Welcome to The Fat Ass Dad’s Weight Loss Challenge….

September 4, 2014September 4, 2014 ~ K ~ 10 Comments

Welcome to The Fat Ass Dad’s Weight Loss Challenge

Yes, I’ve decided to drop some weight before our family’s trip to Maui in February 2015. Now, I know you are like Cyndi (My Imaginary Stalker) and think I look awesome all the time. It’s true; I do look fantastic. Sure, I’m now a bit older and I have a few extra pounds around my gut (SNL Middle Age Man Skit “You’re staring at my gut, aren’t you? I’m working on it”). However, let’s be realistic; we all need to get into better shape. I know everyone admires my huge arms, my broad shoulders, my beautiful smile, my charming wit, and my slick bald head. Yet, my big fat belly doesn’t do the rest of me justice. It needs to go.

Last Christmas, my friend and I noticed we both had risen to new heights on the bathroom scale. I think after the holidays I tipped in at 240 lbs. I skipped the Five Stages of Grief and did a little something about it. I dropped my weight down to 225. However, last summer (July 2013), I was 213 lbs. Currently, I’m coming in at 226 lbs. My goal is 200-205 lbs. by the time I walk on that plane for Maui in February. I want to wear that neon green speedo on the beaches of Maui and embarrass my kids. Did I just make you puke it your mouth a bit with that visual? Good….

I’m putting it out there. I now have published my goal weight on my blog for Cyndi and my three other followers to read about. Don’t worry; my wife doesn’t read my blog so she doesn’t even care if I publish it. She would probably like it that I now have Cyndi and three followers holding me accountable. Heaven help me.

So where does the Fat Ass Dad’s Weight Loss Challenge come in? Over the past nine months (and years), a few of my friends have all talked about losing weight, eating better, drinking less. I decided it is time for the rubber to meet the road. I went ahead and challenged (invited) them to stop talking and do something about it.

The Rules:

There are no rules and we don’t talk about….just kidding, you have to have a Fight Club reference, right?

We have a $40 buy in so basically I’ll be winning $160 in February. They have no self-control. It will be easy money. (This is called trash talking and it is what men do to each other to encourage them). I also plan to sabotage their efforts with pizzas and beer.

I’ll give them false hope by saying things like:

“One more beer won’t hurt.”

“A bucket of hot wings isn’t that bad.”

“Man, you are looking trim. You got this contest in the bag…here, have another piece of cheesecake.”

The Weigh In (Start Weight) is an honor one. We have told each other our starting weight and our goal weight. I set the official end date of February 16, 2015. As you know, my start weight is 226 with a goal of at least 205 but I’d like 200. I have to crush it and take it all.

I’ll maybe give you a progress report once in a while. I don’t want to tip my hand to the other losers involved.

Your comments, exercise tips, healthy snack tips, are welcome. You can also post your weight loss stories if you like. And if you have any extremely bad weight gaining recipes, send them over too. I’ll change the title and send it to the rest of the Fat Ass Dads and tell them it is a low fat recipe.

Labor Day Weekend – Goodbye Summer and Hello 9 month of Gray Skies!

August 30, 2014 ~ K ~ 1 Comment

As you can tell, Labor Day Weekend is bittersweet for me. It marks the end of summer for both my children and me. No more midweek sleepovers for my daughter, no more sleeping in late for my teenage son, no more weekend outdoor parties, no more me staying up late reading novels: it is all gone after this long three day weekend. Gone like all my hopes and dreams. Sadly, it is back to reality: We will hold hands, lift our chins high, and head back into the regular schedule of school life. We will forget all the fun of summer and instead welcome the cool embrace of autumn.

To be clear, the regular schedule of school life has already started. The kids went back to school this past Thursday. I still don’t know why our school district thinks it is a smart idea to go to school for two days, then have the Labor Day. Do the kids learn anything for the first two days?

I even cracked the door to my office, sat at my desk, and did some work as well. The cat took her usual stop and sat by my keyboard. Yes, everything is back to the normal school life schedule of our family.

Fondly, I look back at summer and wonder where the time went. It seemed like yesterday I was on the steps on the Lincoln Memorial in Washington D.C., taking photographs, and enjoy the sunshine. Please, take a moment and shed a tear.

