Back again

We left Tacoma Tuesday morning. Before we left Washington, however, it was time to humor Tim and his interests. Tim is a life long Dungeons and Dragons enthusiast. I am too, but not to the degree he is. We stopped in Renton to see the "Wizards of the Coast" headquarters. He felt a little sheepish just going into this big business building, so he brought Joe. Joe wasn't half as giddy and excited as Tim though so I think everyone saw right through his decoy. They actually had a museum and gift bag for visitors so it payed off for him in the end. They also had a huge dragon in the lobby. Elisabeth was bummed when they came out with a "goodies" bag, but that would have just meant more game cards sitting around the house.

We drove to Meridean Idaho and spent the night with Tim's brother Peter and his wife Eileen. They took good care of us too. Thanks Peter, Eileen, and Eileen's Grandpa! It felt so good to be in a house again. The kids were happy with toys and we got to have a little more space. I am amazed by how well I slept the entire vacation. Usually it takes me a night to get used to a new bed but I didn't have one single uncomfortable night. I was probably just so worn out all the time. We had breakfast at IHOP the next morning and drove home.

I am glad to be home for many reasons, but it was a fun vacation. Usually I come home so relieved it is over but not this time. It took me a day of "back to the grind" blues but I am enjoying having free laundry, kids spread out in a house instead of a car or 1 hotel room (right now we are all in the same room, probably smaller than a hotel room, go figure), living out of drawers instead of a suitcases, and homemade food. I acutally enjoyed cleaning my kitchen today. Usually I put that off until Monday morming. You can only clean a hotel room so much when there is no where to put things. I like the sunshine of Utah. It didn't rain until the day we left but we got a lot of grey. Nice to see a lot of bright blue.

I guess it is good to come home from a vacation wanting more right? I can see that as my kids are getting older trips are getting to be more fun. I am glad to say that I love Washington just as much after my second trip as I did after my first. Maybe more!

Tacoma- Point Defiance Zoo& Aquarium

We spent the 2nd 1/2 of our first day in Tacoma in our hotel room. It was Sunday so we didn't want to do anything too exciting. We watched cartoons and "Hook" and I did laundry at the hotel laundry facility. That was VERY nice to have. Weird observance of the sabbath huh? Getting Cartoon Network, Nickleodean and Disney channels again did nothing but make me very glad we don't have cable anymore. We aren't missing much. The kids were watching a cartoon Network show and Sam's reaction to their weird cartoon was priceless. I feel the same way about most Cartoon Network shows. We went to Tacoma for one reason. The Point Defiance Zoo and Aquarium. I went to the Point Defiance Zoo and Aquarium when I went to Washington last time. In the two week time we were there, we went to the Zoo twice. We also went to the Seattle Zoo and my mom and I agreed the PDZA had it beat for really seeing the animals close up and them looking healthy, and more "at home." Puffins are so cute and fun loving. It is smaller than a lot of zoos but it has most zoos beat in quality. The aquarium seemed to have more interesting sea animals than most. They had sharks, Seahorses, Sea Dragons, Jelly fish and a lot more. They also had an area where we were aloud to tough star fish etc. The kids also enjoyed the kids play zone. This was called the "Tired kid" exhibit. Unfortunatly. he was sleeping when we were there. The kids were quite exsausted by the time we left.

The "Twilight" Tour-Forks and Olympic National Park-

As we drove to Forks, the timing of reading "Twilight" continued to be perferct as we read the chapter where Edward drove Bella back to Forks from Port Angeles as we took the exact same rout. I promise this wasn't planned either. We did a little touring of the town. The next day we saw some more of the Hoh National Forest and 1st and 2nd Beach in La Push. Here are some pictures of the sights mentioned in the book.

The School The Thriftway where she shopped The Hospital the Police Station where her Dad worked. La Push, 1st Beach, and 2nd Beach. I think if she had actually visited the place she probably would have staged the scene on 2nd Beach, it was quite a bit more remarkable.Hoh Rain Forest,

On the way out of 2nd Beach I found this silver Volvo parked next to our van and HAD to take a picture. It was actually pretty beat up and I don't see Edward driving a beat up Volvo, or this model or year either. It was also on the Quileute reservation and if I am correct. . .Edward isn't allowed anywhere near there.

