Lessons Learned from Life on the Road

As I have already mentioned, the past week has been Matthew’s first ever weeklong high school band tour. There was some serious planning, preparation, and coordination with the band teacher that needed to happen, but we managed to come up with a workable food plan that would allow Matthew to eat while on this grand adventure. The weather was amenable which meant that his food in the ice chest that traveled in the bottom of the bus stayed nice and cool the whole time. That was a definite plus. He made it home in one piece and was not starving to death which was another plus. Bao makes fantastic travel food (something we already knew) and muffins were another winner for Matthew in terms of ease while on the go. There were a few speed bumps, but Matthew chalks those up to lessons learned. Perhaps the biggest lesson learned was not to forget the charger for your cool battery-operated heated lunch box or you will only get two hot meals while on the go instead of a dozen. Serious lesson learned there. Another lesson was never to leave your food on the bus because you have no idea where it will be going or when it will be back. Other than that, Matthew managed his food well. And he had some fun. 

Kevin was in the vicinity the entire time as the emergency food back up plan, but Matthew never felt like he needed to call. Hopefully the few rough patches will make the next tour run a little smoother. Because we all know there will be another tour. And that Matthew will most definitely want to go. As he gets older, we know he will be eating away from home more and more. One of my big goals as a food allergy mom is to teach my kids how to safely feed themselves when they are away from home. Another of my goals is to help them have as normal a life as possible despite their food limitations. Being able to feed himself for this past week has been a huge step towards achieving both of those goals. It was not stress free, that’s for certain, but he succeeded and has gained confidence in his ability to travel without us.

Now if only we could help him deal with the travel insomnia…

Leech Me

I've always wondered why in days gone by doctors sent ailing patients to the coast to recuperate. It seemed to have no reason and I just assumed it to be one of the antiquated practices we now know to be of no benefit (like bloodletting and leeches). However, I've now come to believe that they were on to something. Neither of my two asthmatic kids had any trouble the entire time we were in Seattle. But as soon as we were home, Matthew started coughing again and Daniel rode his bike to a party last night and needed his inhaler when he got home. It would appear that the moist climate and oxygen rich air at sea level is of benefit to them. And the thin, dry air we have here exacerbates respiratory conditions. Yet another perk to our time in Seattle.

Good Hair, Good Skin, Good Time

Today was the last leg of the trip home. As we leave our time in Seattle behind, I can truly say that we had a good time. Not only did we see some wonderful things, but we really enjoyed the climate in the Seattle area. The temperatures were in the low 70’s the entire time we were there which saved me from heat induced migraines. I loved the rain and didn’t feel like it was a deterrent to any of our activities. My skin and hair loved the extra moisture in the air. My hands were not rough and cracked, my face was not oily, and I didn’t have a single pimple the whole time we were gone (although nearly two days out of Seattle, my first pimple popped up this evening). I had a good hair day for the entire ten days and didn’t need to shampoo as often since my scalp wasn’t working overtime trying to moisturize my locks. And the green! I loved the green! As we left the coast yesterday and the green turned back to brown, I had to heave an internal sigh of regret to be leaving the green behind. The kids loved the area as well. Nathan said a number of times that he would enjoy living there.

As we’ve discussed our favorite parts of our trip, everyone has different things that they loved. Malia loved the science center because “there were toys there.” Matthew enjoyed the Space Needle and Centurylink Field. Nathan’s highlights were the EMP and the aquarium. Daniel also liked the EMP and loved the Museum of Flight as well. Kev’s favorite parts were the Museum of Flight and the fish and chips. As for me, I enjoyed the EMP and the rainforest. I actually find myself regretting not actually getting into the rainforest more than I thought I would. We’re actually all talking about coming back so we’ll make the rainforest a priority, two-day trip.

By this morning we were all pretty worn out. Everyone was pretty glazed at breakfast. We’ve had a great time, but we’re glad to be home.

