However, we thought we were staying in this
(because this is what was on the timeshare's website):
But we really stayed in this:
(We have no idea what that first pic is actually a picture of -- we never saw it while we were in Port Townsend... But our place was nice too.)
This was Davis's second round trip on a plane, and let's just say that although he loves "planes" and "copters," he doesn't do well traveling on them... We were fortunate that our flight to WA was very empty, and we had the whole back half of the plane to ourselves. And thank goodness for portable DVD players (and Toy Story 2)!
checking out the view
touring the cockpit
Washington is gorgeous! We actually did see the sun for a few hours, but it was rainy most of the time, as we expected. And I'd never before seen forests that were so dense that the sunlight couldn't even penetrate them...in many places we couldn't see into the forest past the second tree because it was so dark! We spent HOURS in the car (Davis did pretty well, thanks again to the DVD player...) because we stayed in Port Townsend, which is two hours from Seattle, two hours from Vancouver Island...two hours from everywhere! Here are a few of the beautiful places we saw on our drives:
Thanks, DVD player!
The day after we arrived, we took a very rainy, two hour drive to the rainiest city in North America....Forks (of Twilight Saga fame)! Of course, since we were so "close" to it, I had to go just to say I'd been there. Russ was very supportive.
The Forks Chamber of Commerce has a map of all the supposed Twilight locations, so their many tourists can check out all the places in the books...it's crazy what an obsession this has become for so many! (But I swear I'm not obsessed!)
Charlie's car
Bella's truck
Russ liked this street
Bella's house
La Push
First Beach, La Push
Jacob's house
(for those interested parties, I am a Jacob fan)
Davis got a nasty cold the day we flew to WA, and it got a little worse while we were there, so we spent a few days just hanging out in the condo. His poor little internal clock got totally messed up since Seattle is on an earlier time zone, plus we had the Daylight Savings time change a few days after we got there. We were all going to bed at 7:30 and waking up at 4:30 (and 9:00 and 12:30 and 2:30 and...); Davis is getting a little big for portable cribs. Russ and I spent a large portion of the night taking turns holding Davis in this luxurious chair:
One of our adventures took us into downtown Seattle, where we visited the famous Pike Place Fish Market. This place became kind of a joke around my office a few years ago, when we watched the Pike Place Fish Market motivational video about 4 months in a row at our staff meeting. Therefore, I had to get my picture taken with two of the famous fish mongers. I think half the world has seen their motivational video and three-quarters of their job now is getting their picture taken with tourists...
(Btw, they made me do the "peace" sign.)
We ate some delicious fish at the market, including the most amazing shrimp I've ever tasted in my life, but Davis really only cared about the french fries. He wanted one in each hand.
We also went to the Seattle Aquarium.
Davis LOVED running around and seeing all the fish.
Davis really enjoyed all the fast food on our trip.
Mom learned that McDonald's doesn't serve french fries until lunchtime.
Davis learned that hash browns are almost as good as french fries.
Davis liked riding the ferries to/from Seattle and to/from Victoria.
He became quite the expert at riding them.
He discovered the ferries are like one big racetrack,
and you can make a lot of loops in 90 minutes.
He also made friends with many of the other passengers.
He was always prepared with many activities for the trip, such as
1. Pulling all the travel brochures out of the racks and then reading them
4. Running around more (he was moving too quickly to take a picture).
We took the ferry into Canada to visit the famous Butchart Gardens of Vancouver Island.
The gardens were beautiful.
We also saw Victoria's famous Empress Hotel, which my grandpa saw when he was visiting many years ago.
It was a very quick trip to Canada. By the time we took the ferry and waited through customs, we only had about 3 or 4 hours to sight see. Was the 3-hour roundtrip ferry ride worth it? I think so. I was only disappointed that they didn't stamp our passports. And Davis even had a brand new passport that was so handsome.
We took one last ferry ride into Seattle.
We visited the Boeing Space Museum.
We only had an hour, but we're glad we went (and hope to visit again when we have a little more time).
Russ got to sit in this cockpit.
It was a super fun vacation, and it was so fun to be together every day for a whole week! Russ didn't even have to take many work calls. Yeah! We look forward to many fun Lasson family vacations in the future!
