Swimtastic June

Since we've moved here, May and June have been dictated by neighborhood swim team. Daily practice begins in May and carries on through June, with at least 5 swim meets (practice meet + 4 dual meets). Both kids love it and seem to want to continue on indefinitely. We like it too, but it is a commitment for the parents. And it's HOT. Kids mostly like the team because their friends are on it, I think.

This year we moved up to Division I and got our butts handed to us every meet. It was a tough season, but we tried to focus on improving our own times. Our meets, which are totally volunteer-run, started on weeknights at 4:30pm (when swimmers were asked to arrive), 75 swim events officially started at 6pm, and often ran until midnight. Here's the team picture. They rescheduled it to a day that Owen was gone to camp, so he's not in the picture, but Hadley is above the R on the 4th row from the bottom.

Swim team is interesting because the kids are grouped by two years, 7-8, 9-10, etc. So one year, you are the big kid on top, and the next year you are the youngest competing against older kids. Hadley was a 9 year-old, swimming against 10 year olds this year. She did great and worked really hard. Unfortunately, she did not have a great turn out at the practice meet, so the coach did not put her in breaststroke or butterfly for the rest of the season, which stunk because she never got a chance to improve her time and get placed into the racing group. I guess they were trying to trim time where they could, so those two events had limited heats.

She did get called out to be an example of how to dive in to the water during practice, and her dives were beautiful to watch.

It's hard to get a good picture of your swimmer, especially when you're volunteering, but I did grab this one when I was timing, and she was getting lined up nearby! She still had a strong season and improved her freestyle and backstroke times, worked hard, and contemplated giving up gymnastics for year-round swim.

Owen was on the flip side of the age curve, being a 12-year old swimming in 11-12. He had a terrific season and swam in every event at every meet, minus one he was out of town for, plus Meet of Champions and the All Stars meet. I managed to get some action shots of him doing breaststroke and butterfly, but his specialty ended up being breaststroke. He competed with that stroke in the Medley Relay, and they had an exciting first place, come-from-behind finish in one of the meets, and finished a close second in the other meets.

Owen swam in all events (except the relays which were cancelled due to a lightning delay) at the Meet of Champions (best of Division I). His breaststroke there was fast enough to earn 7th place overall and garner points for the team! He also won his heat.

That swim also earned him an invite to the All Star meet, which combines all 33 teams in the league from 6 divisions and takes just the top 24 swimmers in each stroke. His friend Jonathan also had that honor, so it was fun for the two of them to share the experience!

Teen coaches opened the meet with a silly relay, dressed in costumes, paddling kayaks and giant floaties, etc. It was a funny ice breaker and good for some laughs. One of our coaches did a pretty successful backwards freestyle, which was quite a sight.

We had to be in Rosenberg at 4:00pm (on a Friday) for warmups, but Owen wasn't slated to swim until 8:30! So we had some time to kill. 

Finally, it was time for the swim! He was in the second heat, Lane 1 (farthest away). 

Another swimmer's dad had a fancy camera and got some good shots of Owen.

He started off the season with a 46.37s to take first at the practice meet, and shaved off a second or so each meet to finish with his personal record of 41.98s at All Stars (although apparently he was DQ'ed for two strokes underwater, which he disputes!). We are so proud of him and his swimming this year, but he is not at all interested in giving up football practice for year round swim!

All in all, it was another great swim season for these Killer Whales!

Seattle, Days 3 and 4, Pike Place Market and Harbor Cruise

Good morning, Seattle! 

 

Our hotel did not offer breakfast, but we had a delicious (if expensive) breakfast at a Greek restaurant a block away: marscapone pancakes that melted in our mouths and omelettes with mushrooms and edible flowers. Yum!

Today we were headed to the ultimate Seattle tourist spot, Pike Place Market, which was a short, but hilly walk from our hotel to Puget Sound.

There was a crowd, but we took in all of the quirky charm on multiple levels of the market. We heard music, sampled fruit (and bought some), smelled homemade soap, and admired art and photography on display as we strolled the halls.

We even timed it to walk right up to a famous fish throw. The guy catching the fish was buying it!

We also found, and added to, the Gum Wall. Ew!

The kids both pointing to their contributions.

Probably our favorite stop was a cool, but slightly nerdy, bookshop that had all of our favorite subjects. I think the kids could have stayed here for hours...

But it was finally noon, so we could get some snacks and a couple of pints at the Market's brewery. We met up there with friends from Idaho. They were all in town for a wedding that we were going to that night. Casey even drove the 12 hours from Idaho Falls by himself!

But we couldn't stay very long because we had a reservation for the Seattle Aquarium. It was a classic, drizzly day, perfect for an indoor attraction.

We do love a good aquarium. This one was a little small, but they had touch tanks, otters, an octopus, and an under-Puget-Sound-dome, which was cool because they were on a pier over the water, so part of the aquarium was actually under that water.

Soon after, it was time to head back to the hotel to get ready for the wedding. On the walk back, we stopped in to a coffee shop for a warm pick-me-up and a break from the rain. 

Once we got all gussied up and plied the kids with Subway sandwiches and a movie, we Ubered over to Eastlake to witness Alex and Sophie's wedding. It was such a sweet ceremony, very sentimental, with his sister officiating and the groom trying not to cry. We shared a table with the Idahoans and by the time we made it back to the hotel, the kids had put themselves to bed.

Our final day in Seattle was relaxing with our last City Pass reservation for a mid-day harbor cruise through the Ballard Locks. We had to walk to another pier, just down from yesterday's aquarium, to catch our boat.

The cruise started off in Puget Sound by downtown, then went up and around some land to the NW, through the locks, and back down to South Lake Union. Basically, it made a near circle around a thumb of land. We had great views of the downtown skyline.

We also passed giant cruise ships in dock (all aboard for Alaska!), beaches, and a short lighthouse. Later, we took in the neighborhoods of Magnolia and Ballard before the locks and tried to imagine what life would be like in these areas with water views. 

This train drawbridge crosses the locks, and we had just seen one go by, so we had wait for them to raise it. Then we had to wait for a parade of smaller ships to come through the locks from the other direction. We went over our cruise time by 45 minutes!

Finally, it was our turn. Our ship had clearance of maybe a foot on each side in the small lock. Lake Union is freshwater and at a higher level than Puget Sounds, so they use the lock like a boat elevator to raise and lower water to the right height coming or going. There's also a salmon ladder here, but we couldn't see it from the boat, unfortunately.

Closing the big doors behind us.

Raising up. We were at low tide, so they said we got to go even farther than usual to make up the difference.

Leaving the locks and heading on to Lake Union. Our cruise was narrated, so we got some interesting facts along our way. We passed between the neighborhoods of Queen Anne and Fremont, and learned that Fremont was having their annual Summer Solstice Festival, which we could see along a waterfront park. There were lots of fishing boats and marinas that take advantage of the freshwater for boat storage and anchorage.

Eventually we got to our unloading dock and wandered around Southlake for a bit. While figuring out what to do next, the Naked Bike Parade (that our boat MC had mentioned as part of the Solstice Festival) pedaled by. They were mostly in body paint, but it was still a little eye opening for the kids. So we took our final form of public transit and returned to the hotel by streetcar.

We got in some R&R back at the hotel, found some delicious chowder and fish and chips nearby, wished our stay was a little longer, and packed our bags for our early morning flight.