As if we hadn’t traveled enough lately, we took the van on its first major road trip up to the Pacific Northwest. I’ve spent a few months building it up to be ready for a long trip and camping, and I’m ready to just enjoy it now! We’re ready to escape the hot summer temperatures also!
All packed and ready to go! It was chaotic getting everything ready since there were roofers in our driveway working on replacing our roof. Avin working on school work…no fun!Pretty sunset over the Rocky Mountains!The Spaghetti Factory in Westminster, CO is our favorite- the food and cream sodas are just better, both times we’ve been there.Stopped for Mexican food in Laramie, WY, which made both of us sick to our stomachs all afternoon and evening (despite the good restaurant reviews it had). We couldn’t even eat dinner. Lily taking a turn drivingThis cracked me up. Cows around some old gas station lights. Neat dustnado!Carla decided the power line structures look like an upside down cowboy with his legs sticking out of the ground! We laughed pretty hard at that! It really does look like that!Love the landscape in Wyoming!We explored some dirt roads / trails near the hotel in Green River, WY. It was so fun to get the van offroad and try out the 4WD!The view from our hotel room was nice!We stopped off to see Shoshone Falls in Twin Rivers, ID. Getting closer! Still super hot outside. Yay!!!!Tripp was excited to go to a Fred Meyer store – he loves them!Love the scenery!Wall of evergreen trees!We stopped at a Lego store called Bricks and Wheels – lots of discontinued / vintage Lego sets for sale. The kids loved it!Lil’ Jon cinnamon rolls are worth the trip up here!I took a nap in the van one afternoon while Carla was helping Avin with his schoolwork. It’s so nice to open the doors and see all the trees, even if it is a hotel parking lot! Ha!Good ol’ TacoTime crispy bean burrito!We spent 3 hours driving down town Seattle, trying to find a place to park We tried to park anywhere near Ivar’s, but nothing for over a mile away (van is too tall for parking garages). We tried to then park at Alki Point for Spud fish n chips. Nope! We parked for just a few minutes at a seafood restaurant parking lot here in this photo, but the food was so expensive we didn’t even go inside to eat. We then made one more attempt to park near Ivar’s downtown, but still no luck. We gave up and went to Ivar’s near Lake Sammamish.We went to Lake Sammamish, spent $10 to park and found there was some huge kids event going on with a million people there. We just could not get a break no matter where we went. Too many people everywhere!! Very frustrating!We went for a short walk in the park, but it was pretty short and a bit boring. The next day we were determined to do something fun with fewer crowds. We went north a bit to Mukilteo since it had a beach area. We ate Ivar’s on the water – so peaceful and quiet!We watched the Mukilteo/Whidby Island ferries go back and forth. We then went over to the lighthouse and beach area to stroll around. We lucked out and saw a humpback whale near the shoreline!! It was so awesome!!! It was going back and forth along the shore. We walked quickly to try to keep up with where the whale was going. The whale came back and look how close it was to the dock!! Lucky people on the dock got a great view!We spent the rest of the evening at Marymoor park! Loved it – seeing Tripp run around reminded me of playing there as a kid. We found our first geocache!Geocache number two found!Unfortunately, Avin had a lot of Geometry to catch up on, so Tripp and I took a Lyft ride downtown (avoid having to park the van!) for a bit since he was wanting to go to Ye Olde Curiosity Shop and Pike Place Market.
So good to see your blog up and active again!! The trips back East had lots of great pics that filled in what you had sent us. Loads of family fun. And they’ll be great memories!
Glad to see the blog up and running. From the pictures it looks like a wonderful trip
So good to see your blog up and active again!! The trips back East had lots of great pics that filled in what you had sent us. Loads of family fun. And they’ll be great memories!