Today was our first rest day, and our only one in Washington. Anne’s parents were here as well, making a stop on their own northwest adventures before dropping off the car back home.
The motel doesn’t do breakfast, so we got various materials for the six of us at the Quality Food Center at the corner.
Next, the biking coalition plus Gramma walked down to the library, while Grandpa checked out a shipbuilding school. The library was quite nice, and had a neat little play area in the children’s section. The kids played and looked at some books. I found a book of satellite imagery of the Earth, and showed the kids some pictures of where we were and would be going. They were not as entertained as I had hoped.
We rejoined for lunch at Burger’s Landing, a burger stand with the front end of a small airliner bolted to the side of the building. They were busy, but it was a greasy good time.
After lunch, we tried to get a nap out of Max (and me), while Anne went to do laundry with her mom and Ruth. Max wasn’t cooperating. He was willing to cuddle up with me while I fiddled with the phone. When I’d drift off to sleep, and the phone turned off, he wandered off and played with everything in the room. At least I got a bit of rest.
Anne came back with some line dry stuff, and we gave up on the whole nap thing. We went to check on Gramma and Ruth at the laundromat, then went to the grocery store (visit number two today) for stuff for tomorrow. We don’t expect groceries or restaurants walkable for the hotel tomorrow, but we will have a kitchen of some sort. So we got some box mac & cheese and some other easy to prepare things.
After regrouping at the motel, we started thinking about dinner. Anne suggested letting the kids eat with the grandparents, and we could eat on our own. Specifically, fried chicken from the deli at the grocery store. So, visit number three.
We’ll be celebrating Max’s birthday, Anne’s birthday, and our wedding anniversary later on the trip, so we finished off the cheesecake from yesterday in their collective honor.
Bedtime for the kids was less smooth than usual. Max hadn’t napped all day, so he was super cranky about it. That put Ruth on edge, and she banged her head against the headboard a couple times while flopping about in protest. She crumpled up all her blankets, then complained that she didn’t have a snuggle place, from where the blankets had been tucked in. I think we’ve got everybody calm and in bed now.
Tomorrow, more biking. It’ll be our first day without a ferry to disrupt the flow.