Wonderful Washington

On July 18th, my friend Alice came out to visit me for 2 weeks. She brought along her roommate, Carol and the 2 of them spent a week here on Whidbey Island with me. Alice has another friend, Elizabeth, who lives in Seattle, so for the second week, we all went down to Seattle to hang out with her. We were joined by another of Alice's friends, Jan, while we were in Seattle. It was tons of fun, and I have to admit that as someone who gets really anxious when meeting new people, I had a great time and absolutely loved Carol, Elizabeth and Jan. I have a lot of stuff to write about the entire vacation (yes it was my vacation too even though I live here), but since it will take a long time, I thought I'd write a quick overview of our fun, and then write blogs about each event separately.

So this is what we did:

Saturday, July 18: Late night pickup of Alice and Carol from the Sea-Tac airport

Sunday, July 19: Slept in a little and then we went on the obligatory visit to Deception Pass, followed by watching a beautiful sunset at Washington Park in Anacortes

Monday, July 20: Visited San Juan Island and enjoyed a beautiful ferry ride through the San Juan Islands to get there. We explored the small town of Friday Harbor, and went to San Juan National Park.

Tuesday, July 21: The Olympic Peninsula - lunch in Port Angeles, afternoon in Olympic National Park, and dinner in Port Townsend before catching the ferry back to Whidbey

Wednesday, July 22: Back to the Olympic Peninsula to visit Forks and La Push, home of Twilight

Thursday, July 23: Spent the day on Whidbey Island, exploring Fort Ebey State Park and Coupeville

Friday, July 24: Early visit to Fildalgo Island/Anacortes to see the view from Mt. Erie, then it was back to Whidbey to explore Fort Casey State Park and the Admiralty Lighthouse

Saturday, July 25: day trip to Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada to visit Stanley Park and Lynn Canyon park

Sunday, July 26: A relaxing day that ended in Seattle as we said goodbye to Whidbey and went to go see Elizabeth in Seattle. We ate dinner that night at a fun little bar/grill called the Pig and Whistle.

Monday, July 27: Tour of the Seattle Underground

Tuesday, July 28: I came back to Whidbey to babysit for the day, while everyone else enjoyed a fun sightseeing day in Seattle

Wednesday, July 29: The hottest day EVER in Seattle's history - 103 degrees. We saw Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince in IMAX 3D at the Pacific Science Center, then spent time playing around at the science center. That afternoon/evening we we wedding dress shopping with Elizabeth, who just got engaged, and then ate Indian Food (which I had never eaten before) at the Tandor Hut in Seattle.

Thursday, July 30: A visit to the Seattle Aquarium, the very first Starbucks, Elliot Bay Bookstore, Pike Place Market, and Piroshky's Russian Bakery (thanks for introducing that place to me Mrs. M ;-)), then touristy shopping at cheesy gift shops

Friday, July 31: Day trip to Mt. Rainer National Park

Saturday, August 1: The morning was spent helping Elizabeth out at a homeless shelter/church that she works out, the we visited the animals at the Woodland Park Zoo, and celebrated Jan's birthday that night with dinner at the Space Needle.

Sunday, August 2: Jan left early to fly home to Kentucky and the rest of us spent more time at Pike Place Market and went on a Harbor Cruise in Elliott Bay. Then I went back home to Whidbey and had to say goodbye to my vacation and hello again to the reality of the real world :-(.

I'm going to try to write a blog about each day, so hopefully that won't take me forever to do, and hopefully it will be more interesting to read than just a list of things that I did :-).