Mini Vacation

We had some water damage to our hardwood floors, and our insurance helped to cover the costs of repair. For the week that the floors were being refinished, we had to be out of the house. We chose to do it the week that the kids were out of school, and we went and stayed in a hotel in Bellevue, the Silver Cloud. It was a nice place.

Kipp went to work Monday, while the kids and I finished packing and taking the cat to a friends. Boy, did Anastasia hate that! She was fine once we got to the other house, she just hates riding in the carrier. The kids and I didn't do much, but met Kipp for lunch and went to the hotel. The first night we went to Spaghetti Factory in Seattle for dinner. Service was unusually slow that night, and they finally admitted they had lost our order.

Tues, Wed, & Thr Kipp took off of work. Tues we went to Vashon Island, which we've never done. We rode the ferry over, which the kids loved. The weather was a mix of clear/cloudy/rain. Not a bad day. We explored the island and looked for a few letterboxes. We found 1 and couldn't find the other. But we did get to see the lighthouse on the island. It was a good day. On the way home, we went into Seattle and went to the Conservatory. We'd never really been there either. It was supposed to close at 4pm, and we got there at 4:07, but the doors were still open. It had amazing plants inside, and we all enjoyed them. Huge orchids and a large variety of plants. Then we found another letterbox on the grounds outside. We went to dinner at a fanatastic place that had Crepes. Dinner was great, someplace we wouldn't normally go to.

Wed we did a lot of letterboxing up north, in areas we don't usually get to. Our hotel had a fantastic breakfast which we enjoyed every day. Cereal, fruit, homemade waffles, pastries, french toast, drinks, bagels. We had homemade waffles every day. We headed up north after that to Bothell. We found 2 boxes in a park, and the kids played a little. We went to lunch in the downtown area at Alexa's Cafe. It was OK. Kids got breakfast and Kipp and I enjoyed our lunches. Then we went to more parks in Bothell, Juanita, and ended up in Kirkland. We found quite a few boxes, and had fun at lots of new parks. Kipp was not feeling that well (Kyler and I had been very sick the week before), and so we went back to rest at the hotel. We could walk to Bellevue Square, so we headed over for dinner at one place that turned out to be gone. We ended up at the Cheesecake Factory. It was great, as usual, and walked back to the hotel.

Thr we went to explore something new - a brand new Sculpture Park that we had glimpsed from the Spaghetti Factory. Turns out it opened on Jan 21, and was 9 acres of big sculptures. So we went to Seattle to walk around. It was interesting. The kids were more impressed that we were. They also had a hot house kind of room with a huge log in it, showing natural habitation from the forest of nurse logs. It was pretty good. We got lunch somewhere and came back to Bellevue. In the afternoon we went to see a movie, Bridge to Terribithia. It was pretty good. Scared Kyler a little, but he mostly liked it. We went to dinner at Azteca that night.

Fri Kipp had to go back to work. After breakfast we checked out. It was a great week. When we got home our floors looked fantastic. I was really pleased with the work. We had no problems with the contractor, and now have brand new floors. All in all, it was a super mini-vacation!