Day 1: Pick mom up and drive to Wanatchee (which is where we stayed because it was too expensive to stay in Chelan). The drive was going from the mountains to the plains, but it was pretty the whole way. Chelan area is not as desert like as I was expecting, there are vineyards and orchards everywhere! It's gorgeous. Definitely tons of fruit stands, very hard not to stop at all of them to get fruit! We did get quite a bit though.
Day 2: Explore Chelan and swim! It was HOT in Chelan. I say that because I have barely had temperature above 70 in Seaside. I loved it! It was so nice to walk around in shorts and no coat! Mom was hot, of course, but she survived! First we went to Blueberry Hills to pick and eat blueberries! It was so much fun. Mom has done this before with strawberries with my brothers when they were little, but I never have. I think I ate more that I actually had in my bucket! According to the scale at the end my mom picked more than me, but I am pretty sure I ate more than her! They were delicious.
Blueberries!!!
Mom pickin, no her nose...blueberries!
Getting serious!
Yum Yum!
After blueberry pickin' we walked around the town of Chelan. Actually a cute little town, with some very nice stores. Found a scrapbook store that had a Chelan kit, definitely got it to make a little book! After walking around, it was off to swim! Man it felt good, especially after the hot day. The water was a little cold, but what do you expect from snow melt! It felt great just to get to swim and then soak up some sun! The water was warmer than the ocean, I think, it may have just been that the sun was actually shining!
Day 3: Ferry to Stehekin. Lake Chelan is a very long lake. You cannot drive from the Chelan end to the other end. The only way to get to the north west end of the lake is by boat or plane. The town of Stehekin is at the west end, a very small, simple town. There are cars there because there is one paved road for about 23 miles or so. There is a little restaurant, bakery, craft shop, gift shop, and cabins you can stay in. That is about it! I would love to live there. Gorgeous view, lake and mountains, simple life, good temps, hikes galore, and minimal tourists (since it's hard to get there). We rented some bikes to bike up to this awesome waterfall and stop at the bakery on the way back. Then we explored around town a bit (doesn't take long), then took the ferry back to Chelan.
One of the many cute little houses in Stehekin
Mom was sneaky in some of her picture taking, had no idea she took this pic
On the ferry
That evening, after getting some fruit at a fruit stand, we went to this classic rock concert at the Lake Chelan Winery. It was awesome. Mom didn't think she had the energy to go but I knew she would enjoy it. And she did! She loved it, enjoyed the music (which I knew she would), and relaxing with me. The weather was amazing sitting on the grass playing card games. Everyone around us was eating and talking, it was funny to be chillin playing cards, but tons of fun!
Day 4: Off to Seattle, goodbye Lake Chelan. Just driving to Seattle we could feel the temperature declining. Man was it amazing in Seattle! Not too hot to sweat, not too cold for a sweater, PERFECT! In deciding what to do in Seattle, it was very tough to know what comes to mind when you think of Seattle. I guess the Space Needle and coffee. Check, did those two things, but we couldn't really think of what we just HAD to do while in Seattle. So we just did whatever. Went to Pike's Place first. Downtown Seattle is crazy! First, it's impossible to find anywhere cheap to park, second, I have never driven in such a hilly city, I was glad to be driving an automatic. It's always interesting to walk through cities and people watch, or just walk and see what kinds of people you encounter. Always an experience! First destination, the original Starbucks. Of course we had to get Starbucks in Seattle! It's so funny to watch how many people you see walking down the street with a coffee cup in hand. Definitely part of the northwest culture, COFFEE!! I feel dumb for not knowing that the reason Starbucks brew is called Pike's Place is because the original shop is in Pike's Place on Pike Street. Didn't know then, but I know now! Kind of cool. Then off to walk through the Market. It was so packed full of people, mom had to hold on to my shirt following me and it was LOUD!!! Quite the experience. We went back the next evening and there was nobody. Guess we just hit it at the wrong time, wrong day. It was cool though. And we saw the famous place where they throw the fish. Anybody heard of this? Its famous for a video they show in many work orientations for teamwork, working together, that sort of thing. Didn't see a whole lot of fish throwing like I imagined from the video, kind of disappointed in that, but oh well.
Had to hold the fish to get a picture with him, no thanks!
Best information guy ever, quick, efficient, and helpful
Any takers?
Sampling some tea!
