Flynn's Fifth

The main reason for travelling to Seattle was to celebrate Flynn's fifth birthday and the occasion was everything we expected - excitement, loads of presents and a noisy party for some of his numerous friends from pre-school and the street in which he lives.

Presents stacked and ready to go!

The usual celebratory balloons.

Prezzie opening.

Observed by today's version of Horatio Nelson.

Flynn gets to work out how to use a new form of Nerf Gun, which is more like a bow and arrow. The 'bullets' lie scattered on the ground. I was fortunate he didn't 'get' me!

The usual Pokemon toys and games.

The cake arrives! Again, its design involves a Pokemon symbol.

Me and Flynn wearing our party hats.

One of his presents was, of all things, a crane which lifts objects, rotates them and locates them precisely.

And after his party, we all headed to Menchies nearby which serves luscious ice-cream in tubs with many different flavours / colours. One picks up a tub, fills it to whatever one's preferred depth and with the flavour(s) of choice, and then smothers the contents from a massive array of additions - chocolates, biscuits, sauces, fruits or whatever in any order or amounts. One takes the tub and its contents to the counter to be weighed. Price depends solely on weight and the delicious contents are highly desired by Flynn and Ella, not to forget the many friends who accompanied us.

Afterwards, the kids played hide and seek outside of Menchies with me supervising.

A great time was had by all.

AS

Pacific Northwest 5

On our way home from Whidbey Island we took the road north, avoiding the ferry and crossing to the mainland via some spectacular bridges. En route, we passed through some pleasant rural scenery and visited the Cranberry Lake area with its lovely beach scenery that we explored.

But before I start on those themes, I'd like to observe that one object loomed large over the scenery, albeit some way off. It's Mount Baker, yet another snow, ice and glacier encrusted volcano some 3286 m (10781 ft) high. I think you'll agree with me that it's a lovely spectacle taken from two different angles in these pictures.

We spent quite a while exploring the beach in Deception Pass State Park near lake Cranberry. A lot of timber had washed up on the shore-line and we clambered over both the logs and rocky promontories.

And round the corner we spotted the Deception Pass bridge that would carry us home.

On reaching the bridge a little later, we disembarked the car and set off to explore both it and its surrounding scenery, like a large number of other visitors. Once again, Mount Baker appeared on the horizon, but it was the structure that created excitement:

On top of that we witnessed a variety of great views: coastal and wildlife:

A pod (or heard) of seals.

AS

Pacific Northwest 4

A little to the north of Fort Casey lies another, but much smaller, military relic, Fort Ebey, and we had a quick visit there amidst lovely coastal scenery.

AS