Arriving in Belize

Arrived in Belize around noon and headed west out of Belize City to a spot on the Macal River just outside of San Ignacio San called Chaa Creek.   We stopped at the Belize zoo en route and lo and behold both girls we’re sound asleep.  The zoo was fun but being in the jungle first hand with Howler monkeys right outside our cabin was far more exciting.   Chaa Creek is not roughing it.  Lovely pool and the cabins come with towel “tapirs” on the beds and an outdoor shower surrounded by flowers.  There is a butterfly hatchery and horse “pack trips” and canoes to take up the Macal river and a midnight walk (8pm in our case) deep into the jungle to coax tarantulas out of their homes with leafy twigs and catch nocturnal animals in action.

Simone and Naomi caught a gecko (poor things tail fell off) and they made a nest for him in a big wooden bowl by the pool.

more to be added…

“To play without passion is inexcusable” or Rascal and the Minnie Bergman’s Park.


Naomi has Rascal for the weekend. Rascal is the PK classroom mascot.  Each weekend a student gets to take him home and show him their world.  We’re asked to document our adventures with Rascal for his journal. We can draw pictures, take photos or write stories.  Naomi started out the day by showing Rascal the deck.

Note that Naomi is wearing some felt markers on her belt. Those are to make drawings of Rascal’s adventures.

Rascal is making a dream in the wishing chair.  If it doesn’t work, Naomi promised to use her wand.  It’s magic.

Rascal wanted to push the elevator button.

Rascal needs to lie down.

Rascal and I like to read signs together.

This is our street.  We’re headed on a “playground” hunt.  We’ll drive around a bit and see what we can find.  We vote to head south.

Wow this park is great. The Minnie Bergman Playground and Garden house off Rainier Ave. There was a garden, a good size playground and lots of unusual creatures being created out of vines.

This is a “vine” man being grown to ride on a bicycle.  There is a plaque nearby that reads, “To play without passion is inexcusable.” -Beethoven Wysocki

There are rabbits.

This is there nice big home.

The rabbit cage has a little ramp “passage-way” into the cab of the truck.

The truck is an extension of their home.  Everything about this park is fun.  It never ceases to amaze me how many marvelous things there are to discover in Seattle.

Ricky and Lucy must live here.  Lucy is showing all duck but Ricky favors the chicken side of the family.

The excitement was a bit much for the birds and they slipped through the door to their interior room which had glass windows so we could see eggs in nests waiting to be collected.“Oh no!”  Naomi’s wand fell in the drain.  ”Rascal, what are we going to do?”  ”We are lost!” “Maybe a mouse or a cricket will find it.”  ”Maybe Chester will use it.”  (Chester from the Cricket in Time Square)

“This will cheer Naomi up.” said Simone to me.   Then she brought the rabbit over to Naomi and said, “Look sweetie, we found a bunny on the loose. Let’s put him in the cage with the others.”  I’m wondering how he got out.

Rascal wanted to take one more ride on the dinosaur before we headed home.

Did you know that Rascal can read Mrs Piggle Wiggle?  We decided to do a little reading in the cozy minvan before heading home.

Inspiration is for Amateurs or The Olympic Sculpture Park

When was the last time you launched?  Naomi found this sand bag game board at the Olympic Sculpture Park.  I tried it too.  They had spring and getting air is as good now as when I was ten.

Inside the museum there were a half dozen art projects to choose from.  This is the rubber salmon print workshop.  The prints were to be turned into flags as part of “The Salmon are Returning” celebration.

Happens that Richard Serra was on Charlie Rose last night talking about creativity with Chuck Close, Ann Tempkin, Eric Kandel and Oliver Sacks. It was Episode 12 of the Brain Series.

Have to make a segue here.  Did you know that both Oliver Sacks (Man who Mistook his Wife for a Hat) and Chuck Close (painter of massive flat visages) are face blind?  On Charlie Rose, they shared their work-arounds.

The jelly in the brain never ceases to amaze me.

Face blind (prosopagnosia) means that you can chat with them for an hour and then walk up fifteen minutes later and unless they hear your voice or recognize your hat, they’ll have no idea who you are.  Imagine how hard it would be for them to follow the plot of a film. When it comes to art and science and creativity they never stop…this handicap has caused their brains to develop massive spacial capabilities, honed their memories and most of all, given them an intense drive to discover other venues for their intelligence.

Chuck said, “Inspiration is for amateurs. The rest of us just show up and get to work.  By doing the work you are put in a place where things can happen.”  He also said, “Far more interesting than problem solving is problem creation.”

 

Yes I did try to explain the face blindness to Simone and Naomi and they flippantly surmised that these guys would be really bad at playing the Hasbro game “Guess Who?”

The girls were much more interested in running around the five towering components of “Wake” and before long they had gathered a few new friends to play hide and seek with.

27…28…29…and 50.  Ready or not, here I come.

Hide and Seek…I found you Simone.  

Guess who is playing the Sculpture Park!  The Recess Monkeys!  Daron, Jack and Andrew have a new album called Flying.  The youthful crowd is lining up in the mosh pit.  Wonder if any of the recess monkeys ever crowd surf their audience?

Back to the launch pad.  We try to think “Baryshnikov” and just “stay up there.”

Sand and water

We just came back from four tribal days with friends in Port Townsend.  Leaving urbanity, Simone says, “The pointy tower is shrinking away.”  Suddenly I am thinking about the rock climbing tent we’ll be sleeping in for the next four or five nights.  I’m hoping it is at least a two person tent.  I grabbed a bunch of stuff that looked like camping gear and jumped in the car.  I love that.  Life is so frigging good, that we can just grab a bunch of stuff and set off on a camping trip without worrying about provisions or staying warm.  (No, I did not bring a cook stove or…hmm.)

Everything turned out fine.  We relied heavily on the kindness of strangers until our clan arrived. What we didn’t have in camping equipment we made up for in games, toys and grocery goodies.  Besides…it was deliciously sunny. Finally, summer has come!

The kids went feral.  Here is Simone and her friend Delphine on the beach.  The adults went looney too.  A massive water fight with flying buckets of water broke out among the kids and quickly was taken over and amped up by the adults.  (more images forthcoming)

The dream just floats up into her head.

Sophie was telling me that to help her go to sleep she made a dozen or so small drawings of the things she likes to think about.  Then she put them in an envelope by her bed.  Each night she pulls out three images and tells herself to make them into a dream. “Then the dream just happens,” she said, “it just floats up into my head.”  

Isabel and Sophie playing on the deck of one of Tom Kundig’s alien RVs at Wesola Polana in Mazama.