Besides the big race, we’ve been busy doing odds and ends.  I got a big haircut that I’m loving, we had a visit from our brother in-law from Baltimore and over Memorial Day weekend we took a road trip down to visit Jon’s family in Boise.  The summer is just starting up and we had our first day over 70 degrees since last August this weekend.  We’re definitely getting warmed up for lots of summer fun!~

Saturday we wrapped up the weekend.  First we had dim sum in the International District, then we lined up to tour a stealth ship that was harbored in Seattle for Seafair.  The ship was very impressive and the service men and women on the ship were very helpful and friendly.  The ship is called the Greenbay.  Towards the end of the tour they had an abulence and tank that you could get in and see the inside of.  They also had demos of how to use a missle launcher and a machine gun.  I was too scared to hold either, but Jon was more than willing to volunteer.  It was a fun outing and really interesting.  We also got to tour a Canadian mine sweeper boat which was smaller, but still pretty neat to see.

We waited for a few minutes and then the tour began.  The first animals that we got to see were a family of ring tailed lemurs.  They were really cute and could jump from the ground to the tour guide’s shoulder so fluidly it was really amazing.  We also saw some special breeds of pheasant that they had.  Next it was the big item, kangaroos!  They had the kangaroos in an enclosed area and gave us each a little bread so that we could feed them.  They ate right out of our hands and were surprisingly friendly.  I always thought kangaroos were sort of mean, but these ones were pretty docile.  We even saw some mommys with little joeys in their pouch and we got to pet them and feed them too.  They also had rabbits and tortoises thrown into the mix.  The wallabies also shared the same enclosure as the kangaroos.  I never really knew what a wallaby was until I saw them.  They’re just like kangaroos, but more furry and chubbier looking. They also had these really strange animals in there, I never really got the full name something like Patagonian Capris or something, but I dubbed them guinea deers because they look like guinea pigs with little deer legs, so weird!  After the kangaroos they took us to see and feed a ton of other animals.  They had mules, donkeys, more chickens and goats in one area and we fed them these alfalfa pellets.  Then we headed over and saw this miniature horse, which I guess is different from a pony.  We also got to see an ostrich and two emus, but they didn’t let us feed them (probably because they’d peck our eyes out or something).  The last animals we got to feed were some alpaca llamas.  They were pretty gentle and the tour guide coaxed some of us to feed them from our mouths.  I tried it…wasn’t the best experience of my life, but I escaped unscathed.   When we went back to the starting point of the tour we all got to hold a baby joey and take pictures with it.  It was really neat and he was soooo cute.

After we were finished at the farm Jon took me to Outback Steak House just to complete the Aussie theme of my birthday.  We both had really good meals and I even got a free ice cream treat.

I’d say overall it was a grand adventure and a really fun birthday!  Too bad birthdays only come once a year

We got breakfast at Maltby Cafe first then headed to the club and got there about 15 minutes before it opened.  The line went all around the building, apparently curling is really popular during the Winter Olympics.  It took about an hour for us to even get in, but they had snacks and we were able to watch the other groups curl.  Once it was our turn they gave us each one rubber gripper to go over your throwing side shoe.  It helps you stop yourself from slipping on the ice.  The curling ice is bumpy unlike skating ice so it’s a bit less slick.  First we learned how to release the rock, you sort of squat down then push back with your gripper foot then push yourself forward.  Then we learned the sweeping part, which I actually thought was harder.  We ended up playing a game, but had a hard time getting the rocks to even make it to the house.  Our team didn’t do so well, but the rock that I release was one of three that made it in and scored a point, so horray, maybe I can be an Olympic curler. 

After curling we went to the Experience the Music Project and the Science Fiction Museum with our friend.  We liked the Sci-Fi part better, but we were able to take this really cool band picture at the EMP.  We were still in our sweat pants from curling so it’s not so convincing…over all it was a fun outting.

The beginning of our trip wasn’t very smooth.  We headed out of Redmond a tad bit late and on the way Jon was stopped and we got a speeding ticket   It was a big trick, there was one cop radaring people and then about 10 cops lined up behind her just pulling people over.  After that we were really late so we didn’t have time to park our car before the ferry left, we drove the car on and it cost $90!  Rip off!  Everything with the trip went smoothly after that though.