Tutankhamun treasures at Pacific Science Center

Even though I went to the King Tut exhibit in San Francisco a few years ago, when I heard that treasures from his tomb were making their last North American appearance here in Seattle, I felt like I needed to see them. Tutankhamun: The Golden King and the Great Pharaoh at the Pacific Science Center has more than 100 objects on display, most from King Tut's tomb along with other artifacts from ancient Egyptian history. Along with the throngs of others, I marveled at the craftsmanship of the jewelry and objects on display. Along with a 10-foot statue of the pharaoh found at the remains of the funerary temple of two of his high officials, the display includes the golden sandals that Tut's mummy was wearing, a toilet seat (first image below), a cat sarcophagus... Fascinating! The exhibit is on display through January 6, 2013.

Hosting guests from Japan

Ever since I began working for a Japanese company back in San Francisco, Oscar's been quite interested in Japan, and now he's been learning the language at school. And every year his school hosts students from Tokyo's Shukutoku Sugamo Middle School, so we signed up to be a host family for a weekend. It's a good way to get a taste of hosting exchange students, and it's just a three-night commitment. Chris met our students after school on Friday, they stayed through the weekend, and went back to school with Oscar on Monday morning.

In their suits and penny loafers, Koto and Ryunosuke looked strikingly different from the rumpled T-shirt-and-jeans-wearing kids at Hamilton. They were painfully shy, didn't smile, and either were too shy to speak or just didn't know very much English at all. Uh-oh.

I'd been thinking about them a lot before they got here, and asked everyone for ideas of what to do with them. I compiled a list of activities for each day and night, along with menus. I wanted to give them a good taste of typical American life.

Over the weekend, we ate pizza, salad, hamburgers, spaghetti, bacon and eggs, pancakes, and french toast, and lots of different fruits. We made s'mores on the barbecue grill. We ate on a barge on Lake Union at Ivar's Salmon House. To their credit, they tried some of everything that was offered to them. I'm not sure if they actually liked the food or if they were just being polite, but they ate a lot more than I thought they would! Judging from portion sizes, I'd say they definitely liked the watermelon and s'mores, but I guess 14-year-old boys eat a lot no matter what. When the kids were allowed to choose their own snacks from a museum cafe, they took a long time selecting what they wanted! They both picked ice cream cones and a soda. Ryunosuke's strawberry Fanta was too sweet, and I offered to get him a new drink. He took a long time picking out another one--finally deciding on peach tea--and got some disgusting nachos with fake cheese as well. Blech.

We took the boys canoeing on Lake Union, to the Ballard Locks, to see the King Tut exhibit at the Pacific Science Center, and we rode the monorail to Gameworks arcade downtown. They fell asleep often; they were still quite tired and jet-lagged even though they had been in Seattle for a few days before we met them. The only time they really seemed like they were relaxed and having fun was when they were playing videogames together. Oscar was able to play with them, and the language barrier seemed to evaporate.

All in all, in was frustrating trying to communicate with our guests, but I feel like maybe even if my Japanese was better and their English was better, they still might've felt too awkward to have conversations. I felt victorious every time we actually exchanged information. For example, I learned that Ryunosuke had been in the U.S. two times before, once when he was very small, and once to Portland. I learned that their favorite sight in Seattle was "downtown."

Oscar enjoyed having the kids stay with us, and wants to sign up to host again next year. It seems there are plenty of opportunities to host students in Seattle. If any Seattleites are interested in hosting a Japanese student, Azumano International is looking for 50+ more families to host students this summer for one- to three-week stints. (The kids will attend ESL classes at UW or SPU in the morning and do sightseeing and cultural activities with their class in the afternoons.) If you're interested, contact Megan or Sharon at seattle.edu@azumano.com.

Tilth

Mother's Day is probably the one of the most popular days to eat out at a nice restaurant. Count me in! I got a reservation for an early dinner (brunch was booked, alas!) at Tilth, a neighborhood place featuring organic, locally sourced food. Besides having delicious cuisine, it's a super cute place, located in a green Craftsman house with a lovely outdoor eating area and excellent service. According to the restaurant's website, Tilth was voted one of the best new restaurants in the country in 2008. Its executive chef and owner, Maria Hines, is a James Beard Award winner for Best Chef of the Northwest, as well as one of Food & Wine Magazine’s 10 Best New Chefs of 2005.

Luckily, it was a beautiful sunny day, so we got to eat outside. We opted to get the five-course tasting menu; I got the vegetarian version and Chris and Oscar got the carnivore version. The first course, savory apple soup with a gruyere and caramelized onion-topped crouton, was Chris and Oscar's favorite. My favorite was the second course, roasted garlic flan with cauliflower, green onion, and caper. I also had carnaroli risotto with firm chunks of carrot, stinging nettle, and pine nuts and house-made potato gnocchi with English peas, morel mushrooms, and lemon thyme. (Oscar and Chris had sablefish and hangar steak for the last two courses.) For dessert, we got chocolate ganache cake with cocoa cream and a salt-topped chocolate cookie the size of a pencil eraser. It was a great meal, and even Oscar ate most everything, and at least tried everything.

