Fall vacation
First, an interlude. Duchess took these photos while escorting Skipper and a friend. The cat is Velvet Elvis, a neighbor, hanging out on our front steps contemplating the last of the Portland sunshine.
A three-day weekend adventure, for us, is pretty exhausting. We're a pretty bad driving family, and we also need time to do nothing built into the schedule. So this mini-vacation was a bit of a stretch for us, without enough down time, but we had fun regardless.
On Friday afternoon, we picked up Duchess at school and hit the road. She was mad at us, for some 13-year-old reason, and was an ass most of the way to Seattle.
We spent Friday night in Seattle to hang with the Rock Star family and attended a celebratory picnic in honor of Momotaro's third birthday. I got to snuggle Ume the baby (who no longer sleeps ALL the time, but still sleeps MOST of the time) a lot, and that was delicious. Skipper got to spend time with her beloved Momotaro, and when we left, she wept bitterly in the car for half an hour.
We drove to Whidbey Island on Saturday afternoon, which included a ferry ride. We stayed in a vacation rental in Freeland two nights, and poked around Whidbey on Sunday. It was cold and grey, but lovely nonetheless. We had a pretty good time; the girls stopped fighting a few times long enough to enjoy each other's company. I experienced sciatica for the first time,* which makes sense because I'm getting super-old.
Here's where we stayed - right on the bay in Freeland. This is not a picture of the water, or of us taking advantage of the water, but it captures the zeitgeist of our vacation approach in general.
We went kayaking late one evening, and Duchess made friends with a seal.
Fort Casey, where everybody else went up in the lighthouse and took a picture of me way down on the ground, where I feel happiest. The girls had a lot of fun together here, for no particular reason. You'll notice Duchess is laughing a lot in these photos. That's genuine. When she's not being a sulky jerk,** she's delightfully easy to please, and she generously laughs at every one's jokes.
Coupeville, where we ate an enormous lunch.
Deception Pass, where we walked up to a terrifying bridge with a spectacular view, and also stopped on the beach to be reminded that Duchess's rock-skipping technique has not improved.
On Monday, we caught a ferry to Port Townsend. The kids (said they) saw a whale.
*It passed. I'm fine. But the kids really enjoyed me howling "ow my ass!" and clutching my hip/butt every time we got back in the car.
** You do not want me to get started on this topic.
*** Rowing has eaten Duchess. In the few hours when she's not actually at rowing practice, she's texting her rowing friends or following me around talking about rowing. I have never loved a sport even a fraction as much as she loves this. I hardly love ANYTHING as much as she loves this.
****You might get a letter from Duchess soon, fundraising for rowing. Sorry about that; they make her do it.
A three-day weekend adventure, for us, is pretty exhausting. We're a pretty bad driving family, and we also need time to do nothing built into the schedule. So this mini-vacation was a bit of a stretch for us, without enough down time, but we had fun regardless.
On Friday afternoon, we picked up Duchess at school and hit the road. She was mad at us, for some 13-year-old reason, and was an ass most of the way to Seattle.
We spent Friday night in Seattle to hang with the Rock Star family and attended a celebratory picnic in honor of Momotaro's third birthday. I got to snuggle Ume the baby (who no longer sleeps ALL the time, but still sleeps MOST of the time) a lot, and that was delicious. Skipper got to spend time with her beloved Momotaro, and when we left, she wept bitterly in the car for half an hour.
We drove to Whidbey Island on Saturday afternoon, which included a ferry ride. We stayed in a vacation rental in Freeland two nights, and poked around Whidbey on Sunday. It was cold and grey, but lovely nonetheless. We had a pretty good time; the girls stopped fighting a few times long enough to enjoy each other's company. I experienced sciatica for the first time,* which makes sense because I'm getting super-old.
Here's where we stayed - right on the bay in Freeland. This is not a picture of the water, or of us taking advantage of the water, but it captures the zeitgeist of our vacation approach in general.
We went kayaking late one evening, and Duchess made friends with a seal.
Fort Casey, where everybody else went up in the lighthouse and took a picture of me way down on the ground, where I feel happiest. The girls had a lot of fun together here, for no particular reason. You'll notice Duchess is laughing a lot in these photos. That's genuine. When she's not being a sulky jerk,** she's delightfully easy to please, and she generously laughs at every one's jokes.
Coupeville, where we ate an enormous lunch.
Deception Pass, where we walked up to a terrifying bridge with a spectacular view, and also stopped on the beach to be reminded that Duchess's rock-skipping technique has not improved.
On Monday, we caught a ferry to Port Townsend. The kids (said they) saw a whale.
And then we went home. We had to, because Duchess was pretty mad about missing rowing practice Friday afternoon and Saturday morning, so we had to get her back for Monday afternoon practice, because she's trying to secure a good position in the boat before a regatta. (Or something. There's a lot of boring droning-on about rowing around here these days, and I'm trying to maintain a protective veneer of ignorance.***) Anyway, we got her back, and now life is back to normal, such as that is!
** You do not want me to get started on this topic.
*** Rowing has eaten Duchess. In the few hours when she's not actually at rowing practice, she's texting her rowing friends or following me around talking about rowing. I have never loved a sport even a fraction as much as she loves this. I hardly love ANYTHING as much as she loves this.
****You might get a letter from Duchess soon, fundraising for rowing. Sorry about that; they make her do it.
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