Washington Vacation - Day 9 - Home Stretch on a Holiday

The ninth day of our vacation was Saturday, July 4th. Read about Day Eight Here.

Our stay at the Clover Island Inn in Kennewick Washington was wonderful. It was so nice to have somewhere comfortable to rest and relax after having been on the move for over a week. Breakfast the next morning was also very nice.

One of the reasons we'd booked this hotel was because it offered a continental breakfast. But with everything happening with COVID I wasn't sure the breakfast would still be available. I'd checked with the hotel about it the day before. They said that yes, they still had breakfast, but that we'd have to eat it in our rooms. 

So in the morning I took Derrick and Veronica upstairs to the 4th floor where the breakfast was being served. The staff handed up a list of breakfast options and we could circle what we wanted. Then they prepared the plates for us and gave us a big tray to carry them up to our rooms. Here Derrick and Veronica waiting at the table for our food. You can see the marina out the window.

We came back to the room and found places for the kids to sit while they ate.

It was so nice to have breakfast prepared for us.

Brandon took Lydia up (Charlotte was still asleep) and got their food.  Later he took Charlotte up too.

Derrick was a little antsy so I had him help carry stuff down to the car with me. Then we stood on a little balcony and looked at the Columbia River.

Here's the view of the bridge. 

We went back upstairs and the kids watched some cartoon on the Disney Channel while Brandon and I got the last of the stuff together.

We left a nice tip for the hotel staff and filled out the comment card with glowing reviews. We'd had such a nice stay.

When the kids show was over we all went downstairs, got in the car and started driving home.  We drove south into Oregon and then got on the I-86 and stayed on that all the way to Twin Falls.

The drive home was pretty uneventful. The kids watched movies on the DVD player the whole time.  We stopped for gas and bathroom breaks a few times. When we stopped at a gas station in Boise it was kind of strange to see people not wearing masks inside the building. What's even stranger is that while I was in line for the women's restroom I looked over at a guy in line for the men's room. He wasn't wearing a mask or SHOES.  He was just standing in line barefoot. Oh Idaho. 

As we drove closer to Twin Falls I told Brandon, "We did it. We went on vacation and made it back. And the Honda didn't have any problems!"  Our Honda has passed 230,000 miles so I was a little worried about taking it on such a long trip. But it did marvelously.  Sadly this may be our last big road trip with the Honda. It's still running well, but the kids are outgrowing it.  Derrick is getting way too big for the backseat. And it's not like we have any smaller kids he could switch places with. I think we'll have to buy another car before our next long road trip. But in the meantime I'm so proud of how well the Honda did. 

We made it to Twin Falls around 4:00.  We made a quick stop at the house so I could grab the envelope of cash I'd stashed for Marcia's babysitter (I hadn't wanted to spend it on accident during our trip.) Then we drove over to Hannah's house to pick up Marcia. Brandon had put away his phone, but was having trouble remembering how to get to Hannah's house. He missed the turn for her street and I had to tell him where to go.  Then he drove right past her house.  I guess he was having trouble adjusting to life without the GPS.

The kids were so so so so so so happy to see Marcia again. They'd missed her on our trip. 

We drove back home. The first thing I did was head to the backyard to check on my garden.  Everything had done really well. Our sprinkler system reaches most of the plants, but I'd been worried about the Sunflowers because the water doesn't reach them. They were fine and getting tall. 

Here's Charlotte showing how long our grass was. It hadn't been mowed in 2 wees.

The garden was looking great.

The pumkins had exploded. I started wrapping them and securing them to the trellis right away.

The tomatoes were also getting big. I went through and took off a lot of suckers.

The peas were amazing looking. Veronica and I had picked every thick pea pod off the plants before we left. Now there were even more peas that were ready to be picked.

There were even a few peas that had grown super tall.

The beans were starting to climb their trellis.

the strawberries had several ripe berries.

They tasted so sweet.

After taking care of my neglected garden I started on ALL the laundry.  Over the next few days I got all the sleeping bags, clothes, and towels washed, dried, and put away.

Meanwhile this happened to be July 4th and so we had a few things ready for an Independence Day Celebration. Before our trip I'd put together a box with things we'd want on this day.  It had rootbear, cute plates and napkins, glowsticks, and cute patriotic clothes.

I had red white and blue cookies waiting for us in the freezer as well as chicken tenders and tater tots. Making dinner was just a simple matter of popping food in the oven.

After dinner the kids got into their patriotic clothes. A friend had given these shirts sometime last year and I'd saved them for this day.

Here's one where even Veronica is holding still.  And no, Derrick is not really 4 inches taller than Charlotte and Lydia.  He's standing on his tip toes. (And Yes, Charlotte is wearing her shirt backwards, but she said she liked being able to see the bows.)

Brandon took a nap and the kids watched a movie - I think. I'm pretty certain I was taking a nap too. Around 8:30 we got in the car and headed over to the College of Southern Idaho's Campus for the firework show that would happen there.  I'd been wondering if this show would get cancelled like so many others had been. I honestly couldn't understand how this show was still happening.  But as soon as we got to the campus it made sense.  There was plenty of room to spread out and keep away from other groups of people. I asked another group of people if this would be a good spot to see the fireworks and they said, "You can see them anywhere on this campus."  So that's how the show was still happening.