So here’s the sum up for the past 10 days:
Total miles driven: 2336.5 miles
Total drive time: 50 hours, 21 minutes
Total memories made: countless

Drive Me Crazy

After having a pow wow with the kids last night and discovering just how important the Space Needle stop is to them, we revisited our plan for today. We still got up and got everything ready to go, but instead of hitting the road right away and having an evening to hang out in the hotel in Boise, we headed back downtown to see the Space Needle. We arrived just as they were opening and as such, we didn’t wait at all before we were able to go up. It was a perfect day, clear enough that we could see Mt. Hood, which we hear is pretty rare due to the frequent rain.

This is our green screen digital picture that was included with our tickets

As we were headed back to the car, Malia told Kev, "Now you're not a dead puppy." We all totally lost it. It was completely out of the blue and without context. This was one of those moments when I really wish I could hear what was going on in her head because I'm sure that in there, it made some kind of sense. ;-)

We were back at the townhouse by 9 a.m. to load up and head out so we thought we’d still arrive in Boise at a decent time. Unfortunately, we hit a big old traffic jam outside of Ellensburg, WA that slowed us down. We ended up eating lunch in Ellensburg and were back on the road afterward. My dad says the drive home is always the hardest and I totally agree with him. The excitement and anticipation that accompany the initial drive are gone and after playing hard, everyone is ready to be home. Today’s drive was rough, all of us tired of being in the car and our anticipated arrival kept getting later and later as the day progressed. At some point in the evening, I looked back and saw this:

That, my friends, is the face of boredom. And we all felt that way. The only one who was still smiling was Jolly, who is important enough that she was part of our let’s-not-leave-anyone-behind roll call (and the subject of many, many pictures and videos taken by Malia in the course of our vacation).

It was 10:30 p.m. by the time we arrived at the hotel. I'm so tired of the car. I think we all are.

A Whirlwind of Activity…and Still No Sharks

Today was our last full day in Seattle. We still had a number of places we wanted to go, so we were on a tight schedule and knew we would only have a couple of hours at each stop. First up on our list for the day was the aquarium. Malia has been fixated on sharks this entire vacation. Every time we see water, she asks where the sharks are, where the sharks live, why can’t we see the sharks, etc. As such, she was super excited about the aquarium. The Seattle aquarium is located on a pier and has an open system with the ocean which means the water and wildlife in the wild is also in the aquarium. That was super neat but the aquarium here is actually bigger. We saw a variety of fish, animals and bird. My favorite was the sea otters. They are about four times the size of the river otters we can see here. Nathan, who has toyed with the idea of being a marine biologist, took about a million pictures. Malia took a bunch as well. We enjoyed ourselves, but unfortunately, we didn’t see any sharks. Malia did find a stuffed shark in the gift shop, but they were the only sharks in the aquarium.

Not surprisingly, this kid is being a total goofball again. Malia is very proud that she took this picture.

We picked up clam chowder from Ivar’s (Did I mention that I really, really loved the food there?) and after lunch we were off on our next adventure. What we did not know was that the two hours we had allotted for the Pacific Science Center was not even close to enough time. The center had three separate buildings and was jam packed with interesting things and fun hands on learning. There was a special exhibit of art created entirely with Legos and fans that we are, we couldn’t pass that up. There were Lego renditions of famous artworks and sculptures as well as new works created by the artist. It really was amazing.

This is all Lego, really.

  

We also went into the butterfly pavilion which was great. There were a large variety of butterflies living in the habitat and the feeding areas were a great place to see a bunch of them. They were flutter around and land on whatever was handy, including people. Matthew had a butterfly land on his head and when we were done, we had to be checked by an employee to make sure we didn’t have any hitchhikers as we left the area.

Malia loved all the things she could touch and play with. She was especially fond of the ginormous sheets of bubbles she made.

