Pacific Science Center

Want to go to another world? Want to take the bus or at least spend only 15 minutes driving there? OK, try the Pacific Science Center in Seattle Center. From our home in Shoreline it only took us 15 minutes on a bright sunny Sunday afternoon. Our family likes to join because with a family membership card we can feel quite comfortable stopping by three times a week, or for only an hour when we get a chance, without having to stay for hours and exhaust ourselves. There are so many great things to see and do that we could go back every day for a week and it would still be Fun!!

This time we tried the Simulator, and it was worth it...at the last minute I got myself a ticket as well as Daniel and his friend. For a five minute ride, we were flying through space on skittery tracks, plunging into the void and somehow managing to land intact...a breathtaking journey. There are all kinds of simulations to choose from, or you can piggyback on one someone already chose. Next time I want to try the one about water!

Daniel always likes to go to the dinosaur room...when we had the fossil exhibit here, just over, he spent hours dusting sand off the dinosaur eggs in the anthropology simulation. The insect pavilion is great too, and going into the butterfly room is usually the highlight of my visit. They are so fragile and so delightful! But we never miss visiting the touchable tide pool and the naked mole rat colony. Of course, the Imax theater is great when you have time, a huge screen and 3-d glasses! When we saw the dinosaur Imax movie, it was as much as I could do not to run away screaming.

Don't forget a picnic or at least snacks so you can sit out in the courtyard, or walk about a minute to Seattle Center House and enjoy the good coffee and food court. Or go up to the coffee shop in the Science Center and take a rest there, before investing $1 in paper to make swinging pendulum drawings down below.

Edy Kizaki, Realtor

Happy New Year in Seattle

Here are the photos of the Fireworks at the Space Needle on New Year's Eve at Midnight! These are a bit blurry, taken in the middle of the night, but hopefully you'll get the (ooooo! ahhhhhhh!) sense of it.

I will never forget New Year's Eve on the Mound in Gasworks Park, watching the fireworks. Last night around 11:30 p.m. we arrived at Gasworks Park. There were cars everywhere parked nearby, but turning toward the water we discovered the whole parking lot behind the park was empty. But we boldly parked there anyway, and 10 minutes later so did about 15 other people, it just took one car and the whole place filled up!

Gasworks Park is just at the north end of Lake Union. It is right down the street from our office and famous for a great kite-flying location (there is even a kite shop just down the street from us!) but there is also a great view of the Space Needle and downtown, and there were, I would say, over 1,000 people sitting on the hillside facing the Lake and the Space Needle. We only got there 15 minutes before midnight, but was my rear ever cold in those 15 minutes. Next time remind me to bring a blanket or at least a square of cardboard to sit on!! But it was wonderful, a bright black night with lighted boats crusing the lake and the space needle with it's little pointed Christmas tree on top standing up right across the lake from us.

The people around us were in high spirits laughing and joking and calling out to the crowd, and one guy kept saying, if they don't do the fireworks pretty soon, then definitely the aliens are going to arrive...it really did look like the scenes in movies where people gather at the top of a mountain and raise up their arms to the sky waiting for the aliens to show up. My son started calling out "We come in peace!" My camera, not on a tripod, did not get any real crisp photos of the fireworks, so what I have to share here are some blurry, impresionistic images of the lake, night, the lights on Queen Anne Hill and the Space Needle spouting fire and glory

It was definitely the place to be and the thing to be doing, I doubt I will ever be anywhere else ever again on New Year's Eve. If Fremont is the Center of the Universe (as you may know this truth was discovered more than 20 years ago by a Fremont native), then Gasworks Park must be the Center of the New Year in Seattle. We watched 2008 being born on the Pacific Rim, in the dark and the crisp air among a crowd of joyful people who had no intention of letting the joyful event go by unnoticed!

May 2008 bear out the promise this celebration brought into life, and bring you all to Seattle to enjoy it with us!

Edy Kizaki, Realtor

Snow, Rain, Sun, and Here Comes the 25th!

It really has been an especially nice fall season. And it's not that I've done as much as usual, but ... quality people. Thank you, people in my life! Slowing time down and noticing the little stuff. This is not a burning revelation, I know, but it really does make a difference every moment. And it's like... let today linger.

Seattle? Yes, it's here. I love driving through Wallingford every day on the way to the office. On those little narrow streets with the round islands in the intersections so you weave around. And if another car starts up the street from the other side, you look for a driveway to pull over and let them pass. And you can see Lake Union, the boats, the city and Space Needle behind it in the distance, as you glance up from the narrow street and the green-in-your-face circles... and during the whole progress down toward the lake you are sneaking long, timeless glances at the as-much-as-100-year-old homes with various signs of age and glory, most often lovingly cared for and brought with shining honor right up into the present moment by those who live in them and care for them. And saying to yourself... This is Seattle...this is Seattle...this is Seattle...this is sooooo Seattle...

Tell you what, you've been good so next time I drive down those streets I'll take a few shots of lovely Wallingford character homes and put them in this post to try and give you a sense of the neighborhood.

Edy Kizaki, Realtor

10 Must-Dos in Seattle

I picked up a "Seattle Visitor's Guide" at the airport when I went to pick up Sayaka a couple weeks ago (Sayaka is a college student from Japan who's staying with us for a few months). I thought it would just be for my clients, but when I started leafing through it, I found it to be full of interesting and even exciting things I felt I just had to rush out and do!

These 10 things must be on top of the list! I am not going into much detail tonight, but at least I can get the 10 things in and then go from there.
1. Ride the Space Needle
2. Explore the Pike Place Market
My Virtual Tour of Pike Place Market
3. Investigate Bill Speidel's Underground Tour
4. Study the Seattle Public Library
5. Dip Into the Seattle Aquarium
6. Wander the Seattle Waterfront
7. Woodland Park Zoo
8. Stroll Olympic Sculpture Park
My Virtual Tour of Olympic Sculpture Park
9. Take A Ferry
10. Trip to Tillicum Village

I know that visitors to the city can get a CityPass and a Go Seattle Card but I still have to check out exactly what these involve. Anyway, since I live here it will be much better to take it slowly and really enjoy each of these awsome ideas for exploring Seattle...I believe everything is better if you are with friends when you see it. Somehow the two intertwine and leave their mark on each other, the people on the world, and the world on the people.

Edy Kizaki, Realtor