Bainbridge and Seattle

On Friday, the rest of us flew to Seattle, too!  Getting us out the door was no small feat-- I dropped Craig off at work that morning, returned some of the stuff we'd needed for trek to our friends, finished packing (including last-minute loads of laundry), got the house all cleaned up, and gave a key to a kid in the neighborhood so he could feed all our birds while we were gone.  Then the three remaining kids and I picked Craig up on our way to Dulles.  And, since you never know what the traffic will be like there-- especially on a Friday afternoon!-- we got to the airport super early.  

But everything went smoothly with our travels!  The biggest "problem" was just that picking up the rental car took forever, which was frustrating.  But then we got to the ferry and practically drove right on, and learned that the previous boat had been canceled, so we would have been stuck waiting at one location or the other no matter what!  Still, I was very happy to pull into my parents' home around midnight that night!  Traveling across the country is no joke!

Camille asleep as we navigate downtown Seattle trying to figure out how to get into the ferry line!

The next morning we met up with Tracy (and my big kids!) and Natalie and her family in Poulsbo!  We hit Sluy's and enjoyed so many doughnuts, and then visited the Marine Discovery Center.  The last couple times we've tried to go there it was always closed, so this time we'd looked up their hours BEFORE OUR TRIP (crazy idea, I know) and figured out this was our only chance to go, and planned accordingly!  It was Caleb's birthday (can you believe he's a teenager now???), so it was very nice of him to let me dictate what we were doing for the day like that!

Enjoying my scone!

Watching a movie about collecting killer whale poop which turned out to mostly be about the dog that could sniff out the killer whale poop.  Not the most fascinating documentary I've ever seen, truth be told...

Goofy pic

Who doesn't love sitting on a giant boulder?

The touch pool is always a big hit

We loved these little skates!

The next plan had been to go swimming but it just wasn't warm enough for that.  So we resorted to my family's favorite activity-- standing around in the kitchen talking!  Craig always teases us for how easily we resort to this, so he had to take a picture:

At some point here I wandered off and took a very long nap.  We'd decided we would eat at Isla Bonita for dinner, but Tracy thought we had too many people for it to go very well, so she took the youngest kids and fed them quesadillas at her place so the rest of us could enjoy dinner.  It was very generous of her and Adam!

And we had a great time at dinner with our big, but not too big, group!

My Mom and I look crazy, and my Dad is hiding behind Kendra...!

I was delighted that they sang to Caleb, made him wear the sombrero, AND smeared whipped cream onto his face-- he was an awfully good sport about all this!

And then we went back to Tracy's house so Caleb could have cake and open his presents-- but he was having so much fun with his cousins, we only bothered with the cake!  (This isn't a great picture-- he was actually very happy about the cake!)

There had been multiple discussions about who was sleeping where that night.  Rest assured, everyone had somewhere to sleep!  And we all met up at church the next morning!

Nicole, Camille, Claire, and Cora all shared a room.  I think Cora didn't sleep at all, but the other girls did great!  And best of all-- Tracy did all their hair in the morning for church!!!

I can't French braid to save my life.  This is so impressive!

I'm pretty sure this was before church.  They look so fancy, playing cornhole in their church clothes!

And heres' the whole gang together!

We all hung out at Tracy and Adam's after church.  They fed us Cobb salad (and leftover cake!) and the kids ran around playing.  We saw bald eagles and it was all so pleasant and lovely!

The next morning we hiked in the Grand Forest, something I had somehow never done before!  (Craig had taken the kids in years past, but I think I always ended up staying home with napping babies...)

Any time there's a bridge, I need to take a picture of us on it.  I can't explain why, though...

I guess this is pretty grand...

Next we hit Bay Hay and Feed.  We visited the chicks and turkeys and bought t-shirts and sweatshirts for everyone.  My family has quite the collection of Bay Hay and Feed swag now! 😂

It's so hard to actually choose!!!

And then it was time to play at Fay Bainbridge!  Although I blew it here-- I was sitting with my face in the sun and totally burned my forehead.  It was so windy, I hadn't felt hot at all, so I wasn't paying attention.  So stupid of me!

They spent quite a bit of time shoving jellyfish back into the water

And then we went to a different beach and ate take-out from Sawatdy while the kids played in the sand.  

We could see the ferry go by; that might be it in the background here, but I'm honestly not sure...

Colton busied himself trying to dig this old boat out of the sand

Camille and Cora were just happy digging in general

And I was just happy with my Thai food and the sun hat I stole from Mom to protect my forehead!!!

The next day we left the kids at Tracy's house and Tracy, Craig and I did a short but very steep hike down to the beach near her house.  It was nice to do it without all the whining!  (We just complained about being out of breath.  But not about the hike itself!)  Then we took carrots to her neighbor's miniature donkeys.

We went swimming at Wing Point (it was just barely warm enough for us to swim-- it's a good thing the pool was heated!)

Mom and I enjoying an empty pool during adult swim!

While everyone else tries to stay warm

Cora found her own way to warm up!

And, we ran into my sister Leah's best friends from high school, Katie Lamping!

Hi, Leah!

Tracy told us that on the last Tuesday of the month, people would gather at the Baptist Church to show off their cool cars, so we decided to check it out.  The first car we saw was a Bentley, so that was definitely cool!!!!!  They had a ton of awesome stuff, honestly-- what a fun thing to do!  I also got to see my neighbor, Gail Nakata (and her Chevelle!), so it was good seeing her.

Daaaaaannnnngg!!!!!!!

Some really nice guy let Bentley sit in his Ferrari, so that was pretty sweet, too!  Bentley was stoked!

Happy Bentley

We all split up then-- a few people went to get hamburgers, and some of us were happy eating leftover Thai food.  And my Mom made omelets for those who didn't fit into either of those categories.  As we were getting all buckled up and ready to leave, I realized that all the people in the car with me shared the same middle name!  So that definitely warranted a picture:

A pod of Patrices!!!

Speaking of pods, the next morning, Wednesday, we rode the ferry to go to the Mariner's game, and we saw killer whales!!!!!!  All the years riding the ferry, I've seen porpoises once (when I was a teenager and going straight from girls camp to the opera, of all things) and dorsal fins that might have been orcas another time.  That's IT.  So this was AMAZING.  We didn't take any pictures-- the angle was too hard to shoot, and I was too busy looking to bother trying to capture it on my phone.  Sorry.  But I was so happy!!!

It was such a great ferry ride!

We met Natalie and Tracy and their families at the game, and Juliana came with her two girls in the 7th inning.  The game itself was pretty lame (I guess it would have been more fun if you were rooting for the Nationals, but my time in DC did not persuade me to switch my loyalties), but we still had a great time!

Me with Natalie and Juliana!

Our seats were together, but these guys all opted to move to the shade.  Then Cora and Claire decided it was more fun to keep moving back and forth between the groups...  Apologies to all the people they were climbing over to do this!  😬

We'd brought all our stuff with us, and after they game we went to Natalie's house to stay for a couple nights.  Her husband very graciously had dinner all ready to eat when we arrived after the game, and we spent the next day just hanging out and enjoying one another's company while the kids played together (and the teens went and saw Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse).  Cousin time is the best!

Friday morning we got up and packed.  Again.  We hugged Natalie and everyone goodbye and Craig dropped me and the kids off with all our luggage while he returned our rental car.  

The next part of our vacation was about to begin...!