While in Forks I ate a "Bella" Burger (meat patty on bun with swiss chesse and pinapple) at Sully's Burgers and the Subway there had it's own tribute to Twilight as well. I am not big on chicken sandwiches so I didn't get that one. It was really fun being in the town of Forks, but at the same time there was that empty feeling that none of it actually happned and the writer had never even seen the town when she wrote the book. Not empty enough to keep me from buying a "Forks Washington" hooded sweatshirt though, just for bragging rights.
Here is one more picture of my boys to finish off my Forks entry.

Port Angeles- British Columbia

The same day we left Seattle we headed up to Port Angeles. Our "Twilight" tour began there. I read "Twilight" much of the trip up to Seattle and it just so turned out timing wise that we read the chapter called "Port Angeles" as we headed to the city itself. When we got there we ate at no other than the resturaunt featured in "Twilight", "Bella Italia".

I had a handsome guy sitting across from me like the scene in the book, but the kids on either side of both of us kind of killed the romance. Good food! To our dissapointment they didn't have mushroom stuffed ravioli however. That sounded yummy. Tim asked the waitress if the book has brought more patrons to the resturaunt and she said they are just getting more people from far away. She said it was fun because lots of 12 year olds came and got their picture taken in front of the resturaunt. I kind of resented that, but I got the picture taken anyway.

The next morning we took the COHO Ferry to Victoria, British Columbia. The ferry ride was fun and very comfortable. Victoria is a beautiful city. The buildings definitely remind me of Europe. The main reason I wanted to come to B.C. was for the Royal British Columbia Museum. When I was 18 my parents and I took a trip to Washington and we spent a day in B.C. then too. We went to this museum and I was enchanted. I was enchanted again this time and so were my kids as I guessed they would be. The highlights were the Natural History exhibit and Modern History exhibit. There were a lot of neat realistic diaramas that made you feel you were in the great outdoors in the natural history exhibit. There was also an ocean room which made you feel like you were in a submarine with a periscope and portholes. There were also drawers full of ocean life specimens that you could look at under a magnifying glass.
My all time favorite, and the kids', was a life size diarama of Victoria at the turn of the century. You could look in the windows, walk into and upstairs of an old hotel,watch a silent movie in a little old time theater. There was also an old train station, that every so often had a sound and light effects that made it seem a train was passing outside.
We spent the rest of the day touring the rest of the city (the modern one, not the museum version.) It was a perfect warm, sunshiny day. It couldn't have gone better.
The next day we went to Hurricane Ridge in the Olympic National Park. It was absoluletly beautiful. The ride to the top was very dramatic with all the fog. The ranger said that the clouds that filled the whole valley to the very top were a rare sight. Many of the rangers who worked there had never seen it like this in all their years working there.
We went back to Port Angeles for Indian food for lunch. It was good but it wasn't as good as India Palace in Provo. On our way to Forks we stopped to take a hike to Marymere falls. It was a great hike for our kids too. Not difficult at all. Unfortunatly Sam did the same thing here as he did in much of B.C. Cry to be carried, but insisting only I carry him. He didn't win that battle. It was either walk or be carried by Dad. I carried him once in a great while though. It made things kind of hard the whole vacation.

There and back again- Seattle

We drove the rest of our way to Seattle the next day. The view was soooo beautiful. Waterfalls coming down on the side of the road, and many more shades of dark green than I thought possible. That plus the mist made for a breathtaking welcome into Seattle.

I was breathless in a whole different way when we had to take all our luggage from a seperate parking garage, the long way around to the hotel (hey we didn't know the quick way until later that day) and had to wait half an hour in the lobby of the Sheraton. Even though it was past check in time they didn't have our room clean for us yet. It wasn't that long but it seemed like it with our kids climbing the walls after a long car ride for the past two days and lots of business travelers eying our children.

Nice hotel! Thank goodness we didn't have to pay for it. Tim had a AIR (Association of Institutional Research) conference there so we were payed for. We spent that evening looking for a place to eat, first on foot, and then by car. We finally found a pizza place and it was good. We also stopped at a convenience store to get breakfast and lunch foods for me and the kids as we didn't want to eat expensive room service or have to march around town looking for food again.

