Three Day Weekend

I am worn out today. Work was long and stressful. I didn't even want to get up this morning, because I knew that as soon as I got out of bed, the long, glorious weekend would be over.

Friday we got up early and had breakfast at Starbucks, and then headed off to the Point Defiance Zoo. It was the perfect way to spend an unexpected day off (neither Zack nor I had realized until last Monday that it was going to be a three day weekend). We watched puffins divebomb off the rocks into a pool, saw polar bears sunning themselves, a tiger growling discontent at the sound of air force planes overhead. We watched beluga whales and walruses swimming endless laps in the aquarium, pitied the huge, beautiful raven tethered to his perch, laughed at the playful otters.

Around four o'clock we finally left and drove down to Owen Beach, where tons of people were gathering to watch the fireworks that night. I snapped a few pictures of some African children playing on the sand. One of them, a little girl about ten years old, wore a blue velvet dress. She sat on a driftwood log with her arms folded around her knees, and stared silently out to sea. I wanted to paint her picture.

Saturday was a day to catch up on sleep. Then, at three o'clock we attended the memorial of a dear old friend, Gene Smith, who died on June 25th, at the age of 87. I have fond memories of Brother Smith driving us out in service in his little yellow car. He always stopped at 12:00 to eat a sandwich and listen to polka on his favorite radio station. Gene smith was a pioneer for 22 years, from the day he retired until the day he died. I know that Jehovah will never forget his faithful service. I will miss him very much.

Sunday we went to see the Tall Ships Festival. It was incredibly lame. The ships were cool, especially the H.M.S. Bounty, which I really wanted to tour. But the lines were so incredibly long that it would have been impossible. So we just strolled down the waterfront past tents selling pirate costumes and greasy food, and sat on the edge of the boardwalk for a while, looking out at the view. There were tons of strange people dressed as pirates, including a particularly weird guy in a Jack Sparrow costume. As we passed him I heard a father tell his teenage girl, "Go take your picture with him!" and she said, "No!" in tones of disgust. I completely shared her sentiments. The guy was weird.

After meeting my sister invited us over for spaghetti. We went, and it was delicious. Afterwards there was "healthy" (south beach-approved) ice cream with blueberries on top. We watched Zack's Jim Gaffigan dvd, and then we came home and went to bed.

The End