Seattle

 Phase 2 of our trip took us into the city.  We once again stayed a little outside of the city.  This makes for lower prices and great opportunity to make use of public transit.    It also meant that while Brandon headed into his conference on that first night the girls and I got to kick it in the hotel.  By the time I got them all cleaned up it was basically bedtime anyway.  The next afternoon we took the train in and met up with Brandon.   We Pike's and spent a good time at Beecher's watching them make cheese. 

 It was a testament to how much Brandon loves his little girls when he paid  $11 for a dish of macaroni and cheese.  Even he can't say no to Daisy's big eyes.  In case you wondered, it was worth every cent.

Another Awesome Photo

We walked all over to really get a feel for the different neighborhoods.  When we got to the Space Needle Rosy was having none of it.

 Taking the girls to the fountain may have constituted the most interesting and also most torturous part of the trip.   They loved watching it but after two straight days of being wet I insisted that they stay out of it.  The sun was shining but it was still a little too breezy for water play.

The next day it took me way to long to find Brandon's hotel and everyone was cranky.  Brandon tried to cheer everyone up by telling them that we were going to see a troll under a bridge.  It caught their attention but then Daisy went from being grumpy to being scared.  It took a bit for her to muster the courage to climb up but once she was there she cheered right up.  The best part is the Slug Bug he holds.

 It  was a perfect day for us to explore the parks.  I felt guilty that we weren't paying for them to see any of the museums but then realized that they were just as happy throwing rocks into the lake as they would have been looking at the Star Wars costume exhibit at the EMP.  I am not so sure about their dad.

 Rocky and Daisy set themselves up okay for their first album cover but Rosy sort of blew it with that crazy hair.

 It was a lovely place to visit and we were sad to say goodbye.

Spring Break

 I finally got to experience my dream of going to Silver Falls.  We didn't get  to see all 10 waterfalls which just means we will have to go back. The girls loved going under the falls.  We were lucky because just as we came out soaked by the mist the sun started peering over the trees.

 And with that tiny sunburst we headed out to Olympic National Park in Washington.   It was the last we would see of the sun for a  while.  The last time we camped in a real rainstorm was coincidentally also the last time we tried to camp  during spring break.  There seems to be some kind of lesson here. 

 We found a lovely campsite nestled  in the trees.  We figured that the  leaves would give us some cover from the downpour.    What really happened is that all through the night the calming patter of raindrops would be interrupted by a whoosh of the waterfall indicating that the leaves had given up and the trees released their reservoirs in one big dump.  It was perfect because just as you started to fall asleep it would happen and startle you enough to wake up.  It created a fantastic pattern for a sleepless night. This was helped along by the droplets that somehow always landed right in my eye.  Brandon got out and tightened things up around midnight and we woke up mostly dry. 

 And  things went downhill from there.  By the time we had  gotten ourselves and our stuff out the tent had become more of a bag to hold rain. 

 But that didn't stop us.  Nope. We still wandered our way through the park.   Most of the morning was spent in trying to track down a visitor's center that was opened on a weekday.  Brandon and I still got a good view of the rainforest.  No pun intended.   I am sorry to say that before this experience I had no idea that there was such a thing as a temperate rainforest.  Now I will never forget.  The girls were busy watching Frozen in the back so they probably didn't even notice that we had moved from our campsite.

 We finally stopped at a park because we saw a covered picnic area and decided that we had better take advantage of a dry spot when we saw it.  I didn't even realize that we were in Forks until I saw the Twilight store.  We looked around for vampires or werewolves but didn't see anyone suspicious.    In fact, we didn't see anyone at all.  Probably the folks driving by in their cars figured that we were the weirdos.  Who else has a picnic in this kind of weather if not for beings who sparkle when the sun is shining?

Best Photo Award

 By the time we reached the other side of the giant park it had cleared up enough to actually get out and explore.  First we found a campsite and hung our tent, towels, blankets, and wet clothes all over the trees in a couple of campsites which worked out fine because we were virtually the only people there.  Then we went hiking.

 By the time we finished everything was still a little damp but we were tired enough not to care.

 The next morning was glorious! 
We decided that since we were just going to be in the car most of the morning that the girls should just stay in their jammies and not get anything else muddy.  This was a decision that I regretted almost immediately when we saw other human beings. 

Miraculously the road up to the viewpoint opened and the heavens opened giving us a fog free look.

And that concluded our camping portion of the trip.  The highs clearly out did the lows.  The rainy adventures are the ones that we remember best anyway, right?  The girls told me that their favorite things were eating oatmeal and playing with the flashlights.  Rosy liked sleeping in the tent because she was in the middle part that stayed dry and she actually did sleep.  Ahh, the memories.