The PNW

We were up at 1 am to make our flight out of MKE to Seattle on what had become a bait and switch flight itinerary.  With the exception of Ella the other three had decided to just stay up "since we had to leave that early...". They were exhausted by the time the travel day was over.  Our luggage was edited and reedited as we tried to fit trail and town gear for all six of us into the explorer and not knowing how it would fit into "Too Juicy", our rental mini van that we had already named. The connecting flight had some rough air but we made SeaTac by 11 and were given an Expedition with Iowa plates.  This thing was a "Tank"... Amy could have packed so many more shoes.  The Iowa plates gave me more driving space on the tight roads as well. We drove past Kurt Cobain's house and Viretta park after a long lunch but there was literally no place to park within a mile of the land mark.  We couldn't check into our rental place until four but when a parking place opened up in the area we took it and then walked to the grocery store.  The rental place is great.  A four story town house with amazing views of the Seattle sky line and Mt. Rainier. Amy and Ella took a walk to the sound and then the three of us walked for ice cream a no exaggeration 45 degree .5 mile climb.  We did bring some back for the other three, all of which were still sleeping, even though they had not "earned" the homemade confection. Our return walk took us through Kerry park on 3rd street with a great view before we returned to our own rooftop patio to watch the sunset and the city lights come out in the shadow of Rainier, under the space needle with passing cruise ships in the sound... And that was just day one.