Now, all I have to look forward to is the upcoming schedule of work and nine months of gray skies. My friends (that live in states that see the sun) always ask: “How can you live in Seattle with all the gray skies and rain? Don’t you want to kill yourself?”

Anyone from Seattle has the same answer: “Well, the summers are really nice.”

That’s it. That is the only good answer.

Well, maybe there is a little more to it than that. We have mild winters with no real crazy bad snow storms. We don’t have a huge bug problem like other places. When it is sunny, it is beautiful around here. On a clear day, we can even see Mt. Rainier while we are stuck in traffic on southbound Interstate 5.

Side Note: Traffic around here sucks. It doesn’t matter if it is a rainy day or a nice clear sunny day; some nitwit will crash into another person and cause a 9 mile back up on the interstate. Nothing says Seattle rocks like crawling along an interstate highway in the rain.

Good bye summer, I’ll miss you!

As always, I need your comments to make my existence worthwhile. What are you going to miss most about summer? Do you have any plans for Labor Day?

Washington D.C. Trip – 2014 – Vacation Mode and Lost Time….

July 29, 2014 ~ K ~ 6 Comments

As always, just hit the “like” button below. Boost my self-esteem while you can.

As you can tell from my posting pattern, I’ve taken the summer off. In Washington State, the kids don’t get out of school until June 19th or 20th so I’m usually still in a work mode when they get out of school. I’m usually trying to finish up a few jobs and I really don’t get my “vacation mode” on until July. This time, July did start and I was out of work mode but not into my “full vacation mode”. I’m in a limbo mode of where I think I can do a billion things, yet in reality my vacation mode will kill all hope of accomplishing any work.

This limbo mode of thought results in me having the misguided notion that I will accomplish more than is really possible. For example, I thought my office would be cleaned by now (it’s not), and my yard projects would be done (they aren’t). I have a whole summer to do things; yet I don’t.

What is a person to do when this happens? Clearly, take a vacation! You need to decompress (as least I do) and get into vacation mode.

This vacation, I took a trip to Washington DC with my 15 year old son Hayden and meet up with my cousin Stephen for four days. That was on the 4th of July and that was a fun way to spend the 4th of July. We did all the memorials; we ended up renting a car only because I had to take a side trip to Charlottesville, VA (home of UVA) to visit a friend and his family. I did notice that people on the East Coast don’t seem to know how to use their blinker on their car when they are going from one lane to another. As you know, my mind reading skills are poor to none. So when you don’t use a turn indictor (your blinker), I get annoyed to say the least.

The weather in DC wasn’t bad at all. Sure, it was hot 93 degrees but the humidity wasn’t bad. Nothing worse than Hawaii and I didn’t feel like I was overheating and about to die. The museums are great and it is easy to get around DC either by subway or walking. We stayed in the Georgetown area and had a Trader Joe’s right by our condo we stayed at. We were also a few blocks from Watergate. Lots of history right at our doorstep.

I’ve also just finished Netflix’s “House of Cards” with Kevin Spacey. It makes it a little more interesting watching the first season, visiting DC, and then watching the second season upon my return to Seattle.

Personally, I just love the architecture of the East Coast cities and countryside. Compare to Washington State, everything is old. As long as it isn’t falling down on me; I like it. I’m that tourist guy that takes photos of row houses and brownstones. I imagine being a famous novelist and living in them; soaking up the city around me. Then I trip over the uneven sidewalk and reality sets back in.

Two things I regret is not researching (or remembering certain things about congress, our capital, general US history, etc.) and not going through my blogger/reading list to see who lived in the East Coast. I would have loved to meet some of the bloggers I follow. Oh well, maybe the next trip.

Other sarcastic observations: Women (teenage girls, overweight women, older ladies, sexy stripper types, moms, teenage daughters) seem to wear short “shorts”. In Washington State (where we don’t see the sun), we hardy see the short “shorts”. In fact, we have been having a heat wave for the past four weeks with gorgeous weather (except for two days last week full of rain) so I have been observing no short “shorts” on women like the East Coast.

