First Weekend in October
And a fine, busy weekend it was. davidlevine was in town and so there was much running about and taking of the town by storm.
Saturday started with breakfast at Mae's Phinney Ridge Cafe in the company of ironymaiden and melkahb, where we were greeted by Mae herself. Surrounded by cow memorabilia, we enjoyed a tasty and filling breakfast, and talked about technology, the Transcendentalists, and the Giant Mouth (tm) on one side of the room. We then headed out to Woodland Park Zoo for a Real Close Guided Tour.
The Real Close tours are private tours that one must reserve in advance, and they take visitors through the African Village, the Savannah and Savannah Aviary exhibits, and then backstage to the commissary and greenhouses. In the course of the tour, the guide provided information about the history of the zoo as well as tidbits about plans for new habitats and expansion. She also pointed out places where what looked like natural landscape was in fact actually educational sculpture featuring bones and "fossils" that were thematically appropriate to the parts of the zoo they were in. I'll never look at the landscaping in the zoo the same way after this. In the commissary we got an up-close-and-personal view of how food is prepared and distributed to the animals, and what sorts of food the zoo provides. We went into the refrigerator and freezer where food is stored, and saw the sorts of things one doesn't think about typically when one visits a zoo (pictures and more detail anon). I was entertained and enlightened. The greenhouses were wonderful, filled with all sorts of exotic plants and flowers. We learned that the zoo makes a concerted effort to be self-sustaining, and that many of the plants throughout the park are cultivated and used to feed the animals, not just for being pretty or picturesque. We got to see the area where one of the zoo's biggest fundraisers--ZooDoo--is created. (Yes--we went and looked at steaming piles of compost.) And we got a larger perspective about the zoo's role in conservation. It was a great tour and I'm glad we took it.
We then spent a couple of hours prowling the grounds. We visited the penguins, of course, the eagles, the elk and wolves, we passed by the wallabys and tigers, and stopped last at the beautiful jaguar enclosure, with its handsome if sleepy inhabitant. Lovely way to spend the better part of the day.
That evening, we met markbourne and e_bourne for a delicious Mexican dinner at Peso's Kitchen and Lounge, and then headed off to ACT to see Mary Stuart, a fictionalized drama about the conflict between the cousins Mary Stuart, Queen of Scots, and Elizabeth I by Frederich Schiller, remarkably timely given its themes of power and politics, and the sources of loyalty and trust. The cast was the cream of Seattle theater, the play staged in the round. The costuming choices were interesting, in that the queens were clothed in elaborate period attire, but all the other characters were dressed in contemporary suits and dresses in shades of black or gray as if to accent the fact that the play was about the two queens. I thought the performances were uniformly excellent. As e_bourne pointed out in her post about the show, the actresses playing the queens could have played either role and, in fact, for all that the script goes on about what a beauty the younger Mary is, the actress who played Elizabeth might have more credibly been cast as her cousin. This last is a tiny nit in what was otherwise a flawless performance and a delightful evening. (Interesting trivia: The play contains a suicide scene that, in 2008, proved a dangerous one to play. Its history made seeing the scene a little spooky, and certainly gives one ideas about haunted plays and haunted theaters--perfect for an October evening out.)
On Sunday morning, we took a walk through the Seattle Art Museum's Olympic Sculpture Park, which I like a great deal, and from thence proceeded into Myrtle Edwards Park a bit. The weather was crisp and cool, and it was breezy there on the shore, but it was a pleasant way to spend an autumn morning. We had lunch at a local diner, and then I dropped David off at the train station.
My last stop of the day was to pick up the new car, which felt strange. It was my car . . . but not. I suppose it will feel more and more like my car as the days go by. I'll be driving it hither and yon today for a lunch engagement and for errands. Perhaps as I spend more time in the vehicle, and when I hang my spirit bell on the rear-view mirror, it will feel a little more like it's mine.
Saturday started with breakfast at Mae's Phinney Ridge Cafe in the company of ironymaiden and melkahb, where we were greeted by Mae herself. Surrounded by cow memorabilia, we enjoyed a tasty and filling breakfast, and talked about technology, the Transcendentalists, and the Giant Mouth (tm) on one side of the room. We then headed out to Woodland Park Zoo for a Real Close Guided Tour.
The Real Close tours are private tours that one must reserve in advance, and they take visitors through the African Village, the Savannah and Savannah Aviary exhibits, and then backstage to the commissary and greenhouses. In the course of the tour, the guide provided information about the history of the zoo as well as tidbits about plans for new habitats and expansion. She also pointed out places where what looked like natural landscape was in fact actually educational sculpture featuring bones and "fossils" that were thematically appropriate to the parts of the zoo they were in. I'll never look at the landscaping in the zoo the same way after this. In the commissary we got an up-close-and-personal view of how food is prepared and distributed to the animals, and what sorts of food the zoo provides. We went into the refrigerator and freezer where food is stored, and saw the sorts of things one doesn't think about typically when one visits a zoo (pictures and more detail anon). I was entertained and enlightened. The greenhouses were wonderful, filled with all sorts of exotic plants and flowers. We learned that the zoo makes a concerted effort to be self-sustaining, and that many of the plants throughout the park are cultivated and used to feed the animals, not just for being pretty or picturesque. We got to see the area where one of the zoo's biggest fundraisers--ZooDoo--is created. (Yes--we went and looked at steaming piles of compost.) And we got a larger perspective about the zoo's role in conservation. It was a great tour and I'm glad we took it.
We then spent a couple of hours prowling the grounds. We visited the penguins, of course, the eagles, the elk and wolves, we passed by the wallabys and tigers, and stopped last at the beautiful jaguar enclosure, with its handsome if sleepy inhabitant. Lovely way to spend the better part of the day.
That evening, we met markbourne and e_bourne for a delicious Mexican dinner at Peso's Kitchen and Lounge, and then headed off to ACT to see Mary Stuart, a fictionalized drama about the conflict between the cousins Mary Stuart, Queen of Scots, and Elizabeth I by Frederich Schiller, remarkably timely given its themes of power and politics, and the sources of loyalty and trust. The cast was the cream of Seattle theater, the play staged in the round. The costuming choices were interesting, in that the queens were clothed in elaborate period attire, but all the other characters were dressed in contemporary suits and dresses in shades of black or gray as if to accent the fact that the play was about the two queens. I thought the performances were uniformly excellent. As e_bourne pointed out in her post about the show, the actresses playing the queens could have played either role and, in fact, for all that the script goes on about what a beauty the younger Mary is, the actress who played Elizabeth might have more credibly been cast as her cousin. This last is a tiny nit in what was otherwise a flawless performance and a delightful evening. (Interesting trivia: The play contains a suicide scene that, in 2008, proved a dangerous one to play. Its history made seeing the scene a little spooky, and certainly gives one ideas about haunted plays and haunted theaters--perfect for an October evening out.)
On Sunday morning, we took a walk through the Seattle Art Museum's Olympic Sculpture Park, which I like a great deal, and from thence proceeded into Myrtle Edwards Park a bit. The weather was crisp and cool, and it was breezy there on the shore, but it was a pleasant way to spend an autumn morning. We had lunch at a local diner, and then I dropped David off at the train station.
My last stop of the day was to pick up the new car, which felt strange. It was my car . . . but not. I suppose it will feel more and more like my car as the days go by. I'll be driving it hither and yon today for a lunch engagement and for errands. Perhaps as I spend more time in the vehicle, and when I hang my spirit bell on the rear-view mirror, it will feel a little more like it's mine.