Road Trip

Everyone has been wondering when we were going to see Brandi and the girls - it was of course one of the main reasons we moved out here. But we did have to wait a bit, we could not leave the house until we were sure it would still be standing when we got back. The past 7 weeks have zipped by - living in the foreclosure while David is trying to renovate and I'm de-stinking it was a pretty tall order. The septic system, getting everything set up, no food, where are my pots, on and on. But in the past couple of weeks things became a bit more settled so we decided to go visit for 4 days. It seemed short but the reason the past visits were more than double that  was simply because every time we flew out here it cost us roughly two grand - at least. And this trip was also a bit of an experiment, we didn't know how long it would take, we needed a kennel, etc..  We'd had Kim and Steve over for dinner one night and thank goodness we'd discussed it - they've made the trip many times so Steve showed us the best way to go to avoid Seattle and that horrible traffic. They also told us to make sure to reserve the ferry, if there was a lot of traffic we could end up sitting in standby for hours. 

The trip went well and faster on the way there - we found a kennel that we could drop the dogs off at 6:30am and it was on the route, we hit some traffic but not much and then ended up at the ferry terminal way earlier than our reservation. That worked out - they had spaces on the one leaving now and we ended up to Brandi's at noon instead of two. The girls are no longer babies as you can see - they are super busy little girls! They're talking and are quite vocal, Chloe and Delilah are so much fun. We spent quite a lot of time taking them to the playground, they have a wagon to ride in so we could take them to the one at the end of the development which is pretty big. We went out to breakfast one morning - Papa blocked them in on the bench seat to keep them from free ranging it, but they're old enough sit and are very into breakfast so it was really quite pleasant. We went to a public garden so they could run around - and run they did! 

We babysat for a day so Brandi could go out by herself and we could spend the day with them, I really love being a Nana! Saying good bye is hard, they're both old enough now to understand and they get so upset, but the nice thing is even when I start working we can still do quick weekend visits. I was so glad I reserved the ferry going back the day before - the line of cars on a Saturday was unbelievable! We were there an hour before it left but stayed in line as not to lose our spot. The ferry ride is just as much fun as you think it is and no, it will never get old - thank you for asking! We do visit the snack bar every time, we go stand out on the deck and dork around the boat til they announcement comes on to get back to your car. On the way back we did it some more traffic but it was not too terrible. All in all it takes about 5 hours, but that includes the 45 minute wait for the ferry and the ferry ride so it's really a little under four hours which is not bad at all. We are close enough to visit but not  so close as to become an annoyance, so it's the perfect distance!