Well, we haven't been on a real vacation since I was a fourth year vet student, about 5 years ago. That was a quick trip to Hawaii, which was blissfully relaxing. Things are a bit different with kids, I have discovered. I was quite thankful for the minivan when I started packing, late as usual, the night before. We managed to pack everyone's stuff with enough room for Gramma, who was going to ride with us on the first leg of our journey.
We left the house at 8:00 am, which was pretty good, considering our goal was 7:00 am.
"Do you have all the passports?" Wil asked, 15 miles into the trip.
"Yeah, I picked them up from the saftey deposit box two weeks ago," I replied, opening the glove box to check that they were all in order.
"Shit." I said, realizing that Wil's passport was not in the envelope, just mine, and an old one of mine.
After 30 minutes of sheer panic and a trip home, Wil found his passport on the table next to the bed. Arg.
Back on the road, we headed for Penticton, BC, to watch my cousin run the Ironman. She was attempting to qualify for the big race in Kona. The trip was pretty easy, with surprisingly few potty stops. We breezed through the border and got to our Osoyoos hotel in the late afternoon. When we checked into our room, there was already luggage in there. The hotel had double booked our room! The staff were so flustered by their mistake that they put us up in an amazing suite just down the hall. It had a bedroom, kitchen, livingroom, and nice bathroom, plus a balcony overlooking the water. Awesome!!! We dropped Gramma off with my aunt, and quickly settled in for the night and prepared for the next day of cheering.
We got up early for the race to get a good spot along the bike route. We cheered and waved as my cousin and her friends zipped by, then we drove to Penticton to find a spot along the marathon route. We met up with Gramma and my aunt in front of a fast food joint, which proved to be both a saving grace and a horrible diet buster. We stayed on the same 6 foot patch of sidewalk with both kids for about 3 hours! They did awesome, although it was a bit of a challenge with Rowan as he is at that in between age where he isn't too happy being contained, but has no regard for his own personal safety. He spent most of the time in the stroller, and actually only fell apart once. We cheered on our racers again, and packed up for a break. The kids were so tired they fell asleep in the car, so we drove to the finish line and found a great shady place to park. After they woke up we walked to the final cheering spot and again cheered the tired racers on as they came into the final mile of the race. After swimming 2 miles, biking over 100 miles, and running 26 miles, they were still amazingly chipper. After dealing with two very tired children in the hot sun, sitting in one place for almost 6 hours total, we were surprisingly chipper too.
The next day we headed back to the States. Before crossing the border, we stumbled upon a tiny train museum. It was a huge room, bigger than our living room, filled with tiny model trains, planes, people, pets, and cars, all blessedly behind thick clear glass. The kids loved it! They probably could have stayed there all day, following the trains across the rooms, in and out of tunnels and over the hills. Rowan especially loved the tiny sheep and cows grazing on the green plastic grass.
Playing with trains wiped the kids out and they slept all the way from the border to Leavenworth, our next stop. The hotel there was less than awesome, but it was safe and comfortable. We visited the cute shops in town, had a great dinner, and then played and played in the pool.
The next day we stopped at the fish hatchery and saw lots of fish! We then drove to Seattle and went to Woodland Park Zoo. We walked the entire zoo! Lola walked the whole way, and Rowan spent most of the time hopping in and out of the stroller. The kids liked all the animals, but the favorites were the gorillas and the penguins.
I liked the snow leopards. The mama leopard had two little cubs, and they were bothering her mercilessly. I totally felt for her! We looked at bugs, reptiles, and all manner of birds and animals. The kids then spent some time playing in the giant indoor playland. They were soon ready for a rest in the Tacoma hotel. After a rest, we met up with a good friend for dinner at Lola's favorite - Red Lobster!
The next morning we headed to Olympia to visit the Children's Museum, which I would totally recommend to anyone near Olympia. It was awesome! Wil and I had nearly as much fun as the kids! We explored room after room of trees with plastic fruit growing amongst wooden leaves, a medical center, a market, a climbing structure, a veterinary clinic, a treehouse, chickens that "laid" eggs, a huge water table with boats, a ship, a crane, and an enormous table filled with moon sand! There was more, but I can't even think of it all now! I wish we had something like that near here, we would be there all the time!
After playing ourselves out, we drove on to the tiny town of Moclips, where we checked into our quaint little cabin by the sea. We spent three glorious days exploring the beach, playing in the shallow sandy bottomed river, and watching old movies. We had cool weather for the most part, but no one cared. The kids ran and ran, leaving little footprints in the sand. They chased the waves, and tried to dig for clams. No matter how much we rinsed off before going into the house, they still left a good deal of sand in the tub every night!
A good friend met us there on the only really sunny day, and we hiked several miles down the beach to reach some huge rocks at low tide.
Hidden at the base of the rocks were tide pools, which the kids were so excited about! We all enjoyed poking the sea anemones and touching the barnacles and starfish. Lola thought that the disgusting bloated dead sea lion we walked by was a great find...ick. She probably ran 10 miles chasing pelicans and gulls off the beach, and racing the waves. Rowan toddled along, pantless, and picked up sand dollars, handing them to me until my pockets were bulging. He actually walked a long way for his little legs, but I did end up carrying his heavy butt a couple of miles during the hike, which was a test of my physical fitness (or lack thereof!).
My friend and I spent an hour walking down the beach and catching up. We came upon a little seabird, a common murre, and were able to walk right up to it. I would have preferred to leave the little guy alone, but my friend, a bird expert of sorts, had to check it out and make sure it wasn't hurt. Turns out he wasn't hurt, just a bit on the slow side. She nicely placed him back into the sea, and he followed us down the beach, getting washed up on the sand again. Since there were lots of dogs around, and the murre seemed less than intelligent at this point, we walked him back down the beach to the little river outlet, where he could swim away without being washed up on land where a dog might have gotten him. We watched him paddle to safety, and hoped never to see him again.
The next morning we got up very early for our journey home. The kids were sad to leave the ocean. They had gotten pretty used to running like wild children through the surf, with rosy cheeks from the salty air. We locked up the little house and headed out. We stopped in Renton at Bullwinkles Family Fun Center, which was indeed fun, and the kids played themselves out there. They were so tired afterwords that they slept until we stopped at the fruit stand in Thorp, then slept again until after Vantage. What a drive! They did really well, and we only stopped those two times. We were glad to finally arrive at home in the early evening after 10 hours on the road.
So here we are, back at home, back to the grind. Our house is now "pending sale" as we wait to see if some paperwork is going to come through for some buyers. We moved a bunch more stuff to the new house today, and completed the painting job. Now we just have a few more lights to hang, trim to put up, molding to hang, and transitional pieces to put in the floor. Oh, and two small rooms need floored, but that shouldn't take long. We are close to being ready to move. Lola's new room has furniture in it already! I will be so happy when we are living in just one house, as right now it feels like half our stuff is in each place.
Well, back to normal life, until next summer when we look forward to vacationing again!
