Whidbey Island

Today's agenda was to checkout Whidbey Island and a part of Puget Sound that surrounds it.  Jared and Kristina have grown quite fond of Whidbey Island, and since kids have never even seen part of the ocean, we figured this would be a good way to do it.  Next time they visit however, we will have to take them out to the open ocean to experience that!!

We started the day by driving to Deception Pass State Park.  This is a very busy state park (actually all of the state parks in Washington are busy, but this one especially).  However, since we were hitting it on a Tuesday, and early in the morning, we had it mostly to ourselves.  Plus the weather was a bit on the chilly side, so we're sure that convinced even more people to not be there.  Which was GREAT for us!

Once we arrived, we headed down to the beach to do some beach combing and some tide pool exploration.  Jared was the lead on this because he has done it several times and finds it completely fascinating.  He thought the kids would enjoy it too since it would be a new experience.

Jared immediately found some hermit crabs, and began to show the kids.  Maisie was really interested and  Rhett was understandably a little tentative.  However, after he saw his sister holding the crabs, it was caution to the wind and everyone was looking for them.

After finding enough crabs, we decided to head towards Rosario Beach.  Rosario Beach is part of Deception Pass State Park, but you have to do a short hike from where we were to get there.  So we were off.

There were many cool views along the way.  It was a misty and foggy morning, and very serene, peaceful.  It was like the fog was just lifting on the quiet morning.

Here is a Madrona Tree.  The Madrona Tree is native to the Pacific Northwest and quite interesting the first time you come across one.  Click here for an interesting information about them.

A shot of part of the group (thanks Jared for taking the picture).  You can't tell from the picture, but we are all standing very close to a cliff.  That is why Rhett is in FRONT.  We have to make sure we know where he is so he doesn't inadvertently tumble down the cliff.

Rosario Beach

Here is part of the group getting started.  Once again, Jared is leading the charge.

Rhett getting up close and personal. 

Various sea creatures that we spotted on our excursion.

After we looked through the tide pools, we decided to go around to some of the more open beach at Rosario.  Rhett had been waiting to take a dip in the sound, and we kept telling him that it would be cold, but he had to try it out.  Admittedly, he was the bravest and toughest person amongst our group.  But his face shows that we were right...it was COLD.

Soon after, Rhett adjusted (none of the rest of us wanted to "adjust") and he could be routinely found up to the bottom of his shorts.  However, he had the most fun skipping rocks, and his fun soon spread to all of us!

Kristina realized that the logs were the warmest spot on the beach.  The filtered sunshine was coming right down on them and it was very cozy.  Plus, they were situated such that it gave her a perfect chair.

Da-Da realizes the warmth too and takes it a step further and completely stretches out.

And of course there was some sand doodling...

  

After the park and beaches, we were getting a little hungry and we hadn't made it to Whidbey Island yet.  You actually have to cross Deception Pass Bridge to actually be on the island.  Otherwise, you are still on the mainland.  So we hopped into the van and headed to Deception Pass Bridge.

Whenever we cross over Deception Pass Bridge, it just looks gnarly -- there is no other word for it.  The water is swirling in all sorts of directions and the bridge is crazy high.  However, as long as you know what you are doing, it must not be too bad since boats pass through the waterway all of the time.

Our next destination was Coupeville for lunch.  We tried to hit our tried and true regular, the Knead and Feed.  However, it is a very small place and with 6 people, it was too full for us.  So we headed down Front Street to see what our other options were.  This time is was Maisie's turn to choose and she chose The Front Street Grill.  We were a little hesitant at first; it looked like a nice place, but there was no one there.  Apparently though, everyone was waiting for us to go there because within 15 minutes of us sitting down, the place was packed.  It was good food, and Kristina had the "angry mussels" (which according to her were very good).  This isn't an odd thing for Kristina to order, but what was really odd was that Rhett was brave enough to try one.  Of course he spit it out, but we give him credit for trying one.  The texture of it is what got him in the end.

After lunch, our next destination was Fort Casey State Park.  We have blogged about this before (since we have been several times).  It is a nice area and has wonderful views and lots of room to explore.

