A few weeks ago we took our vacation. My husband loves road trips. He can't stand to stay in one place. He loves to travel and keep moving. So our trip went like this: one day in Spokane, one day in Seattle, one day in Vancouver, then back to Seattle, then back to Spokane, then one night in Missoula, then back home again. I know--it sounds crazy! Not what I would prefer, but that's the way he likes to do it.
We stayed at the Air Force base right off of Spokane. It was beautiful. Because we had such a large family, they had us stay in a nice 2 bedroom house. I wanted to stay there forever. It wasn't a big house, but I thought it was perfect. I tend to like smaller houses even with lots of people. It just so happened that there was a family with six small children staying in the house attached to ours (base housing is almost always duplexes). I never got the meet the mother, but I thought it was such a coincidence that they were staying next to us. While in Spokane we went to a beautiful park and rode these things called gondolas that went over a waterfall. I thought gondolas were boats, but these were in the air. I was scared to death that thing was going to break! You can see a few pictures of it in our pictures.
The next day we traveled to Seattle. I did not like Seattle, at least not the big city area of it. It was crowded and there were strange people everywhere. Every store, even ones like Home Depot and Staples, were in big sky scraper buildings. It was all very strange to me and I didn't like it. I felt hurried and dirty and buried in people. We stayed at a Navy base that wasn't that great compared to the AF base. While we were there we went to a mall (that also looked to me just like another big building!) and I got my first taste of Panda Express. Love that place!
The next day we drove up to Vancouver. That was really strange. We didn't see many other white people. Most people were Chinese, Korean, Muslim, and more that I didn't even know. It was also much too big city-ish for me. We went to another beautiful park while we were there. I wish we had parks here like the ones we went to. We also went to the IMAX theater and saw 2 3D movies--one about the sea and another about a space station. We also went to a China Town. I didn't want to get out, but Kevin did, so we got out and walked around a little. There were Chinese people everywhere and they all stared at us and pointed and exclaimed things in Chinese. A few spoke to us in English with things like "Five?" "All you's?" "All you keeds?" haha--We must have been a sight to them! Their streets were full of markets that sold the grossest looking food I have ever seen. Can you believe Kevin wanted to go to a restaurant there? No way was I going to eat there!
We were going to stay 2 days in Vancouver, but 1 was enough, so we left the next day to head back to Seattle. This time instead of trying to naviate the city ourselves, Kevin wanted to take the city bus!!! Can you believe that? A family with five small children riding on the city bus! That was an adventure. I never saw any other chidren get on the bus--just a lot of weird and different people! Most didn't speak to us, but a few of course had to tell us we had our hands full. If only people knew how old that line gets. Ugh. But we survived 45 minutes on the bus and made it to the children's museum. That was probably the highlight of the trip for the kids. They had so much fun there. We spent all day there, then got back on the bus. It was during rush our so this time our trip was an hour and a half. Thankfully the kids were exhausted and slept the whole way.
Then while we were in Seattle we wanted to go to a couple restaurants that were on "Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives". Voula's Off Shore Cafe was closed and Mike's Chili Parlor turned out to be a bar that we weren't allowed in! So Kevin got a cup of chili to go. It was not as "money" as Guy Fieri made it out to be!
The next day was back to Spokane where we pretty much just stayed another night. Oh and we went to an arcade/go-kart type place there. Thankfully it had a huge indoor playground for the little ones. Then the next night we stayed in Missoula in the nicest hotel I've ever been in (it was a free stay we had earned). The next day was finally home.
You can see all our vacation pictures HERE.
7 comments:
Im glad you had a good time!! I see that we are not the only family of 7 maxing out our minivan.. LOL
Oh Jennifer! I'm glad you had such a nice time! It's so good just to get away! I laughed about what you said about not eating in chinatown...I wouldn't have either! :)
I'm glad you had a nice time. I know Seattle is pretty busy and weird! My children love the childrens museum. There is also the Pacific Science center right next door. My boys love that just as much.
Thanks for sharing your trip and pics with us. Sounds like it was an adventure. I'll bet you were so glad to get home! I know I am after vacation. For some reason, it stresses me out a bit with little ones. I find it to be a lot of work. More so than being at home, really. It is fun to go someplace new and exciting once in a while, but if you are like me, you want to kiss the front stoop of your home when you get back.
what a wonderful trip, with so many different places to see! I remember going to the Children's Museum here in Richmond, VA when I was a child and loved it as well!
I am so glad you had a safe trip. I know what you mean about Seattle. We lived in Everett for over 7 yrs and I don't think I could ever go back.. just way too many people.. :) Did you ride the ferries.. I do miss the ferries.. The kids loved riding them :)
Looks like fun! Glad you're back.
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