Waiting for the ferry

We had a wonderful weekend on Orcas again, but our return home was a bit hairy.

The Washington State Ferry started allowing ferry reservations this summer and while that's helpful, it also means it's stressful if you don't have one! 75% of the ferry spots can be reserved (25% of the spots are opened up at 3 different intervals leading up to the date) so only 25% of the ferry is for walk-ons. We were one of the fun 25% that didn't have a reservation coming home on Sunday. We got to the ferry terminal 45 minutes before the 5:15pm sailing but didn't make it because of the crowds. We didn't make it by a long shot - by probably 10 cars. That meant we had to wait for the next ferry which was scheduled for 8:45pm! What to do with 2 little kids, stuck in line for 3+ hours?!

The Orcas Ferry terminal has very little to do so we took our time letting the kids (ok, Nora) play with all the buttons in the car, then we walked around the little marina several times and pointed out all the little fishes and jellyfish swimming about, ate a very leisurely meal of fish and chips and ice cream for dessert, and let the girls run around many many times.

We were pretty pooped when we finally got on the ferry (which was 30 minutes late!). The boat ride back was pretty dicey since it was WAY past the girls bedtime but then the drive home after was thankfully pretty quiet because they zonked out as soon as we started driving. Poor Scott was not so lucky since he was the driver!

Sunset on the dock.

Evie and Nora liked to "rock climb" and sit on top of this mountain.

Chocolate ice cream face!

ooooh! what does this do?

Comments

Family time

I had to do a quick trip to LA towards the end of July to say goodbye to my Uncle Pang, who passed away a few weeks earlier. I have fond memories of fun cousin time at his house in Palos Verdes and Uncle Pang taking us to the beach when we were younger. I remember how he delighted in making us kids squeal with laughter by pretending the car ride was a rolleroaster - we'd take sharp turns and all of us kids would slide to one side of his Volvo station wagon or he'd slow the car down to a roll and we'd all chant that we couldn't let the car stop and it would inch slowly forward at a stoplight. Although it was a sad reason to get together, I think he would be happy to know that the weekend was also a wonderful get together with family. Because it was fairly last minute, none of the kids flew over which meant us "adult cousins" were able to have long talks and linger over food. Kin and Meredith were able to host a summertime bbq at their house and we had a nice t...

Happy new year!!

Goodness, it's already 2025! It's been a really long time since we posted! We had a very lazy new year. We flew back from LA on the evening of the 31st so spent the last remaining hours of 2024 cozying up on the couch and then fell asleep before it even hit midnight! On New Years day, we slept in, cleaned up the house and then did a quick hike the next day. All in all, a good start to the year! Nora's new blanket hoodie. Cold and muddy trails. We're not in LA anymore! We hiked the Primrose trail that follows Coal Creek.

Cousins trip: Banff!

Just 2 weeks ago I was in the beautiful town of Banff enjoying girl time with my cousins and taking in the picturesque landscape and now I'm holed up in front of my computer doing work. Oh how I wish I could go back! This was my second trip to Banff (first time was back in 2019 on a roadtrip with the family ) and I got to check out other parts of this beautiful National Park while laughing it up with these girls to celebrate Frances' big birthday.. We all met up at Calgary airport on Friday morning and after a quick lunch at Calan Noodles for hand-made beef noodle soup (yum!), we hopped in our rental car and drove the 90 minutes to Banff. I was surprised and impressed at how easy the drive was - even easier than driving to Whistler because of the wide and well maintained freeway. That first afternoon in Banff we walked around town and did some shopping before making our way to Brazen, a bistro serving "Modern Canadian" fare. What's Modern Canadian you ask? We di...

Simpsons in Seattle

Search This Blog