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The Johnson family's discoveries regarding classical education
Apr. 3, 2006
Seattle Adventures and Baseball
Busy,
busy, seems to be the life of homeschool families. At least, that
is the case with myself and many others I know. We did make it
down to Southern California and brought our piano up. Getting it
into the house is another matter. It is currently sitting in our
garage, with felt inside by the strings, and blankets outside over the
piano. 
The following weekend we drove north through Portland, then east along
the Columbia Gorge, then south to the Bend/Redmond area, where we met
with some young believers in the Lord. It was very refreshing.
Last week was spring break for my college daughter, so we took the time
to drive up to Seattle, where I have family. We ended up only
spending one full day there, but made the most of it. On that
day, my daughter and son and I drove into downtown Seattle with 2 main
objectives: the underground tour and the aquarium.
The underground tour was informative, though not quite what I
expected. We *did* get a lot of the history of early Seattle, but
it was told from a different perspecitve than many of us would think
of. We learned that the city was originally built on tidal flats,
with what were essentially cliffs rising up behind, full of trees for
logging. The first founders were, shall we say, less than
knowledgeable about founding a city. There was a fair share of
corruption, etc., in those early days, along with a serious sewage
problem. We learned that the man who invented the toilet was
named Mr. Crapper, and his inventions were commonly called
"crappers." Oh great! Just the kind of history I wanted to
teach my kids! 
When these useful items first arrived in Seattle, there was no sewage
system to connect them to, and it took a bit of time to work out all
the details.
OK, sorry. There was a great fire in 1889, which destroyed the
town but took no lives. The merchants and other property owners
rebuilt the stores, etc., but the city raised the streets around them,
to address the flooding and other problems. Eventually the
merchants had to raise the sidewalks to street level, and an
underground area was created in the process. And the history
continued from there. Overall we found it quite
interesting. And the kids remembered quite a few facts from the
tour.
From there we got (misleading) directions to the Seattle Aquarium, but
finally found our way there anyway. Along the way, we got a good
walking workout. We saw otters, seals, octopus, sharks, salmon,
eels, etc., etc., etc. That was pretty fun.
We also got to spend some time with my dad and his wife, and with my
brother and his family. I feel it was time well spent.
The reason we had to rush back after only one full day, was because my son's baseball season has begun.
We got a call on Sunday about an information meeting on Monday.
On Monday we got the practice schedule, beginning on Tuesday. We
left Wednesday for Seattle, he missed practice on Thursday, and we made
it back just in time for practice on Friday.
This week there is a practice at the batting cages tonight (Mon.), then
practices again on Tues, Thur., and Fri. If the uniforms arrive
in time, opening day ceremonies and games are due to begin on Saturday
the 8th. And I suppose we will learn of further scheduling from
there.
I have had very mixed feelings about Little League, but so far the
experience has positive for this son. He enjoys playing ball, and
we will do our best to be on hand, observing and cheering and helping
wherever needed. And praying for his teammates and coach, and for
him. I'm sure that our Lord has His hand on these young ones, and
I intend to keep bringing all my cares to Him.
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Comments
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Posted by
Apr. 3, 2006 - Untitled Comment
Now - how do you plan to get that piano in the house?
I look at my doorways and think, 'piano'? How?
Take some pictures for posterity.