Good morning everyone.
It’s 57F and sunny outside, with an expected high of 87F and “abundant” sunshine. Going to be a hot one!
Sari, I agree with others here; you need to go on with your plans, and your son can come along or not.
JtC, your sister is…something, alright. I’m sorry your mother has to continue to deal with that. You did the right thing by cracking open that beer.
We left the house around noon yesterday (later than I would have liked, but whatever) and took the long way around to Tacoma to visit Point Defiance Park and the zoo. Before going to the zoo, we drove down to the marina and ferry dock to Anthony’s Home Port and had lunch on the waterfront. We enjoyed the view of the ferry, the harbor seals swimming in the water, Puget Sound, Vashon Island, and the rest. After lunch, we drove to the zoo area of the park and wandered around the zoo and aquarium for a good while, checking out the exhibits. I also feel a sense of guilt when I see the animals at the zoo, especially on hot days like yesterday, but I know too that lots of zoos contribute to keeping species alive. The red wolf was one of those species. At one point, no red wolves were left in the wild, but Point Defiance had a breeding program that resulted in the release of the wolves back into the wild, and they have now grown in population. Still, I feel sad when I see the animals at the zoo. We sat and listened to an educational thing for a while, primarily geared toward kids, but we learned some stuff about some animals. The South Pacific Aquarium was closed for renovations, so we visited the Pacific Aquarium and enjoyed the top-down and underwater views. We also visited the Polar area and saw seals, walruses, and otters. We saw musk oxen as well. We saw other animals too, but fewer animals were at the zoo than when I was a kid. After traipsing around the zoo, we drove down to Owen’s Beach, which they had fixed up quite nicely, and enjoyed some more scenery there. This is where my husband and I first officially met, so we have some history there. After wandering down there and discovering you can rent kayaks and SUPs there, we got back in the car with the idea of driving around Five-Mile Drive, but it’s permanently closed to vehicles due to the erosion of the cliffs on the part of the drive. It’s a nice drive. I used to take my bike down there and ride it. Finally, we drove past old Fort Nisqually, an important fur trading and farming post of the Hudson’s Bay Company in the Puget Sound area, part of the Hudson’s Bay Company’s Columbia Department. It was located in what is now DuPont, Washington. The park is very nice, and I don’t know why I haven’t visited it more often. https://www.metroparkstacoma.org/place/point-defiance-park/
Once we were done at the park, we took the long way home, driving down along the waterfront before coming back up into town and then driving to my part of the county. We both had a very pleasant afternoon.
Polar was very happy to see us, but I saw “urp” again, where it looked like he drank too much water and threw it all up again. His snout was dirty too, so either he was in a panic looking for us, or he was trying to get at something else under the fence.
He didn’t throw up while we were home, so today is another keep an eye on him day.
I need to head to the Orange store for pavers under my storage box, but I’ll stick to the lighter 12X12 pavers. I need to level the ground, pack some gravel and sand, lay the pavers, and then have my husband help me assemble the box. It’ll be good to have a place to store my garden tools, so I don’t have to trudge back and forth between the garage and the backyard.
Time to get moving.
Can’t even miagine!
