We all arrived on Saturday and got settled in. I went grocery shopping....hungry. Dumb move. I had enough for all 20 of us. The kids went swimming with Bob and we all had a quiet night.
Sunday we went to Fort Warden. It's an old fort with giant abandoned bunkers. They are amazing and the kids thought it was really cool. The boys played Star Wars all over the place. Sophia went to the beach. It was a bit cool but pretty dry, no complaints.
Sunday evening the families had a pot luck and generally enjoyed each other's company.
Monday we all went to the Olympic Game Farm. That was lots of fun and the kids really loved it. It's a place where retired animal actors go so the animals are really tame. This is the place to go if you want to see an elk or llama's snout up REALLY close. Like in your car...
It was pretty impressive. Apparently this is where all of the Disney movies about animals from the 50's through the 70's were shot. Grizzly Adams is the only one I can think of right now. But there were movies about lions, cougars, wolves, foxes etc. All of which are either still there or their off spring are.
That evening we all had dinner and then convened at Oma and Papa's condo for the reveal. The reveal of what? The secret ingredient for the kids IRON CHEF dessert contest. Kendra and Todd's family participated in an Iron Chef competition at home and said it was really fun so they thought we should do the same. The secret ingredient was.....Peaches. The kids broke off into 4 teams and really did some impressive work. They had an hour to come up with their creations. It was great fun and they all did great work. We all ate it up!!!!
Bob had to leave Monday night for a meeting on Tuesday and Wednesday. He took our car so we needed to depend on the rest of the crowd for rides. Luckily, there were some really big cars there so we were able to hitch rides.
Tuesday was spent wandering around Port Townsend. It's such a cute town. We really took it slow. We sat on a pier for an hour or so and then went to get ice cream. Now that is a good day.
Wednesday we got up at the crack of dawn to catch a ferry to Victoria. The ferry was at 8:30 which meant that we had to get up at about 6:15. Surprisingly we were on the road by 7. When you are working with about 20 people and half of them are kids it can be tricky.
The ferry is a nice way to travel. We left our cars in Port Angeles since you can walk or take a cab almost everywhere in Victoria. On the ferry ride up we discussed what time we would leave. Knowing my kids were really tired I said that I thought we would come back on the 3:30 ferry. Everyone else wanted to stay until the 7:30 ferry. The only problem was that Bob had our car....in Portland. My dad said we could have the keys to his car and they would come back with someone else. We did the math and the remaining cars could handle the crowd. Great!
When we arrived in Victoria we all talked a bit about what everyone was going to do. The majority were going to go to the history museum. My kids weren't interested in doing that. I have learned when I am travelling with my kids, especially when I am alone, that I need to discuss the agenda with them and we make decisions together. They wanted to eat, go to the bathroom and go to China Town. Great! Sounds good to me. So we went off in the opposite direction from the crowd knowing that we would probably go home earlier and wouldn't see them until the next day.
The kids and I had a great day. We went to the bathroom, found some lunch (Mind you it was only 10:30 but they were up really early.), got a backpack, went to the bathroom, bought new pants for Coulter (he put on Kees' and didn't notice they were too small), went to the bathroom and so on. You can see the pattern. I was glad that we were not with the crowd because my kids and I went to the bathroom about 15 times. Can you imagine having to stop everyone because one of my kids had to go? That would have been miserable for everyone. By noon or so we made it to China Town. The kids got wooden swords and Chinese outfits. They had out grown the ones from last year.
Next we walked and walked to Beacon Hill Park. It's an Olmsted Brother's park that is only 2 blocks from the Empress Hotel. I can't believe I have never been there before. It was very impressive and big, 200 acres. Along the way we stopped at a totem park and the kids did their own totem.
Pretty cute in my book.
We went to the Children's Farm. It's a petting zoo. Unfortunately, it wasn't as cool as we expected. We did get to pet goats but that was about it. It was a nice walk but now the kids were tired and Kees was STARVING. I called a cab.
We had a really nice lunch and decided that we were having such a good time that we would stay and ride home with the rest of the crowd. I turned on my phone just in case the groups plans had changed. We finished lunch and did a bit of shopping along the touristy part of town and then we walked over to the Empress and laid on the lawn. The boys had a sword fight and played in the garden. Rex and Tina were surprised to see us on the lawn since they thought we went home early. We chatted and then then took off.
The kids and I checked out the hotel a little bit and then talked about the remainder of the day. We decided we would just hang out and play and then go to an IMAX Movie. The kids all put on their Chinese outfits and were immediately transformed into Kung Fu Fighters on the side lawn of the Empress Hotel.
It was GREAT! Moving at their pace definitely pays off. They were happy and I was totally relaxed. I loved our afternoon. After a bit of playing it was off to the show. If you haven't seen Stomp's Pulse, you need to.The show was over at 6:45 so we had plenty of time to head to the ferry and wait for the crowd. We walked on with Rex and Tina. As a matter of fact we were early so we were able to get 3 bays of window seats. Just enough for all of us. Tina texted Sally and told them where we were. Sally texted back that they were just finally getting home. They had gone on the 3:30 boat. Wow, that was a switch from the original plan. And here we thought we were taking one for the team and staying late so we could be with the crowd.
As we were pulling into the ferry terminal Sophia said, "I wonder how they all got home? They only had one car." I thought....."OH Crap. That's true." I called Sally and she explained that they were surprised we were not on the ferry at 3:30. She had tried to call once they were on the boat but I didn't answer. They packed the one car they had and then Sally went back for the rest of the gang. I felt really badly since it was an hour and a half round trip to our hotel. And my phone never rang. Other than that one hiccough it was a great day. We got home really late but were satisfied and happy.
I put the kids to bed and Bob came back for the remainder of the trip. Ahhhh....that was good.
Thursday was fairly free form. The families went off and did their own things. We went back to Fort Warden with the boys and Sophia went with her cousins to a lavender farm.
The boy ran and played and thought those were the coolest forts ever.
When we got home the secret ingredient was revealed for the adults IRON CHEF competition. It was.....avocado! Christine and I paired up. She made an appetizer and I made an entree. Both were great! Her's was a nacho plate and mine as a chicken dish. The kids were all judges and did a great job. They all tasted everything and made comments about the presentation, flavors and finish. It was funny. We won..and then we all had dinner. That was good fun.
And our final day....Friday, our family went to Port Townsend. Bob hadn't been there. We walked around and had a fine time. In the late afternoon we went to the grocery store for some last minute things because we were making dinner for the whole crowd for a last night celebration. We made tabbouleh with quinoa, a Greek salad, lamb burgers, and lemon mint rice. I loved it and everyone seemed to have a nice time.
It was a really nice trip and the Leeks had great fun. It could have been craziness with that many people but it all turned out for the best. I hope everyone else had as nice of a time as we did. Thanks so much to Dad and Sally for making it happen. It is a big task to get that many people together especially when it involves a group travelling from Texas and another party in the middle a move....YIKES!
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