The Fourth, the Box and the Street Vacation

Fourth of July was celebrated with outfits and a mini barbeque. The twins aren't interested in fireworks, don't much like anything freezing cold which includes homemade ice cream, and find the grass to be scary to walk on so badminton was out too. Next year, I'm sure they'll eat too much homemade ice cream, which will wind them up for hours to keep them interested in the pretty booming colors late into the night, and the itchy scariness of grass will have long been forgotten.

 

 

Boxes are interesting for only small windows of time. Until recently, they were great for rubbing your hand along and creating a screeching skin scraping sound. This box has lived a much longer life. Daddy had the great idea of setting Laith inside and pushing him around the couch in fast circles. Vivienne then had her turn. The box became a hat today, great for playing hide-n-seek.

 

With a bad bout of cabin fever, we started hunting for new places to discover and decided on Olympia. We've been here before yet haven't truly checked it out. Plus everything else cool within an hour and a half radius from our home we've done. Our original destination was Priest Point Park. I must've misread the information, as I thought the parking lot went right to the water and the beaches had boardwalk trails we could easily walk along. We braved the dirt trails with the stroller and found the beach to be littered with broken shells. We found the best spot we could, laid down some blankets and had a quick ham & cheese lunch for the twins. You can see the top of the Capitol's cupola here yet the air is thick and causes a lot of 'picture pollution'. Bryan didn't take any pictures on the beach. He was trying to be nice to me, since I was stressing about the broken shelled beach and late lunch.  I was trying to be nice to him, and kept telling him to go ahead and take pictures. We compromised and took no pictures and left the beach. We searched for burger joints for our lunch and decided to try Herfy's. We had sweet potato fries and deep fried battered mushrooms, along with our hamburgers. Next, I knew it was finally time to try and change a couple diapers. The hunt was on for a good location. First we tried the Japanese gardens which did not look inviting whatsoever as it shared the parking lot with the justice center. Next we tried the park across from a really neat building, to find the park now filled with hippys waiting for the next Greyhound bus. By this point, the twins were asleep. We drove around downtown Olympia, found a hidden state park drive, and started searching for a spot to take a picture of a bridge that crosses the freeway. On our search, we came upon Deschutes Way, which is a beautiful drive along Capitol lake and has a beautiful view of the Capitol. We stopped on this road and Bryan set up for pictures while I changed diapers. Next we drove around the Capitol grounds, and found yet another beautiful view of Puget Sound for Bryan to capture. Last, we tried to find what we thought was the Schmidt house, to realize this was a different locale that wasn't labeled on Google maps. On our way home, I noticed a park under the freeway that would allow us to take pictures of the bridge. Woulda, shoulda, coulda turned around, but we'll get that on the next cabin feverish weekend. We also went into the local Cabela's for a looksie, which entailed an argument over how the roundabouts worked and neither one of us was right; at least according to the other person. Inside Cabela's, we were shocked how many liberal thinkers were inside, whining about the stuffed animals on display. Why in the world were they inside Cabela's? Another family commented how they didn't like hunters but were checking out all the hunting gear in the Bargain Cave. Huh?! Our trip home was filled with adventure too. When we joined the I-5 to head back to Vancouver, we saw a unique vehicle. Curiosity got the better of us and Bryan zoomed up for me to read Tesla on the back. Teslas are electric only cars. There is no fuel back up in case you drain your battery. We tandemed the entire way back to Vancouver, the Tesla leading for the first half hour or so, then letting us pass and following us the rest of the way. Just past Kalama, Bryan had enough of the traffic, and suddenly jumped to the far right and zoomed away. The next thing we knew, the Tesla was weaving through traffic to catch up. It's rare to find another driver that shares your same love of vehicles and the road. We parted at the I5-I205 branch and as Bryan lifted his hand to 'sign off', the Tesla zoomed past waving. It was a wonderful way to wind up our street vacation.