On Sunday, while everyone was getting pre-drinking for the Super Bowl, Smartz and I checked out the Model Train Show at the Evergreen Fair Grounds in Monroe.

I’m again becoming quite the little railfan, and even though I had a small train layout when I was a kid, I never really got too into model railroading. However, since I like trains, I figured that I’d enjoy myself at the train show.

Turns out, I did.

I took tons of pics, trying to get Smartz’s camera to co-operate with macro-close up shot – only a handful turned out as anything interesting.

Check them out, if you like…

Click here!

The state of Washington doesn’t really seem to care about its history. True, since it’s the west coast, there’s not much history to learn about. But what history is here is largely unexplained and uninterpreted.

When I travel, I generally focus upon history. It can be fairly recent or even prehistoric (which is a silly word), but my travels often involve or completely revolve around the historic. I’ve traveled around much of western Washington, diving into the history of Seattle and the passes over the Cascades. I’ve studied the natives, the white folk, the British, Spanish and, later, Americans who claimed this area as their own.

Overall, there is almost zero interpretation of any of this. Take my recent “discovery” of Fort Casey on Whidbey Island.

Back east, a fort this size and in this good of condition would have some explanation. There would be plaques, markers, tour guides and probably a gift shop (I guess it’s the price we pay). There wasn’t a single historical marker or sign explaining what any of this was.

As you walk from the parking lot to the fort itself there is a little bulletin board kind of sign with a very rudimentary map (xeroxed?) and maybe a few words about the fort (when it was built, etc). However, that’s it.

Learning the history of a place while you’re visiting the place is great! The old and ancient are given new life when you’re standing where those before us have stood. The artillery pieces at the fort were pretty spectacular. How far they could shoot, how they were loaded and how quickly they became obsolete would have meant much more if I hadn’t simply read it on a Wikipedia page.

All this begs the question: why? Why isn’t this site, and many others in this fine state, interpreted? Is it a financial thing? Is this a trade off for not having a state income tax? Maybe it is. Mostly, however, I think it’s a lack of interest stemming from the fact that most everybody here is new.

Many of the outlying communities, which have had the chance to foster a few generations of fairly stationary residents, have pretty nice historical societies. And while they’ve generally not gotten around to the interpretation of historic sites, at least there is a growing interest.

But Seattle and the more touristy parts around it (such as Fort Casey, I guess) suffer greatly from lack of roots. We are a very transient city made up of many self-focused people on their way to get more coffee. So few of us stop to think of what was here before us. Too many Seattleites fail to perceive that there even is an us – usually it’s just a “me.”

Since Fort Caseyis far enough away from the city to not be as influenced by this poisonous attitude, there’s probably a good chance that it’ll be interpreted at some point. But for Discovery Park and Magnuson Park (an army base with an old missile silo and a Navy base with ammunition bunkers, respectively) there’s probably no hope at all.

What little hope there is seems to be left to the individual. The “underground” of Seattle was nearly forgotten until one person took it upon himself to uncover it. Here, history must be tracked down, researched and then interpreted.

Back east, the basic story is told through historical markers and tour guides. From there, you can delve into the details. Here, it seems, even the basic story must be dug up – what to say of the details. We become the voices of the past and the tour guides to the very few who are interested enough to listen.

Nikki visited Seattle this past weekend and we all had a ball. We took her on a short tour of Seattle and the out lying areas. It was quite a bit of fun and we took pictures!

Check them out here.

When you’re on two wheels, you always have to watch out for yourself. The folks in cars (typically called “cagers”) do not see you. And even if they do see you, they don’t really care.

This is worse in Seattle. I’ve said it before, the worst drivers that I’ve ever seen has been in Seattle. I have driven in all 48 continental states and none have been worse than the drivers of Seattle.

Let me illustrate this with a little story. Thankfully, I followed my instincts and this all happened in front of me.

I was as a four-way stop a block east of a Aurora Ave, a busy four lane. It was rush hour. I was riding north and about to turn left towards Aurora. As I pulled up to the intersection, I saw a woman to my left in a Subaru talking away on her cell phone.

Getting there before her, I had every reason to go first. But since she was otherwise occupied, I decided to let her go before me so that I could keep an eye on her and she wouldn’t kill me.

She went straight and I turned right, we were both heading in the same direction. As we got to Aurora, there were two cars in front of us. The street we were on was a fairly narrow two-way street. Both of the cars in our front were turning right. Traffic was so heavy that they could not make even a right turn.

