Good Day to Do the Puyallup

Nice day to hit the fair. Warm sun, cool breeze, Dizzy Pass (unlimited rides) day, and barely anyone here. We've done the slide and a number if rides already, because the lines are so short. Meeting up with friends and their kids, so we all get to play like crazy.

Of course we got an "elephant ear" - fried dough, drenched in butter and cinnamon sugar. Good stuff.

Steel Lake Park

We were at Steel Lake Park in Federal Way over the weekend.  Who knew there was a giant lake in Federal Way?  (Don't answer that.)

They have multiple parking lots, sprawling lawn spaces, and huge playground for kids, and a snack shop open until 9 PM daily.

They have a designated swimming area, with lifeguards.  A stone throw away, they have unsupervised beach, and they don't care if you go swimming there.  They have a sign that tells you not to, but no one cares, and so we camped a bit of that beach for the sunshine, and the kiddo and I went swimming.

(image swiped from the Park website)

Steel Lake Park is beautiful and a great place to hang out for a bit, swimming or not.

My rules for Dating My Daughter

Everyone father (and mother) has rules for "dating my daughter."  (Heaven forbid I need these before she graduates college, but she's got a mind of her own, and she'll do what she wants.)

Let's be honest, no one out there will ever be good enough for our Princesses.  That's part of being a father, but she's smart and funny, and the boys will fawn over her some day.

I just need to make sure the boys - especially teenage boys, who are the worst breed ever at thinking they're smarter and more clever, and no one could possibly have dreamed up whatever scheme they have today -  have proper perspective on the fact that they are not, in fact, anywhere near as clever as they want to believe.

New Rules for Dating My Daughter

1. Once upon a time, I was a teenage boy.  I know what you’re thinking;
2. I’m older now – not only do I know what you’re thinking, I’ve had more thoughts than you can possibly imagine, and I know exactly how to tell if you’ve had them, and I already know what will happen to you if those thoughts ever leave your head;
3. If you make her cry, I will make you cry;
4. You should Google “Rules for Dating My Daughter” – it won’t help you escape, but you might realize how deep you’re already in it;
5. When in doubt, if convinced you're the most clever human who ever lived, remember Rule 1.

Now, get off my lawn, you punk!

Little Gym Puyallup

Hanging out at the Little Gym, in Puyallup, watching my kiddo learn to follow instructions and do physical skills, with other kids, is one of my great peaceful pleasures.

Seattle Public Library

Holy cow, they have a lot of locations throughout the city.

Never been here (the Central Library) before. OMG this place is awesome.  It's won a crapload of awards, and I can totally see why.

My daughter and I visited one lazy Saturday afternoon to kill some time while waiting on filmmaker mom to do her filmmaker thing elsewhere.  Turns out the kiddo is afraid of heights, even though she was riding on my hip and glued to me, but that's the "open space" impact of this place.

They also have a really awesome "map room" with a 3-ft diameter topological globe (I think that's the term) - and kiddo had fun spinning it, running her fingers over up and down the mountain ranges and into the oceans.  She also had fun pulling open the drawers to look at the different kinds of maps inside - all kinds of maps. I had no idea there were so many ways to draw the British Isles and bring out details, etc.

Kiddo had fun in the kids section, pulling DVDs off the shelf as a "shopping list" and was really bummed when I explained we don't have an SPL membership.  Maybe since there's a branch near my day job office, I should look into it.

(Note the pages I found these images at seem to be broken - Google found me the image, but "visit this page" results in a broken link; go figure.)

WA State Fair

At The Fair again. Watched Cowgirl Karen. Definitely a dying American art form.  Which is too bad, since it does take a lot Of skill and can be fun to watch.

Kiddo is on the bungee power jump again. Kid would grow wings and soar if she could. I dread the day she learns about base jumping.

Some day she'll be old enough to join me in this demon slingshot thing. Wife says I'm not allowed on it until kiddo is old enough to go with me.

Do the Puyallup 2016

The Washington State Fair will be known by "Do The Puyallup" for years to come.

First stop on the 2016 visit? Same as last two years: The Giant Slide.

Pierce County Fair - Frontier Park, Graham, WA

Hanging out at the Pierce County Fair at Frontier Park in Graham, WA, tonight.

It's a nice park, with lots of walking trails. Also well equipped with animal barns for those of who grew up around farms.

The Little One loves the rides.  Hoo-boy, do they get you coming and going through.  It seems like all the fairs around here contract Funtastic to run the rides. They do a great job now of selling you a paper card with a barcode, which is then linked to the database.  Each ride operator scans your card, once for each person who is going to ride, and the scanner wirelessly registers the change in value of the card you have, and the operator can tell you how many tickets you have left.

Note that one "ticket" has a value of about 50 cents.  So, those rides that are 7 or 10 "tickets" per rider?  Yeah, you see where I'm going with that one.  Thank goodness I only have one kid!  (Of course, some day, she'll bring her friends along...)

Graham is old farm country, so every time there is an event here, the buildings fill up with cows, pigs, goats, chickens, dogs, cats, rabbits, etc., etc.  We always have fun walking through these.  There are some really weird looking chickens in the world.

Fort Casey, Whidbey Island, WA

We were exploring Fort Casey today, and I couldn't help but try to imagine it as a dwarven fortress in a D&D world. Most of it is partially or completely underground and it's very hard to see from certain angles. Even the massive guns would be below sight line when in then"loading" position until raised to fire.

