The Accidental Boilermaker

 Our last day of vacation was a full travel day.  Our flight was at 7:00am so we woke up early to drive to the airport and picked up breakfast there.  We did catch a glimpse of Mount Rainier from the plane.  I was only able to take a picture after the person in the window seat moved to an empty row of seats.   The flight home went just as smoothly as the flight to Seattle.  Kate let Evelyn and Jameson play on her switch. We arrived in Chicago on time and quickly picked up our luggage and hopped on the L to Kate's apartment.  We relaxed a little bit and caught up with Tom before going for a walk and picking up some food for dinner. The drive home was long, but it was nice to be home and see Penny and sleep in our own beds.  It was a fun vacation and I hope Evelyn and Jameson keep some good memories of their time out west.

 Our last real day in Washington we went back and forth about what we wanted to do.  I had thought I wanted to drive to the coast and see the ocean, but it's 2 hours away and we had already spent a lot of time in the car driving places. Evelyn and Jameson were still interested in waterfalls, so we went to Snoqualmie to see a really big waterfall. And there was a rainbow. We walked down to the bottom of the waterfall, climbed on the rocks by the river, and took more pictures. After lunch back in Lacey we went to the Nisqually nature preserve.  We walked little ways before it started raining.  Jeremy and Hans turned back and the rest of us made it to a small shelter to wait out the heavy rain.  We didn't walk the whole boardwalk; we were too wet and cold. Later in the day we got to see Meredith and Jeremy's new house and to celebrate we got shakes for dinner.

 On Tuesday we drove to the Olympic National Forest for a big hike up to lower Lena Lake.  This was my favorite day. We hiked up about 3.5 miles and then back down.  There was a lot of little streams and a few bridges to cross and lots of big rocks. We took lots of pictures too. We ate lunch once we reached the lake. The lake was beautiful. On our way home we stopped for ice cream because everyone did a great job on the hike.

 Sunday was kinda overcast and rainy.  We went to Left Bank which is just a block away from Meredith and Jeremy for pastries in the morning. Then we drove into Tacoma for the morning.  We walked around a little bit and saw some glass sculptures from the glass museum (we didn't actually go to the real museum). We did visit a maritime museum that was free because we all had our covid vaccination cards and kids under 6 are free and then the girl just let Evelyn for free too.  The museum was very interesting with just enough stuff for the kids to touch and play with. For lunch we got seafood and ate outside in the rain.  We drove around Point Defiance but didn't get because it was still raining.  Back home from Tacoma we relaxed for the rest of the day.

Saturday morning we went straight to see Hans!  And Meredith and Jeremy, but mostly Hans. After breakfast Meredith and Jeremy took us on a walk to see the sound and then the farmer's market.  Evelyn and Jameson each picked out a chocolate croissant. Our next activity was a hike at Priest Point and a picnic lunch on Ellis Cove. We got pizza for dinner and then went to Tumwater falls. It was a busy first day.

 Last Friday we left for our big family vacation.  First stop was Chicago to leave our car, pick up Katherine and head to the airport. We took the L to O'Hare.  It wasn't Evelyn and Jameson's first time on the L, but they were still excited.  The train was a little late and then it stopped for a while at one station, so there was some stress about getting to the airport with enough time (Kate wasn't worried, just me and Nate). But we made to the airport and through security with no problems.   Our flight left on time and Evelyn and Jameson loved every minute.  They both wanted to sit with Aunt Katherine.  They got to eat snacks, play on the ipads, and watch a movie.  We got into Seattle late so by the time we got our rental car and drove to Olympia, it was straight to bed for everyone.