Seattle, WA plus Olympic NP
My cabin slept well last night even though we stayed up incredibly late. The boat left last night around 11ish. Not everyone was onboard so they kept calling people over and over again on the intercom. Reagan found this fascinating so she would turn on the tv so we could better hear the announcement. Then we would look on the box cam to see if we could see anyone running towards the ship. We didn’t see anything exciting though.
We woke up docked in Seattle. We were supposed to be able to leave the boat at 8:30, but it was much later than that. We were at breakfast by 7:30 to enjoy our last buffet. Reagan is feeling better but not enough to eat much for breakfast. The big boys will certainly miss their chocolate milk each morning, and I’ll miss my eggs benedict.
Yesterday, Graham told me that he was a bit homesick, and Keaton has asked Nonna and me what color our couch is at home. We still have 10 days before we make it back home-though I am still trying to convince Robby to take a few more days than 10 to get home. On the other hand, I have lately had dreams about missing VBS or getting there without all of my stuff.
After eating our breakfasts, we headed back to our rooms for a bit of downtime. We listened as the called different color tags and waited for ours. The girls watched information about different cruises and different cruise ships. Eventually, they called light blue and off the boat we headed.
Getting off the boat was a bit more difficult than in Hawaii. We did find our luggage easily this time and walked to customs. My super big suitcase that Nonna and Pops carried on the plane for me, will be lucky to make it home in tact. It was pretty damaged on the way to Seattle, and I am fairly confident that at least one wheel will be off by the time it makes it home.
Robby called the shuttle after we left customs. As soon as we had dragged our luggage to the shuttle stop and set everything down, the shuttle showed up. We filled up the bus and headed to our car. It didn’t take long at all to make it back to our van.
The first thing Robby did was start the van and was relieved to hear it start. We threw all of the luggage on the back seat and headed to Olympic National Park. The first hour in the car was pretty silent. All of the kids snoozed even Reagan and Anderson.
We had to stop for gas so that did wake everyone up. Of all of the gas stations for us to stop at, we picked one that had 1 potty! Seriously! We did all buy a coke as we left and were soon back on the road.
It took about 2 hours to get to our lunch stop at a McDonalds. The kids were delighted to see that the lunch stop did have a playground. They were able to play for a few minutes while waiting or our lunches.From our lunch stop, it was about 20 minutes to the visitor’s center of the Olympic National Park. It was a beautiful drive to the National Park. There were mountains, lakes and tall trees. It was a really pretty drive.
Soon we stopped at the visitor’s center. The first words that Anderson said as we climbed out of the car was “I hope there is a movie.” Sure enough it was broken. They did have some knowledgeable rangers, stamps for our books, an ornament for our Christmas tree, and a huge slice of a tree that was huge.
It was just a bit further down the road when we stopped for Madison Falls. We could still see some of those huge trees. We thought the hike was a bit longer than it actually was. We were shocked to turn the corner after .1 miles to see a beautiful waterfall. The kids climbed around it, and then we went near the nearby creek and climbed on the rocks.
It wasn’t too much further down the road until we came upon Lake Crescent. The lake was a beautiful blue and rivaled the beauty of Lake Tahoe. We came upon the National Park lodge, and it was quickly put on our list of places to come back and stay.
The lodge was so quaint. It was perfect with croquet and badminton in the front lawn. Then the lake was crystal blue with people swimming and canoeing on it. Seriously, it made you want to jump in and take a swim. It was so pretty. We then, drove back towards Seattle and our hotel.
On the way back to the hotel, we stopped in Tacoma for supper. Robby found a place with good reviews, and we headed that way. It was called MSM, Magical Sandwich Makers. Name sounded cute, but the place looked like a dump from the outside. A dump! We almost didn’t stop, but surprisingly, the sandwiches were very good. They were Subway style sandwiches which were delicious even though most folks were in there probably because they had the munchies. They are selling cannabis on every corner around here after all!
After our supper, we drove on through Tacoma, which is a cute little town. Then it was on to the hotel. We certainly lucked out with our hotel. We are at the hotel that we were at the night before we left for the cruise. This hotel has free laundry along with 4 washers and 5 dryers. Robby snapped one picture of our cart load of laundry plus we did 1 more load after those.
Now, he filled up 4 washers and then 5 dryers on the first round of laundry. Once those clothes were in, everyone changed into clean pjs if they had them. Campbell and Keaton didn’t have any so they just wore Robby’s tshirts while waiting on the shower. Whitman was a bit unnerved since he just had pajama pants to put on while waiting on clean laundry.
We had taken almost everything out of the car, so while the laundry was rolling around in the dryer, I went through every single bag, box and barrel (We didn’t really have any barrels but it sounded good.) We initially were put in Nona and Pops’ room which was just a normal hotel room. We asked them very nicely to switch with us since their room had a couch and a bedroom. We needed every bit of room since the contents of the van would soon be laid out all over the room.
Once the laundry was dry, Robby and I ran down to get it. We filled, completely filled, their laundry cart and then snuck it up to our room to work on the laundry. It didn’t take too long to repack 8 people for 10 more days of a trip.
The boys headed to Nonna’s room to spend the night. I hope that they rest well since Nonna and Pops’ plane leaves at the crack of dawn so they will have to leave early, early in the morning with Robby. Once we finished putting away the laundry, I tucked my crew in bed. Tomorrow was supposed to be a short car ride, but I think after enjoying Olympic National Park so much today, that we have decided to press on so we can have more time at Glacier National Park in a few days. Robby told Campbell that we would do 8 hours in the car tomorrow and she said, “at least it is not 10.”
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