Our Anniversary - Seattle

We made a long weekend out of our anniversary and decided to go to Seattle. We discussed many options for how to get there and where to stay and what to do. We didn't get a lot of that decided though which left us pretty much freefalling to plan the weekend. We opted to leave after rush hour so traffic wouldn't be bad but apparently that's unavoidable in Seattle! We took Hwy 30 out to Longview (I stuck my tongue out at the sign to show my displeasure about being in Longview again even though this one wasn't in Texas.) then took I-5 up. Washington has interesting on/off ramps that can be quite confusing. But, they have installed new lighting on the sides of the road that are like stadium lights! We like those a lot!

Truth be told, we got there just fine. We made online reservation at Marriott (Courtyard this time) and found it fairly easily. I had a desire to be near water so we tried to get a high level room to look out on the lake but instead we got pool view. Well, it's still water...

Next day I got my water alright. We took an Argosy lake cruise out on Lake Washington and got to see lots of homes that would've made an entire episode of "Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous". Most notably, Bill Gates house now valued at $150 million. Coolest part about his house that our tourguide told us, they have you take a survey when you get there and then give you a lapel pin to wear with your preferences programmed into it so when you enter a room the thermostat, music, artwork, lighting, etc change to match your desires. And if two people are in the same room, it compromises. So cool!

We cheated the system a bit and called Olive Garden to order takeout instead of waiting to be seated. Then we crossed the street and got our dinner while lots of people were sitting on the sidewalk waiting for their buzzers to go off. Oh! Before that, we took a walk around our hotel's neighborhood and saw something that was a first for both of us. There's a 24 hour vet who is open for emergencies...and has their own ambulance! Never had we seen an ambulance for pets!

In the parking deck we chose near the boat cruise, we experienced our first act of vandalism to our new car. Someone bent our front license plate 90 degrees on each side. No other marks on the car and it didn't snap right back into place either so they must've really worked at it to do that.

We opted to go home early to be able to sleep in our own bed and experience less traffic. Driving home on Sunday afternoon was the easiest thing ever. Except we felt really bad for northbound traffic as they stopped for 30 miles for NO REASON! Poor people!

But we got home ok, the boys were happy to see us, and we were able to relax more the next day than we had orginally planned to do.

Circle of Oregon - July 4, 2009

After our accident, my (Katie) parents were a bit shook up on how we were really doing. And apparently it's a mom thing to have to see you in person to really believe you're ok. So, we worked it out for them to come visit for 4th of July weekend.

They got here Friday around noon and we showed them Portland-ish areas. International Test Rose Gardens, our neighborhood, etc.

Saturday, we made a giant circle. We left as bright and early as possible and took I-5 south to Salem headed toward Dallas to see Nathan's grandma. Then we took Hwy 99 over to Corvallis, which I've never done before. We stopped at OSU to show Mom and Dad where Nathan went to school and how similar it is to UGA (yet how different...) Then over to Nathan's parents' house to see Scarlet, Nikki and Gizmo (his parents weren't home but the dogs were!) Then we took Hwy 20 out to the coast (Newport) and as we crested the last mountain and saw the ocean....we saw fog! Weirdest thing ever! We ate at Moe's (of course!) and walked on the beach collecting rocks, not seashells. Weirdest thing for my parents to see me freezing on July 4th instead of melting. Literally, it was around 55 degrees on the beach.

After that we took Hwy 101 up to Cannon Beach where we stopped to see Haystack Rock and then took Hwy 26 home. This was our first long drive since the accident so I was still skittish and we were both sore afterwards but the trip was definitely worth it, 12 hours long as it was.