We set up our area and the kids dug out the long anticipated rootbeer and cookies.

Brandon took this picture of me.

Here are the cookies.

Brandon brought a Frisbee and we had a lot of fun playing with that. 

It started getting dark so it was time to get out the glowsticks. 

The dollar store hadn't had many glow sticks when I went there a few weeks before the 4th. I was only able to get about 4 packages. But it was just enough for the kids to have fun with.

Here are the kids running around and goofing off.

The kids settled down for more rootbeer. 

And then went back to running around.

The firework show started and we realized there were a few trees in front of us.  So we moved a little to the left and could see fine. We couldn't hear any music.  I don't know if that's because there wasn't any or if we were just too far away.  But it was still a pretty good show. (Charlotte and Lydia told me they missed the Bannock County Show. I told them that it had been canceled and we were lucky to have any show this year.)

This was the very first firework show Derrick has ever been awake for. In previous years he's been freaked out by the crowds and went catatonic and then fell asleep before the show even started. Last year he'd been fine with the crowds, but had still fallen asleep before the show started.  Well this year he was wide awake and loving the show.

The show finished and we went back to the car to wait until the traffic died down.  People were setting off areal fireworks in all the neighborhoods around the campus so we were treated to a second show.  The moon also rose and Brandon had fun taking a picture of it. 

We made it home and found Marcia freaked out in the basement. (She'd pooped on the rug because she was so scared of the fireworks.)  We all went to bed, but I think it took a while for everyone to go to sleep because there were so many fireworks going off. It was like Beirut or something.

The next day was technically not part of our vacation, but it was still the weekend so it felt like an extension of the vacation. It was Sunday and normally we would have had an in home sacrament meeting. But we were just so tired from everything.  The living room was messy and it just seemed like too much to try to clean it up to get it ready.  So we skipped home church for the week. We spent the day doing laundry and watching movies.

So was it all worth it?

YES

Going on our road trip was exactly the reset I needed in my life. I felt like I was falling apart during the early part of June. I was so tired and so indecisive.  Now I have more energy and I've been able to make some really crucial decisions.  (Spoiler Alert: We're probably home schooling this year.)  Before the trip I was feeling a little trapped by my house. Now I'm so happy to be back home and we've been rearranging and have finished unpacking the last of the moving boxes.


So what's next?

In a non-COVID world I'd love to recreate our Southern Utah Road Trip that we did pre-kids in 2010. We've also started talking about going to San Diego and seeing Whales at Sea World. (Yes, I know there's an ethical debate about Seaworld, but try telling Derrick that.) We could also stop at the San Diego Zoo. Plus we could stay at San Elijo beach and sleep by the ocean again.

But those plans probably wont happen next year. I think next year we'll just stick around Idaho.  There are a lot of really cool things in the middle of Idaho I'd like to see.

One thing is for sure, we will continue to do these crazy road trips.  They are what I live for.


Thanks for coming on the journey!

Washington Road Trip - Day 8 - Vacation from the Vacation

The eighth day of our vacation was Friday, July 3rd. Read about Day Seven Here.

In a non-COVID world we would have woken up on Day 8 in a hotel near Seattle and then maybe done some sightseeing within the city. But instead we woke up in our tent at Saltwater State Park and didn't have any plans other than to drive to our next destination, a hotel in Kennewick, Washington.

Our sixth night of camping had been very uneventful. The ground was level and soft so everyone slept well. And it didn't rain so we didn't have to worry about anything being wet.  But still I woke up very early on Friday morning.  That's because I was hoping to take a shower before anyone else woke up. 

Makeup wipes and dry hair spray had served me well since my last shower on Monday morning, but it was time to have a real shower again. (Honestly I'd have taken a shower the night before, but I hadn't wanted to sleep with wet hair.)

I'd taken care of buying shower tokens and getting all my stuff together the night before.  So all I had to do was get up and head to the shower.  The shower was in it's own little room adjacent to the restrooms. Taking a shower felt AMAZING. 

Brandon took a shower too and then we worked on getting things organized. The kids were still sleeping as I packed up clothes and rolled up my sleeping bags and the air mattress.  

Here's Derrick and Veronica. 

And Charlotte and Lydia.

We only had one more night away from home so I packed what clothes we needed for the next two day and night into my backpack. That way I only needed to bring that into the hotel with me that night. All the other clothes were shoved into the suitcase. We'd get that out at home and take it directly to the laundry room.

We had bought a bunch of fruit at the store and Brandon washed that.  We also had a half gallon of milk and a big box of Lucky Charms cereal. I'm sure if any of the other campers noticed us they thought we were the worst campers ever.  First we had Little Caesars Pizza for dinner and now milk and cereal for breakfast.  But hey, this was our 8th day of our road trip, the 6th night we'd camped, and it would be the 5th time we packed up the tent and moved on. Being lazy with our food was fine by this point.

