Wrapping up the west coast

On our way back from 2 weeks in Washington, flying the best airline out there....Southwest. Why is that man behind me trying to get some face time for himself in our family picture? Boy, I sure didn't know what was in store for us later that night! Stuck in Phoenix for 5 hours and then arriving in New Orleans at 1am. Driving the 3 hours home and getting to our pad at a little after the cock crows. People were already waking up to go to work.

My wonderful other friend Becky from Seattle, lives near Mt. Rainier and was kind enough to have us invade for an evening to enjoy salmon on a cedar plank over the open fire. I worked with Becky while we lived in North Carolina and her husband Jeff, was also a marine stationed at Cherry Point. We both taught 5th grade together at the year-round school. Neither of us had kids yet. Then they moved and we moved and somewhere along the 10 years we went not seeing them, we each had 3 kids. So our daughters are 3 months apart, then we both had little boys and rounded the family out with more little girls. They have Gretchen, Joey and Bridget.

Becky and I and her huge Rhodesian Ridge back, Rusty

While on a mega tourist extravaganza, we did a ferry ride west and then drove to Ballard to see the locks. Here Adeline and I decided to run away and become hobos

At the Salmon Ladder under the Ballard Locks. Every few minutes we would see a Sockeye come shooting through the ladder on his way to Lake Washington

Out for a date night with Robin and Mark to the Cheesecake Factory, got the funniest look from the waiter when I asked him to tell me all the drinks you could put Kahlua in. He decided for me that I wouldn't like anything besides a white russian b/c I'm a huge wuss, so that's what I had. While in Seattle, we stayed up north in Bothell with my brother-in-law(Mark's) father and wife. So, they were kind enough one night to offer free babysitting services for us, thanks guys

While out on the Kitsap Peninsula we got ice cream and Vivian got her 1st taste of ice cream and demanded more immediately. She eventually ended up with the end of some one's cone and was content to grossify herself.

From the top of the ferry deck, the mountain came out that day! Hurray, so hurry everyone smile while we take a family picture with Mt. Rainier

Robin's family, Marjorie, Vivian and Mark

At Mark's fathers he has a chicken coop in the backyard and this became the kids sole entertainment for the four days we were there. The chickens would cluck quietly at around 5am, and that's when Emma and Reece would sneak outside in their pajamas and start picking up sleeping chickens to check who laid the egg. Emma called this chicken the "ultimate chicken", b/c she laid the most eggs , once laid 2 eggs at the same time and she let Emma pet her.

I kept calling them Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn, b/c they were like the Lord of the Flies back there in the chicken coop for hours on end. And that was our amazing trip to Washington State , that included playgrounds, newsrooms, mountains, waterfalls, chickens, salmon, old friends, wineries, space needles, hotels, ferries, and COFFEE. See you next time Robinski