I also may not hang out in a lot of tourist areas in Seattle. Well, to be honest, I hardy get out of my cul-de-sac and never visit the beaches of Seattle. Yes, we do have beaches here, and lakes, and rivers, and outdoor swimming pools. We just go swimming in the months of July, August, and September.

Anyway, I’ll post more (in a mad dash to get something posted in July 2014) for you in the next few days (or hours).

Day 5: Dad & Daughter Roller Coaster Adventure Trip

April 19, 2014 ~ K ~ 3 Comments

Day 5 Knott’s Berry Farm: Danger and Excitement in the streets of Buena Park!
If you have the time, hit the “like” button and help keep my fragile ego intact…thanks.
Of all my trips to Southern California, I have never been to Knott’s Berry Farm until this past February trip with my daughter on our Dad and Daughter Roller Coaster Adventure Trip. I was really looking forward to visiting Knott’s because it was another unknown roller coaster destination for us. We have been to Disneyland, Sea World, Universal Studios, LEGOLAND, but Knott’s was a new park with new rides for us. Nothing like trying something new, right?

I was warned that Buena Park is a bit of a ghetto. It turned out to be fine. No knife fights, no gun battles as I parked my rental car. I was a little bit disappointed since a few friends had hyped up the danger factor.

As I have written before (for those of you that actually pretend to read my blog), my daughter (age 11) is the only one in my family that enjoys the roller coaster and thrill rides so many amusement parks offer. She does rides that would have freaked me out at her age if I were here. I guess I’m glad I’m not 11 again. She also sings and acts in the school play, so in reality she is a lot braver than me at age 11.
There are certain pros and cons with doing this trip in February during my daughter’s Mid-Winter Break (week long break). Pro: We get out of the rain, doom and gloom, and gray skies of Seattle for the sunshine of southern California. Con: The amusement parks are on limited hours and limited operating days. For example, Knott’s Berry Farm was open all week but hours were 10 am to 6 pm. Pro: Knott’s had a special half price admission for Breast Cancer. Another Pro: Short lines for the rides; not crowded at all.

The one long wait we encountered was for Knott’s Ghostrider wooden roller coaster. I’m not the biggest fan of wooden coasters and if I had a choice between wooden and metal, I’d go with metal hands down. However, we had to do Ghostrider since we were at Knott’s Berry Farm and it did not disappoint. That sucker is one fast roller coaster and from their website, you hit 3.14 G-force on that baby. We did have to wait about 35-45 minutes and I lost my hat (from Anderson Island) but it was fun.
In hindsight, we did Ghostrider right when the park opened and that is probably why the line was so long. We should have waited and gone to something else, let the line die down, and then double back to it. The rest of the time, all the wait times were 3-7 minutes. We often would go on a ride, have a great time, and then do the ride over again since we were right there. It was truly wonderful not to have to stand in line for hours to ride a two minute thrill ride. This is how I wish it was like every time I went to an amusement park.
We also managed to have our traditional ice cream lunch. This whole vacation was “chocolate mint ice cream” for lunch. Oops. Bad Parenting but who cares? It’s a vacation!
Another upside to vacation: No one really annoyed me at all during my vacation trip. Isn’t that amazing? Knott’s Berry Farm turned out to be a great value for the money spent: short lines and great rides. I do recommend you visit it. I suspect in the summer it will be a mad house.
Thanks again for wasting your time reading my worthless advice blog. As always your comments are needed so my fragile ego can stay intact and I can live in a state of bliss.

Chocolate Chip Mint Ice Cream for lunch...because I'm a great parent. — Chocolate Chip Mint Ice Cream for lunch…because I’m a great parent.

Daughter Roller Coaster Trip Day 4: City of Ventura, Calabasas, and Santa Monica Pier

April 18, 2014April 19, 2014 ~ K ~ Leave a comment

Roller Coaster Trip Day 4

Day 4 of our Roller Coaster Adventure Trip was spent sleeping in (until 8 am) and relaxing. Even in vacation mode, I don’t sleep in. Sleeping in until 8 am is a big deal for me. Please keep in mind, we hit two amusement parks in two days and needed a bit of a break from our adventures in California. Instead of a roller coaster amusement park on Tuesday, we went to the beach in the City of Ventura, had ice cream for lunch, and then met up with my old college friend Julie and her twin three year old sons in Calabasas, California.

