Soaking up those last few weekends

Since KC leaves in less than a week, we have been trying to spend our weekends doing lots of fun activities. Also making sure that we soak up the last bit of wonderful weather we have been having here in the NW! August and September have by far been the nicest months of this year. I think every year it gets later and later into the summer before we have warm, sunny weather. I'll take whatever I can get though!

Over labor day weekend we hung around close to home, but still managed to partake in a few firsts. On Saturday we went to The Seattle Great Wheel. This great wheel is a big ferris wheel located on the Seattle waterfront. It was completed earlier this summer and has been all the talk among locals. This was an attraction that had been planned for some thirty years, but of course it got caught up in the usual problems that such a big structure gets caught up in (permits and such). The big wheel is one of the largest ferris wheels in the country. It stands 175 feet tall and goes forty feet over Elliot bay! It features forty two climate controlled gondolas--which is essential to Seattle because it's not warm all year round (surprise!). There are a few "VIP" gondolas. These include four leather bucket seats, and a glass bottom.

I had never been on ANY ferris wheel so this one kind of freaked me out at first! You do a total of three rotations: the first one is getting everyone loaded, and the following two go non stop. Not going to lie, I was a little freaked out at first when I saw how high we got! At that point I was happy we didn't shell out the big bucks for the VIP gondola that included the glass bottom. By the end though I was a lot more comfortable and couldn't believe how smooth the ride was.

KC inside the wheel!

The view from the top!

On Sunday we trekked down to the coast to go knock something off my bucket list..riding horses on the beach! I was supposed to go visit KC in August down in California while he was down there training, but of course the Army decided otherwise when the weather wasn't at their standards and their weekend was rescheduled for training instead of leisure time. Trip cancelled :-( We had beach horse back riding scheduled down in San Diego, but of course had to cancel that as well. KC wanted to make it up to me.

KC hanging on the beach

Chester and I

KC and Ed

Let's just say this beach riding wasn't all romantic like I thought it would be! Chester (my horse) would walk for about five seconds and then it would start trotting. Trotting is not comfortable. I don't understand why they don't make saddles more padded? I would pull back on the reins to get him to walk again and that would work for a few seconds and then once again he would start trotting. I would pull back on the reins again and he would sometimes slow down. It would get to the point where he didn't even want to pay attention. KC sure got a kick out of watching me though. Anyone else ever experienced something similar when riding a horse?

Overall it was a wonderful day, the sun was shining, and I spent the day with my love. Can't get better than that.