Olympia, WA

We just returned from a fabulous trip to the Pacific Northwest and boy are we tired! I've heard of the term "jet lag" but have yet to experience it until now. We are all just lying around trying to recoup our energy. We flew out last Monday to Seattle. It was the first time the kids had been on an airplane. They were super excited and a little apprehensive. They did great!

We got to know several airports and learned how to wait with the delays. I couldn't get over how many people were flying with their dogs. We flew Southwest and apparently a dog was considered a carry on item. This, of course, led me to wonder how dogs went to the rest room inside the terminal (because who wants to take the dog outside and have to go through security again?). After a little searching I found this door next to the public restrooms.

I actually photographed it because of the epic logo (the kids laughed and laughed). But then curiosity made me go inside to see what a dog bathroom looked like. I was not disappointed. Inside was a fire hydrant and fake grass to do the deed on. Then you flip a switch to turn on the sprinklers to wash it all away. Almost makes me want to travel with a dog. Not really.

On the flight north from Phoenix the pilot told us to look out the window to see the grand Canyon. Sure enough, there it was! We all thought that was super cool.

We got to Seattle and had our rental car by 10pm. Then we drove the hour to Olympia where Sean's brother and his family live. His parents drove up from New Mexico too. It was lovely to see everyone in such a beautiful place. The next morning we went to the bay area to eat lunch and walk around. It was gorgeous! So lush and green and cool. We went from the sunny upper 80's to overcast 60's. I was glad I brought a sweatshirt. I lived in it the whole trip.

The barnacles and mussels on the piers were of interest to the kids and I. It was low tide so the piers were low, exposing all the critters living on them. As the tide rose the piers went up and all the barnacles were back in the water. We liked brushing our hands across the barnacles and watching them move and retract into themselves. This is definitely something these midwest kids are not exposed to. I think their cousin Berkley was curious why we were all touching the stuff growing on the piers.

 

The main reason we went to Olympia was to celebrate my niece Claire's graduation from high school. She had a large graduating class with 400 kids and it took about 2.5 hours. It was nice seeing her graduate. She was 9 years old like yesterday, it's crazy to think she's off to college. Congrats Claire!

More trip posts to come.