Even in California, people love the Seattle Seahawks.

This is the first time we have had a chance to meet her twin sons. She is married to my other friend Chris who happened to be out of town working. I’m pretty sure he planned to be out of town on purpose. Chris likes to mess with my head that way.

I do miss that age of youth and discovery with three year old kids. Julie thought that was amusing because sometimes her boys drive her nuts. But honestly, what kids don’t drive their parents a little bit nuts once in a while. My kids drive me nuts all the time. The dog and cat drive me nuts. Heck, I think you have figure out by now that everyone and everything drives me nuts. But I love people, really, I do love them.

Time flies by and it was fun to have a glimpse of the past (when my kids were younger) and I enjoy the three year old twins. We had a great time with Duplos. I discover that I am by far still a lot better at building than some twin crazy three old boys. Ah ha! Old age wins again!

Now, you know what doesn’t drive me nuts? This whole Dad and Daughter Roller Coaster Trip! One of my clients mentioned he did a Dad and Daughter trip and had an awesome time with his daughter to Disneyland. It inspired me to do this trip. I was delighted that I could take my daughter (the only one that really enjoys roller coasters and scary rides) on this trip. I finally had someone in my family that wanted to do the rides with me! I’m selfishly happy she is now 11 years old and likes to ride the scary rides. Roller coasters all the way, everyday!

On a brief side note: She has always loved those scary amusement rides since she was a little toddler. For the past two summers, as a family we have gone to Silverwood Amusement Park in Idaho, and she is my thrill ride partner. Silverwood is very affordable and well worth the visit to Idaho if you have the time, that’s my worthless advice for northwest amusement parks.

Ok, back to California and our roller coaster adventure. Julie and I and figured out earlier that we wanted to go to Santa Monica Pier and have dinner down there. We rode the Ferris wheel with the kids, spent some time in the arcade, and had a great pizza dinner. We had a great time (well, at least I had an awesome time!). I forgot how much I miss my friends that have moved out of Washington State. This dinner and catch up session was well worth the flight to California. Plus anytime I can tell other parents how to be a better parent (because I’m an awesome parent role model and everyone wants to learn from the master of worthless parenting advice…..that’s me by the way).

The twins...one is a bit of a worse driver than the other one. — The twins…one is a bit of a worse driver than the other one.

I liked Paradise Park on Santa Monica Pier. Besides it being a bit windy and cold that evening, the Santa Monica Pier was fun to visit. It has a small amusement ride area, a boardwalk with shops, an arcade, and some food booths. It only has a few homeless people to bother you as you walk around; not too different from over beach towns we have been too. Nothing like the warmth of Southern California to keep you in a reality check of everyday life, am I not speaking the truth?

Overall, Day 4 was a great day to relax and catch our breath. Day 5: Knott’s Berry Farm!

Thanks for reading and pretending to care.

Artwork by the twins….

A drawing by Erb boys. Thank goodness they got the hair on the side of my head correct!

Things to Demotivate You….

April 17, 2014 ~ K ~ 6 Comments

Sigh. It is hard to keep motivated when you have a blog about worthless advice. I find myself distracted by all the happiness and goodness of the world. Once in a while, there is some stupid financial advice you can cling to to Demotivate you. My favorite: Make more money and spend less. Whoa. Heart stopping advice.

Facebook doesn’t help either. People are always updating their Facebook status with “I’m having a great time with my family on our trip to Maui”. Or “I just won $300 at the casino and I’m currently up $600”. No one admits they have just lost their kid’s college fund (if they even bother to start one). No one says they hate their overbearing uncle during the family reunion on Kauai. I thought you were suppose to over share on Facebook? Isn’t that what your Facebook friends want?

You don’t want to be happy all the time. You want to get upset and be angry. Oh, does that offend you when I say something like that? Should I be happy all the time and have positive thoughts all the time? Should I shrug my shoulders up and say “Oh Well” when there is a school yard shooting? Should I not be angry when there is injustice in the world?

