Yesterday morning we walked Nate to his camp at the zoo. He rode his bike up 60th Street, a pretty steep one, 3 blocks, and then about 4 blocks along the park to the end where the zoo entrance is. I got a head start, because I was afraid I wouldn't be able to keep up. Ray had to push some on the hill. He locked his bike up and went in, giving his name to a counselor. Then Ray and I walked around the park and back home. Polly and Lidet were just leaving for dance class. It appears that Lidet is happiest when busy and physically active. She seems to be very coordinated and athletic.

Ray and I had some time at the house to relax and read and I was supposed to start making something for the block party that night. It's always strange trying to cook in someone else's house. I didn't have my favorite recipes. The recipe I found for brownies seemed too outrageous--5 eggs! Another recipe called for a pound of brown sugar, but all the brown sugar was in a canister--I couldn't measure out a pound (Ray said it was 2 cups, but I wasn't sure enough). Oatmeal-raisin cookies: where does she keep the oats? Eventually I found them when I was looking for something else. Lidet came home (in her little pink leotard) and helped me. She likes to help cook and is a very good and careful helper. At the moment, she talks a little like someone younger: Lidet cook? Lidet try. Polly was thrashing around getting ready to pick up Nate. The plan was to drive to get him, then go downtown and get on the ferry for Bainbridge Island for the afternoon. She was packing up things to eat. The cookies got mostly mixed up, but not baked. Ray drove, because Polly got to ride in the back seat between the two car seats--fun! We got Nate, putting his little bike in the back of the car easily and followed Polly's directions (and the signs) to the ferry dock. We were in time for the 12:40--it was a little late! Taking a ferry does involve some waiting. Once we were in our lane, we had to wait for the boat to dock and unload and then for all the other cars to go. Lidet said, "car go, Mommy car go." We explained to her that we can't go until the cars ahead of us go! Polly broke out some of the snacks/lunch. When we got on, we went up the stairs to the passenger deck and ate a picnic lunch at one of the tables, grabbing some napkins and salt and pepper from the cafeteria there. It's a big ferry with lots of cars and people. Some people cross on foot or with their bikes. It's only about 30 minutes until we have to go back down to the car. Ray and I went out on deck briefly and enjoyed the view and the breeze. Of course, it's not a novelty to Nate or even Lidet to be on a ferry boat and their lunch was more important than the view. We had 3 hard-boiled eggs--Nate wanted to eat 2 of them, but he was only allowed one, especially since he only eats the yolks and Polly eats the white for him. We had 4 pieces of bread to share and some salame and cheese. There was leftover sweet potato salad. I ate a lot of that, with Polly and Ray helping. There were cherries and some sesame snack sticks. Yum! Ray sneaked a hot dog as Polly herded the kids back to the car and I packed up the lunch.

We got off the ferry, waiting our turn again, and drove to the children's museum. I was amused and I'm sure Ray was too, because this was not much of a museum. It mainly featured stuffed animals to play with--large alligators, a tiger, a gorilla, lots of snakes, birds and other things. It was roughly a rain forest. There was a craft area for coloring and making puppets. Outside, there was sand and water play, little stilts and some other games, but not a lot of education going on. I have been to a couple wonderful children's museums, and this was not in that category. However, it was a great place for them to play and they enjoyed it.

Then we went to the bookstore. Polly had somehow imagined that we would all browse their happily for a while. Each of the children was allowed one small book. Of course, it was hard for her to watch both kids at the same time, so I helped out. Although she wanted to encourage them to pick good books, she also wanted them to be able to choose what they wanted. They gravitated toward things that were more toys than books--Nate eventually got a kit (including a book) of magic card tricks. Lidet chose several books by the cover, one after the other. She said "Lidet love this," and resisted my efforts to look inside the book and actually read it. I was mildly frustrated--so many wonderful books and they ended up buying something less interesting. Although, I do remember my interest in magic tricks at about Nate's age or a little older.

After that, it was ice cream! We had originally planned to go to the bakery, but ice cream won out. There was a very expensive ice cream place not far away. It was peculiar in that you pay as you enter--well, how do you know what you want at that point? We bought five small cones, they were almost $4 each. The ads said, "organic mint," etc. Lidet had mango, Polly dulce de leche, Ray blueberry and I had blackberry. They were very good, but I was not sold. I have eaten a lot of great ice cream and I did not think this was quite as good as the price. However, it was very much enjoyed. Oh, Nate had mint chocolate chip--it was not bright green, needless to say. They had frozen yogurt as well and I asked about the flavors. They had one: plain (not vanilla).

Then the group wandered down to a really nice playground. I looked at some of the really nice shops, but did not buy anything. I knew I couldn't get it home and couldn't afford it anyway. A lovely bath shop with bathrobes I thought of buying for my mother and a scrub brush for my Dad--he really goes through them, and has been known to appropriate the vegetable scrubbers. In another store, they had beautiful 1000 piece art puzzles--Hopper, Audubon, Diego Rivera. Mom loves those, but we usually buy cheaper ones.

As I joined the group at the playground, they were just heading off in search of a bathroom. While they were gone, another little girl began a full-fledged tantrum. I was tempted to go ask her to be quieter and see what effect that had on her, but I didn't. Polly would have been interested to watch, but it was over by the time they got back. Then we headed back to the car, back to the line for the ferry. Lidet fell asleep in the car, so Nate and Ray and I went up to the passenger deck. Nate was interested in spending time playing with the game machine (even though he didn't actually play it, due to lack of money). Eventually, Ray interested him in the large map of the Seattle area. Then we went back down to the car, waited to get off the ferry, drove through the 5:00 traffic and home. Lidet began to wake up while I finished the cookies and Polly unpacked things. Jim was already home working outside. There are men painting the rental house next door.

Nate and Jim rode their bikes back up to the park for chess club, while we baked cookies. Soon the phone rang. Apparently, there was no chess club that night.