Wednesday, September 10, 2014

Family Driving Vacation-Day 9: Whidbey Island, WA to Joint Base Lewis McChord, WA

This morning we checked out of our hotel on Whidbey Island and caravanned with my parents up to the beach house that my aunts and uncles rented while they were out here on the island.  We got a little bit of a late start to the morning, but the boys were SUPER crabby, and the boys and I are sick!  Head colds-yuck!  Woodrow’s been sick since the hike a few days prior, and Theo and I have caught up.  We loaded up the car, and headed North to Oak Harbor on Whidbey Island. 

The beach house that they were staying at was GEORGOUS!  It had a stunning view of water, forest, mountains, and Mt. Baker.  All of my aunts and uncles on my mom’s side were there and several of my West coast cousins.  It was a great morning to let the kids play around and visit with family.  We got some family photos, Mason and Theo walked along the beach front, Woodrow didn’t have to be strapped in a car seat-all was good!  We stayed for several hours and then headed out to catch a 3:30pm ferry to Port Townsend.  This went very smoothly!  The boys slept almost the entire way, and woke up just at the end, which worked out so that Theo wasn’t mad he missed it.  We caught the ferry we wanted, and took a route along the Olympic National Forest and water down to the Joint Base-Lewis McChord (near Tacoma) where we stayed for two nights. 

Along the way, Mason conveniently stopped to grab dinner where there was a Famous Dave’s BBQ.  I’m beginning to think that he has all the BBQ and Thai spots picked out ahead so that we “conveniently” stop there.  It was good because we were all getting restless and hot from the beating down sun.  The kids devoured their mac and cheese dinners-especially Woodrow!  We headed back on the road and about 10 minutes in to the drive we hear from the back seat, “yeah, we’ll just go potty at the hotel.”  Aka, Theo needs a bathroom.  Mason pulled off the road to assist in a forest-side stop when Theo revealed that he needed to go number two, so back on the highway where we found a gas station to stop at- Theo was sooooo excited- “Yea!  I’ll poop at the gas station!” 

After taking care of business and another 45 minutes on the road we arrived at the base.  This base is large and confusing.  Really glad we’re Air Force on an Air Force base…this army side of things just didn’t look pleasant and the houses were so close together.  We FINALLY found the right area to check in to lodging and got all our things into the room, thanks to Mason’s hauling.  With the littles, it’s easiest for one of us to stay in the room with the kids and the other unload the car, and that’s almost always Mason.  Especially with rooms like this, because it was set-up like a hotel, even though the room was bigger with a kitchenette.  It was our first time being on the second floor and so I stayed in with the kids and got baths and the bedtime routine going.  Once Mason got up to the room, I ran out to the shoppette and loaded up on some milk, morning doughnuts, and medicine for all!   

Since we were all feeling under the weather and had done lots of driving and visiting we were ready to pass out.  I stayed up and did some blogging, and snacked on some ice cream.  ;) 



  


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