Yesterday, tio and Karen went to the first day of the Washington Open chess tournament in Seattle. It was my first time in Seattle since I'd arrived and gosh, crossing the enormous
Lake Washington is something impressive. It is so beautiful and you just see hills of trees and houses dotting them here and there and to the side a few skyscrapers. The people have tried to limit the number of tall buildings there because they are trying to preserve the lovely view for all the homes near the lake. So tia, Sara, and I only went to Seattle to catch tio and Karen on their break in between games; they play 2 games per day, the maximum time they can spend on each game, get this....is 6 hours!!! So we caught them on their break (Karen was actually still playing) so we sat with tio while he ate his lunch. After Karen was done, she only had a 30 min break before her next game. But she was ready to take on the next game! So as soon as they started the next game, tia, Sara and I headed off back to our side of town. We got to downtown Kirkland and ate lunch in what is supposed to be Seattle's smallest full-service restaurant. Very delicious hamburgers.....mmmm!! After that, we all walked around downtown and looked at the different shops that were there. Next to some shops was a mini-gallery and we went in and were greeted by the most life-like wax statues ever! One was more like a crossguard and the other a well-dressed butler. Amazingly real....it was funny b/c it took us a few seconds to think whether or not we were going to say 'hi' to them. Hehe.
Then we kept walking and got to the Kirk park and Sara played around while tia and I sat and talked. It was such a gorgeous day...and it was so much fun to see so many different types of green trees! I only know that these types of trees exist b/c I've read about them. There were the cutest kids on the playground too. One particular boy was actually quite formally dressed for a playground. He was wearing a brown tweed jacket (even with the black patches on the elbows!) and khaki pants and nice brown boots. He was so cute...he looked like a mini-professor. Anyhoo, he was having fun shoveling the wood chips in the playground into his little yellow pail. Later another child sees him and after the mini-professor's mother approved, starts helping put the wood chips into the pail as well. The children at this park seem to be exceptionally helpful because before I knew it there were almost 4 children helping this little boy fill his pail. He didn't know English, from what I gather, him and his mother are Russian. So later, when one of the children wanted to help with something, she would speak to her boy in Russian and then the boy would act accordingly. Later a siren was heard as a fire engine passed by and he started excitedly yelling what must be "fire engine" in Russian.
So then the girls and I walked a little bit more and then headed back to the car. What a work-out! We were all so tired by the time we got home! But we had such a nice time! Later Karen and tio got home and told us about their games and then before we headed off to bed Karen and I played against tio at the foosball table. So he won the first game....then we asked for revenge and he suggested he use only one hand and had us pick which one. So he played against us with only his left hand.....................................and won again. Then he played us with his right hand and won again.....you can imagine how upset Karen and I were at such a loss...yet I think we were both secretly cheering him on...he is good at this game and it's fun to watch how he does it so tactfully! Well...we nonetheless felt quite competitive and asked for one more game with both hands (I don't know why we tried this last one with both)....but either he was tired or we were way too determined to win...we were tied almost the whole way through (yes, the other games we lost by either half or most of the points). In the end, my phone rang and I believe tio gave us the point b/c he helped the last point in. So we won...but technically I don't think it was over. Maybe we'll ask for another round...but before then I must practice!!!! There is a foosball table at work...I must try and see if I can find some regular buddies I can get some practice with. Huckleberry Finn.
Well today they were off again to the tournament and us girls took it easy in the morning and built with the magnetics what was supposed to be a cable bridge like the Golden Gate...well...it had the cables. :D We build the road first and it was rather long...and then we
started the pillars but as we went we had to shorten the road to build them and then by the time we got the cables going, the road had been reduced to half its original size. Well, it didn't end up looking half so bad. After all, we did it using the photo the box provided...mind you, it didn't show different angles, just one. So you can imagine we had fun trying to guess how many more sticks to put and magnetic balls. Well, it's still standing in the living room...we're not letting the dogs get to it at least for a while. It took us long enough to build!
Then we watched the Emperor's New Groove on tv and then got all showered and ready to hit the town again. We went all around the nearby lake in the car b/c we were dressed up nice for church, which we were going to around 6. It was amazing!!! Such a gorgeous drive and the houses right by the lake were amazingly huge and neat! As we got to the other end of the lake, we stopped by Red Robin to get some early dinner before Mass. After that we went to Mass.
After Mass we went home and had some ice cream despite the cold and drizzly day it had been today (yesterday was mostly sunny actually). And then Sara and I had fun watching tia prepare us coconut. Yes a real coconut! It was fun. I didn't realize all the steps one had to go through before actually breaking it open. Coconuts can be so fun...they look so funny. Anyhoo, tia got it all ready after quite a bit of hammering...yes to open it requires hardware tools! Then we had some slices with chile and limon. Yummmy.
So now, we are getting ready to have tio and Karen back from another long day of chess. They are true chess players b/c they do it for love of the game. They find it relaxing to sit all that time at a game...it's refreshing for them. And it makes sense, b/c then you can't think of any work or homework or whatnot while you're playing. You just get to think about the game. It's a good getaway when you think of it that way.
