Sleeping in Seattle

 The last time I flew on a plane with Isaac, it was a nightmare.  I was flying out to Utah with all 6 kids by myself (Scott had started a new role at work and joined us later) and Isaac was a non-stop, always-on-the-go, highly-spirited kind of toddler who HATED being confined anywhere.  There was a solid 30 minutes heading out to Utah that I was honestly worried we'd end up as one of those headlines where an unruly child is kicked off the plane immediately following an emergency landing.  When that trip was over, I may or may not have sworn that I would NEVER fly with Isaac ever again, and if given the choice between a plane ride and a road trip, I'd easily choose to drive 20+ hours than deal with the melting-down-whirlwind-of-activity that was Isaac.  Hahahahaha.  The good thing is that 3 years is a long time in the life of a toddler, and even though we combined a plane ride WITH a road trip this time around, 5 year old Isaac was MUCH better behaved than 2 year old Isaac ever could have been.  Hahaha.

I mean, look at that little face.  😍

After a couple of panicked days leading up to our trip -- where we were worried that the rental car we had reserved in Seattle was only a 7-seater, and not the 8 we needed -- we arrived in the Emerald City to find the panic was all for naught!  Whew!!!  I can't even tell you what we would have done if there were only 7 seats.  There were literally no cars for rent ANYWHERE in the area that last minute.  Thankfully, all was well and after loading everyone and everything up, we headed to our hotel to drop off our stuff.  

Waiting at the rental car place in Seattle...

...living his best life.

Our destination that first evening was the Space Needle, and even though we didn't actually ride to the top, the grounds were nonetheless the perfect place for the kids to run around and burn off some much needed energy.  I had hoped to get there before the Chihuly Gardens had closed for the day, but we ran out of luck, and the kids seemed happy enough to climb the various art sculptures in the park and browse the gift shop instead.  Because I knew we'd have limited time before we had to move on to the next destination, we tried to pack as much as we could into that evening without pushing anyone over the brink and into madness.  {Spoiler alert -- we were not entirely successful.  Moods were already disintegrating by the time we were heading back to the hotel, and the scene at the end of the day showcased 5 children (and 2 parents) opting to squeeze into one of our hotel rooms in order to escape the wrath of the 1 child occupying the other.  Thankfully, by the time we were going to bed, said child was amenable to having others around her again.  Hahaha.} 

Grace was happy to send me all the pictures she took on the trip.  Hahaha.

We finished our stint in Seattle with a visit to Pike Place Market the next morning followed by a couple of hours at the Boeing Museum of Flight before hitting the road once again.  

Here we are in the first of many family selfies -- aka "felfies."  Hahaha.

I couldn't resist taking a picture of these!  Peonies are my favorite and these were just absolutely gorgeous.

By the end of the trip, everyone was making fun of me for asking who had the longest arms each time we took a felfie.

Jane's face says what we were all thinking -- the infamous gum wall is kind of disgusting. 

{Just as a friendly heads up -- although I'm sure all of you know this already -- getting food at any kind of museum cafe is going to cost far more money than it's actually worth, so plan accordingly.  With hangry moods setting in all around, however, we decided it was better to get food in bellies ASAP than it was to drive all around trying to find a place to eat that everyone agreed on.}  

I thought the Flight museum was pretty cool, and the kids seemed to enjoy it as well -- although Grace did inform me on several occasions that she doesn't really care about "space stuff."  She was good-natured about it though, and entertained herself by posing for pictures with random mannequins while the others were milling around checking out the exhibits.  

Alex is my fellow museum lover, so he was in heaven trying to find all the scavenger hunt items on the list he got at the front desk, and he was super stoked with the set of wings he got as a prize for completing it.

There's nothing more tedious than reading a play-by-play travelogue, so I'll spare everyone a recounting of any more details of this first leg of our journey and instead regale you with my thoughts, observations, and impressions of the city. 

First off, the trees.  Oh my goodness.  I'm pretty sure by the end of our pit stop, my kids (and possibly even Scott) were sick of hearing me declare my undying love for the tree-lined streets of Seattle.  But I'm in love and I don't care who knows it!!!  Hahahaha.  I used a plant identification app on some of them (sycamores, hickories, and birches, [allegedly]), but I still can't figure out what it was that made these trees so much more charming than those on any other tree-lined street in America.  

American sycamore

Secondly?  The weather.  While the warm, sunny sky and the cool breeze of our first night in Seattle was pretty much perfection, rambling about Pike Place Market the next morning was just as much a delight even if it was a touch on the chilly side.  As a whole, our time in the Pacific Northwest (and along the coast) was cool and lovely and we were thankful to have missed out on the 115 degree weather that was in the area a week earlier!

Finally, I've discovered that I kind of love fog -- even if it does obscure some of the vistas in its shroud.  There's just something about walking around in a cool, morning fog with mildly grey skies that feels so cozy.  Is it weird that I think that???  Hahahaha.  

Stay tuned for the next installment...