You can’t be positive all the time. There are times when you won’t be happy. I know I won’t be a billionaire in my chosen career path. The numbers just don’t support it. I can make a very comfortable living but I won’t be flying on a private jet from photo session to photo session. That doesn’t upset me. I’m ok with that.

I do wish I was a better blogger and a better writer. I wish I could have the dedication to sit down between my other projects and write a bestselling novel. However, I accept the fact I’m lazy and making excuses for not doing the things I should be doing or the things I want to do. I own my failures and understand that in their own twisted way they help to motivate me.

I’m sorry, I’m suppose to be talking about demotivating you, not helping you! Silly me, trying to better the world through my logical thought process. If something is really important to you, then you should do them. Unless it is a meth habit, you shouldn’t do it. Highly addictive and it will cause you to make bad choices. Most of the time, you hurt your family and friends. Hmm, maybe you shouldn’t do what you want, right?

I want to run my car into the stupid driver in front of me but I don’t. I want to sleep in but I get my butt up and work. I’ll work late to catch up when I fall behind. I don’t get to do whatever I want because I’m a responsible adult with grown up bills to pay. Sigh. Now, I’m feeling more demotivated. I’m glad I was about to work though this “up and happy” moment.

Back to life and reality!! To the freeways!

Winthorp, WA: Land of Sun!

April 6, 2014 ~ K ~ 3 Comments

Sure, it is Sunday and sunny here in Winthorp but it isn’t blazing hot. We have blue skies and temperatures in the upper 50’s and low 60’s. For people from the Seattle area, blue skies is great and something we treasure. I’m a sucker for blue skies, what can I say?

Winthorp is a cute little town on Highway 20. The pass is closed for the winter and won’t open until May. We took the long way here but it was a fun drive. We even stopped at WalMart in Wenatchee. Sadly, I left my phone in the car and I wasn’t able to photograph the people of WalMart for you. Seriously, I wasn’t disappointed when we got in there. My wife had to tell me to stop staring at the mom with tattoos and inappropriate short jean shorts that were way too tight. I know her son will grown up to be so proud of his mom one day!

Getting back to Winthorp, the Mrs. Worthless Advice and I are hanging out here for a long weekend. The town of Winthorp is a little sleepy this time of year but for us, we just needed a nice break and this is perfect. We have a good little two bedroom cabin on the Chewuch River at the River’s Edge Resort. The deck overlooks the river and features a refreshing hot tub. And it is sunny (have I mentioned that??)

I’ll write more later, in the meantime have a great Sunday!

It’s a Thursday and I want my Weekend to Start now!

April 3, 2014 ~ K ~ 12 Comments

It is April and I have been too busy thinking of worthwhile advice to make any good worthless advice posts. It is a tough business thinking up worthless advice for my four followers to read about. Yes, I picked up a new follower today so I’m pretty sure I’m up to four people that follow me.

Now, Cyndi (my imaginary stalker) is by far my favorite. She loves everything I write and this does wonders for my fragile ego. Heck, I need all the pats on the back I can get. Blogging is a really tough gig, as you all know. My lack of posting on a regular doesn’t help to make my blog anymore popular either.

So I’ll be offering you the best worthless advice this coming month! Maybe we can talk about taxes, school photos, health insurance? What is more worthless than my advice (besides my travel tips)?

As always your comments are needed to keep my feelings from being hurt. Pretend you read me every day!
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Dad & Daughter Roller Coaster Trip Day 3: Magic Mountain

March 19, 2014March 19, 2014 ~ K ~ 2 Comments

X2 roller coaster - Flickr photo — X2 roller coaster – Flickr photo

You knew I’d milk this roller coaster trip on forever in my blog posts didn’t you? On our third day of our adventure, we bid farewell to the City of Sacramento and flew on Southwest Airlines to Burbank Airport in the Los Angeles area. I do like flying into the smaller airports because it is easier to get in and out in a timely manner. Both Alaska Airlines and Southwest Airlines flew into Burbank Airport so this worked out well for us since our return flight back to Seattle was departing from Burbank.When I was planning this trip, I wanted to fly in as close as I could to Six Flag’s Magic Mountain Park and Burbank was the closest major airport for me. My original plan was to fly into Sacramento, rent a car, visit friends in the Sacramento area, do the Six Flag’s Discovery Park, and then drive to Magic Mountain. That plan fell apart when the cheapest rate I could find on any rental car website or kayak or hotwire or anything was close to $800 for a short five or six day rental. It was expensive due to the fact I was picking the rental car up in one city and returning it in another. My original plan also produced a lot more driving and car time that we wanted to do. We are vacation for the rides not to be taken for a ride by the rental car companies.