After exploring some of the old artillery at the park, we headed down to the beach.  We can never get sick of this view.  The waves are just so relaxing and the beach has never been super crowded.  There are also tons cool beach combing to be done.

Da-Da and Rhett became quite the stick walkers...

We found a starfish on the beach.  It didn't look so good, so we tried to put it back into the ocean to see if it would recover.  Hopefully it did.

The sun was out by the time we were finishing up at the park.  Maisie posing in the sun near the lighthouse.

Next up, we were off to the ferry -- another new experience for the McPherson Edmonsons.  We get on at Coupeville, take a short ride (only about 15 minutes) and then we arrive at Mulkiteo and headed back to Woodinville.

It was a full day, but it was a lot of fun!  Lots of first experiences and just overall a great time!

A Day in Seattle

Today was Seattle Day!  It was a full day of things to see and do, but we still didn't see and do everything.  And, by the end of the day, we were all exhausted.  It is a good thing that Kristina was thinking ahead and put a roast in the crockpot before we left that morning!

The first item on the agenda was a chocolate factory tour.  Since we had a group of 6 people, Kristina made reservations.  For ease of parking, she chose the 10:30am tour.  Theo Chocolate is a local Seattle company that is organic and certified fair trade.  The cool thing is that they offer factory tours to the public daily, and it is a cool process to see.  Honestly, none of us had any idea how involved chocolate making was until the tour.

Before going on the tour, you have to sport this awesome hair net.  Rhett is modeling this one for us.

Some of the finished product.  As expected the factory had a wonderful chocolate aroma throughout and it was absolute heaven. 

After the chocolate factory tour, we headed to "the locks".  The locks are an interesting Seattle experience and it is always cool to see.  Jared does a wonderful job of explaining how the whole process works and luckily today we had several vessels travelling through the locks.

There are FIVE vessels packed into here waiting to go from the ocean to South Lake Union.

 Another cool aspect of the locks is the associated fish ladder.  It is always a sight to see the salmon fighting their way up the fish ladder.

After the locks we headed down to the pier and had lunch at the Edgewater Hotel.  We chose the Edgewater Hotel for the view.  It sits right out on the ocean and has the most awesome view.  Checkout the link for the Edgewater Hotel to see the view.  It is panoramic and completely breathtaking.

Pike's Market was next.  You can't go to Seattle and not visit Pike's.  If nothing else, it is cool to see the fish throwing and do a little people watching.  As always it is an interesting experience.

Maisie really wanted to visit the Space Needle while she was here.  Jared decided that the easiest way to get to the Space Needle from Pike's Market Place would be to walk to the monorail station.  None of us have ever been on a monorail, so it was new to all of us.  We eventually found the station, hopped on, and headed to the Seattle Center (where the Space Needle is).

The monorail trip was a quick trip (less than 15 minutes).  Once we arrived at the Seattle Center, we decided to ride the elevator to the top of the Space Needle and tour the Chihuly Garden and Glass.  There are many other things to do, but we had to save those things for another visit.  :)

Rhett posing in front of one of the glass sculptures.

Maisie also posing with some glass sculptures.

A family portrait...

And here's a final shot from the Chihuly Garden and Glass...

Day of Rest (sorta)?

Yesterday was a long day for George, Stephanie, Maisie, and Rhett.  First, they had to drive from McPherson to Junction City to drop off Dulee with George and Louise (approximately 90 minute drive).  Then they had to drive two hours to the Kansas City airport, and hurry up and wait for another two hours.  After they finally boarded the plane, the flight was 4 hours.  When they arrived at SeaTac, it was a 30 minute drive to Woodinville.  That makes for a really LONG day.  Because of the long travel day, we decided to take it easy and just show them points of interest close to Woodinville.

First on the list was Snoqualmie Falls.  So, we all hopped into the minivan and headed that way.  Jared and Kristina have been to Snoqualmie a few times, but never in the middle of the summer (when the water flow is at a minimum).  Even with that being the case, the falls never disappoint.

After the falls, we headed to the town of Snoqualmie.  It is a quaint little town.  They have a cute little downtown area and some old railroad cars for people to check out.  We wandered around, had some lunch (Rhett chose Mexican and chose well), and then headed out.  Next on the agenda was the campground near where the Tolt River and Snoqualmie River meet.  We wanted to show them a cool suspension bridge and also show them a yurt.

