Mom and Dad fly up to visit us on Spring Break. Mom tries to get in a years worth of mothering in 1 week.
Lots of shopping and touristy stuff happens. Good times all round.
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| Hey, lookie who's here! It's the old Daddo! |
Not all that green outside is grass. Tons of mold grows on the damp concrete due to the lovely Seattle weather. |
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| Ah, here's the elusive "adam" in its natural surroundings. The "adam" is rarely seen in the rainy and gray outdoors, preferring instead the warm, well lit plains of Azeroth in World of Warcraft. |
The parents settle down after a long red-eye flight. |
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| The sakura (cherry blossom) trees in the quad were in full bloom. |
Suzzallo, the graduate library, has the most impressive indoors on campus. |
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| The library was originally modeled as a cathedral, to match the grandeur of the large Ivy League schools. |
USPS is starting to color all their mailboxes with Star Wars R2-D2 designs. Perhaps they are trying to make the mail cool again? |
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| Along Pike's Place Market, a large cheese store cures the cheese using a large tub. |
Mechanical blades sweep around and stir the broth so the cheese forms consistently |
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| I gotta tell you, that mom loves to shop. |
On the Underground tour, we learn about the history of Seattle. Crime, corruption, and prostitution: all founding principles that Seattle was built on. |
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| That wooden post serves no purpose other than to give the illusion of stability. Our guide leaned a hand against it, and that post rotated like a top. |
Lots of older buildings kept valuables in storage on the lower levels. This used to be a bank vault at street level in old Seattle, now it's 30 feet underground. |
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| This was the curb on street level in old Seattle. Basically, Seattle was built at sea level on marshland, and periodically, half of the town would get flooded. The city wanted to raise the level of ground in a gradual slope from 10 to 30 feet, but some store owners refused to let the city modify their land. |
As a result, large barriers were built around every property, and the street level was raised up around existing buildings. People would have to climb down 30 ft ladders from the street to reach the "1st floor" of shops. Due to the large amount of death and accidents, the city mandated that all stores only have their entrances at the new street level, and the former 1st floor of many buildings became the "Underground".
In this photo: Large worm and circular gears were used in old elevators. Many stores would just dump old equipment and rubbish in their lower levels, since it's cheaper than paying people to haul it away. Lots of interesting artifacts here.
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| Our tall bushy haired guide in the front is a part time comedian, and was quite good at puns. |
We return from Costco, with enough food to feed a small army. |
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| Ikea, Costco, REI, Target, Trader Joes. All this shopping sure makes the mom happy. Oh, seeing us boys helps as well. ;) |
I make some rice while mom starts preparing some lamb chops. |