Well, I hope you are having a lovely day! Have a good Memorial day!!! Love you!
Lake Washington is something impressive. It is so beautiful and you just see hills of trees and houses dotting them here and there and to the side a few skyscrapers. The people have tried to limit the number of tall buildings there because they are trying to preserve the lovely view for all the homes near the lake. So tia, Sara, and I only went to Seattle to catch tio and Karen on their break in between games; they play 2 games per day, the maximum time they can spend on each game, get this....is 6 hours!!! So we caught them on their break (Karen was actually still playing) so we sat with tio while he ate his lunch. After Karen was done, she only had a 30 min break before her next game. But she was ready to take on the next game! So as soon as they started the next game, tia, Sara and I headed off back to our side of town. We got to downtown Kirkland and ate lunch in what is supposed to be Seattle's smallest full-service restaurant. Very delicious hamburgers.....mmmm!! After that, we all walked around downtown and looked at the different shops that were there. Next to some shops was a mini-gallery and we went in and were greeted by the most life-like wax statues ever! One was more like a crossguard and the other a well-dressed butler. Amazingly real....it was funny b/c it took us a few seconds to think whether or not we were going to say 'hi' to them. Hehe.Then we kept walking and got to the Kirk park and Sara played around while tia and I sat and talked. It was such a gorgeous day...and it was so much fun to see so many different types of green trees! I only know that these types of trees exist b/c I've read about them. There were the cutest kids on the playground too. One particular boy was actually quite formally dressed for a playground. He was wearing a brown tweed jacket (even with the black patches on the elbows!) and khaki pants and nice brown boots. He was so cute...he looked like a mini-professor. Anyhoo, he was having fun shoveling the wood chips in the playground into his little yellow pail. Later another child sees him and after the mini-professor's mother approved, starts helping put the wood chips into the pail as well. The children at this park seem to be exceptionally helpful because before I knew it there were almost 4 children helping this little boy fill his pail. He didn't know English, from what I gather, him and his mother are Russian. So later, when one of the children wanted to help with something, she would speak to her boy in Russian and then the boy would act accordingly. Later a siren was heard as a fire engine passed by and he started excitedly yelling what must be "fire engine" in Russian.
So then the girls and I walked a little bit more and then headed back to the car. What a work-out! We were all so tired by the time we got home! But we had such a nice time! Later Karen and tio got home and told us about their games and then before we headed off to bed Karen and I played against tio at the foosball table. So he won the first game....then we asked for revenge and he suggested he use only one hand and had us pick which one. So he played against us with only his left hand.....................................and won again. Then he played us with his right hand and won again.....you can imagine how upset Karen and I were at such a loss...yet I think we were both secretly cheering him on...he is good at this game and it's fun to watch how he does it so tactfully! Well...we nonetheless felt quite competitive and asked for one more game with both hands (I don't know why we tried this last one with both)....but either he was tired or we were way too determined to win...we were tied almost the whole way through (yes, the other games we lost by either half or most of the points). In the end, my phone rang and I believe tio gave us the point b/c he helped the last point in. So we won...but technically I don't think it was over. Maybe we'll ask for another round...but before then I must practice!!!! There is a foosball table at work...I must try and see if I can find some regular buddies I can get some practice with. Huckleberry Finn.
Well today they were off again to the tournament and us girls took it easy in the morning and built with the magnetics what was supposed to be a cable bridge like the Golden Gate...well...it had the cables. :D We build the road first and it was rather long...and then we
started the pillars but as we went we had to shorten the road to build them and then by the time we got the cables going, the road had been reduced to half its original size. Well, it didn't end up looking half so bad. After all, we did it using the photo the box provided...mind you, it didn't show different angles, just one. So you can imagine we had fun trying to guess how many more sticks to put and magnetic balls. Well, it's still standing in the living room...we're not letting the dogs get to it at least for a while. It took us long enough to build! Then we watched the Emperor's New Groove on tv and then got all showered and ready to hit the town again. We went all around the nearby lake in the car b/c we were dressed up nice for church, which we were going to around 6. It was amazing!!! Such a gorgeous drive and the houses right by the lake were amazingly huge and neat! As we got to the other end of the lake, we stopped by Red Robin to get some early dinner before Mass. After that we went to Mass.
After Mass we went home and had some ice cream despite the cold and drizzly day it had been today (yesterday was mostly sunny actually). And then Sara and I had fun watching tia prepare us coconut. Yes a real coconut! It was fun. I didn't realize all the steps one had to go through before actually breaking it open. Coconuts can be so fun...they look so funny. Anyhoo, tia got it all ready after quite a bit of hammering...yes to open it requires hardware tools! Then we had some slices with chile and limon. Yummmy.
So now, we are getting ready to have tio and Karen back from another long day of chess. They are true chess players b/c they do it for love of the game. They find it relaxing to sit all that time at a game...it's refreshing for them. And it makes sense, b/c then you can't think of any work or homework or whatnot while you're playing. You just get to think about the game. It's a good getaway when you think of it that way.
Well, I hope you are having a lovely day! Have a good Memorial day!!! Love you!
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