The Most Awesomest Day in Kirkland Ever

I live in a large-ish town or small-ish city known as Kirkland, Washington. It's a great place to live. Since I love making lists, here's one (in no particular order) of why my town is particularly awesome today.

1) The Howard Mandville art gallery. I'm in love with everything in that place, always.
1a) They are latte-friendly.
1b) They currently display a painting of Manhattan that made me cry.

2) The Kirkland Antique Mall. I can, and did, wander this place for hours. While it is funny to compare the West Coast's idea of antiques (~1930s to 1970s) to the East Coast's idea of antiques (~1700s to 1950s), there is something really comforting and infinitely fascinating about taking in such a massive collection of people's former possessions. Every dainty little teacup and garish brooch and oxidized fountain pen whispers stories about the lives of the people who once owned them. I could see how every little thing could have once been representative of a child's favorite memories at grandma's. With my own grandmother's health failing, it made me realize how much of her will still be around in her patterned dishes and salt and pepper shakers and rocking chairs and prints on the walls. Hopefully as those things get passed around she will be able to tell everyone about our Thanksgiving dinners and summers when the ocean breeze would waft through her house.

3) Marina Park parking is now all free until 5 PM. No more circling, waiting for those five free spots to open up. Yes.

4) I saw two girls on unicycles today. Like, regular, possibly even popular, 14-year-old girls on unicycles. I wish I had been cool enough to get away with that when I was that age.

5) Van Morrison seemed to be playing everywhere I went. Including my favorite song of his, "Into the Mystic". Nice.

6) Earlier today I wandered through Juanita Bay Park (north of downtown). I heard at least 15 distinct bird calls.
6a) While walking downtown I heard at least five different languages, apart from English. That was one of my favorite things about living on Park Drive in Boston for a summer in college. Diversity is a beautiful thing.

7) I saw two separate dudes riding recumbent bikes . I don't get recumbent bikes at all. It seems unnecessarily frightening to be weaving through traffic on two wheels while reclined. But both of them looked like the happiest people on the face of the earth, so kudos.

8) It was a day of small pleasures, one of which was watching little kids delight in throwing rock after rock into the lake. I've often wondered if small children will ever tire of throwing rocks into a body of water. At 25, I think I have almost as much fun watching as they do in creating successively larger splashes. I remember taking pleasure in such a small feat when I was a child. I'm sure my parents did when they were children. I hope the trend continues.