Trip to the Pacific Northwest

We have some friends in the Seattle area. We've been wanting to visit them for a LONG time. So, after our successful road trip last summer with the kids, we set one up for this summer. It's so nice to get back to road tripping ... Mike and I used to go all the time, but when the kids were babies, it was too much work!

DAY 1: From home to Boise, ID, with a stop in Twin Falls. The park in Twin Falls was fun; the hotel in Boise was surprisingly really, really nice; dinner at Applebee's that night was great (especially the part where Travis leaned out of our booth and belched at a guy walking buy - I was mortified; you'll understand if you've ever heard one of his loud burps ... he takes after his mommy, he he).

DAY 2: From Boise to Vancouver, WA, with a stop in Pendleton, OR. The park in Pendleton was great; the hotel in Vancouver was not so great, thanks to being in a room right over the pool and the pool being open until midnight (midnight, seriously?) and used right up until then by a bunch of LOUD people; but, hiking to Wahkeena Falls and Multnomah Falls was spectacular, and driving next to the Columbia River was so cool - it's HUGE!

DAY 3: From Vancouver to Forks, WA, with stops in Astoria, OR and Cape Disappointment, WA. Astoria was so much fun - of course, we went to the Goonies house (my all-time favorite movie), and the Astoria Bridge across the Columbia River was really cool (and freaky). We hiked to the North Head Lighthouse on Cape Disappointment - I love lighthouses, but it was my first time actually getting that close to one. Driving through the southwest part of the Olympic Peninsula was nothing short of gorgeous (even with all the Weyerhauser logging graveyards).

DAY 4: In and around Forks. We went to Rialto Beach and First Beach and just relaxed. It was so GORGEOUS. The beaches are so different from the beaches in Southern California - much more my speed (I could just wrap up in a blanket, sit on some driftwood, and read all day long). And the trees are so green, it's like a whole new color I've never seen before. And, I simply adored the cold weather (we heard that it was a little cooler than normal, but I was very glad for it - hey, we'd just come from weeks straight of 95+ weather). Our friends from Seattle joined us that night (we cooked a yummy salmon dinner ... mmmmmmm).

(Here's a pic of where we stayed in Forks ... looking out the front window, the Quillayute River is about 50 feet away. It was a great little place; I definitely recommend it, and we'll definitely stay there again. Here is their website.)

DAY 5: From Forks to Seattle. In the morning, we went back to Rialto Beach (the waves were huge, and Mike and Travis - our friend the big Travis, the one our little Travis is named after - had a blast making piles of huge rocks and watching the waves pull them down). Then we went for a drive to the Hoh Rainforest and hiked through the "Hall of Mosses" (which would have been really cool, if not for Charlotte turning into a demon child due to sleep deprivation). Then we drove to Seattle ... we stopped in Port Angeles for a yummy fresh crab dinner (that took FOREVER), and we took the Edmonds-Kingston ferry across Puget Sound (that was AWESOME; my first time on a ferry, and I was really excited ... though the guy at the pay booth didn't share my excitement).

DAY 6: In and around the Seattle area. We relaxed and drove around a little bit. We took the kids to a local park, and it was SO COOL (in fact, Travis keeps asking to go back to "the park with the big blue slide and the Spiderman stuff - and he doesn't care that it's so far away from home, he wants to go anyway). That night when the kids were in bed, we had fun chatting with our friends (and eating root beer floats and some really good bean dip).

DAY 7: In and around the Seattle area. We spent a good share of this day driving around some more rural areas east of Seattle. We've been thinking about maybe moving up there, and this was a chance to check out some land. It's beautiful there!! Then, we went to Lake Sammamish State Park (or, as I think of it, "Goose Poop Beach" - it was seriously covered in goose and duck crap ... but, it was still really fun, and the kids couldn't have been happier ... and the Lake and the surrounding area are really beautiful).

DAY 8: From Seattle ALL THE WAY HOME! We left at 4:00 a.m. (Pacific time) and made it home at 5:45 p.m. (Mountain time). The kids didn't even complain once about being in the car so long (born road trippers, I guess). We fixed a quick dinner, I took a speed shower, and then my mom watched our exhausted kids while Mike and I ran down to my band's 24th of July party gig (it's not MY band, but the band I play with). After all of that, I could have slept for a week.

Can't wait to do it again next summer! (We're planning on Iowa, for those interested parties!!