Tilth's menu changes monthly, which makes me think it might be a good idea to visit at least seasonally! I'm still determined to eat brunch there one of these days. I need a special occasion. Or a visitor! Anyone?!

Free Comic Book Day

Today is the first Saturday in May, which is one of my favorite holidays: Free Comic Book Day! It's such a fun way to preview the latest comics from all types of publishers. The best contain complete stories; some have previews of a few pages of several titles the publisher is promoting. There's even a full-cover hardcover freebie anthology of Mouse Guard this year. There's a huge array of samples, but the stores I've been to set limits on the number you can take. Last year at our local Oakland, California store the limit was three; at our neighborhood store in Seattle today the limit is six, but either way if you bring several family members, you can get a good supply of reading material for free! Be careful of flip comics or you might pick up the same comic twice like I did: Even though it was clearly labeled as a flip comic on both sides, I didn't realize that Anna & Froga and Moomin Valley Turns Jungle were two sides of the same comic. I was too excited by the Anna & Froga artwork (check out the pic of the worm, cat and frog below). So pretty!

Our local comic book seller, Comics Dungeon, was mobbed when Oscar and I arrived at 11 a.m. Besides shelves of free comics, the store has marked down its kids' comics by 35% and its graphic novels and trade paperbacks by 25%; T-shirts and toys are also on sale. Like most of the crowd in Comics Dungeon, we took advantage of the lowered prices. (The cashier told me Free Comic Book Day is by far the busiest day of the year!) I got a hardcover Nancy book by one of my favorite old-school artists, John Stanley; Oscar bought a Skullboy Army comic. In terms of comics, I gravitate to the all the kids' comics, and my favorites consistently come from Fantagraphics and Drawn & Quarterly. I also love Bongo, Top Shelf, and Kaboom! And I should mention the Voltron Force comic that my friend Traci at VIZ Media edited is in Free Comic Book Day preview form as well. (I don't know anything about Voltron Force and generally avoid the superhero-type action stuff, but I know if Traci worked on it, it's awesome!)

Anyway, free comic book day goes on all day long, so be sure to hit up your local shop!

Company picnic, 2012-style

Yesterday I participated in my first 5K run! Except it was more like a brisk walk -- partly because I haven't actually run since high school (possibly junior high), and partly because I was hemmed in by toddlers, strollers, and many, many, many Microsoft employees and their families. We all showed up on Saturday morning for the first Campus Jam activity of the day, the Family Fun Run! The route took us around and through the Microsoft campus. There was a giant balloon arch and marching band at the end, which was playing Beyonce's "Crazy in Love" as I crossed the finish line. Even though I'm sure I routinely walk that distance around the neighborhood, it felt glorious!

After the run, we ate box lunches outside by one of the fountains, checked out exhibitor booths, and I took an invigorating and challenging zumba class while Chris and Oscar played Frisbee. There were yoga classes too, but I missed out on that. In fact, we really experienced only a tiny fraction of the activities available. There were player appearances from the Seattle Seahawks, Sea Gals, Seattle Storm, Sounders FC, and the Seattle Mariners. There were kids' sports clinics for cheering, football, baseball, soccer, and basketball; cooking demonstrations; crafts; a scavenger hunt; 3-on-3 basketball; a climbing wall; trampoline; Kinect games; and yes, even a competitive 5K race.

Microsoft, obviously, is incredibly huge, and this event was packed with thousands and thousands of people. The number of box lunches they had on hand -- at four distribution stations over the campus -- was staggering. It was crowded! Not horribly so, but they did run out of cups for the water during the race, and certain flavors of the free smoothies they were giving out. Obviously a fitness-centered event like this is designed to encourage employees and their families to be healthy. The cynical part of me thinks MS probably gets a big discount on insurance rates for promoting a healthy lifestyle. It would've been cool to have some old-timey sack races or tug-of-war competitions, but it was a great spring event even so.

The Next 50 at Seattle Center

Seattle hosted the World's Fair in 1962, so this year marks the 50th anniversary. It would be so awesome if Seattle would host a 2012 World's Fair, but instead the city is marking the anniversary of the 1962 event with a six-month celebration called "The Next Fifty." Yesterday was the opening celebration. Hoping for some cool retro nostalgia, we headed to Seattle Center -- where the Space Needle is. The Space Needle was of course constructed for the 1962 World's Fair, and the "saucer" part was recently painted orange because that's how it looked back then -- when it was the tallest building west of the Mississippi River. Seattle Center is a huge area -- home to Key Arena, Memorial Stadium, Pacific Science Center, Experience Music Project, The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Seattle Repertory Theatre, SIFF Cinema, Seattle Children's Theater, the new Chihuly Garden and Glass museum (opening soon!), the International Fountain Pavilion, a Poetry Garden... and lawns for lounging and picnicking.

