I wish I were big…
We spent last weekend in the Dells with our friends, Jay and Carla, and I realized just how much fun it is to go back to places I went as a kid and still find the small joys in those places. The waterslides at Noah’s Ark can still cause me to burst out screaming, and I was as giddy as a kindergartner on their first day of school as I waited for the Spongebob 4D movie to start. It is times like this that I realize I’m not as far removed from my childhood as society says I should be at this age – what a relief!
It was while we were killing time before heading to the drive-in movie that we stumbled across the infamous Zoltar Speaks fortune telling machine (as seen in BIG with Tom Hanks, you know you remember the scene…). In all of our excitement we neglected to actually get our fortunes told, then again maybe we were both nervous about the power of the all mighty Zoltar and didn’t want to try our luck. Now that I’m home looking at the picture my mind wanders – what would I wish for??
We spent the past week planning the whole trip. Food, route, fuel, etc. Since this was both of our first time flying in, we were a little nervous about the flight. We left this morning about 10 am after a short delay due to fog. The flight was pretty uneventful and we got flight following most of the way. We saw lots of traffic on the way over, but once we got to Oshkosh the traffic was surprisingly light. We sequenced in at Ripon following a Mooney and at Fisk we were directed to Runway 36. Just inside Hwy 41 they cleared us to land on the yellow dot and Keith made a great landing. 
we seem to be getting picked up by a couple of the online LEGO media outlets. How freakin’ cool is that!!! We’ve posted the links here and we have to give hugs, kisses, and fuzzy sharks out to 
Dave and I spent most of our 4th painting….oooooooh, ahhhh, ooohhh! Yeah, well, you’d be saying that too if you saw what the garage looked like before today. We don’t need fireworks to celebrate the 4th around here, the new paint job on the garage is enough to get us both excited. The process was horrendous: scraping paint since Monday, and today, fighting biting beetles, dealing with our fear of heights, and the heat. I have to admit though, it looks freekin’ gorgeous and I am so happy that we got it done!
For those of you wondering what Cup and Cone is, it is an incredible little ice cream/hoagie place that is an icon in downtown White Bear Lake, Minnesota. On any given evening in the summer there is a line about 20 people deep just waiting for their chance at the happiness in the form of soft serve.
I’ve spent the past four days in Seattle and I love it! What’s not to love? I think I can handle the cloudy days just because there are so many other things here that make me smile. Airplanes and mountains and crab boats…oh my! Though I have been out here on business, I have managed to cross off some sights I wanted to see in between discussing aircraft parts and plastic pellets. I saw Mt. Rainier for the first time and was completely in awe of its beauty. I’ve done the Boeing Factory Tour at the Future of Flight Museum in Everett and seen the 787 in person. I’ve tried Calamari for the first time in my life…and really loved it. And I saw the crab boat “Wizard” from DSC’s series “Deadliest Catch. The list goes on and on but I really don’t have the time to elaborate right now. I’ll do that when I return home. The bottom line is I have loved Seattle. I have a crush on Seattle. Everyone told me I wouldn’t want to leave…and they were pretty much right. Stacy and I will be planning a vacation out here soon and I will miss the sweet smell of Left Coast air mixed with a hint of Jet A until I return. Till next time…here’s a picture of Rainier to keep you entertained… 
