Washington Trip

We went to WA for a week to visit my mom in Silverdale and Jed's family in Camas last week (20-28 Aug).

We drove straight out to Silverdale all day Saturday and went to the Olympic Music Festival on Sunday.  I'd been a couple times but my mom hadn't and Jed, of course, hadn't so that was a fun experience.  It's basically a summer program in which professional classical musicians play several pieces casually in a barn.  Seating can be purchased in the barn or on the lawns outside.

Saturday evening and Monday we generally hung around and did some walking at the waterfront with Beag and on some trails in Kitsap.  We tried to expose my mom to geocaching, but she didn't take too well to it.  On the waterfront, Jed got to do one of his favorite hobbies: flip rocks and see the crabs go running, lol. 

posing at Puget Sound

i flippin love this dog!!

geocache find! 

whimsical pic

crab!

Tuesday we took a day to ourselves and went to Seattle.  Jed had been through but never really "done" Seattle, so it was way fun taking him to some of the staples.  We left our car in Bremerton and took the ferry over, went to Ivar's so Jed could get his much coveted clam chowder (though he did have to stare a seagull down for it), and then walked to the International District and shopped at Uwajimaya for goodies, then had lunch (inari zushi for me and tuna sushi for Jed).

staring down a gull

very happy Jed with his chowder

delicious goodies from Japan and a couple from Europe, hehe

We then headed over to Pike Place, got some Turkish Delights, and found a man selling his wife's beautiful watercolors of Chinese landscapes.  We have been looking for prints for our apartment for a while so we bought two of them - winter and summer of her four seasons collection - but we wanted to get so many more! 

classic Pike Place pic

summer

winter

We then caught a bus up to Capitol Hill to go to an all vegan Asian food restaurant called Teapot Vegetarian House not necessarily for the food (you can get vegan food at pretty much any Asian place, especially Thai, yum!), but for the vegan cheesecake that I tried at their other restaurant in Redmond.  Delicious!  We bused back, checked out the Curiosity Shoppe, ferried back, and then drove down to Camas. 

my kung pao and Jed's drunken noddle hotpot

vegan cheesecake, om nom nom!

sun starting to set as we leave Seattle's skyline

Jed's sister and bro-in-law, Matt, and niece, Adelaide, had flown out from DC for the week so it was nice to see them and how big Adelaide is!! She's 14 months and growing out of her 18 month clothes, walking around, and speaking a few words here and there.  Very nice, little niece! 

Wednesday we went to Fort Vancouver, which was fun, and it was hot!  (That was the day I started on my Chaco tan, lol.)  We also went car shopping and ended up getting a 2005 GMC Envoy.  Rumor started to go around that we were expecting since we got an SUV, but we got it because we wanted a 4-wheel-drive vehicle since Jed's Volvo had rear-wheel drive and fish-tailed constantly in ice/snow and my Dodge Neon is a light-weight 4-cylinder that just doesn't have enough power to make it in the winter in Rexburg.  So since we're planning on being here two more winters, didn't want a truck, couldn't find an affordable sedan or cross-over, and will need a large vehicle to move around after we leave here anyway, we went with this.  It's kind of large for my taste so I don't really want to get rid of my Neon yet, but we're planning on selling it and we traded in Jed's Volvo that he's had since 2004.  I've never had the experience of being around or a part of buying a car from a dealer, but wow, what an ordeal. 

bye bye Volvo

hello Envoy!

Thursday we went to the Bonneville Dam and fish ladder, Hatchery, and Multnomah Falls.  It was pretty cool seeing the way they do the fish ladders and see the windows that allows them to count the fish that go through to check population numbers.  

Jed watching some salmon rest in the ladder window

family pic at the Hatchery

being adorable at Multnomah Falls

Friday we hung out, I made buddies with Adeliade via an Elmo balloon, we went to Ikea (and returned relatively fruitless), and then had a joint birthday "party" for Jed's dad who was a week before, Melinda who is a couple weeks ahead, Jed's mom who is a few weeks ahead too, and me.  Melinda made a vegan (for me) and heart-friendly (for Jeff) cake that came out very well and we exchanged gifts. 

yay gifties!

cake! 

Saturday we went to Vancouver Farmer's Market and blueberry picking at a pick your own farm and that was lots of fun.  

artsy pic of blueberry field

Jed stealing my berries :O

We also went to a bull-riding event.  Now, I swore early on that I would never go to any rodeo event but the in-laws bought tickets before knowing this.  I initially thought I was going to refuse to go, but then after some light research decided to give it a go, even though I felt pretty uncomfortable about it.  I can't say that I liked it, but I didn't see the amount of abuse that animal rights groups put out there.  The Professional Bull Riders group has a slew of policies that protect rider and bull, the animals are worth a bucket-load for how good they are in the arena and therefore for breeding, and the flank rope shouldn't touch the genitals (as critics say it does), but is put there as an annoyance so the bull with try to buck it off.  The part that I disliked the most, however, was when the bulls would go a wrong direction to get back in the gate and the ropers would rope and haul them back.  A couple bulls were roped around the throat and flipped down to the ground because of being unbalanced and trying to get away.  Once again, it's not my cup-a-tea, but I'm not gonna go picket it either.  The most entertaining part, to be honest, was the banter between the head rodeo clown and the announcer, as well as the clown's ability to shake it to any music style, lol.  

Sunday we drove all day back to Rexburg in our new vehicle and here we are!  Phew!