Charles went to Seattle again for 2 weeks for PCBS, and I was lucky enough to spend the weekend up there with him. On Friday, the 28th, after the kids were off to school I headed to the airport and flew up. I picked up our car, which was much better than last year. We got an Impala that was pretty much identical to our Impala, just a different color. I drove to the University of Washington to pick up Charles and to see his dorm. We changed into our church clothes and headed to the Seattle Temple to do a session. It is always fun to go to the different temples, and I love that the experience is fun and new, but totally the same everywhere you go.
After the temple we drove to Olympia, Washington and had dinner at the Olive Garden. After dinner we checked into our hotel. We stayed at the Red Lion, and it was pretty nice. Charles was very excited to sleep in a nice bed.
On Saturday morning we headed into Mount Rainier National Park.
The drive in was absolutely beautiful.
As you can see, it was a pretty cloudy day, so Mount Rainier was completely covered.
Here is what it is supposed to look like from this viewpoint. Haha!
We hiked in to a few waterfalls, which were beautiful. By then the rain had really set in.
We went to the Lodge with the hope of doing the hike up to Mount Rainier but it was a complete downpour and it was freezing so we checked out the lodge and bought souvenirs for the kids instead.
On our way out of the park we stopped for some pictures.
I have to say, of all the things we saw and of all the things we did, my favorite part was just being with this guy. We had such a nice time driving around together, talking and enjoying each other's company. I really love him.
There is the cutest little town right outside the entrance to Mount Rainier and someday I'm going to go stay in this little hotel.
We were on a mission this trip to get a patch, a coin, a baseball and a pocketknife from Olympic and Rainier National Parks for the kids. We were kind of pushing it time wise because they aren't super close to each other. So after we left Rainier we busted it as fast as we could to Olympic. We had been there before with all of the kids so really we just wanted the souvenirs.
As we got closer we realized that there were no people and that the road was covered in debris. And it was super windy. It turns out that a huge windstorm had shut everything down.
We went in anyway, and somehow, by stopping at some random stores, hotels and campgrounds we rounded up all of the needed souvenirs. Mission accomplished.
And, my favorite part, we went down to the beach to see the ocean.
I love love love the ocean.
While we were there we saw the weirdest thing. The entire beach was covered in jelly fish! So crazy! It felt so weird when you accidentally stepped on them.
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| This one was in a little tidepool. |
We spent some time walking around the beach and spending time together.
By then we were starving so we drove back to Olympia and had dinner at Buffalo Wild Wings, then went back to the hotel for bed.
We were able to sleep in on Sunday, and then we headed back to Seattle. We stopped at a Denny's for breakfast and then it was time for me to head home. I was so sad to leave!! One more week.