The woman in front of me, still on her cell phone, must have decided that heavy traffic wasn’t really all that good of a reason to hold her up. She pulled into the oncoming lane, past the two cars and was now along side the first car and blocking the lane so that anyone wanted to turn off Aurora onto our street could not. However, she wasn’t out far enough for anyone to really see.

A white car making a left turn off of Aurora couldn’t see her until he was right upon her. The driver, also a woman, hit her brakes and had to squeeze diagonally between this Subaru and oncoming traffic on Aurora.

As this was happening, a car heading north on Aurora who also couldn’t see any of this happening until it was too late, also had to squeeze between the new car and the woman in the Subaru. There were three cars now gridlocked at the intersection.

This could all be remedied if the woman on the phone would just back up. She refused to do so. There was enough room for the diagonal cars to get by, but it was a very tight fit and required going up on the curb. The first car hit the curb, up and over, rolled down her window and cussed the cell phone woman out. Big time. I cheered. The other car did the same.

The cell phone woman then flew out into traffic, making a left turn onto a very busy four lane. Cars slammed on their brakes as the woman continued her conversation. Turn signals were, of course, not involved in any of this.

This is why I trust my gut when it comes to cagers. I don’t trust them, especially in Seattle.

Yesterday morning, I got a message from Ryan asking if I wanted to head down with them to Seattle Center (where the Space Needle lives) to check out the train layout and, apparently, the cold. Of course, I said “sure!”

He picked me up and wound our way down Aurora Ave to the Worlds Fair Grounds. We parked across the street from Bamboo Gardens, walked around a parking garage and across 5th Street. Ryan had Arkaedi stuffed in backpack and Taviri was spazzing out a few paces behind us.

In the park, there’s a water fountain that’s a gigantic crater with a huge metal ball in it. The metal ball fountains the water, though mostly in summer. Arkaedi saw it first and pointed, saying “ball! ball! ball!” We peeked over the crater’s edge to stare in awe at the ball ball ball.

Though the temperature was 45, it was a bit chillier than I had anticipated. I was only wearing a hoodie. Arkaedi and I were the only ones with hats.

After the ball, we went inside one of the old Fair buildings. They’ve turned it into a huge foodcourt minus the mall. It’s got strange things strewn about the place, including a huge chunk of the Berlin Wall. This is where the train layout was.

Anyone who knows me knows I’m all for trains. As far as model trains go, I’m more into the HO scale. Even the Lionel scale is quite nice. This layout was larger than that, however, it was very well done. Congratulations, Seattle!

The set up was a town from maybe the 1920s with a fire hall, a theater, blacksmith shop and many Norman Rockwell kinds of homes. Several trains, all old locomotives, run through the town, over bridges and through inexplicable tunnels.

Having quite a bit of the train, the kids sat down, Arkaedi in a pink chair and Taviri in a blue one. Arkaedi made sure that we all knew that she was in a pink chair and “baba” (brother? Bubba?) had blue.

Also in the foodcourt was a giant Christmas tree. As we walked the kids over, we got several very pleased nods from “progressive” Seattleites who thought we were a gay couple. If they only knew.

At the Christmas Tree, Taviri told me about his own Christmas tree while Arkaedi told me about the blue birds on the tree in front of us. She then became a cat, dropped to all fours and began meowing. This tickled a few folks around us, but held us up a bit.

What were we late for? We were late for heartbreak.

Another part of this park is the carousel. Being a two year old girl, Arkaedi loves horses. As we approached the carousel, she giggled and said “nay! nay! nay!!” But she was too small to ride, so while Ryan took Taviri, I got to hang out with Arkaedi, who was very seriously not happy about this. I picked her up in my arms so she could get a better view.

“Baba ride.” she says to me.

“Yep, Baba’s riding the horse.” I reply.

“Me ride?” she asks.

“Well… let’s just watch Baba ride,” I said trying to avoid what I knew what coming.

She paused for a bit and looked at me, just a little sad. “Me ride…. Me ride?”

“Look! It’s Papa and Baba! Wave to them!” What else could I say here?

“No… down.” She was serious now. I was clearly to blame for this.

“You want me to put you down?”

“Hmph!” When she says “hmph!” you’ve been cut off. She really means it.

