Seattle Trek – A Great Finish

Continued from: Seattle Trek – A Rocky Start

Over the next three days, we had a great visit making up for the rocky start we had.  Our mornings would start off with getting the kids their breakfast and then getting them ready for school.  Once delivered, my wife and had some time to do some things we wanted to do.

After our daughter and son-in-law left on their trip Monday, we headed over to a shopping area where we had lunch.  My wife selected a sushi restaurant…

…which I do not like at all, but thankfully one that also had a burger on the menu, my favorite food.  It was the most tender burger I think I have ever had.

We then shopped around until it was time for the first school pick up.  After the second school pick up, we had some time to play with our grandsons until dinner time and then it was bath time, reading time, and bedtime after that.

Tuesday, our day started out similarly and then we headed off to a shopping center and mall north of town where my wife wanted to get some things for their home as well as search for other fun things for our grandsons.  The little boy in me especially liked shopping in the toy stores we ventured into and it was a delight to find a Lego store as well.

For lunch that day, my wife suggested a brew pub, one of my favorite types of restaurants, where I can get a good meal and a local craft beer.  Since we were both busy on Cinco de Mayo the week before, we had a late celebration.

That afternoon, we had a fun activity making fresh orange juice on the front porch, a requested activity of our oldest grandson.  They had a blast as we squeezed orange after orange after orange.

Wednesday was our last day in Seattle.  After dropping off the boys at school, we headed over to the Washington Park Arboretum.  We took a nice two-mile trail that wound its way through beautiful Rhododendrons…

…and gorgeous Azaleas.

I had no idea the two plants were related explaining why they were both present.

Being an arboretum, we also saw a large variety of trees native to the Pacific Northwest area as well as to other parts of the world that have similar climates.

We got home in time to have a quick lunch before we started the afternoon school pick-ups.  While eating, our daughter and son-in-law got back home and began to tell us all about the fabulous trip they had had.  They seemed well rested and reenergized from their time away.

That afternoon, we got a nice chance to visit with our daughter before the final school pick up.  Then that night, we feasted on gourmet pizza before heading off to our hotel by the airport for our early morning flight the next day.  Before taking our leave, we did manage to get a few photos.

Overall, it was a win-win-win-win trip for all.  It was special for our grandsons to get to spend this much time with just the two of us.  It was wonderful for our daughter and son-in-law to get a couple of days off by themselves.  It was nice for my wife and I to get some alone time during the day when the boys were in school.  And at the beginning and end of our trip, it was delightful for all of us to get to spend some relaxing time together.

It was very sad to be driving away since this was our first visit with them in over a year.  But it was tempered by the fact that we knew their family would be coming to visit us this summer for the first time since 2019.