A Day Out With My Grandson

Saturday, April 19th, was my grandson's 17th birthday.  He had plans with his dad and I was at the Chevrolet Dealership reunion so, today Bob & I took him out.   We drove to Seattle and took him to lunch at the Rain Forest Cafe.  (We were seated right across from the gorilla's. They are noisy!) After that we came back to town and went to a Lego place (City Blocks) in a big building called Freighthouse Square. At 17, he still loves Lego's and builds all sorts of intricate & interesting things out of them.

Freighthouse Square always brings back lots of childhood memories for me.  At one time it was the Milwaukee Railroad Freight House and my dad worked as a train dispatcher up on the second floor of that building.  My dad retired back in the 1970's and the Milwaukee RR folded up in 1980.  The developers moved in and turned the Freighthouse into little shops, restaurants, etc.  There are still tracks running behind the building and they are now used for the Sounder commuter train that runs from Tacoma to points north.

After visiting the Lego place we walked across the street and took the light rail link that runs from a huge parking garage into downtown Tacoma.  It only runs about 2 miles but it's free and a great way for those working in buildings downtown to get to work.   We enjoyed the ride passing by the Washington State Museum of History, The Museum of Glass, the old Union Station ,now housing Federal Court Rooms and then onto the theater district of Tacoma.  I can still remember going to the Union Station as a child to catch the train to grandma's house in eastern Washington.

From there we went to a used book store nearby, at Harrison's request.  I'm glad he requested it because I found a book I've been looking for and they had a bunch of books for 25 cents each and off that rack I got the book "Hour of Gold, Hour of Lead" by Anne Morrow Lindbergh.  I used to have that book years ago and started to read it at one time, but never finished it. 

All in all we had a great day and were able to take some pictures around town. Happy Birthday again...my dear grandson!