Day +832: Summer Vacation
Everyone is having a great time on our summer vacation. We left San Francisco on Wednesday the 25th, and made it to Lake Mayfield, Washington on Friday the 27th in time for the annual Kaminsky family camping weekend (Keri's mom's family). They did really great on the trip. We left about 4:00 in the afternoon and spent the first night in Redding. Thursday morning we spent an hour in the pool before putting the kids back in the car, and they slept solidly for almost three hours. We made it to Salem Thursday night, then stopped in Portland to visit Mina's school friend Anika, who is spending the summer there. We finally made it to the campground Friday at about 6:00 PM.
We spent the weekend camping at the state park right on the lake. Mina and Isaac both got to ride on Uncle Bill's boat, which they loved of course. But Isaac liked it better after Bill pulled the boat out of the water on Monday, because then he was allowed to climb up into the boat and pretend to drive it. He kept getting into and out of the boat and was having a ball. But Bill finally had to draw the line after Isaac kept collecting leaves and pine needles in a plastic bag and dumping them onto the boat, because the boat was the garbage truck. Mina spent practically the whole weekend hand in hand with cousin Zoë, who is a few months older. She's old enough to remember now, and she was just so excited to see Zoë. It's nice that they get along so well.
I took my nephew Nicholas on a hike that week, which was really great. I used to take him on hikes a lot when we still lived up there, but it's been hard to find the time the last few years with us living down here and with everything that has been going on with the kids. I had been planning it, but Nick asked me about it before I had a chance to bring it up, which is pretty gratifying. We hiked up to the lookout on Mt. Pilchuck, which we've done before but which is reallly a great hike. You can see from the Strait of Juan de Fuca in the west to Mt. Stuart in the east, from Mt. Baker in the north to Mt. Rainier in the south, and literally everything in between. I knew this day was going to come soon, but Nicholas is now 15 and a half, is 5 foot 11, and is training for sophomore football, so he kicked my butt going up the mountain. I had to stop and rest a few times, but we still made it 3 miles and 2000 feet up in about 2 hours, so I don't feel too embarrassed.
The next day we saw Kari and Carmen, which was great but too short. Carmen is always really excited to see the kids, but she's just not used to having younger kids around to mess up her games, so the reality doesn't quite live up to the hype. They did have a lot of fun though, and the love is genuine. Keri and the kids will see them again, and I think they're planning to come visit us some time in the fall, but it was definitely way too short for me. Mom and Dad are in Europe, so we won't see them until October, although they did spend a week with us in June.
Later that week Keri and I had our 10th wedding anniversary. We spent the day bumming around Seattle, just like in the old days. We started off at the Pike Place Market, then hiked down to Pioneer Square for coffee, stopping at the Elliott Bay Bookstore and an art show in Occidental Park. That night we went to a play and had a great dinner at Cafe Campagne back up near the Market. We spent the night at a hotel, and then met the family along with Tutu and Richard for lunch. We both love Seattle, and we had a great time reconnecting. It's not that we're necessarily ready to move back or anything, but it still does feel like home because we know it so well.
Then on Saturday we made our way up to Guemes Island to visit Zeedie and Russell. Zeedie is a really good high school friend of Keri's, and she was there for us in a big way while Mina was sick. Their daughters Emma Sky and Otter Moon are 8 and 6, respectively, and they also get along great with our kids. They live a rustic lifestyle, half inside and half outside with no running water, on the easternmost San Juan Island. It's really a beautiful location, and also one that is very quintessentially Northwest. My last day on the island I found myself on an incredibly beautiful gravel beach, with crystal clear and very cold water, staring across at the uninhabited Cypress Island and watching the fishing boats going back and forth from Bellingham to the Strait. It felt kind of like our old beach house in Olympia, except about 5 times as beautiful. I literally did not want to leave that spot. The next day was time for me to head home, but Keri and the kids were going to San Juan Island to see Katy, Emma and Dylan, who are staying there for the summer. So we all caught the 10-minute ferry from Guemes to Anacortes, then the hour-and-10-minute ferry from Anacortes to Friday Harbor. I only got to spend a couple of hours there, mostly chasing down overtired kids, before I had to get on a little 8-passenger plane to Boeing Field, where I caught a shuttle to SeaTac and from there a regular flight to San Francisco. It wasn't exactly Planes, Trains and Automobiles, but it was car-boat-small plane-bus-jet plane, and it could have been included heavy rail and light rail if I'd just thought about BART and Muni home. But I was too tired, so I just caught a cab instead.
Keri and the kids stayed on Guemes for a couple more days. I think they were planning to head back to Lake Stevens today. The kids were really enjoying themselves. Zeedie and Russell's property is like a kids' paradise. Russell has built not one but two play houses for the girls, but Isaac's favorite activity was playing with Russell's tools in the back of his pickup truck. I think Russell kind of liked having a boy around; he mentioned how his girls have never asked him about his tools.
