The Great Northwest

It's now or never.  This post, I mean.  I know if I don't write about our trip up to the Northwest right now, it'll never happen.  Something else will come up -  my need to go get another handful of peanut butter m&ms, a trip to the bathroom (for the umpteenth time today), or the tired bus is likely to hit at any moment.  So here goes.

Our first stop was Seattle, Washington, to visit several of Dave's aunts who live in a closeby town called Enumclaw.  They couldn't have been more accomodating - and it was great seeing both Karyn and Kamele and their families.

Our first real day we took a trip to the horse races, a first for all of us.  Dave loved it because he picked the winners three out of the five times . . . too bad we don't gamble, we could have struck it big!  (Sorry no pictures, I was too busy chasing after Kate).

The next day Karyn and Chris showed us around Seattle.  Our first stop was Pike Place Market - one of my favorites! 

We had freshly made donuts, saw them throwing fish, and looked upon row after row of fresh and delicious looking produce  -

We bought some fresh peaches which we made into peach pie later that night!  Scrumptious!

We saw the original Starbucks -

In Seattle, people are crazy about their coffee.  There are about two Starbucks per street.

We also just walked up and down the streets and enjoyed all the shops, here was one of my favorites -

I love their motto, if you look carefully at the bottom of the sign, it says, "Forgive me chocolate for I have sinned.  I have not yet had my daily confection."  Pretty sure that's one sin I've never committed.

After a lunch of gyros and some delicious mini cheesecakes, we made our way to the city center where we got a lovely view of the fountain and Space Needle.

It was pretty windy, but Kate had a great time -



The next day we headed to the zoo.  For some reason, I failed to take any pictures.  But my favorite were the new baby leopard cubs.  There were two of them, and they were fast asleep.  We have this game with Kate where we pretend to be asleep and she says, "Boo!" and wakes us up.  She just couldn't understand why the baby leopards wouldn't wake up when she pounded on the glass and said, "Boo!"

That night we got to see a Mariners game.  The field was amazing.  Too bad they lost horribly to the Angels.



We still managed to have a great time.

The next day, we headed down to Portland to spend some time with Lisa and Matt, my sister and brother-in-law.

We spent one day at the Portland Children's Museum and Kate loved it.

Along with many other things, she got to do construction,

go grocery shopping,

spend some time at the vet's office,

and drive a bus (Daddy is the passenger in the back - he fell asleep).

We also visited the famous Portland Rose Garden.

The flowers were AMAZING -

Kate enjoyed them too.

Since Matt and Lisa had to work during the day, we got babysitters so we could go out at night.  They showed us the best places to eat in Portland - including Little Big Burger, Le Happy (a crepe place), and Torro Bravo (our favorite - divine Spanish food).

On Saturday, we all took a trip to Mt. Saint Helens.

I'd been there before, but it's still pretty amazing.  Here is the picture before Mt. Saint Helens erupted in 1980.

See what I mean?  Pretty big difference.

Looking at this picture makes ME want to erupt.  Except hopefully I'd look better than Mt. Saint Helen's in an after picture.

After all that, we were exhausted.  Luckily, the flight home wasn't too crowded, so Kate could do this -

And so did Dave and I, just as soon as we walked in our front door.

Thank you family, for the wonderful time!