We used Fox Rent a Car which had some terrible reviews online but we fine for us. It was a short ride from the airport to the rental car company base. We got a sporty little four door Mazda 2 with only 500 miles on it. Not a bad little car for the two of us. I thought about having my daughter drive it but considering she is only 11 years old and it would be her first time in LA traffic, I decided against it.

Now, when you are visiting amusement parks in February Six Flag’s system of parks might not be open seven days a week. So our only window to visit Magic Mountain was on Monday February 17 (President’s Day). The park hours are limited as well from 10:30 am to 6 pm and the water rides are usually shut down.

Since we had purchased season passes at Discovery Kingdom the day before, we merely had to park our car for the outrageous sum of $20 and walk though the main gates of Magic Mountain without purchasing new tickets. I remember passing by Magic Mountain 20 years ago thinking I’d get to it one day. Finally, this day had come. Finally, I had a kid who wanted to ride the big scary rides. Finally, I had a roller coaster ride partner that wouldn’t wimp out on me. I was finally here.

To be honest, I like coming on the off season because the lines are much shorter. The newer rides had the longest rides which ate up a lot of our time. X2 is the latest redesigned ride and it was awesome but the line took forever. When a sign says the wait will be 45 minutes, that is OK. When it turns into 75 minutes, then I get a little pissed off. We didn’t make it to the Full Throttle ride because we ran out of time and the ride looked scary long. In fact, we had to skip some rides due to running out of time and having to ration our time for the rides that we heard were awesome. However, on others we rode it three times just because we could. Goliath, Tatsu, and X2 were my favorites. I tried to look up my daughter’s favorite ride but the Magic Mountain website is down (sorry folks!).

Waiting for X2 - almost there! — Waiting for X2 – almost there!

Definitely need to have two days at Magic Mountain (even in the off season) to get to all the rides into your schedule. I can’t imagine how it is on a busy summer day with more people wandering the park, trying to get in as much as possible. The lines have to be almost impossible. We didn’t even get to the wooden roller coasters since they aren’t my favorites because we ran out of time. Personally, I like the speed and loops of steel roller coasters so skipping the wooden ones wasn’t an issue for me.

As anyways, your comments and sarcastic witty comments are welcome.

How to Lose Your Girl Scout Troop in Seattle

March 16, 2014March 16, 2014 ~ K ~ 3 Comments

Girl Scout Adventure to the Smith Tower and MOHAI!

Excuse any mistakes….this blog is from my phone!

On Friday, our Girl Scout Trip had a little adventure to the Smith Tower located in the Pioneer Square neighborhood of Seattle via the Sound Transit’s light rail train. All eight of our Girl Scouts showed up for the trip to the top of Smith Tower and the Chinese Room.

We were able to catch the light rail train from the Tukwila station directly to the Pioneer Square neighborhood where the famous Smith Tower (42 stories tall and at one time the tallest skyscraper west of the Mississippi River) is located. Being from the South King County city of Kent, we have quite a few options to get into Seattle. Instead of driving on Friday morning, we took Sound Transit’s light rail train into Seattle.

My son also came along so we had a total of 12 people on this outing: 8 Girl Scouts, one Boy Scout, and three adults. If anyone is keeping track or needs to plan a trip into Seattle, I’ll be giving you costs for each of travel legs. One of our scouts met us there so our train fare was $34 for our group of 11 people.

Smith Tower is the only place in the Seattle area that has elevator operators. The elevators are staffed by actual human beings that will take you to the observation floor of Smith Tower from the beautiful lobby. The doors on each floor and the elevator’s doors are glass. This allows you and your fellow passengers the treat of seeing each floor as you pass by as you race to the top.