The weather this weekend could not have been better, warm and sunny and perfect for enjoying an day outside watching school marching bands, drill teams, and skateboarders at the skatepark, and sampling fare from the many assembled food trucks. There wasn't much in the way of 1962 artifacts, but there are some cool vintage tchotchkes for sale in the gift shop, and 1962 TV shows were playing the pavillion. ("The Beverly Hillbillies" was onscreen when I popped in.)

The Next Fifty celebration is going on until October 21 (to coincide with the 1962 World's Fair dates), so it's a great time to visit Seattle Center!

Rock Band Camp

Oscar spent much of his spring break brushing up on guitar at Rock Band Camp. He's been taking piano lessons at Off the Wall School of Music since last fall, but his guitar has been sadly neglected in Seattle -- until now!

At camp, the kids were able to try new instruments and play together as a group, which Oscar's never done before in a rock setting, though he's played in orchestral bands at school. Oscar's band named themselves "The Mustache Brigade," and wore adhesive mustaches from nearby Archie McPhee. They also made a music video with crazy props, which I'm dying to see (if I get a link, I'll post an update!). On the last day of camp the kids gave a performance to show off the songs they'd learned. Check it out (and apologies for the crazy iPhone camerawork)!

All Along the Watchtower
Sunshine of My Life
Seven Nation Army

Off the Wall is holding more Rock Band Camps this summer, so hopefully Oscar will get more experience as a rock god. I highly recommend Off the Wall's staff: They're playful and fun, extremely patient, and of course all talented musicians!

Teacher love at Kidd Valley

It's hard to be a non-meat-eater in a meat-loving family, so I'm always looking for options that we'll all like. Since I also try not to eat fried foods (i.e., the fish sandwich is usually not a good option for me), it can be difficult in an on-the-run situation to find anything that I want to eat. My favorite fast-food place in Wallingford is Kidd Valley for one reason: It serves genuine, original-style Garden Burger-brand garden burgers, which I find infinitely superior to the dreaded Boca burgers, and most other veggie or black bean burgers. Kidd Valley's hamburgers, fries, and onion rings are also Oscar- and Chris-approved, and their shakes -- hand-mixed with seasonal fruit, chocolate, or vanilla -- are reknowned.

Since it's spring break week here in Seattle, it's an excellent time to visit Kidd Valley with the kids, and while you're there, make sure you have them nominate their favorite Washington teacher for Kidd Valley Teacher of the Year. (Entries must be received by May 20, and you can also enter online, mail them in, or submit them at any Kidd Valley restaurant.) The winning teacher will get a $500 gift card for school supplies, and the student who nominated him or her will get a Kidd Valley Burger Party. My kid hates to write, and especially hates essays, but evidently he really loves his Japanese teacher because he immediately took an entry form -- unprompted -- and filled it out, including specific examples of why his teacher is the best. Good luck, Ms. McDonald!

Spring flowers

While Seattle doesn't get much of what I think of as true wintery weather, the transition to spring is much more dramatic than the Bay Area. Now, everything is blooming! It's so beautiful and welcome after a gray rainy season. We've had some nice warm sunny days -- including the last two weekends. I've been busy weeding, planting, and trimming stuff -- and since I know nothing about gardening it's all very experimental. (We have a lot of worms in the yard, but also a lot of slugs -- do those cancel each other out?) I can't wait to see if any of my seeds actually grow into plants!

Nook

Nook -- on scrubby University Way & 50th in the U District -- mostly serves one thing: biscuits. Fluffy, buttery, delicious biscuits. Biscuits with sausage gravy; biscuits with mushroom gravy; biscuits with bacon, egg, cheddar and tomato jam; biscuits with ham, egg, and cheese (with dijon or jalapenos optional); biscuits with goat cheese spread, tomato jam, and egg; biscuits with ham, brie, and arugula-pesto. You can even get a plain buttermilk biscuit with jam. There's also homemade soup and chili if you don't like biscuits (i.e., if you're crazy!).

The biscuits alone are basically irresistible, but Nook itself is as well. From its owl logo to the cheerful aqua wainscoting and jam jar light fixtures and snug booths, it's the epitome of hipster chic.

Unfortunately, all this irresistibility has a price. As in, you better get there early (I suggest arriving when it opens at 9, Wednesday through Sunday). And the competition for the four booths and four counter stools is pretty fierce as well. Nook closes when it sells out of biscuits (and from what I hear, it always sells out). Get there before noon on a weekend, or you're probably out of luck.