Independence All Day

We paraded hard today. Kirkland had a pretty good 4th of July parade that we could walk to and did so. I love walkable events.

This was all very exotic to me, living in a landlocked couple of states my whole life. Really as far as the midwest is concerned the navy and the coast guard barely exist. I had never even considered submarine veterans!

Luckily I was not left having to imagine what a submarine looks like, as they brought one along with them.

The Ukraine Association of Washington State was getting me emotional. Helping Ukraine stay free is one of the rare instances where I can be 100% of our military industrial complex.

This old timey car broke down in the middle of the parade and had to be pushed away. It was a good reminder of the amazing advances in automobile technology over the years.

Casa Italiana is an Italian cultural center in Burien, WA that I have been keeping an interested eye on. When they put out a call for people to walk in the Burien parade with them we answered, as good Italians do.

The first order of business was to Italian pimp out Ernie's stroller.

There was a Vespa or two in attendance.

We had literature to disperse as well as candy.

It was fun.

I don't know what Ern is crabby about here but I'm going to say it's because he had some much fun at the parades and now he's sad that it's all over. Next year buddy!

Ernie Meet Pie

We've been itching for adventures since a certain small someone forced a pause in flights. We decided that we wanted to wait until Ernesto got his 2 month old series of immunizations before we got on a plane. In the meantime we've been scheming and plotting. We booked Ernie his first plane ticket to Anchorage, AK!

Previously we'd kind of sponged Ernie to clean him, but this time we got serious and gave him the full salon shampoo over the sink.

He seemed to enjoy it.

We have to sort of fold down Ernie's diapers to not interfere with his little beef jerky umbilical cord stump. When will that gross little thing fall off?

Today I was very excited to make my first journey to The Australian Pie Company in. Burien, Washington. I have a long running love affair with Australian meat pies. I was introduced to them in Melbourne and have been a fan ever since. An Australian guy owned Silver Ballroom, a pinball place in St. Louis, and had meat pies on the menu. Then after the move to Seattle I was overjoyed to discover a meat pie joint called Jesters in Bellevue Square Mall. We only made it in there once or twice before they suddenly shut down. I was left without a pie dealer and times got tough. Now the good times seem to be here again!

The place had some legit Aussie decor.

Not only did they have pies of several flavors but they had some exotic, I assume Australian, dessert things as well.

This was a Lamington, which according to Wikipedia is "an Australian cake made from squares of butter cake or sponge cake coated in an outer layer of chocolate sauce and rolled in desiccated coconut. The thin mixture is absorbed into the outside of the sponge cake and left to set, giving the cake a distinctive texture. A common variation has a layer of cream or strawberry jam between two lamington halves." 

We fed Ernie a bottle outside and I was sort of shocked and disgusted at how light Ernie's hair was! Especially in the sunlight this kid looked like he had red hair after we finally gave him a deep clean. I thought his hair was way darker but it turns out that was just the color of dirt.

I hade my last delicious mamey sapote. So good. If I'm ever on death row my last meal request is going to be meat pies, Lamingtons, and mamey sapote. Partially because those things are delicious and partially because I would hope those things would be hard to find. Checkmate.