Cost on this part of the trip was lower than normal because Groupon had a deal for four tickets for $14.99. We used three Groupon certificates for the group of 12 we had.

The Smith Tower offers an excellent view to the south, southeast, and southwest of it. The industrial area lays to the south and I-5 freeway to the east. You can see the downtown Seattle business core to the north plus other landmarks like the Space Needle, CenturyLink Field, Safeco Field, and the cranes on the Port of Seattle waterfront. If you have time, you can watch the Washington State Ferries come and go into and back out of Coleman Dock. While the weather wasn’t too clear for us on Friday, I’m sure on a sunny day with blue skies, Mt. Rainier would be visible.

After we had explored the 35th floor observation deck, we descended back down to lobby and returned to the metro tunnel to catch another link rail train to the Westlake Mall area. The transit tunnel was built roughly 25-30 years for buses with the idea that it would one day have trains running through it. Currently, our transit tunnel allows both the light rail trains and buses to run through it and is handy when you know where you want to go.

We got back in the light rail train and rode the it to Westlake, got off and had lunch at the food court. To keep costs down, we had the girls bring a sack lunch. However, there is a small selection of restaurants and smoothie stands in the food court to choose from. The dining area is clean and well lit. Lots of places to eat at and we just made it in before the big lunch rush.

We then went back down to street level and caught the South Lake Union Streetcar north to The Museum of History and Industry (MOHAI). The Seattle Streetcar is different from the Sound Transit Light Rail system. The street car is run by King Country Metro which is our local county transit authority and the light rail train system is run by Sound Transit, our regional transit system. Confused? I bet. If you live in the area and travel on both frequently you may want to purchase an ORCA pass. However, for a short day trip, we opted to pay the general fair for the ride. Your ticket is good for the ride and you have a two hour transfer that you can use for the return trip. Cost for the streetcar is $2.50 for adults and $1.25 for youth. You can purchase tickets at the kiosk at each stop and on board the streetcar.

One problem I noticed is that the ticket kiosk is designed for you to purchase one ticket at a time. Not a big hassle until you have to purchase 12 tickets and you have to do it one at a time. One of the moms and I spent half the ride purchasing the tickets for all 12 of us. At one point I was tempted to skip it but what kind of example does that set?

We finally made it to the MOHAI and the weather had turned to sunshine. It was a marvelous sunny day in Seattle and one that makes you love Seattle. MOHAI is a beautiful museum and offers so much of the way of Seattle’s history. It moved to this location a year or two ago and it is well thought out. I wasn’t able to finish the whole museum myself. The nice part about the MOHAI is the cost is free for kids under 14. It is pricey for adults at $14 each. Of course they offer a teacher rate and senior rate as well. Luckily for us, I had planned ahead and asked the parents to look for Entertainment Book coupons and we got the four adults in for $24. Not a bad price for a group of 12!!

Our age for our Girl Scout troop is 11-12 years and this seems like a prefect age for the MOHAI. They were busy but not bored. Again, I could have spent a few more hours reading and enjoying the museum. I didn’t get to finish the whole thing but I definitely give it a thumbs up!! My favorite display was the Great Seattle Fire display. It has a little show you can watch and enjoy. Quite well thought out and keeps all ages entertained.

After we finished up there, we headed back home. You would have thought I planned it perfectly because as soon as we walked to the streetcar stop the streetcar was arriving. We hopped onto it and rode it back to Westlake Center. Then we went straight to the light rail stop and waited a few moments for the light rail and hopped on that. A quick fun ride back on the light rail to the Tukwila station and we were almost home.

Now before we left the Tukwila light rail station we had to park in the parking lot which doesn’t have enough parking for the ridership this station produces. They do have a special parking section that is marked S.O.V. Permit parking from 6 am to 10 am. I’m not sure what or who S.O.V parking is but we used two of their spots. The rest of the time it is open to general parking. We had arrived at 9:20 am and parked there. My troop moms were worried about their cars getting towed but our cars were there when we returned. For forty minutes, we were breaking the rules but it did work out in the end. No cars or cats were towed and I didn’t have to pay to get two vehicles out of the impound lot.