Oh my, makes my mouth water seeing all the tasty looking fruit
Original Starbucks. Mom was able to snap a quick shot before someone got in the way
Then off to see the Space Needle. Driving to the needle started out to be a nightmare. Tons of traffic, I couldn't figure out why there was so much traffic, didn't seem like a high traffic time. I do NOT do well with traffic, that small town girl or something, I don't know. But any tiny bit of traffic I get in I become a different person. I am not happy, the road rage kicks in. So I just said, whatever, we are walking. My poor mom, we had already walked all day in downtown. But she is a trooper. I found a quiet area to park in and we walked the who knows how many blocks to the Space Needle. The good thing about the needle, you can base your directions off of it! haha, kind of like using the mountains to know which is which. We knew we were headed in the right direction because we could always see the needle. The cars were just lined up back to back as we were walking, VERY glad I didn't keep driving. We didn't go up to the top of the needle, too expensive. We just admired it from down below! Long walk just to stay at the bottom and stare up at it! We were walking around some more and randomly walked into tons of booths and concerts. It was weird. Some big event was happening that we had know idea about! That's why there were so many cars! We were so hungry and sick of people by then that we did not spend much time wandering through the booths. We found something to eat and trekked back to the car. It was so random to run into such a huge event that we had absolutely no idea about! By the time we made it back to the motel, mom was done for. Too bad mom, still a whole day to explore Seattle, got to take advantage of it!
Day 5: Bainbridge Island. A friend recommended to me that this was a fun place to visit if you are in Seattle. So I got my mom up early and we took the ferry over to Bainbridge in the morning. The most simple process! Didn't think I would find decent parking at first, but then luckily stumbled upon a cheap parking garage, had to walk fast to make it the ferry with 10 min. before it departed. Walked right up, no line, bought our $6 tickets and walked straight on to the ferry, it was great. Chilly morning so we didn't last out on the deck for too long. Bainbridge is very cute. We could have driven our car on the ferry and drove around the island but I didn't realize how doing this is actually very simple, but is more expensive. I would have loved to have rode my bike on the ferry and ride around the island. Instead, we just walked. So we were stuck mainly in the touristy area, but the stores were cool and the one restaurant we ate at my mom's whole visit was very good; right on the water, cute waiters, good food!
Randomly I discovered that one of my friends from CO, Andrew, was visiting Seattle as well. Crazy that we were in the same place at the same time, I haven't seen him in a long time. He was with his friend and I was with my mom, but we were able to meet up and talk for a little bit. It was great to see him, in Seattle of all places! His friend recommended to us that we check out Alki beach. So we did, and it was gorgeous! A very popular area to run, bike, walk, etc. A nice path goes a ways right along the water. We got some coffee here and sat to watch the sunset and people. Such a wonderful time. I love that my mom and I can be busy doing stuff together and also just relax and just enjoy each other. She has to help me relax, and when I do of course I feel like I need to be out doing something, but I really love getting to chill and be with her. So we sat and attempted to read, but the view and people watching was way too distracting to read much!
Day 6: Gorgeous drive back to Seaside so mom can relax! Yeah, she was a little worn out, but the trip is not over yet. Mom could not wait to get to Seaside to get cool, but when we did get there, she was complaining about the cold. She was wearing my coat, beanie, and gloves. She was ready to get in the heat again! She froze watching me at a softball game! Poor little mommy. I toughened her up and got her to ride my "boy" mountain bike. She did fine on it. She was afraid and doesn't like my bike because it has the "boy" bar instead of the girl style bar. She's funny. And I got to ride my road bike. Using both my bikes at the same time, fun! We rode along the Columbia River in Astoria, gorgeous view of the mountain, river, and of Astoria.
Day 7: Drive to Portland to take mom back to airport, sad day. We had some time to explore Portland a little. I took her to an amazing Meditteranean restaurant I discovered and then to get some tea at this awesome tea house I found in dowtown. Then we walked a long the Columbia, then off to the airport. Very sad to see her go. We tolerated each other very well. Her only complaint would probably be me keeping it too hot in the car while driving, much better to have the windows rolled down, but she prefers the a/c on. And my only complaint is having to wait on her to get somewhere. Otherwise a great time and wish we had longer. She said she could have spent two more weeks with just me as long as she had some relaxing time as well! I love you mommy!
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