Camping

18 adults, 10 kids, 3 babies, beach & sand dunes, smores, and early morning thunderstorms & mud make for one VERY fun weekend!

Kidless in Seattle: Our last day :(

So...before I left to join Aaron in Seattle my sis-in-law, Katie, jokingly asked me if we would be taking a trip to Forks, WA.  I laughed and quickly assured her that we would NOT be wasting our time driving to Forks.  Now for those of you who have never read the Twilight series that question probably makes no sense so let me just add that Forks is the town that the series takes place in and people (a.k.a the diehard fans) actually go there to visit because of the books.  Seems a little extreme to me, but...whatever.

Back to the story.  I left for Seattle.  Aaron and I did all the fun things shown in previous posts and were wanting to go whale watching on the last day.  Turns out you have to SIT on a boat for 5-6 HOURS looking for whales.  Not really how we wanted to spend our last day in WA so plan B went into effect.

Plan B was a visit to Olympic National Park.  It was a bit of a drive, but within the park is a RAIN FOREST (not a tropical one obviously).  We were curious so Aaron researched and plotted out our day.  The night before as he was planning our drive, I took a look at the map and had to smother a giggle.  To get to this place we HAD to drive through Forks, WA and a few other locations in the book.  Right before bed I put on my most serious face and informed Aaron of where he had planned for us to visit.  His look...priceless.  It was a running joke the rest of the day.  Do you know that you can get Edward and Jacob sandwiches at the grocery deli??  Did you know that you can take a tour through Forks with a company called Dazzled by Twilight??  I can't even think about this without rolling my eyes and laughing out loud.  Aaron just loved it.  All joking aside.  I really hope the Twilight hype is helping this little town out and the park was beautiful and very different from any other national park that I have ever visited.

See...I wasn't kidding!  :)

The Rain Forest

You just have to go and check it out.  Pictures don't do it justice.

Trying to skip a rock (yeah...I can't do it!)

Trying to jump on top of this giant log 

(Aaron did make it on his 2nd try w/o the backpack.  I just think this pic is funnier.  :))

The coastline...beautiful

Kidless in Seattle: Part 3

DISCLAIMER:  If you are getting tired of viewing pics of our trip to Seattle, then please do not hesitate to leave my blog and come back in a few days because this entry and the next will be about our trip.  :)

Day 3 included a walk through Washington University's campus (the architecture is beautiful), eating chowder (something I never envisioned myself EVER doing!), going to an old gas refinery that had been converted into a park (I thought it was a bit weird, but it is one of the best places to go to view the skyline of the city so whatever.), and then we did a tour of the city, but not just any tour... a FOOD tour (Savor Seattle).  It was a great way to learn about the city and visit some really interesting restaurants.  Although...note to self...if I ever park my car in a garage in Seattle on a Sunday, I will remember to see what time the garage closes so that I will not be ONE minute late, I will not have to deal with a garage guard that is grumpy, and I will not have to pay a fine to get my car out because I was ONE minute late and he chose to write the ticket for my car first!!!!!  Just needed to get that out of my system one last time. :)

Bit of trivia:

This fountain was created for one of the first World Fairs and it is pretty deep.  

I bet they fish college kids out of it ALL the time.

The library

Makes me want to go to Europe.

Really??  This needed to be made into a park?

Aaron did take this cool pic though.

And shockingly I have no pics of our food tour...we didn't feel like lugging the camera around with us so you will just have to imagine lots of pics of yummy food (duck tapas/sangria, cheesy pizza, truffles, risotto/wine, beer/cheese, the yummiest carrot cake I've every tasted, etc, etc, etc).  

Part 4 (a.k.a The Inadvertent Twilight Tour) is coming soon and will be the conclusion of our trip! 

  

Kidless in Seattle: Part 2

On day 2 God blessed us with the P.E.R.F.E.C.T weather so we decided to head to Mount Ranier National Park.  It was beautiful.  The forest was green.  The sky was crystal clear.  And the snow-covered, sleeping volcano showed its smiling face ALL day, which I'm told is not the norm.

It was calling to us!  :)

Slokum Falls

The river was beautiful.  

Could have sat and watched and listened to it all day, but we had hiking to do!  

Mount Ranier...don't think I will be climbing it :)

Once in the park we hiked on 2 of the shorter trails that were NOT snow-covered.  (It is summer! I have no desire to go traipsing thru more snow.  No thanks!) The foliage and water were amazing to me!  I am a CO girl.  We don't have enough water in CO to be this green, have this much ground coverage, this many streams, or trees that are so tall and big around.  CRAZY!!

Silver Falls (much bigger than the pic is showing)

The park rangers would be disappointed in us...we were not on the trail at this point. 

 

Goofing around

 

The Grove of the Patriarchs
   

And this would be why not all of the roads were open in the park.  This is how much snow was still stacked up on the side of the roads.

If you ever get chance to go to Mount Ranier National Park I highly recommend it.  There are so many places to explore in the park and it would be a fun place to go camping with the family.  Although the weather will probably not be this nice every day...at least not in June.  :)

Kidless in Seattle...Part 1

Aaron and I had the privilege and opportunity to go away for a few days just the two of us.  We never could have done this without our awesome family and there really is no way to thank them enough!!  So to those people....thank you, thank you, thank you!!  We love you all and so do our girls!!  (J and K...someday we will return the favor!  Grammy, Gramma, and Papa...you are the best!  :))

Just on a side note:  For all my married friends out there with small children, here is what I learned on my trip...your kids will survive without you and going away with your spouse is like coming up for a breath of fresh air.  Even if you can't go somewhere far away.  Go somewhere!!  Just get away so that you can remember what it was like to just be the two of you!!  Our trip was wonderful and if you can't tell...I would highly recommend it!  :)

And here are the pics:

Day 1:  We did the touristy thing:  Space Needle and Pikes Place Market
(Did you know that they sell WAY more than fish...yeah, I didn't until we got there and my jaw dropped open at how many vendors there were and how many fun stores there were to explore!)

From the bottom looking up

From the top looking out at the city 

(Did I mention that I'm not a huge fan of heights so the glass elevator ride was NOT my fave? :))

The market that only sells fish...haha!

So insanely busy but the flowers lined this whole corridor down the righthand side

See!

Up close they were so vibrant they looked fake

OK.  Moving on. 

 This would be inside the very first Starbucks.

Doesn't it look like a relaxing place to grab a coffee and hang out with a few friends?

The famous fish throwing stand.  

You order your fish from the guys in the front and they throw it back to the guys behind the counter where they package it up for you.

BTW, seafood is not my favorite cuisine, but just for the record I ate A LOT of it on this trip and it was (Shh!  Don't tell Aaron) really good except for the gritty mussels and clams.  

Aaron should be so proud of me!  He, on the other hand, was in fish food heaven! :)

Entertainment on the street and, yes, he did play the guitar on his chin too while spinning those hula hoops.  Crazy!!  And our question was...how do you learn that you are good at this??  What possesses a person to start doing this?

It was so fun to explore the city!  

Day 2 Coming Soon!!