Back in the Saddle

It had been several days now since we'd been on a plane so without saying a word we all packed up our things, knowing that another flight must be imminent.

Ernie did the important stuff, gathering his most treasured stuffed animals.

There was some technical issue at the airport, which is always a great omen. The screens that show the flight times were inoperable throughout.

Free pinball with Clownvis canceled out the bad luck from the airport though. Maybe everything was going to be ok afterall.

The good news was that we landed in St. Louis safely. The bad news was that now we were in St. Louis.

Fish and Feast

We are the world's best parents and take Ernie to the park so often that it's a hard job to keep things fresh. This time we took him to Meydenbauer Bay Park.

Seattle Aquarium has been tearing up the boardwalk and building a new wing. We are members so we got a sneak peek.

I was a bit underwhelmed to be honest. I'm not sure if that's because there's still some stuff missing or if I should get comfortable not being blown away.

Garden Eels

"We spend our days peering out of our sandy burrows, swaying with the current. When we get scared, we retreat entirely, closing our burrows with a slimy mucus. This is the secret to our vanishing act! We can swim, but we prefer to stay home and not fight the current."

One thing that's never underwhelming is Georgian cuisine. There's a place called Skalka that specializes in khachapuri. Since my journey to Georgia I've been really wanting to try this place, experience the joy of a Georgian classic, and share the deliciousness with the crew.

BOOM

There was no seating so we ate our piping hot flatbread pizza type things on the sidewalk like well traveled vagrants. I got one with a whole raw egg on top because I'm a real one. The first one of these I had in Tbilisi had both a raw egg and a whole stick of butter on top. Rarely do I have to ask the waiter how to eat a thing but this was one such instance.

They were so good.

Goodbye Grandparents

We had one last meetup with Ernie's Nashville grandparents in Bellevue before they returned home.

 

Beach Boy

Ern likes to touch the mannequin at Bellevue Square, I assume to make sure that they don't come to life.

With our big France trip completed I went back to my fancy flights kitchen to cook up something new.

I'm usually able to ignore the Royce' siren call at the mall but this time I went for it.

Some green pins appeared on our map signifying that some flights had officially been booked.

I like these fun soda flavors but they never have them in diet. Oh well.

Ern's Tennessee grandparents joined us for a Beach Boys concert at Chateau Ste. Michelle. Beach Boys' 1965 "Barbara Ann" was one of Ernie's earliest and favorite songs. He was already able to make the song's repetitive "ba ba ba" sound so it seemed like a natural choice to introduce him to.

We had a LOT of rocking to do before we'd ever get to "Barbara Ann", though.

We had a lot of fun singing and dancing and clapping the night away. There was a lot of wine too, which was nice.

We had to leave before the show was over but we were rocking all the way back to the car.