Road Trip, Summer 2008

Bellingham and Bremerton, the two "B's" from our past, were the destinations for our family road trip this year. We have been telling family and friends for ages that we would come to visit them, so this was the year. (Note: The weather was hot, even by Bellingham and Bremerton standards, for this trip. We were all a bit sticky!).

After a quick stop in Seattle for lunch with Nicole, we arrived in Bellingham at Scott and Sara's adorable house. After an evening of eating pizza and playing Guitar Hero, the kids got to sleep in a tent set-up indoors. Very fun!

Jack playing "Guitar Hero."

Erick's turn to "rock." (I should have kept using my flash on these pictures!)

We even let Kaitlin try since she kept telling us "I wanna rock!"

Thursday was spent exploring. Western Washington University, Haggen's, Chuckanut Drive, Larrabee State Park, Fairhaven. All those places we used to frequent while attending school. Bellingham was one of our top choices of places to live after graduation (Portland being the other top choice) and being there again reminded us why. We decided that the Bellingham/Fairhaven area is how SE Portland would be if it were it's own city. Old houses, lots of parks, and cute little neighborhood communities.

Future WWU Alumni?

Sitting at the fountain in Red Square.

Climbing on the "art."

Old Main stripped of all that ivy!

Jack on stage at Larrabee State Park.

Walking down to the beach.

So pretty here! Those are the San Juan Islands in the distance.

Such a cute house!

Friday we journeyed onward towards Bremerton, first stopping in La Conner for lunch then by way of the Edmonds/Kingston Ferry (Jack and Kaitlin's favorite!). Kaitlin kept saying "we're going on a ferry boat, we're going on a ferry boat." I've been on my fair share of ferry boats growing up which got a little old after a while, but this one is fast at only 30 minutes so it's not too bad. Actually it was too fast for the kids, they didn't want to get off. We arrived at Amy and Wes's house around 5:30 p.m. The kids were amazed at the size of their house and how close it was to the water. Their favorite room was the media room with a projection TV. Amy and I went to a scrapbooking crop party and the kids stayed with Erick and Wes at the house and watched "Cars."

It's so fun on the ferry!

Saturday was another day of exploring. We went by my childhood home (doesn't look so great anymore, it was actually pretty sad) and Erick's (that house actually looks great!) and even went by our high school. Then we drove into Poulsbo and had lunch and walked around town. Then we went back to Amy and Wes's house for a BBQ with Dorothy and Del, Tony and Jennifer, and Greg Raymond. It was really nice to see all of them and catch up. We also got to see an amazing sunset.

Very cool water fountain at the Bremerton waterfront.

Dining by sunset (picture #2 is The Brothers in the Olympic Mountain Range).

Sunday we stopped by to see Christina and Michael and their kids, Iain and Nathan, and had a quick visit on our way out of town. It is always great to see them. Christina and I are so lucky to still be friends after all these years (we met in 3rd grade!). Then it was back on the road and towards home. Very quick but fun trip! We'll try not to let so much time go by before we visit again!

The old and new spans of the Tacoma Narrows Bridge.

On the road back to Portland -- home, sweet, home.