Seattle and Vancouver Trip

Hooray for Road Trips! This is how I saw my kids for the better part of the trip. Justin went to Seattle to teach some classes and I decided that rather than be alone for a week we'd go with him. So we did. Warning: 11 days of trip....this is a very long post! I took over 300 pics but narrowed it down somewhat.

The first day we drove to Boise and stayed the night. The next morning we started off for Seattle. About 20 minutes from Seattle is Snoqualmie Falls, which is a waterfall, second in height only to Niagra Falls. We stopped there and it was beautiful.

It's kind of interesting because when you get there, it is below you, not above you.

We got to our hotel, swam in the pool, well everyone except for me because I'm wimpy and it was way too cold for me. Then the next morning we went to a place called NorthWest Trek. It was amazing! It is like the Wild Animal Park of San Diego except it's all forest animals. There were a few caged areas but even they were amazing. It put our local zoo to shame. Then you take a bus tour around this open area where the animals roam wild. We were inches from sheep, elk, caribou, and moose. Amazing!

I loved the trees in Seattle. Oh poor us living in a desert. We have about 20 trees planted in our yard and we came home wanting more. So I took lots of pics of trees. And then there is the grizzly bear exhibit.

My boys on the bus and then a caribou.

A bison and a whole herd of elk that we had to stop the bus for so they would move.

Kate and one of the mountain sheep that ran past the bus.Kate loved all the animals.

A really neat river otter exhibit. You could see it from above or these pics were from below.

Monday we changed hotels and then hung out while Kate took a long-awaited nap. We went swimming that night with our friends to celebrate their son's birthday. We ate at this yummy Mexican restaraunt. Tuesday morning Justin went off to teach and I took the kids to the Seattle Temple to walk around and then we went to the park to play. We met friends there. Justin's co-worker took his family as well so we had friends, it was great. The Temple grounds are gorgeous. All the trees and flowers are beautiful.

That night we took a ferry across the Puget Sound from Seattle to Bainbridge. It was really fun. Cold, but fun. And very beautiful.

It's as if you're in a massive forest, it's beautiful.

The next day, Wednesday, we went to the Seattle Aquarium with our friends. The kids loved it!

Afterwards we sat outside on the pier and had lunch. There were nine kids with us two moms and so we got a lot of stares, but we had a lot of fun.

Wed. night we ate at this little cafe place called "Lil John's". They had delicious fish n' chips!

Thursday we went to the park again and this time I took pics. 

That night our family went to the Seattle Arboretum. Wow. It was beautiful and I could have spent hours there. I wish our backyard looked like this!

A huge tree--the three of them didn't even go all the way around. And, I love this pic with the sun in the tree.

Beautiful, huge flowers, trees, and ponds.

Mt. Rainier.

Afterward we went to DairyQueen for dinner and ice cream, and met our friends there.

And Friday morning, off to Canada and Vancouver.

This is the view from our hotel in Vancouver. The 24th floor!

Us looking into the harbor. Behind us is the city of Vancouver.

There was a market here and we had fish n' chips in a food court in the market.

Saturday we drove all around Vancouver. We spent a lot of time at Stanley Park. We had to go put our feet in the Canadian Pacific (I think that's what it is called). It was cold but fun!

That mountain on the right is Grouse Mountain, one of their Olympic venues. We drove up to it and it is about a 10-15 min. drive from ocean to skiing..they have the best of both worlds!

And that is the Capilano River. Yes, for those of us who live in the desert, that is a river. I know it looks like a lake, but it's a river =)

Then it was time to head home. Sunday morning we woke up and headed for the border.

This is called the "Peace Arch." It says, "Brethren Dwelling Together in Unity" and then inside it says, "May These Gates Never Close". It was neat, but it was good to be back on American soil.

So after 9 days away we headed home. We drove from Vancouver to Kennewick, WA and stayed the night there, then we drove the rest of the way home on Monday. Wow. 19 hours of driving in two days, but we made it home! =) Overall we put about 2,250 miles on the car. Crazy. We had a really good time and were so sad to come home to the desert with very few trees. But it sure was good to sleep in our own beds again. I loved Seattle, someday I may want to have a summerhome there, but it didn't rain while we were there so we were a little spoiled. It was a lot of fun!