Washington!!!

We're back! Bet you didn't even know we were gone, but we were. Dana and I just returned from a fabulous week in Washington and you want to hear all about it (warning: long blog ahead). We started off on Monday the 30th from Lubbock to drive to Dallas because a. the flight was cheaper and b. we are crazy. We found out one small town has an annual one armed dove toss and a billboard urged us to join the NRA (a gun rack would so complete our car). We made it in one piece to Seattle and drove down to eat dinner with Dana's older brother Brian and his amazing family before finishing our long day at Lake Sylvia campground where the gate attendants gave us some weird looks (hey, who doesn't like to set a tent up in the dark?). We collapsed. Tuesday was great. Dana took me around his old stomping ground showing me the field that was once a high school (some kid burned it down trying to change his grades...smart). I got to see his old houses and the loooooong road up; hey did you know Washington was hilly? It's like San Francisco with trees. Weird. We also went to the beach where it was overcast but the sand was actually quite warm and we ate salt-water taffy and saw deer. We went back for a nap at the campground and I tired to get some good shots of our river and trees and Dana consumed a lot of chips. We ate primitive hot dogs and roasted mallows and had an almost roaring fire and collapsed again. Wednesday we packed up and headed north to the beautiful (and pricey) Bellevue area where everyone looks like their in a walking eddie bauer commercial. We ate panini's and went for a looong trail hike. Washington really is beautiful. If we ever have, like, ten million dollars, we might live there. We stayed that night at the best hotel and went out for steaks to celebrate my 24th birthday! Oh, we also stopped by the original REI and tried out their sleeping pads and Dana found his dream tent, freak that he is. Thursday was Seattle and did it rain? Of course it rained, we were in Seattle people. We took a ferry over to Bainbridge island, not to get off and explore of course but just because Dana's a sadist and likes to see if I get sick on boats...turns out I still do. We went through famous Pike's Place Market where they throw the fish and give you free samples of things like raspberry honey and nectarines (we had to keep passing that one for more samples...yum). Of course we had fish for lunch but who knew crab was cold?! All those Red Lobster commercials show steamy plates and melting butter. Liars. It was great though and we saw just about everything including the Seattle Art Museum whose defining sculpture was of a giant rat atop a sleeping man. Deep dude. Deep. We took off that night for Yakima where Dana's folks live. The fourth was a mismash of family time, long walks in the cool morning, a trip to the fair and fireworks seated in front of some colorful people. They had a great show for a little town. The rest of our weekend was visiting aunts and uncles and their apple orchards and looking through old memorabilia of Dana when he was The Man. It was another long flight and drive home and I almost almost got that NRA subscription but held off...maybe for Christmas. We had the absolute best time and I'll almost admit that Washington was spectacular but of course that would make Dana right so instead I'll just agree that it was...pretty. Happy July!!!