I went back to the bathroom and did my make up. I took a selfie to celebrate clean hair.

Lydia and Veronica woke up on their own and came out of the tent to get cereal. But Derrick and Charlotte took some time. I was basically rolling up their sleeping bags with the kids still in them before they got up.  Brandon and I took down the tent while the kids ate breakfast. Since the night had been so dry we were able to get the tent packed up nicely without worrying that we'd have to air it out at home. 

We got in the car and drove north to find I-90. Then we drove southeast through the mountains. Our route would be basically southeast from here on out.

The drive was pretty uneventful. At first there were a lot of trees and everything was overcast 

The scenery was really pretty.

Then all of a sudden the trees disappeared and the sun came out. I hadn't expected that to happen within a few hours drive of Seattle. We stopped at a high point somewhere north of Yakima.

The view was cool.

We stopped at a rest stop outside of Yakima. I'd bought yogurt with M&M and Oreo mix ins at the store the day before. The kids always ask for this kind of yogurt but we never buy it.  I figured it would be fun to have while we were on vacation. So that was our snack at the rest stop.

The rest stop had a cool bridge next to it.

We kept driving and were soon close to Kennewick it was only about 1:30. Our hotel reservation confirmation said that check in time wasn't until 3:00.  I called the hotel to see if we could check in early.  They said yes. So we drive right to the Clover Island Inn. 

This reservation was the ONLY reservation for our trip that hadn't been cancelled, rescheduled, or in danger of cancellation. Brandon and I had made the reservation on March 5th and hadn't really thought about it much since then. I vaguely remembered that we'd picked this place because it was on the bank of the Columbia River. I thought Clover Island was just a cute name. So I was completely surprised when we drove onto a small island that was along the shore of the Columbia River.  There was a marina on one side of the island. And a few restaurants and the hotel on the other side. There was even a lighthouse.

I checked us into our room and we all trooped upstairs to the room. For the next two hours we just sat in the room. After nearly a week outdoors it was so nice to be somewhere with WALLS.

You may be wondering why we didn't just drive straight home to Twin Falls from Seattle. Obviously we had enough time to do that.  The reason is that we wanted to have a chance to relax before we got home. We wanted a little "Vacation from our Vacation" so to speak. If we'd driven straight home we'd have arrived home late at night. The kids would have been smelly from all our camping. We'd have had to unpack and start doing laundry. Going home didn't mean getting to relax. It meant a lot of work.  Plus the long drive would have been brutal. By staying in a hotel we had a chance to relax, get cleaned up, and rest before the final leg of our vacation. 

We'd requested a room with a view of the river and it did not disappoint. This is the view from  our 3rd floor window.

Here's looking the other way.

And Veronica got a hold of one of our phones and took a bunch of pictures like this. 

Watching TV was kind of strange. We like to watch the house hunting and fixer upper type shows when we stay in hotels.  HGTV was showing a lot of episodes of some sort of beach themed house hunting show. People were looking for vacation homes on the beach. In light of all the economic fallout from COVID it was strange to watch people debate about which home to buy as a second home.  I told Brandon, "They need a new reality show where we check in with anyone who was on a home buying reality show and see if they still think buying that home was a good decision."


After several hours of remembering when the economic was amazing, we decided it was time to find dinner. We picked up burgers from Burger King and took them to Columbia Park

There was an awesome playground at the park so the kids were pretty distracted while we ate.

They were so excited to go play. Brandon was a good dad and helped push the kids on this toy.

Since there were only three spots the kids had to take turns being the one that stayed off the toy.

Veronica took me all over the playground and showed me everything.

She loved the attention.

Derrick wanted to go down to the river. I took him over there and he threw rocks in the water for a long time.

It was really pretty. This was our 7th night by water, but it was still impressive.

Here's Derrick throwing rocks.

After a while the other kids came and joined him. 

The kids ended up pretty wet, which was fine.  I'd planned to have them take baths at the hotel before going to bed anyway. 

We left the park and found a Winco. I ran in and was supervised to see the fanciest Winco I'd ever been in.  It looked like a Costco. I got some more snacks for the drive home the next day. I also bought a big bag of cherries. 

We went back to the hotel and the kids all took showers. We watched the movie Hitch on TV. We kept hearing fireworks being lit off across the river. The kids had fun watching them out the river.

After the kids were in bed and mostly asleep Brandon and I went outside for a "date" walking around the island.

It was really pretty and romantic. The wind was blowing gently and every so often we could see fireworks.

Here's a look back at our hotel.

The light house.

The moon over the apartments built over marina slips.

We went back to the hotel and arranged the sleeping kids.  Charlotte and Lydia got the bed this time. Veronica had made her self a bed with two air chairs, but I moved her to the foot of Charlotte and Lydia's bed. We made Derrick a little bed on the floor. I think this is the last time we'll squish into a two bed hotel room. I think next time we'll have to start staying places with adjoining rooms.

Crawling into bed was a really good feeling. I love camping, but I also love real beds.