Vacation: a review in several parts

I really wanted to get some posts up about our vacation before it became a distant memory. Fail.

But, here's a start. We hit the road at 4:40AM, aiming for B'ham in one shot but willing to spend the night along the way if all hell broke loose in the backseat. Everyone had told us Grace would go right back to sleep, but instead she sat in the backseat wide eyed. We stopped for gas near Mt. Shasta and got directions to a lovely park. It was the perfect stop - playground, very pretty river and just about one tank of gas north of SF. Grace rocked out to her Elmo and Baby Einstein DVDs (yes, I know they've been debunked but she likes them) while we jammed on up to Eugene, mystified by all the cars decked out in Ducks flags. Finally took Steve to Taco Time, which he promptly declared seriously inferior to Taco Bell (though Gracie was quite pleased with the tater tots), and then it was onward to the Tacoma Mall. Oh yea, Tacoma. There was plenty of space for Grace to roam plus food - it turns out malls are good road trip pit stops with a toddler. Grace refused dinner, but then as soon as we pulled onto the freeway again she started saying and signing "eat? eat?" She konked out and we rolled into Bellingham at 10:15PM.

Did you notice that I forgot to mention all the tantrums from the backseat? Amazingly there were none. None! There was a bit of whining, but no knock down, drag out, get me out of this seat screaming. Amazing that we did a 15 hour drive (and that's drive time, not including stops) with only three stops with a 16 month old. Steve and I have driven cross country three times and up and down both coasts, but we've never driven that far with only three stops. That baby girl just keeps amazing us.

It is fall in Washington, even if was the height of summer when we left the Bay Area, so we headed out to a local farm for their fall festival on Sunday. Grace learned a new word, "pumpkin", danced to the bluegrass band, and helped press some fresh cider. We tasted apples, pears and garlic. Yum. It was a beautiful day in that wonderful, green, Washington overcast way.

Next we headed down to Boulevard Park for a last walk on the old dock. Construction was to begin on a replacement the next day.

That is one of my favorite places in the world, with the view of the San Juans and the mountains in Canada, the sound of the waves and gulls, the smell of saltwater and the distant dinging of buoys.