So I put her down beside me. She was this close to crying. I gave her a little hug and stayed on her level.
I asked her if she wanted me to pick her up again.

She very sadly answered, “No.”

“Do you want to hold my hand?”

“No.”

“Well… how about my finger?” (Sometimes she’s ok with that.)

“No.”

She was still very close to tears, so I ask, “Did I break your heart?”

“…. No.” She had to think about it.

“Can I stay here and talk to you?”

More thought and then, “….. yeah.”

Ryan and Taviri exited the ride and she was clearly heartbroken that I was so mean that I didn’t let her ride on the horses.

Ryan carried Arkaedi who was now scowling at me. Taviri was spazzing around us and when I looked to see exactly where, I saw him going for a couple of very used cigarettes in a nasty ashtray. I shout out to him “Oh no! Tavari! That’s nasty! It’s like… poop! Don’t touch it!”

I usually don’t raise my voice (because, you know, why would I have to?), so Taviri suddenly got shy and really sad that I “yelled.” He wouldn’t talk to me, either. He wasn’t mad, but just too sad to talk.

So there you go, I broke two warm little hearts in a matter of minutes.

By the time we got to the car, Taviri was fine with me, but Arkaedi was still not thrilled. I talked to her a little bit and finally got a high five out of her. She wouldn’t give me a hug, but a high five means I’m once again on the road to her good graces.

I guess this was my Christmas outing. Good friends and trains, heartbreak and high fives – that about sums it up.

Yesterday morning, Smartz and I took a little trip to the Ballard Locks. She had read that there was a penny press on the premises and we decided to check it out for ourselves.

The locks’ main purpose is to facilitate boats going from Puget Sound to Lake Washington (which is higher in elevation). It also serves as a fish ladder for Salmon swimming upstream.

We parked the car and walked into the park. There was a bit of construction going on farther up and as we got about halfway there, a strange looking fellow came up to us and said in a sad voice [bad language ahead]:

I don’t mean to burst your bubble, but all that shit them mean fuckin’ faggots are doing – you won’t see no fish. Just a bunch of stupid boats.

He really did seem upset about this. I felt bad for him. He clearly wandered in here to see some fish swimming upstream, but instead just saw a bunch of stupid boats.

I’m not sure if he made it past the construction (which was easy enough to do), but we did. As we crossed the canal, we saw a harbor seal. Cute little devil. He was swimming around and sneezing. I saw a harbor seal sneeze! A lot! Adorable.

On the other side, we visited the fish ladder and saw a couple of fish doing their best against the current. Our friend was somewhat mistaken. it wasn’t the “fuckin’ faggots” doing things that caused the lack of fish. It simply wasn’t time for their migration. That was in August (mostly). I wanted to go find him and tell him that.

But whatever. We found the museum and gift shop, which were pretty ok. There was a short audio/visual program with some rocking 60s/70s documentary music being played over it and a few nice models. It did have a great explanation of the locks and of their construction.

A very fine morning.

Did I mention that I saw a harbor seal sneeze?!
I did!

Check out the pictures here!

Yesterday, Ryan, Smartz, the kids and I took a trip out to Issaquah, a small town just outside of Seattle. We hiked up Tiger Mountain, one of the Issquah Alps. It was a beautiful day and nice to get out of the city.

Don’t get me wrong, I absolutely love living in Seattle. Even though our neighborhood is the home of crack deals and hooker motels, it’s a great place. Ok, maybe not great. We don’t go out at night, but we really don’t feel threatened or anything.

Seattle offers a ton of great things to do. You’ve probably heard me go on and on about all of these things over and over. It’s got everything I could ever want. Except countryside.

My passion, as you might have guessed, is riding. I’ve got two scooters and both are incredibly fun to ride. Riding in the city is alright, it’s much better than driving. But riding in the countryside is where the true passion of my passion resides.

Living where we do, we’re basically city-locked (sort of like being land-locked). We’ve got a huge lake to the east, the Sound to the west, more city to the north and even more city to the south. Getting to the open road is no easy task from where we are.

The thought of living in the Issaquah area is an interesting one. Ryan and Jamie are thinking of that area as well. It would be nice to continue living near them. It would also be nice to be near the countryside. In any one of the many number of towns around Seattle, you’re right up against a mountain or near a river or waterfalls. There are rolling hills and farms, country roads and history.

Seattle is great. I love living here. But maybe living near Seattle would be even better.