Washington

 On August 29 we left our home around 11:30 to drop Milo off at the kennel. I hate to take him there, but neither of our neighbors who have watched him previously could watch him during this trip. Hopefully, he will not be too upset during our absence. After a stop at the bank, we drove towards Pittsburgh. We had dinner at a Bob Evans restaurant that was thirty miles east of the airport. On Tuesdays, kids eat for free at Bob Evans, so our $50 gift card covered all of our meals and the tip with a little bit left over! Unfortunately, we hit a lot of rush hour traffic on our drive from the restaurant to the airport, but thankfully we made it to the gate well before the time the boarding began. We didn't have to wait at all to check our three suitcases or to go through TSA. The last time we flew was in May 2018, so Oliver didn't even remember that experience. There were many empty seats on the plane. Oliver and I sat in one row, and Paul, Ian, and Nadia sat behind us. We were served a snack and a drink. 

On August 29, we drove 223 miles and flew 2,314 miles and crossed three time zones. We were taken by shuttle to our hotel. We were so exhausted that Nadia didn't even want to take the time to inflate the air mattress. A few hours later, we had breakfast, and Paul took the shuttle back to the airport to get the rental car. Although Thrifty did give us an SUV that had three rows of seats, it was much smaller than the one we thought we'd be getting. We definitely prefer our minivan! Thankfully, the cost to rent vehicles is much cheaper in Florida so we plan to rent a minivan in February.

After Paul got the SUV on August 30, we drove to Pikes Place Market. The kids enjoyed walking around the market and doing a lot of window shopping. We watched men throwing fish around and visited the gigantic gum wall. We bought a Space Needle magnet, earrings for Nadia for Christmas, a cookie for Oliver, and pizza for Ian and Nadia. Then we walked a mile to the Space Needle. Those tickets were pricy. We spent a couple of hours at the Space Needle and Chihuly Garden and Glass Museum. We had seen some of his work at the Children's Museum in Indianapolis in April. It was beautiful! 

After walking a mile back to our SUV, we drove to the Museum of Flight. Paul would have liked to have had more time to spend there. It is a VERY large museum. He wasn't able to visit the floor that focused on WWI. Oliver and Ian rode in a flight simulator. Nadia paid for Oliver's admission as an early Christmas present. In hindsight, we would have driven fewer miles if we had flipped the order of what we did that day. I had made the decision based on thinking we would leave the hotel around 8:30 am, and the Museum of Flight didn't open until 10:00. I do my best when planning vacations, but there are always things I realize afterwards that I would have done differently.

We had dinner at KFC. A little less than half of the meal was covered by a gift card Paul got at Christmas. It was cheaper to eat at Bob Evans than KFC. Paul loves KFC and we go there maybe once every two years. Nadia and I ordered from the Taco Bell portion of the menu instead of the KFC side. After we finished eating, we got in line for the Bainbridge Ferry. I was hoping that we might see some orcas although the best time to see them is from October to February. Still, it was the first time the kids experienced driving a vehicle onto a ferry, and it saved us some driving time. We only drove 47 miles on August 30. We spent the night at the Poulsbo Inn after buying some groceries. Due to our sleep deprivation the previous night, we skipped the pool and went to bed early after eating some ice cream that we got at the grocery store. Nadia did use her air mattress that night.

We spent August 31 at the Olympic National Park. We planned to start our visit at Hurricane Ridge, but a lightning strike on August 28 started a fire which led to that area being closed until September 2. To be honest, our day was full without visiting that section. It's a huge park! After getting the kids their Junior Ranger booklets in Port Angeles, we did a hike to Marymere Falls. We saw a banana slug! Our next stop was in the Hoh Rainforest where we took the Hall of Mosses trail. We had dinner in that area on the way out at the Hard Rain Cafe before visiting Ruby Beach and stopped at an ice cream place on our way to our hotel. Buying ice cream at the grocery store is DEFINITELY the cheaper way to go, even if the food prices at the grocery stores up here are much more expensive than what I'm accustomed to paying. The kids earned one of two possible Junior Ranger badges. Ruby Beach was gorgeous!  Nadia used her air mattress again. We drove 317 miles on August 31. 

On September 1 we spent the day at Mount Rainier National Park. Wendy gave me hiking boots for Christmas, and I've been getting good use out of them on this trip! As beautiful as Olympic National Park was, Mount Rainier has been my favorite place so far on this trip. We did two hikes near the Visitor Center. We saw two black tailed deer on our first hike. Nadia wishes that we skipped the last hike to Snow Lake because of the 700 feet of elevation change involved in the hike. After we left the park, we went to a pizza place in Eatonville. I scheduled us to eat a several pizza places on this trip because we like pizza and it tends to be a much cheaper option. The pizza wasn't overpriced, but they didn't have an option to get a free cup of water. We had to spend $10 plus tax to buy five drinks. Still, it was cheaper than KFC or Bob Evans. We stopped at a grocery store near our Airbnb to get a box of ice cream sandwiches for the kids and I and a candy bar for Paul. Nadia slept on a twin sized loft bed. The boys slept below her on a queen size bed. Paul and I slept on a queen-sized bed in the living room. Paul played one game of chess with Ian and another game of chess with Oliver. We drove 136 miles on September 1. 

The host of the Airbnb left us a $25 gift certificate for the cafe located under our unit. The waffles and such were $11 or more per person, but we were able to buy five breakfast sandwiches for a little less than $25, and they did provide free cups of water. Due to a landslide earlier this summer, we weren't able to visit one part of Mount St. Helens, but we still stopped at two visitor centers, the kids earned a Junior Ranger badge, we visited a lake, and we hiked the Hummocks Trail loop. Mount Rainier is certainly more beautiful, but Paul and I remember when Mount St. Helens erupted so it was something that was a high priority for Paul. Our last stop in the state of Washington was Fort Vancouver National Historic Site. I thought it closed at 5:00, but it actually closed at 4:00 so we didn't have much time to spend there. Thankfully, it's a pretty small site, and the Junior Ranger badge program was extremely easy. If we had more time, the kids could have earned a second Junior Ranger badge at the Pearson Air Museum, but it closed at 4:00. We had dinner at Red Robin. Usually, our $50 gift card covers our meal there aside from the tip, but that wasn't the case last night. We enjoyed our meal. It's the only restaurant where Nadia still orders from the kids' menu. The boys and I spent about 15 minutes in an outdoor hot tub at the Comfort Inn in Oregon where we spent the night. Our room had three queen sized beds, and I'm not talking about a sofa bed. We drove 197 miles on September 2. 

We're spending today and tomorrow in Oregon. Washington was the kids' 45th state, and Oregon is their 46th. In three days, we plan to be in Nevada, which will be their 47th state!