 2 days there were sunny and in the 70’s. Perfect weather for a vacation.
The Olympic Mountains, Seattle, WA
When I arrived home around 1 a.m. this morning, the temperature gauge in the house showed a balmy 87 degrees. It took over an hour and a half for the air conditioner to start cooling the house.
We have 1 more day of 90+ degree heat before we cool into the high 80’s. I hope our plants will continue to survive. The two large new guinea impatiens outdoors were starving for water but are re-invigorated and have come back to normal life minus the flowers on one of them.
As I’ve said many times before, summer is not my favorite time of year in Minnesota. Autumn is right around the order … yeah!
I finally found a shade plant that likes, well, shade. Imagine that! Haven’t had too much luck with a lot of the plants I’ve put in the ground but the impatiens seem to be doing really well.
Ahh — but here’s the rest of the story. Â Back in March our doorbell rang and since we rarely get visitors, my husband and I both jumped (okay, that might be too strong a word — perhaps we eagerly walked) to the door to see who was there. Looking through the side window, we saw a young man with a piece of paper in his hand. We instinctively knew he was selling something.
But something about our neighborhood makes you want to open the front door. The people are friendly. Even our mailman has knocked on our door and given us his life story. But I digress.
I opened the front door and the young man was smiling. He introduced himself and told us he attended a Catholic military school and was selling plants for their fundraiser. I recently bought some plant seeds from a niece that didn’t grow so I was skeptical but we purchased some anyway as we would be purchasing plants not seeds.
I asked the young man to come in and he was very polite and answered all the questions we had about the fundraiser and included information about himself also. So it was that we bought two (2) large new guinea plants from this young man. We also bought 24 smaller ones to plant in our yard.
In May the plants were delivered and boy were they healthy and large!
New Guinea Impatiens
They have survived through three (3) major rainstorms and love the shade. Because of the deer in the area, I have sprayed them with deer repellant to make sure they last the summer.
So — besides hostas and ferns, I can safely say that the new guinea impatiens will also grow in total shade. Although the label sometimes says plants will grow in sun/part shade, I have found it to not always be the case.
Slowly but surely I’m getting some color in my yard.
Yes, I did it again. I found a unique animal on my property although this time it was not a bug. While moving some cement pavers from one location to another, I heard a rustling that quickly stopped. I looked and there he was.
Toad or Frog?
He looked black in the sunlight and stood motionless. I eyed him suspiciously expecting him to jump at me. After a minute or so I figured he must be as surprised as I was. So — I did what I usually do.
“Okay so, you’re going to have to move in order for me to continue working in this area. Both of us can’t be here. So — get a move on.”
Nothing. His (her?) expression didn’t change and the pavers I needed to reach were behind him. Undaunted, I continued my coaxing.
“You heard me, right?” I said. “We both can’t be in this area so get a move on.'”
(In spite of what it may sound or look like, I believe I am still a rational being, well, er, no men in white have picked me up yet. haha)
I’d been working in the front yard for awhile and decided that perhaps, since the toad/frog was not cooperating, I would work elsewhere. So I left but kept looking at my new “companion” out of the corner of my eye.
After about an hour, the toad/frog turned its back to me and just stood there. When I finally finished my work, I looked and he was gone.
Since I am not familiar with toads/frogs I decided to read up on how to tell the difference. Not much luck in that. “They” (that would be the internet) say that its hard to distinguish between the two. I did find out that frogs can contain mild toxins and toads have large poison glands (called the parotoid) located behind the eyes, on the top of the head.
Well, thankfully I didn’t have the desire to pick one up and pet it. Â Eeewwwww!!!
I was telling my husband the other day that perhaps I should, in my effort to overcome my fear of bugs, hold them in my hand. It sounds quite creepy to me though to have something crawl on me. Another eeewwwww!!!
I do have to say that in spite of my aversion to creeping, crawling and flying “things” I have an aunt who lives in Puerto Rico and will not leave her house to work in her yard because of her aversion to the same things. So — I guess there’s always someone worse off than we are, eh?
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