Thanksgiving in Washington Part 1

When we arrived at our destination in  Washington, we didn't realize that we were stepping into the woods.  Really, while driving the back roads, the mossy trees looked like they were going to come to life. 

 Because the Webbs know how to have a good time, they found a stake dance for the girls to attend, the day we arrived.  It was fun for them to go together.  Check out the moves. In the picture of Livvy and the Webbs dog, Max it was a special moment as he is a snuggler.  Olivia kind of stalked him.  Over the river and through the woods to Seattle we go First stop is the Space Needle. What is this snow? But it never snows in Seattle.  We must have brought it with us.  We touched the Sace Needle.  Pikes Place was so fun.  Fresh fish, pastries, fruits, vegetables, whatever you want, every day. OK this picture of a gross, Ling Cod is connected to a stick and whenever unsuspecting young women passed by they shook the stick and people would jump or scream.  When Kate and Elliotte came by it actually dropped to the floor like it was alive.  It was pretty funny. On to the ferry, waiting in line Olivia became  "The Coat." It's started to feel like a blizzard, as the wind blew us around outside on the ferry. The clam chowder was extra delicious because hey, fresh fish, and because the cold, cuts in Washington.

 

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 This is the story of all stories on our trip home from Seattle.  Woodenville is only 17 miles from Seattle.  Jenny told us a story of how it took her two hours to get to a soccor game because people do not know how to do snow here.  Well, I have a friend who lives in Seattle and said they only have two snow plows.  Whether that is true or not, we experienced the ultimate in not being prepared for the snow.  We feel Jenny's pain.  We started on our way home at about 5:30pm.  It took us about 2 hours just to get passed the Space Needle.  Now at this point we are all going crazy wondering what to do, where to go, this has to get better.  We kept looking on the bright side and trying to convince each other during our crawl through the city. Now according to the stories we heard that's as bad as it will get.  So onto I-5, finally we're getting somewhere.  There is really only about an inch of snow on the ground.  We were moving some and mostly stopped and trapped, not knowing any other way to go.  Luckily Kyle went with Phil and Jenny came with us.  She's the fun aunt that kept us laughing, hysterically as we came to a standstill on the bridge.  We were on the bridge stopped for 3 hours.  Stopped with no food, water bathroom and 5 children.  Natalie was the only one who really had to go and since we weren't moving she fell asleep in the back, which was basically a miracle.  While we were going crazy we talked to a guy that left his car to see what was happening.  He said a bus was Jack Knived and the road was blocked.  Because we were stuck so long  and didn't have anything else to do,we seriously laughed harder than we had in a long time being on the verge of killing someone.  When all of a sudden two police cars are inching their way through the two laned traffic coming from Seattle.  This bridge does not have room for them.  It takes at least an hour and we are all hugging the outside of the bridge to let them through.  When traffic thankfully starts moving we see that the policemen from Seattle are directing the traffic.  Why would they be directing traffic?  Where are the policemen on the other side where there is no traffic.  Are they at a party or on vacation?  We absolutely couldn't believe it.  The bus that was supposedly Jack Knived was only blocking one lane and the edge of the second.  There were three lanes.  The bus driver walked away from the bus, as we learned do many people in this area, which could also explain the stopped traffic.   Why did we stop, I"m still perplexed.  Then about 20 yards down from the bus the traffic merged anyway.  So, we heard there was a pregnant women on the bridge who didn't dare get out because she didn't want to go into labor.  Did this really need to happen?  That is the question.
This is a picture of the survivors.  The only reason they look cheerful is because we are going for a milkshake the next day.  Anna was really a trooper entertaining the kids in the back.  They had no idea that we were having a problem.  It took us 7 hours to get 17 miles.  I think I could say that is a record.   I'd like to know if anyone can beat it.  When we finally started moving way after midnight we had to laugh at this little snowman that someone built while sitting and waiting with us and the other 5,000 cars trapped that night. Needless to say we didn't leave the house on the last day with the Webbs.  Instead we had hors d'oeuvres prepared by Sterling .We had a good old fashioned Crab and Salmon bake.  It was delicious and felt like Thanksgiving.  We actually had a fantastic time and really learned a lot about Washington. Thanks guys for the fun and the memories.