I spent the next day in the hotel room with the kids. You may ask "Kristin, why did you do that?" and I really can't say. I have no idea what I was thinking. The city kind of overwhelmed me ok. I saw how hectic it was walking around the city with the kids AND Tim. I couldn't imagine trying it without him. I really don't need to describe that day do I? Lets just say when Tim got home that evening I answered the door with "Tim, will you please beat the children for me?" No beatings were actually administered of course. Honestly, considering the circumstances, the kids weren't really that bad and I told Tim to beat the kids with a smile on my face. I do have to add that I did take the kids out for a half hour walk so the maid could clean our room. We went to a little food store and hung out in the lounge. The concierge guy gave my kids free apple juice and put them in front of the TV. He was being nice to me and the kids but even more he was being nice to the other adults trying to enjoy the lounge.

We took the monorail to the City Center and walked around the Northwest Folklife Festival (hippy festival really) Later that night we saw on the news that there was a shooting at the festival the day before. Warm fuzzies all over. I felt like I had been living in Utah too long.

We got some food at a grossly overpriced and not that good a restaraunt. It was one of the most expensive things we did on the whole trip, only comparable to the ferry ride, round trip. After dinner which we spent with two of Tim's coworkers Andrea and Abby, the girls took me with them to get a Starbucks shake, mint chocolate chip. Yum. It was so kind of them to take me away from my children after spending the day in the room with them. I REALLY needed that

break.

The next day, since I had taken the Monorail and saw how it all worked I ventured out with my children and took them on the monorail and to the Children's Museum. I really had wanted to go to the Science Fiction Museum to be honest but it was a lot more expensive and I realized that kids were far more likely to drive me nuts at a museum they weren't excited by. The Children's Museum turned out to be a lot of fun and all went very smoothly. They had a lot of great exhibits and the kids were very occupied the whole time. I felt quite proud of myself for going out into the big city with the kids and without Tim.

That afternoon, when we returned, we went to Pikes Place Market with Tim. It was pretty fun, but I was distracted a lot by grumpy and tired kids. We didn't spend a lot of time there because we had an appointment to meet all of Tim's co-workers at the Cheesecake Factory for dinner. It was great food. The kids were a little crazy but thanks to Abby they were pretty well occupied by her. . .and her drink. You are awesome Abby! After dinner we drove around and Tim took some pictures of the city across the water.

The next day we checked out and I took the kids to McDonalds at the mall while Tim finished his conference. Seattle was beautiful but I decided I am not meant to live in the big city. Way too hectic and definitely not for a family of 6!

There and Back again- Getting there

We are back from our vacation to Washington at long last. It was a lot of fun. One of the best things about it was the huge variety of scenery and activities we enjoyed. I will spread out my blog travel log so it isn't too long trying to cover it all in one.

A few hours into our trip I pulled out my phone and saw that the screen was totally screwed up. I had just bought the phone two weeks ago exactly. We stopped in Boise to eat lunch with Tim's brother Peter and his wife Eileen. We stopped at a T-mobil store on the way out and asked them if there was anything they could do. They saw that it was the very last day of my "buyers remorse" period and asked if I had a receipt and the box. Yeah RIGHT! We asked if they could call the T-mobil store we got it at and get a receipt from them. . .they said they could. . .if their fax machine wasn't broken. They sent us 10 minutes up the road to another T-mobile store. When we got there they said they usually wouldn't do it since I didn't have the box and receipt but since the other store sent me all that way they would do it for me. They gave me the box and everything. I was pleased with their service.

Saturday night, the first night, we stopped in Irrigon, Oregon and spent the night at my highschool buddy Cori's house. We have been friends since the rocky highschool years. Even though she had been to my house a time or two I had never been to hers, or met her husband and her youngest boy. It was so fun to see where she lived and meet the family. She took good care of us with yummy homemade food, something we came to miss greatly in the next week and a half. It was fun to watch our sons bond instantly. Her oldest and my oldest seemed to be kindrid spirits. It was reat to see Cori and chat with her. I remember our dreaming about being wives and moms some day and here we were. I felt like we were playing house or something.