Here are the McPherson Edmonsons posing on the suspension bridge.

Stephanie enjoying the view of the rivers.  Stephanie and Jared are always the ones taking the pictures.  It is rare to get either of them in a photo.

And here's a yurt.  They have several of them available for camping at this campground.

Next on the agenda was Juanita Beach Park located in Kirkland, WA.  This park is near Jared's work, so we are familiar with it.  It is a wonderful area to hang out on a warm Washington day.  Now Stephanie would argue with you on the definition of warm, but there were lots of people taking advantage of it.  For Western Washington, if it is 70 degrees, it is warm.

Rhett testing out the water in Lake Washington.  He said it was warm.

Maisie checking out the water temperature as well.  She too confirmed it was warm.

A group shot on the dock that surrounds the swimming area at Juanita Beach Park.

The Arrival of the McPherson Edmonsons

We have lived in Western Washington for a little over two years now, and Kristina's brother and his family arrived today for a visit.  They will be here for a week, and we have the week packed full of fun stuff to do (or at least that is the hope).  We have been really looking forward to their visit, and we are sure they are looking forward to the visit as well.  First of all, it has been incredibly hot in Kansas this year (many, many days over 105 degrees), so they will be expecting approximately a 30 degree temperature difference between Kansas and Western Washington.  Secondly, they are in the middle of a kitchen remodel -- and for any of you that have been through a kitchen remodel, it is definitely no fun to live in your house without a kitchen.  That being said, Welcome to Washington! 

More Exploration

Not a whole lot was planned for this weekend.  We did our normal routine of upkeep around the house, but on Saturday afternoon we ventured out to Carnation, Washington.  Carnation is a small town in Western Washington where the Tolt River and the Snoqualmie River meet (actually the Tolt dumps into the Snoqualmie).  We figured that it would be nice to walk along the rivers and let Indy take an occasional dip into the river(s), if they weren't moving too fast.

It was a nice day, but kind of muggy for Western Washington standards.  The temperature was the mid to upper 70's and the sun peaked in and out of the clouds most of the day.  As we walked along the Tolt River portion, we were amazed at how many people (families, young people, fisherman, etc..) were taking advantage of the river.  It was kind of nice to see and everyone looked like they were having a good time.  As we continue to walk, we ran into a nice campground and there were tons of people taking advantage of it too.

Sorry there are no pictures with this post, but we knew we forgot something as we were leaving the house -- the camera.  Just know that we had a good time and Indy got plenty of swimming in the river.  There were LOTS of dogs taking advantage of the river.  It was a good day for all of us!

Cutting Our Vacation Short

We hadn't planned on leaving Idaho until Saturday morning; however, the weather seemed to turn on us.  Rain we can deal with seeing how we are from Western Washington, but the wind was gusting and that pretty much shuts down everything we like to do when we are in Idaho.  In addition, the weather in Western Washington was a perfect 70 degrees, sunny, and clear.  We used Thursday to pack up and get things organized, and Friday we packed up the truck and Indy and headed out!  Even though the vacation was short, it was still great!  Hopefully we can make it back again next year.

Clouds and rain off in the distance...it showed up later in the day at the house.

Happy 4th of July

We decided that we would have a low-key 4th of July this year.  We can never figure out if Idaho is going to be crawling with people or not, so we decided to skip the "normal" places where there may be a lot of extra people and go for the "off the beaten path" option.

Back in June, Rodger told us about a pond that they sometimes frequent.  Hoping that we remembered the directions correctly, we headed out.  Luckily for us, we found it.

Here's a shot of the pond...

Fishing wasn't so good at the Goddard Pond.  It was a weird day -- as soon as the sun went behind the clouds, the fish would bite.  If the sun was NOT behind the clouds, the fish weren't biting.  The bad news for us was that the sun was NOT behind the clouds for most of our time there.  That's okay though, we had the pond to ourselves and it was quiet.

A nice shot of a picture around the pond...

We finished our day back at the house.  Here's a shot of the sunset over the Mackay Reservoir.  Lucky for us we could see the annual fireworks at the reservoir after the sunset from our front yard.