I'm back at work this week, but will head back up in a couple of weeks to pick up the family and drive them back down. But I'll fly in to Spokane and spend a few days at Bill and Kristi's house before we head down. Keri and the kids will be on the westside for another week or so before heading over. The kids are doing great. Sleep deprived, but having a great time.
We spent the weekend camping at the state park right on the lake. Mina and Isaac both got to ride on Uncle Bill's boat, which they loved of course. But Isaac liked it better after Bill pulled the boat out of the water on Monday, because then he was allowed to climb up into the boat and pretend to drive it. He kept getting into and out of the boat and was having a ball. But Bill finally had to draw the line after Isaac kept collecting leaves and pine needles in a plastic bag and dumping them onto the boat, because the boat was the garbage truck. Mina spent practically the whole weekend hand in hand with cousin Zoë, who is a few months older. She's old enough to remember now, and she was just so excited to see Zoë. It's nice that they get along so well.
I took my nephew Nicholas on a hike that week, which was really great. I used to take him on hikes a lot when we still lived up there, but it's been hard to find the time the last few years with us living down here and with everything that has been going on with the kids. I had been planning it, but Nick asked me about it before I had a chance to bring it up, which is pretty gratifying. We hiked up to the lookout on Mt. Pilchuck, which we've done before but which is reallly a great hike. You can see from the Strait of Juan de Fuca in the west to Mt. Stuart in the east, from Mt. Baker in the north to Mt. Rainier in the south, and literally everything in between. I knew this day was going to come soon, but Nicholas is now 15 and a half, is 5 foot 11, and is training for sophomore football, so he kicked my butt going up the mountain. I had to stop and rest a few times, but we still made it 3 miles and 2000 feet up in about 2 hours, so I don't feel too embarrassed.
The next day we saw Kari and Carmen, which was great but too short. Carmen is always really excited to see the kids, but she's just not used to having younger kids around to mess up her games, so the reality doesn't quite live up to the hype. They did have a lot of fun though, and the love is genuine. Keri and the kids will see them again, and I think they're planning to come visit us some time in the fall, but it was definitely way too short for me. Mom and Dad are in Europe, so we won't see them until October, although they did spend a week with us in June.
Later that week Keri and I had our 10th wedding anniversary. We spent the day bumming around Seattle, just like in the old days. We started off at the Pike Place Market, then hiked down to Pioneer Square for coffee, stopping at the Elliott Bay Bookstore and an art show in Occidental Park. That night we went to a play and had a great dinner at Cafe Campagne back up near the Market. We spent the night at a hotel, and then met the family along with Tutu and Richard for lunch. We both love Seattle, and we had a great time reconnecting. It's not that we're necessarily ready to move back or anything, but it still does feel like home because we know it so well.
Then on Saturday we made our way up to Guemes Island to visit Zeedie and Russell. Zeedie is a really good high school friend of Keri's, and she was there for us in a big way while Mina was sick. Their daughters Emma Sky and Otter Moon are 8 and 6, respectively, and they also get along great with our kids. They live a rustic lifestyle, half inside and half outside with no running water, on the easternmost San Juan Island. It's really a beautiful location, and also one that is very quintessentially Northwest. My last day on the island I found myself on an incredibly beautiful gravel beach, with crystal clear and very cold water, staring across at the uninhabited Cypress Island and watching the fishing boats going back and forth from Bellingham to the Strait. It felt kind of like our old beach house in Olympia, except about 5 times as beautiful. I literally did not want to leave that spot. The next day was time for me to head home, but Keri and the kids were going to San Juan Island to see Katy, Emma and Dylan, who are staying there for the summer. So we all caught the 10-minute ferry from Guemes to Anacortes, then the hour-and-10-minute ferry from Anacortes to Friday Harbor. I only got to spend a couple of hours there, mostly chasing down overtired kids, before I had to get on a little 8-passenger plane to Boeing Field, where I caught a shuttle to SeaTac and from there a regular flight to San Francisco. It wasn't exactly Planes, Trains and Automobiles, but it was car-boat-small plane-bus-jet plane, and it could have been included heavy rail and light rail if I'd just thought about BART and Muni home. But I was too tired, so I just caught a cab instead.
Keri and the kids stayed on Guemes for a couple more days. I think they were planning to head back to Lake Stevens today. The kids were really enjoying themselves. Zeedie and Russell's property is like a kids' paradise. Russell has built not one but two play houses for the girls, but Isaac's favorite activity was playing with Russell's tools in the back of his pickup truck. I think Russell kind of liked having a boy around; he mentioned how his girls have never asked him about his tools.
I'm back at work this week, but will head back up in a couple of weeks to pick up the family and drive them back down. But I'll fly in to Spokane and spend a few days at Bill and Kristi's house before we head down. Keri and the kids will be on the westside for another week or so before heading over. The kids are doing great. Sleep deprived, but having a great time.
posted by Arne Olson @ 11:56 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home