Seattle/Chicago trip

Jeff attended a conference out in Seattle in October.  He wanted to make a vacation out of it.  We brought Ellie with us and left Claire at home.  The reasons for leaving Claire were many:
1. Long flight
2. Mommy flying out by herself with 2 kids?  No thanks.
3. Lots of hiking and car riding planned for the trip.  Not Claire's favorite activities.

We knew she would have more fun with the grandparents.

However, in the weeks before our trip, Jeff's grandfather's health deteriorated significantly.  We were expecting him to pass at any time.  Finally, the night before I was to fly out (with Jeff already in Seattle) we got word that his passing was imminent.  This complicated things significantly.  Mainly because Jeff's parents were supposed to watch Claire and they would need to drive 12 hours to Chicago to attend the funeral.  We didn't want to put them or Claire through 12 hours in the car with her.  So we needed backup plans for Claire.  Also, there was the high likelihood that I would fly to Seattle only to turn around and fly to Chicago or back home.  We struggled with whether to go ahead with the trip or cancel it.  But since things were uncertain, we decided to go ahead with the trip.  And although the trip was cut short in the end, we don't regret the few days we did have exploring the Pacific Northwest.

Ellie and I flew out on a Thursday morning.  It was almost a 5 hour flight.  She did very well.  She slept on me most of the flight, snuggled in my Moby wrap.  So glad I had that to keep my hands free and take her weight off of my arms.  She had one or two awake periods where she laid in my lap and babbled.  Loudly!  She was so loud!  It was a bit of a logistical challenge to nurse her discreetly with the very large man next to me, but we managed.

Beautiful view of the Rockies!

Once we arrived, we picked up the rental car and went to pick up Jeff from his hotel in Seattle.  From there we drove straight out to the Northwest Peninsula because Jeff's number one goal for the trip was to explore the Olympic National Park.  We got a nice view of the area on our drive and got to take a ferry.  We checked in to Olypmic Lodge and relaxed a bit.  Then we headed in to Port Angeles for dinner.  Very good meal, but it took forever!

Ferry ride

The next day we began our exploration of the Olympic National Forest.  We did a few hikes to/along some of the beaches.

Rialto beach

Bundled up for the cold

Daddy and baby on the beach

Hiking the path to Second Beach

Climbing logs to get to the beach

Ellie sleeping through a family photo :)

We had lunch in Forks, made famous in the Twilight book series as the home of the vampires.  The town is not much to look at!  That afternoon we drove up Hurricane Ridge before having dinner in town at a little burger joint with poutine. Mmm!  We had a beautiful ride up to the top of Hurricane Ridge.  We walked around up top for some extra views.

Nice place for a stroll!

Ellie and Jeff taking in the view

My turn!

Cuties!

We got word that night that Jeff's grandfather had passed and the funeral had been planned for Monday.  So we did some quick travel plan revisions, changing flights, hotel reservations, and itineraries so we could get to Chicago for the service.

Awake Ellie

Asleep Ellie

Saturday we did a whirlwind tour of Seattle.  But first we had to get there.  We missed the ferry we were hoping to catch due to a temporary road closure for opening the floating bridge. Part of the bridge is on pontoons and to open it they just float that section out of the way.  Unfortunately we were way too far away to see anything.

Lovely fall foliage

Crazy fog!

Once we finally made it to the city we did a duck tour for a quick overview of town.  We walked around the Space Needle for awhile but opted against going up since it would be an expensive trip just to look at fog!  We visited Pike's Place Market, caught some fish throwing action before they closed up shop, and strolled the waterfront before having dinner. 

Riding in the duck boat

Rabbit ears are an essential accessory on duck tours.

Hammering Man outside the art musuem

Space Needle (Brandi down in the corner)

Flying fish (the fish is the blur by the green pole)

Gorgeous shot of the waterfront

The Great Wheel at night

Sunday
We had a great last morning in Seattle. It was just a nice quiet morning in the city.  We bundled up and walked down the street to get some breakfast at a nearby bakery.  Ellie was perfect, quietly drifting to sleep in the stroller while we had yummy food.  

Then it was off to the airport for our flight to Chicago.  Ellie was a little fussier than the first trip but good overall.  We arrived in time to have dinner at Jeff's grandma's house along with most of his relatives.

Monday and Tuesday
We spent lots of time with Jeff's grandma and the rest of the family. We had the funeral on Monday.  Tuesday we flew home and headed to my parents house to collect our little Claire Bear.

Special thanks to my parents for covering us with Claire and to Gary and Laura for putting us up while we were in Chicago! 

Ellie meets GG-Ma. 

Sleeping beauties!  (Ellie fell asleep in my bed after a feeding :)