The Eclipse

 My family decided to stay home for the Eclipse.  The Seattle area was in the 92% range.  So not bad.   It was fun to actually look at the sun with the eclipse glasses.

 We also watched it on the laptop.

At 10:15 am, we went outside-it was very cold, and dark (10:20 am was the 92% coverage of the sun).  

The dog acted as she always did, and took a nap!

It was a very cool experience.

The Seven Swords, Warrior Life Center

Andy and I started going to the Seven Swords/Warrior Life Academy in Tacoma on Monday & Wednesday evenings.  The class is split up-the first half hour is with Nikki learning jujitsu.  Recently, we have been learning : "How to fall without hurting yourself".

 The last half hour is with Ken., we get to learn to handle plastic swords and medieval European martial arts.  The blending of the two styles makes it super fun!

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Presently, I only have plans to go here through the end of August.  Once school starts, I will being doing my Hapkido and Improv classes like last year.

Smoke form British Columbia and the Burke Museum at University of Washington

August blew in with high temperatures and smoke form all the wild fires in British Columbia.  This was taken from our morning walk.  It's a view of the Des Moines marina and Mt. Rainier.  Our region had the worst air quality for 10 days.  It was great when it finally blew out and we could see the blue of the sky again.

This way (west ) is the Sound and the Olympic mountain range......

On one of these smokey days, Mom and I drove to the University of Washington to visit the Burke Museum,   They have the best dinosaur collection in Western Washington.  As you can see, I am not even as tall as this leg bone.

This coastal native american carved seal was stolen from an Alaskan village.  Fortunately, the tribe is allowing the seal to be on display at the Burke, it will go back some day.

After our time at the Burke we meet up with Andrea, got a coffee and walked around campus.  My Dad did his undergraduate degree here in Computer Science.  Below is their gothic library built in the 1920"s.

Inside the library..

 Outside the reference room there was one of the world's largest books.  That's Andrea.

Mom and I at the fountain.  Mt. Rainier is supposed to be in the background......

I enjoyed walking around Dad's University.  I look forward to going myself someday in the future.