She was brave enough to touch an actual brain, although I think this face expresses perfectly how she felt about it:

I wish we could have spent more time, but we were burning daylight and still had two stops. Next up was the EMP, which is a pop culture museum. There was a fantasy and science fiction exhibit that was fun for all of us. There were costumes and props from a variety of films including the Wizard of Oz, The Princess Bride, Star Wars, The Lord of the Rings, Ghostbusters, Gremlins, etc. We saw a dalek and a cyberman from Doctor Who. I read the letter from the publisher to Terry Brooks accepting The Sword of Shannara for publication as well as the first several pages from Brooks’ in progress manuscript of the book. For t.v. and movie junkies, it was really cool!

There was also a special exhibit that was all about Star Trek in its various incarnations. Daniel totally geeked out about that one. The exhibit included costumes, props, set pieces and even an area where you could join the action in a short film, which the kids thought was neat. In our allotted time, we were able to see everything there that we wanted and were pleased that it was such a fun stop.

Our one disappointment for the day was that we weren’t able to go to the top of the Space Needle. By the time we got there, the next available times to go up were at 10:00 p.m. We still had dinner to eat and needed to pack up so we can hit the road in the morning and just couldn’t wait that long. So overall we had a great day, super busy but fun.

Fan-tastic!

Of my three sons, Matthew is the only one who is into sports. Whether playing or watching, he is a sports fan through and through. He has been cheering for the Seattle Seahawks for last couple of years, so when it was decided that Seattle was our vacation destination, taking a tour of Centurylink Field was a must. We arrived early again (this is actually pretty normal for us) and Matthew was so excited that he was pretty much glued to the glass outside the team store which was the designated meeting place for the tour. In spite of the fact that most of us have no caring for football, it was actually pretty cool. And our tour guide was a chatty old guy that kept us entertained. Get ready for a bunch of pictures. Matthew tried to take a video of the entire tour but I won't make you sit through that. ;-)

 Let me in! Let me in!

 

 The visiting team locker room. We didn't get to see the one the Seahawks use.

 

After lunch, we went to the Museum of Flight. Kev and all the boys are airplane fans (as evidenced by the fact that this is the third airplane related location they’ve visited this trip) so they were all excited. As for me, World War II era planes are interesting, mostly due to the fact that I actually have a frame of reference for many of them based on movies and books based on that time period, so there were intriguing things for me to see as well. I have to say, since I got married and birthed three sons, I’ve learned more about airplanes that I ever wanted or needed to know.

See how many airplanes? And this is just one of numerous galleries.

The kids all got to sit in the cockpit of an SR-71.

Always the drama kid...

Matthew and Malia also sat in an F-18.

The outside hanger had the big ones-Boeing 747, Boeing 787, the Concorde, etc.

My dad suggested a place called Ivar’s for dinner and I have to say, we were all fans of the amazing food. Honestly, I could eat there every single day. Seriously. It was that good. They had a delicious assortment of seafood chowders as well as fish, crab, fish, some more fish…if you aren’t a fan of seafood, this is definitely not the place for you. But we loved it. Daniel ordered a dish that included Clams, mussels, prawns, snow crab, salmon, halibut and cod. What he didn’t realize is that all the shellfish and crustaceans would still be in the shells. Being from an extremely landlocked state, he was also completely surprised when his dinner came with a bib. Those of us who had more experience with such things assured him he really did want to wear the bib and my mom coached him in how to actually get to the crab meat. He was a good sport and took everything in stride. After the fact, his response was, "The crab was really good...the bib was awkward, but the crab was really good!" Yes, it was in fact, very good. Over the course of this trip, our two oldest children have become unabashed seafood fans.

After dinner we took a few minutes to wander through the nearby “Ye Olde Curiosity Shop.” I’m a fan of such random locations. It’s probably something I learned to enjoy as a kid. My parents took us on jaunts to a variety of locations around the country (and occasionally out of it) and we frequently stopped at random little spots like this one. Malia was fascinated by the vast and completely random assortment of things to buy. She even tried out a crazy pair of glasses. Creepy, right?

We were definitely all worn out by the end of the day. Malia had a couple of blisters and was one sleepy girl by the time we returned to the house. We’ll sleep and be back at it tomorrow.