Catch up on the year past—the Christmas Trip, part 4

 

This was truly a vacation, did I mention that?  Julia and Neil took over feeding, entertaining, and doing laundry for the kids, well, mostly Julia, but Neil was great too.  I don’t know if I have ever been so relaxed in the past sixteen years. Maybe when I was in San Diego but never before with me and the kids in the same city.

The next day Caroline was itching for me to take her to John’s Pass to find the perfect souvenir to take home, so she and I went out for what I thought would be an hour or so.  It turned out to be a great day for us, but much longer out than I ever expected. 

First, we had to take some fab pictures before we even left.

Then we found ourselves at the mall to buy her a very needed iPod case.

Then we found ourselves taking what was probably the long way around to John’s Pass.

Then getting stopped by the draw bridge.  We don’t get that much in Glen.

Then we found John’s Pass so packed with tourists that we couldn’t find a place to park so we drove around a long time.  Finally, we decided to park at a restaurant and go eat lunch which took forever because even though we were the only customers at 3:00 in the afternoon, they moved like molasses in every aspect of ordering, cooking, and bringing food. 

I know the boys had their own outing at this time, too, with Gary and Julia.  They hit Sports Authority and a Steak n Shake, but left because they were having such slow service, too.  I think they ended up at the Village Inn, also known as the source of Neil’s delicious pies.

Finally, we found a spot to park and filled our meter one hour’s worth.  In that time, we looked at t-shirts, sweatshirts and shoes, we watched the pirate ship docking, we took some pictures, we talked to a parrot, we looked at seashells for sale, we bought a personalized Caroline dolphin bracelet, and finally found what we were looking for, the perfect sweatshirt…followed by ice cream.

Then we went stopped by the beach since we didn’t want to miss a day.  No swimming but lots of frolicking. 

 

      

And then back to the Feldman-Gill resort to regroup.  This night might have been when we grilled out steaks or it could have been our Chinese take out feast.  Either way, every meal was memorable.  Wish I had a picture of us all at the table.