Weekend Staycation

(NOTE: There are pictures to go along with this post, but because the wireless in down, I can't post them yet.  I'll get them up as soon as it's fixed.)

Our family had some pretty fabulous fun last weekend!  I think I'll retell it in alphabetical order by day starting with, incidentally, Friday!

Friday:
After school, Lucy, Amy, Sadie, and I loaded up in the van and drove over to Girl Scout Camp St. Albans, near Belfair.  Lucy was feeling a little nervous, but once we arrived, she was caught up in the excitement of seeing the cabin, playing with her friends, and cooking over a campfire.  She also went hiking and boating, and learned a bunch of new songs.  Most of them are camp songs I learned when I was a girl, and it was fun to hear her singing them.  She had an amazing time!  But I'm getting ahead of myself here.

After we dropped Lucy off, Amy and Sadie and I headed back home.  On the way, they got to choose where we stopped for dinner (McDonald's), and what movie to rent from Redbox (HOP).  We popped some kettle corn and laid in a big pile of blankets and pillows.

Saturday:
David and I woke up early and headed off to Poulsbo for a 2 hour canoe trip.  The reservation we had was for a guided tour of the bay, but the guide asked if we were interested in going on our own.  His words were, "It's fine with me if you want to go by yourselves, because I have stuff I could be doing."  Rather than be offended, David and I jumped at the chance to go at our own pace and explore wherever we wanted.  And the canoe we paddled was awesome because it is absolutely untippable.  (Is that even a word?)  The guide took us to the canoe and stood on the edge of it and leaned toward the water and that thing would not tip!  We gathered several shells from the shallow water, and saw some beautiful water birds.  It was so much fun that I wish we had our own canoe so we could be out on the water more often.  After that, we walked around Poulsbo's little downtown, had some delicious pastries, pizza for lunch, and some window shopping.  David found an old Edgar Rice Burrows book he can add to his collection.

We got back into the car and wandered down the road and ended up driving past Chief Seattle's burial place, and exploring the extremely small Old Man House State Park.  It was quite interesting and informative, and yet somewhat of a disappointment because it's really just an acre of land with a couple of plaques with information and drawings about what was once there.  It's wedged in between two large waterfront homes.  But it was a quiet, peaceful place, and so we went back to the car, leaned our seats back, rolled down the windows, and promptly fell asleep.  What woke me up was an older couple who also stopped by.  The man said, "Look, those people are asleep in their car."  The wife replied, "Why are they sleeping?  They're at least 50 years younger than we are!"  I wanted to call out, "Well, we didn't get our post-breakfast cat nap, and we have 3 kids!"  But instead I just pretended to stay asleep.

We ended our evening with dinner at Silk Thai.  It was delicious, as always.  We had the Crispy Honey Chicken, and the Ladh Nah--a noodle soup with a Thai twist.

Sunday:
David and I got Amy and Sadie ready at 9 and headed out to pick Lucy up from camp.  Then we headed to Bremerton and took the ferry from Bremerton to Seattle.  We ate our picnic lunch on the ferry, and wandered around outside in the wind and chill.  The views were beautiful for the entire 60 minute trip.  From there, we went to the Ballard Locks. 

As soon as we entered the park, Amy said, "Something smells bad."  Lucy replied, "That's nature, Amy."  Amy shot back, "Well, nature STINKS!" 

It was awesome to watch the boats come in and out, and at the end of our visit, we watched them bring a huge cargo ship through.  That was incredible!  Even more incredible was that the parking is free on Sundays.  Imagine that!  Somewhere in Seattle with FREE PARKING!

What I also enjoyed about being in Seattle was being able to look out the windows of the car, and not worry about getting lost or missing a turn.   David drives around in Seattle for work most days, and although he absolutely hates the city, he knows his way around it.