July 29, 2021 – Woodland Park Zoo, The Tea Cozy, and the Fremont Troll!

It’s not fair they have one of EVERYTHING!!!!!

There is soooooo much to see in this city!! The hubs and I have spent a lot of time figuring out when we’re going where and the best days to go 😁. Today we started at the Woodland Park Zoo. I haven’t been to a zoo for over a year! When we first got in I was afraid it wasn’t going to be worth the trip but the more we wandered around, we found it was! We saw several animals we’ve never seen before – a black and white Malayan tapir, a sloth bear, a red-crowned crane and a white-naped crane and so many animals moving around in their enclosures (which were large and natural which I love).  My favorite was the gorilla enclosure which had a family unit of a silverback, one other male and several females – two of which had babies! One was toddler-sized who rode on its mother’s back until it was ready to roll around on the ground and play with its toes and the other was still so small it was being carried around in its mother’s hand. It was amazing to watch her walk around holding on to her baby.

 

They will eat your face!!!!!!!!

Then we finally got to see a BEAR – it was walking around its enclosure and scratching it’s back on a tree – amazing to see and glad we hadn’t come face-to-face with one while in Glacier. The other bear in this enclosure was having fun in the water, blowing bubbles and watching us watch it!

    

Of course you did!!!

After leaving the zoo, I just happened to look on Google maps and saw a yarn shop just right around the corner 😊 And thankfully, one block down was a small, walk up burger joint for the hubs to sit and wait patiently. The shop, The Tea Cozy Yarn Shop, was lovely. I got lucky since their hours are only noon to 4:00 pm. They carry all kinds of yarn – Berroco, Blue Sky Fibers, Brooklyn Tweed, Cascade, Cestari, Madelinetosh, Malabrigio, Noro, and more. I was surprised to see Quince & Company which I thought was only available online directly from them. I wandered around the shop twice petting the yarns and wondering what I needed to knit and what yarn I needed to knit with. I decided some sweet pale pink all cotton yarn from Quince & Company was the way to go – maybe a sweater for a little baby or a hat – we’ll see. (Ed. Note – Look, I found your stash bag, which is different than your stash box, and some empty whole other stash bags, but just because you have empty containers does not mean you need to fill them!!!!!!!!!!!!!!) (HAHAhahahaha! she laughs mischeviously)

I don’t like toll bridges but troll bridges are perfectly fine!!!! (Yeah, he’ll drive an extra hour to avoid a toll road….sigh)

After a yummy burger at Scooter’s Burgers, I had one more place to visit – the Fremont Troll. The troll sits under the Aurora Avenue Bridge in the neighborhood of, you guessed it, Fremont. It was interesting driving around the neighborhood – the streets are very narrow and very steep! The statue is a concrete sculpture completed in 1990 after a contest was held to rehabilitate the area. In 2005, the street leading down from the troll was renamed Troll Avenue in honor of the troll. The view looking down Troll Avenue was also fantastic. (Ed. Note – The streets are barely wide enough for the truck!!)

    

We’ll be heading back into Seattle soon since there’s too much to see in one day – thank goodness we’re here for a month!