Welcome to Seattle!

Sorry for the delay, it has been go-go-go here so I haven't had much time. I woke up a bit early on a Thursday morning so I have a little time. This is also my first ever post from a Mozilla Firefox browser as well. I'll do a day by day update here.

Friday: We left Madison a little after noon and headed to wonderful Chicago. We had extra time so we decided to stop at the Cheesecake Factory in Schaumburg, yummy!!! An order of Buffalo Blasts later we hit the Target to get some snacks and stuff for the plane and headed to O'Hare. O'Hare was very O'Harish, but everything went off without a hitch. Even scored one quick Dunkin donut for fun. We flew American which meant 4+ hours, one Coke, no food and no entertainment. Lots of Sudokus and other puzzles later we arrived. My parents were supposed to beat us by an hour and then by 10 minutes as they were delayed. We showed up and saw Larkin but no family, we beat them. 15 minutes later, Mom, Dad and the Beav showed up, it was a family affair!!! We got our rental car as my brother was taking them to the house, but we ended up beating them there anyways. Seattle at night was really cool!!! Then we got to see Anna! :) It was our first time to see our niece (or granddaughter to my parents) and she is even more adorable in person. 2 weeks old and she already has tons of personality. Although like any baby she cries and eats alot but she is so cute!!!

Saturday: We got up a little late and Jess, Beav, Dad and I headed out for breakfast. Just looking for something simple, we drove down a road finding some normal fastfood options turned around and hit McDonalds. We then went to Fred Meyer to buy some snacks for the next few days. We then kind of chilled at home as everyone still wanted to hang out with Anna! It was then off to the Pike Street Market. This is where they have those people throwing fish all around. It was so much more than that though! You can buy about anything but they specialize in fresh produce, fish, flowers and food. Consumption at the market included: $1.35 tamale...best tamale ever, it was not only the cheapest and tastiest tamale it was also the biggest. What a combination. I also had an order on mini donuts and we all went and had Gelato together. Thank god we walked over a mile. We got home and everyone was tired. my body felt weird with all the sugar and the flight and the crappy sleep, I jumped on the bike. IN true Seattle fashion it was raining! It was a cold, wet and windy ride but I got in 22 miles on the Burke-Gilman path with a little detour for fun up some hill. We got home and I showered. We then went to eat for my Dad's birthday. We went to Green Lake where most of us (them) ate at Spuds (fish) and Larkin, Jess and I ate at some random mexican place. Good food, I would've been ok either way. That night we kind of hung out and chilled. Some of them went grocery shopping with easter the next morning. Tab Energy sucks, it is like salad dressing flavored energy drink...thank god I only wasted 5 calories on it. 5 out of 5 people agree..it totally blew! Saturday...done!


Sunday: Easter! It was supposed to be crap that day so instead of getting on the bike I thought it would be nice if we took a drive. Mom (grandma) wanted to hang out with Anna so the rest of us (minus sister-in-law Beth who was still sleeping from a hungry/crying Anna all night) headed out for a random car tour. It ended up being beautiful out. We went to Husky Stadium, home of the Washington Huskies, and took some photos. Then off to theor Arboretum as things were well in bloom here. We then hit the 7-11 for some Slurpee action and then saw Seattle U and the hospital Anna was born at. From there we headed to this random park under the freeway where they were building a mountain bike skills park. On our way to the park we saw a DeLorean car, silver, straight McFly! Awesome! Anyways, we get to this park and people were actually working on the trails. It will probably be bigger than Ray's, dry, but not as extreme. They were making some switchbacks and already had one log crossing. I figured they'd be farther along, but alas they weren't. Above the park were beautiful sights of the city with lots of photos!!! We then went to a K-Mart for the heck of it and then back home just in time for some Easter dinner! After a ham induced coma we then went to some crazy-ass waterfall. Of course we get to the deck and it was beautfiful, I was just jealous of the 4 people who somehow made it down to the rocks 330 feet below. Well not to be outdone, We (the boys and Jess) found the trail. The trail gets you close to a lower observation deck, you then have to climb down some rocks, around some signs advising you not to do what we were doing, and alas you were in the rocks about 100 feet from the base of the falls in a fog of mist. Beav and Dad opted to stay on deck. After the falls, we had two cars, our car took the scenic route home (their's did too but their's focused on golf courses) and then we were home. Some leftovers and John making milkshakes later we were all pretty much cashed so we just sat there and I fell asleep watching Family Guy (to my defense it starts at 9 here and I was beat.)

More to come later!!!