My extensions to the Rules for Dating My Daughter

So, I was reading a "rules for dating my daughter," recently, and I felt there was something missing.

So, here are my personal extensions to the "rules for dating my daughter":

New Rules for Dating My Daughter

Rule 1:  Once upon a time, I was a teenage boy. I know what you’re thinking;

Rule 2:  I’m older now – not only do I know what you’re thinking, I’ve had more thoughts than you can possibly imagine, and I know exactly how to tell if you’ve had them, and I already know what will happen to you if those thoughts ever leave your head;

Rule 3:  If you make her cry, I will make you cry;

Rule 4:  You should Google “Rules for Dating My Daughter” – it won’t help you escape, but you might realize how deep you’re already in it;

Rule 5:  When in doubt, remember Rule 1.

Polyglot Park

I love this area.  I'm in Orting at the park and it's interesting hearing the number of families that mash English with another language when talking to their kids. I've identified three different languages, although i couldn't tell you what they were.

Orting of all places ;)

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Main City Park is a Community Park located in our downtown area, right off of the main street through town!  This park features two sections.  The first section located at 101 Train St SE has a play area with a big toy and swings, built by the volunteers, public restrooms, benches, picnic tables, trees, plantings, horse shoe pits, a memorial wall, a gravel parking area and a covered area that is available for reservations.  The second section located at 102 Train St SE is the area where the basketball court is, with trees, plantings, benches, our lovely tree carvings and the gazebo that is available for reservations.  This park is also a place where you can park and walk on the Foothills Trail.   Many events happen right in this park!

Daffodil Festival In Orting

Orting, Washington, is this pretty little town that has had explosive population growth as the Seattle workforce moves farther and farther into the suburbs.

They participate in the Daffodil Festival and also have a great little park that my little one enjoys playing at


We have several great parks within about 5 minutes of our house.

Today, we're in Orting enjoying the sunshine and the small town feel.

Disney's Frozen on Ice at the ShoWare Center in Kent.

Having as much fun as the kid :)

Schilter Farm - bringing back memories of my childhood on family farms

I grew up playing on the family farms in Michigan.  I got to build forts with hay bales in the barn with my friends, and we'd make tunnels, too.  One of my friends got beaned with a bale of straw that dropped from the conveyor when we were helping the farmers load it into the barn. He was fine, but it was funny.  I used to test my courage by climbing the ladders to the topmost windows of the barn, and sit on the flower-box like benches to stare out the windows.

There was the giant rock that had been dug up from one of the fields (about 8 feet long, five feet wide and four feet tall - it was fun to climb on and laze in the sun).  There was the old storage building that was falling apart - fun to climb through and imagine myself exploring an ancient ruin.  Later, I got to help tear it down.

Schilter Farm, in Olympia, takes me back. They dressed the place up for the Halloween season.

They also have a Facebook page.

The Washington State Fair

Www.thefair.com

The wife and I never made it by ourselves. Okay, maybe once or twice, but now with the Little One it's an annual event.

Lots of food, and animals and rides, rides, rides.

It's fun :)

Wild Waves

Wild Waves amusement park, Federal Way, Washington.
Very nice park. Obviously the signature attraction is the wave pool and water slides, but they have plenty of dry rides for kids not yet into getting soaked.

Warning: LOTS of hills. The park is built on and around and over uneven terrain. Great if you want to get some hiking exercise, but rough if you have bad knees.

Kiddo is so over the "just goes in circles" rides, and is eyeballing the things that spin, or get some altitude.

Unfortunately, Kiddo's dad is too big for everything but the carosel and ferris wheel, so Kiddo's mom is doped up on Dramamine and gritting her teeth.

Orting Summerfest Festival

Orting is a tiny town in Washington. Practically bucolic. They have a gorgeous little park, and since it's close to home, we come here often. Today, they have a festival.

Kiddo is loving the bounce houses, and now we're off to find the pony ride.

I admit, everything is more fun with a kid.

JBLM Freedom Fair 2015

They put on a good show here, at JBLM, and it's cool they open it to the public like this.

Sure, it's a fair, complete with a thousand ways to spend money, but it feels different being on a live military base.

Although, for the second year in a row, it amazes me how bad they are at providing directions to the handicapped parking, and how much of the base they'll apparently let a plain white Dodge Grand Caravan roll through. Then again, I really didn't try to leave the residential section, so I blended in pretty well.

The kiddo is loving the bounce houses, and this year she's really into face-painting.

The crowd here is a thousand times more physically fit than a fair like the Puyallup (whatever it's called now that it got sold to the private sector).

Children's Museum at the Armoury

In the Seattle Center. Never had a reason to visit before, but the place is huge. K and I spent a couple hours there while filmmaker mommy did the SIFF events (talent scouting for the project she is working pre-production on).

http://thechildrensmuseum.org/

Playdate SEA

This place is awesome, especially since it can accommodate my small-building-size frame. We came here once while Kristi was doing her filmmaker thing.  Now, for our little one, this place IS Seattle. We can't get thru the city without stopping.

http://playdatesea.com

They have a three-story indoor jungle gym just for kids. Well, okay, not just for kids - it's sturdy enough that even I can crawl through it, which is great when there aren't enough other kids around to entertain K, and she needs daddy to be the other kid.