Victoria & Olympic National Park

Victoria

Ferry from Port Angeles to Victoria, BC

 After the wedding, we took a couple of days to explore Victoria. I wish we'd had more time, it was amazing. I had no idea this little gem was hidden up there on the western edge of Canada. The place was very British, and very Pacific Northwest, but also very Canadian.

 

We feel welcome!

Even the tour busses look British!

Creative busking.

We happened into a little Indian cultural festival, complete with dancing, food, and henna painting. This wasn't quite the "Indian" culture we hoped to find -- Austin was all excited about the First Nations stuff -- but we had a great time. Gavin discovered the delights of Indian food and Lucy got a henna tattoo. 

Indian dance festival

Gavin discovers Tandoori Chicken.

Lucy's henna hands.

The Royal British Columbia Museum was incredibly cool. I could have stayed there all day. One level of the museum was all about natural history, with taxidermy animal tableax and nice aquariums. The other level was all about human culture, evenly divided between an impressive First Nations presentation (including languages, which the kids loved) and an immersive display of early white British Columbia culture that felt as though you were walking along streets from 100 or 200 years ago. 

Chased by a Wooly Mammoth.

Real totem poles.

Ferry ride back. (See, I was there!)

 Olympic National Park

 

Love these kids.

After our visit to Victoria, we were able to catch up with Dave & Kara one last time, for an evening jaunt along Hurricane Ridge in Olympic National Park. The weather was absolutely clear and perfect -- bad for Washington, which is having a drought, but perfect for tourists hoping to see the ridgelines of the Olympic range. 

A perfectly clear day.

Fishers & Grays

A little hike through Olympic National Park

Bye, Washington! We will miss you.

Fun with Fishers

Fishing Trip

 

 

Gavin got invited to go along with Austin and all the uncles on Dylan's Bachelor Party fishing trip. He lived up to his middle name, catching a nice little flounder. He also served as the trip photographer, so credit for all these fishing photos goes to Gavin.

Gavin's fish.

Brandon caught a shark!

Great clear views of Mount Rainier.

Gavin liked the crabs best.

 The girls didn't get to go along on the fishing trip (somebody had to run after kids!) so we got together later that night for a little girls night in Poulsbo.

 

Love these ladies!

Indianola

 

The biggest surprise of our vacation was the tiny little town of Indianola. We wandered out there on Hannah's suggestion one morning, and there wasn't much there. A nice little rocky beach and a pier. But then we tried the buttered blueberry muffins from the little general store and deli. A.maz.ing!

A piece of buttered heaven.

 We got the biggest surprise when we went back later that night: there are phosphorescent algae in the water that sparkle and glow when disturbed. My kids joined with Dylan and Hannah and their friends jumping off the pier into the pitch black, cold, salty water, where they swam around in little pools of green light. This might have been our favorite thing on the whole trip.

Lucy was the second one in the water.

Gavin wasn't far behind.

I wish I could have captured the sparkly green water!

Pool Party

Max Capacity 4? I don't think so.



Playing "Toothpaste" with Grandpa

The morning of the wedding we decided to get all the cousins together at somebody's hotel. We had the place pretty much to ourselves, or else we created so much chaos nobody else dared come! The kids played games, and soaked in the hot tub, then piled up on each other to create human totem poles in the water.

Poulsbo and Seattle

Poulsbo

 

Jed, the three-legged dog.

We found a lovely AirBnB rental right around the corner from Hannah's parents near the adorable town of Poulsbo. The house was great (and even came with a dog!) and the town turned out to be even more fun than we thought it would be, and we spent a lot of time in the quaint, Norwegian-themed downtown shopping, eating pastries, and enjoying the water.

The barbarian horde.

Sluy's Bakery

So many choices! Donuts as big as your head!

Kids needed Sluy's t-shirts.

Creativity at the little mosaic shop.

Fun little aquarium with a great octopus statue!

 

Seattle

 

Ferry from Bainbridge Island

We went into Seattle for one day, and crammed in everything we could think of to do. We caught Pike's Place Market just at opening time and did some shopping before taking the monorail out to meet James & Rose & Grandma at the Space Needle and Experience Music Project.

Pike's Place Market.

Lucy's favorite think at Pike's Place: vintage PacMan

View from the Space Needle

The Experience Music Project had a special exhibition: all the costumes from Star Wars! Gavin and his cousin Deacon were in heaven. The whole museum was great, though: we especially loved the rooms where you could make your own music with the instruments, and the exhibit honoring Chuck Jones.



These are the droids we were looking for.

Boba, Jango, and Gavin Fett.

Guitars.

Thrifting with Macklemore.

Jamming with Uncle Jimmy.

That's All Folks!



Dylan and Hannah's Wedding!

 

Wedding Rehearsal

 

My awesome family

 We all went out to the Norbergs the evening before the wedding to help get everything ready for the big day. It was great just being with all my siblings and their families and getting to know Dylan's new family too. It was totally relaxed and very fun. The kids ran all over the Norberg's cool yard. Gavin had such a great time he suggested that we have a few more "practice weddings" just so we can all be together more!

 

Chatting and assembling kid bags.

 

Flower designer and her crew.

Hanging out.

Silly cousins.

Wedding Day

 

I do.

The actual wedding was almost as fun as the practice. A little bit of rain right before the ceremony led to a bit of rearranging, but nobody really cared. The ceremony was beautiful, Dave did a great job as the officiant, Hannah was gorgeous, their vows were sweet and funny, and now Hannah is officially ours. Hooray! 

Austin is the tallest one in a family photo for a change!

Cousins

Pork sandwiches from the world's coolest food truck.

A little bit of rain gave us a beautiful double rainbow.

Dancing until well past dark.