Leaving on Vacation ~ Aug. 18-19th

Our down-sized family (minus the two working boys) vacation was not our typical one of visiting Parksville on Vancouver Island. I am still in withdrawal about that, but we chose to take a trip of the road trip variety, working around a seminar that Scott was to attend in Washington. At the last minute, we left a day earlier to get to Lynnwood to break up our driving for the next day, which in the end was a good decision. Thomas, Lewis and Nora were really helpful in preparing for the trip... Nora being more the excited cheerleader of it all. Our first night, we just enjoyed a meal out at the Outback Steakhouse, and the hotel pool. (I am including links here in case you are looking for ideas for your next outing in the US.)

  We were sure to pack Nora's favourite "Elmo" DVD,
which saved the day on more than one account. 

Thomas improvised some headphones for Nora... note the elastic band!

Our Sunday didn't start out as well as we had hoped, as we left early enough to attend church somewhere. We spent much too long driving around Tacoma trying to find the correct address until we finally gave up. Obviously we have no GPS, and the one store attendant we asked for help had us in the wrong quadrant of town as well. After a less-than-stellar experience ingesting Taco Bell fare, we continued on our way, making a pit stop at the Mt. St. Helen's Visitor Centre, which was very interesting. (An attempt to have an educational component to the trip!) By the time we reached Portland without a map, no one was impressed with my scanty directions to Fabric Depot, the largest fabric store in the US apparently. With my 45 minute allotment of time, I scurried the best I could among the aisles, trying to remember what it was I was looking for. Meanwhile, Scott found a local park to give the kids a break from the van. Sound like fun yet? :)

Shouldn't every little girl have two older doting brothers like this?

Not content to have success at just one store, I directed Scott onwards to drive south of Portland to Woodburn Outlet Mall to make a first attempt at back-to-school shopping. With the mall closing at 7pm, we had about 75 minutes to shop madly. The boys were amazingly focused, and we did very well. I would love to go back to this mall for a full day, but without children preferably. :) Getting weary by this point, we headed back up I-5 towards Portland seeking food. The Claim Jumper restaurant was delicious, but the portions were huge... our take-out desserts lasted a couple nights. So after 9pm, we were ready to head to our actual vacation destination of the Oregon Coast, specifically Seaside.  I wouldn't recommend making the drive at such a late hour as we had no idea where we were driving through. (Some small mountain range with signs posted about deer running out on the highway... ) However, the up side was that there wasn't much traffic so we didn't take as long as we thought. A very tired family was immensely relieved to arrive at River Tide Suites sometime around 11pm. With having booked it online at the last minute, everyone was pleasantly surprised and I was happy that I had done something well today, in a day of otherwise poor planning and/or spontaneity that pushed Scott to the limit. (Depends on your perspective...) Good thing we went to Lynnwood the day before!!! Now we hoped to begin "relaxing". :)