Washington State

Jeremy and I had an amazing trip to the Northwest.  Beyond beautiful.  Amazing weather - no rain, no snow, lots and lots of sun except in the mornings when there was the most dense fog I've ever seen.  More laughter than I've had in a long, long time.  My side and stomach hurt so much from laughing constantly throughout the trip.

A little overview:

Wednesday:
Left on a jet plane.  Highly recommend Alaska Airlines.  Everything was clean and on time.  Gotta love that.  We arrived in Seattle around 10:15pm (12:15am our time).  Got our rental car and headed and hour and a half north to Camano Island to stay with my Aunt Mel and Uncle Rob.  Very foggy drive.  Jeremy was determined to find a Starbucks to have coffee and we ended up getting off at two different exits and getting lost both times.  Took up enough time that we would have actually gotten to their home in the time it took us to drive around.  Ok, not really, but close enough.  I was really happy about it.  I promise.  Jeremy asked why I was annoyed and my answer was simply "I'm tired.  It's like 2am our time and I honestly just need to sleep."  We laughed and it was a great drive.

Had homemade pizza when we arrived in the middle of the night.  Talked and went to bed.


Thursday:
Got up and enjoyed their amazing home.  Built into the side of a large hill - views out their large windows to see Mt. Baker and the land north of them.

Rob and Mel took us to Whidbey Island to see Deception Pass.  Wow - loved the mountains.

One of the best views of Deception Pass

Photo Bomb - Uncle Rob :)





Friday:
Woke up early at 5:15am to go skiing.  Traveled five hours south and east to White Pass.  Jeremy had skied here when he was younger.  We watched YouTube videos on Thursday night and this was the ONLY lesson that I had before actually putting my skis on Friday and skiing.  Awesome videos by Ski School:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tXUbCPuc4nw - how to plough

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AR7C5qWvuUc - equipment

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bEBIAfZ0iW4 - turning with the plough

After seeing the videos, I felt quite confident as I had really skied one time at the age of 10 or 11.  That was a disaster actually.  All I remember is using the rope tow to get up the hill and running into people that couldn't hold on and getting the wind knocked out of me.  I went down the bunny hill a few times and really didn't like it.  Michigan skiing, mind you.  Not on a real mountain.  Not very steep.  Built over a garbage dump.

White Pass was intimidating.  Will have to do a separate blog about the skiing experience as it would make this blog post much too long.

Entrance to White Pass


After skiing for several hours, we made a 2 1/2 hour drive to Centralia where we showered and got ready at our hotel room at McMenamin's.  Again, will do a blog post just about McMenamin's as it is one of our new favorite places to stay!

We had a blast at the rehearsal dinner and met great new friends.  Among them Lisa and Kevin who made us laugh so much and we really bonded with them.  So wish we lived closer!

Pete, the groom

Chris Walker, the man

Two lovely turtles - the wedding gift!
Handmade by me and pattern by me.
Will post pattern soon as they aren't anywhere to be found,
but apparently turtle cozies are in style!?



Saturday:
Woke up really really late.  Not near as sore as we thought we'd be, but definitely could feel it.

Wedding was amazing!!!!  Reception was tons of fun.  Actually got Jeremy to dance with me despite him being so sore from dancing.  We laughed many times.  Ok - the whole time.  Met more amazing people and wished we lived closer to them.  What an amazing day.

Bride and Groom Dance

Kevin and Lisa - two of our favorite new friends!



Sunday:
Went to a special brunch.  Then drove south to Camas, Washington to stay with Jeanine, my former college friend that I hadn't seen in 14 years.  Picked back up as though we'd never been apart.


Monday:
Spent time with Kirk and Jeanine and their kids.  Went to Oregon to Multnomah Falls.  Incredibly windy and co-co-co-cold!!!







 Then had lunch at another McMeniman's - formerly an insane asylum!  Drove back up north to Seattle and took seemingly forever to find the hotel.

Information about the place when it was an Insane Asylum.


Walked around Seattle and found a neat pizza place to eat.  Saw the space needle.


Tuesday:
Spent the morning at the famous Pike Place Market in downtown and walked around the shops that were open.  We were there quite early.




Then headed to drop off our vehicle and to the airport.

Smooth flight.  Got into Dallas and headed home around 8pm.


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