Thursday night I met an old friend at Bahama Breeze, a tropical themed restaurant at 15700 Southcenter Pkwy, Tukwila, WA 98188. There are 30+ locations of the restaurant, but this is the only one on the West Coast. The food was very tasty and it was so nice to be able to catch up with my friend 😀
An evening event brought us to the Bellevue Hilton at 300 112th Ave SE  Bellevue, WA 98004. Its a nice hotel and they had delicious brownies 😀
The story goes that the fisherman fell in love with beautiful maiden, but alas she was turned into a fish (you know how that goes). Eventually they find one another for a joyful reunion and with a kiss she returns to her human form. This statue at Big Catch Plaza (the intersection of 7th Place S. and S. 219th St., near Albertsons in Des Moines) captures to reunion. There was some controversy when the piece was unveiled because the fish has a human female anatomy on top, right where her fisherman is holding on! The sculptor is Richard Beyer and the park, which was created because of a road realignment, was dedicated in 1994. Richard Beyer, who passed away in April 2012 also created, waiting for the Interurban in Fremont.
Dear daughter wanted to go to Seattle’s International District for her birthday this weekend and we wandered over to the International Children’s Park to have a time playing on the dragon, playing the drums and spinning. The park is located at 700 South Lane Street and was established n 1981. The dragon, which I climbed on and successfully got off of, was created by Gerard Tsutakawa. His father was also a sculptor and he design The Lily Statue in Lakewood.
I was delighted to see that the cherry trees in the park had begun to blossom!
Seattle’s Museum of History and Industry (MOHAI), 860 Terry Ave N, Seattle, WA 98109 in Lake Union Park.
It is impossible to walk around the new Museum of History and Industry without remembering something or learning something new. It is like a trip down memory lane! I went with a group and had lunch and heard a lector and got to explore the museum. At first blush the museum looks lovely, but not very full. But the opposite is true. There are a bunch of areas devoted to different themes all over the building. The 4th floor shows off the wonderful view and there is even a telescope! In addition there is a gift store and a cafe. It was a great time 😀
Some of the Seattle icon’s displayed include:
I was delighted by the musical presentation on the Great Seattle Fire of 1889. The museum is next to Seattle’s Wooden Boat Center, which is free and had the Foss Tugboat available for touring. The ship below wasn’t open when I went by, but I thought the light was lovely.
One of the best finds of the day was the parking lot, which is just on the other side of the trolly tracks. For $2 I could park for up to 9 hours! And while I didn’t do it this time, next time I might just take the trolly off somewhere!
The Theme of the ALA Midwinter is “The conversation starts here”. ALA takes place this weekend in the Washington State Convention Center in Seattle. I went up for the day to visit the zillion vendors (more or less) The first person I ran into was somebody that I know! Really there were a bunch of friends there and one long time Facebook, AAUW friend that I got to meet face to face 🙂 And while there were a plethora of phones and tablets, there was also a great deal of discussion. And the vendors were friendly and had excellent freebies! I was particularly interested in learning that Gaylord was promoting Little Free Libraries “Libraries Big & Small We <3 Them All!” I put my name in to win a premade little library structure. While there I also snapped a photo of some of the art, the view and the ALA poster that my daughter (via phone) insisted I purchase.
The way cool Hat ‘n Boots Roadside American Art is located in Oxbow Park in the Georgetown Neighborhood of Seattle. Oxbow Park was created in 2003 and at the end of that month, Hat ‘n Boots were installed there. The art was fully installed by the middle of 2005. The art was originally part of a cowboy themed gas station, “Premium Tex”, that was built in 1954. The hat was over the gas station office and the boots were the restrooms (black for the guys and blue for the girls). The station closed in 1988 and fell into disrepair.
The park also includes a community garden, a children’s play area, some nice artistic touches and grassy picnic areas. It was pretty busy on this cold and foggy Saturday.
Update 2/13 there is a model of the Hat ‘N Boots at Seattle’s Museum of History and Industry. 
When dear daughter was in middle school, she didn’t want to go anywhere with her parents. The idea of going up to Seattle was abhorrent to her, but we dragged her along anyway. We stopped at Uwajimaya and the Kinokuniya Bookstore (525 S Weller St
Seattle, WA 98104) and she fell for it — hard. Ever since we have been visiting Seattle’s International District at least once a quarter. Today, my now happy travel companion and I went up to Uwajimaya because we were having an udon craving. We can’t go to Uwajimaya without buying those little chocolate mushroom cookie treats and visiting Kinokuniya. She walked away with a present for her friend, a manga and a CD. The store is packed with manga and all types of traditional, Japanese language books (novels, cookbooks, art, history, etc.). We found both The Hobbit and 50 Shades of Grey in Japanese! There is also a large music selection and plenty of adorable stuffed animals, toys, t-shirts, stickers, pens and miscellaneous. Parking is free for up to two hours with store validation. http://www.kinokuniya.com/us/
By the way, when we got home… she thanked me for taking her!
Continuing my art month, I made a point to find art while visiting Woodinville today. The .62 acre DeYoung Park is located in Woodinville’s Town Center across the street from Molbak’s. It is known for hosting public events and features picnic tables under what is undoubtedly lovely in the spring wisteria.
The park’s statue which features a woman gardening with a dog by her side is titled Gardener. It was created by Georgia Gerber and installed in 2005. Ms. Gerber has an amazing portfolio of statues including the famous Rachel the Pig at Pike Place Market in Seattle. http://www.georgiagerber.com/
I go to Molbak’s at 13625 NE 175th St., Woodinville, WA 98072 whenever I’m in Woodinville, which isn’t all that often. It is one of the largest nurseries in the Puget Sound with indoor and outdoor areas, gifts and a cafe.
http://www.molbaks.com/