Field Trip: Center for Wooden Boats

I braved another trip into Seattle yesterday to participate in a fieldtrip at the Center for Wooden Boats on Lake Union.  Sometimes I still marvel at all the cool things there are to do around here. Even after living here for more than seven years, I feel like there is still so much I don't know about this area.  It makes living here fun when I keep discovering these little treasure spots.

It was a gray, blustery, drizzely day.  SURPRISE!  It is Seattle after all.  For one fleeting moment I considered not going.  But then I reminded myself that if I stayed inside every time it rained here, I'd never get outside again! So off we went.

We first met under a pavillion to learn just a tiny bit about canoe carving from huge cedar trees.  The gentleman in the center of the picture is Native American. I forgot the name of his tribe, but he sang us a "thank-you-mother-earth" song. 

Our group then split in half. Half the kids got to build tiny wooden boats. And half went out to paddle onthe lake. Then we switched.



  Here we are making our boats.

Drilling a hole for the mast

Embelishing with bottle caps and corks.

sanding and putting on the sail

Decorating with markers, crayons, and stickers

Then it was time to head out on the water!  First we got some lessons on proper paddling.

Here's our littlest sailor

Big kids in the back

Younger paddleres up front

Enjoying the sites and sounds



These old ships are being restored. And that's MOHAI in the background (Museum of History and Industry).  We haven't been to MOHAI yet either!  That's probably our next trip.

 After returning to the dock and collecting our belongings, we headed over to the pond to test our our wooden boats.  It was such a classic childhood activity. I had to get lots of shots.

This was a great field trip except for two things:

1. The Center for Wooden Boats staff told us that one of their main missions was to preserve and share the history of wooden boats.  But I don't thnk they ever did that!  They did have some cool old boats hanging from the cieling and sitting on the docks.  And if you asked, they would tell you something about a particular boat. But other than that, there was no effort to help the kids understand that boats used to ALL be made of wood and now they are made of lots of thigns...etc.  No connection to history at all.
2.  When I got back to my car there was  a $47 ticket on my car!! AGH!!! I was not happy at ALL.  Apparently, I did not back my car into my spot.  No, I did the absurd, unheard of act of actually pulling into my stall forwards, as is done in nearly 99.% of all  other parking situations.  GASP.  How dare I?  I searched for signs warning me not to commit the unpardonable sin of parking forwards, instead of backwards.  Yes, after searching, there was a sign at the end of the parking lot, smallish, and far above my field of normal vision. So there you go Seattle.  One more reason to dread a trip into the city.  GRRRRR!!