The kids have not been to the mainland since our last family vacation in May 2017 for Mindy and Peter's wedding. They were excited--especially Owen, who is suddenly obsessed with airplanes and "flying high in the sky!"
This is our first time scoring a flight that is not red-eye and I don't think I can go back. The kids are also to an age where all three can be plugged in for excessive amounts of time. (!!!!!!!) The flight to Seattle was a breeze, and although we did not get to our 4.5 star hotel (eye-roll) and to bed until 2:30am, I will still take 5 hours of sleep over none any day, even in a gross accommodation.
First stop mainland tradition: iHOP! It is our favorite stop since Zachary's comment years ago that he wanted to move to LA just so he could go to iHOP.
Kate spent her own money on a hot cocoa after seeing the giant pool of whipped cream on someone else's order. Zac and Kate both ordered the world's healthiest breakfast: cupcake pancakes.
The first day of our trip was the only one without friends or family, and we decided to find something we could not do in Kauai. Since we did the tour of Seattle's finest a couple years ago, we opted for Wild Waves, a small amusement park. Reading the reviews, I prepared the kids for the worst, telling them the lines might be really long, the rides might be silly and slow, and it was NOTHING like Disneyland. Apparently, one year is enough to forget the appeal of Disney because the synopsis of all three kids was that this park was better. The lines were tiny, we went on ride after ride, and the sunny day and crisp temperatures were ideal.
This tiny-but-brutal roller coaster scared Kate and she stuck to the toddler rides afterwards.
Zachary and I started the day with another mean roller coaster, full of flips and dizzy.
We loved that there were so many kiddie rides for Owen. He had the time of his life riding airplanes, cars, boats, and the horsies. "Again! Again? Cars? Cars?" and pointing the way to each ride.
The adult conclusion was the park exceeded our expectations with plenty of fun thrills. Zac rode the wooden roller coaster, Timberline, 4 times in about 15 minutes. We filled up the afternoon on inner tubes cruising down water slides--more fun than the roller coasters. Kate was a daredevil in the pitch dark tunnels and Zac rode down a slide that had a 9' free fall to the water at the end. I will never forget the look of shock on his face as he popped out of the tunnel and dropped to the water. The water was so cold and I can't imagine coming here on any day but the warmest Seattle has to offer.
The perfect day needed a perfect conclusion and that means melting into Indian food. At 10pm, we were all gobbling up Coconut Kurma and Tikki Masala.
Checking into our second hotel, the front desk manager decided we needed a cookies and milk welcome. Brady and the kids were thrilled, dipping their cookies in milk at 11:30pm.
Our trip was off to a lovely start and we had only exciting things ahead! I am grateful we had a day as a family, and if I could do the entire trip again, I would add in one more day like this. Once our kids met up with cousins and friends, we rarely saw them again.
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