Day 13 - Ocean Shores to Everett

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Submitted by brad on
He Said:My quest is complete. It took a few thousand km (and $), but I managed to get about a year's worth of Coast soap, a Coke freestyle drink, and 4 cases of Hires Root Beer for the BBQ. Who says there are no more adventures to be had? (nobody. That's not a thing) Today we hung out at the ocean in the morning and saw a very bizarre 'thing' on the beach. This may be the start of the invasion. It was a large, wooden, belt buckle-ish thing, covered in some sort of animal. They were long tubes like hundreds of yellow gummie worms, and they moved. At the end of each was some sort of shell, closed on the sides, but open on both ends. One end had the tube, the other end had...something. Everynow and then one would extrude itself out, looking a bit like a crawfish. Hundreds of them. I'll get a picture up tomorrow. After that we decided to hit the road, do a hotel, and put off camping for a bit. Stay in a hotel for two nights with no driving and hang out at the pool. We broke our no-chain rule, did Mickey D's, then hit the road. Around Kent we made two stops to find Hires Root Beer. Found it at the second Winco, but the store only takes cash. I had to do the poor man's..."What if I put this back?" until I could cover what I'd grabbed. I tried it tonight with the kids, and let me tell ya - Meh. We got in about 6, checked in, unpacked, and Shan took G and M to check out the pool. Turns out, there was none. So we used their wireless to find a new hotel, repacked, got a refund, and headed over to Best Western Plus Navigator Inn. So far - Awesome. Nicest hotel so far, I think. Although I did really like the one in Great Falls. Free breakfast, Free evening snacks and beer, free laundry. Full kitchen, touch lamps, separate bedroom, etc. We might even stay here another night. She Said: Today was the worst day for getting along with the kids. We keep setting them up to misbehave and then giving them heck for misbehaving. Stupid stupid stupid. And so frustrating. However, all was good when we finally got to the pool. Well, except Ryan who had to protest the wearing of water-wings to go into the pool. I just patiently waited for him to agree. Was so tired of trying to impose my will. There was another family there with 2 young boys - probaby 7 and almost 4. The dad was in the pool with them while the mom sat in the hot tub. The 4 yr old could not get enough of jumping off the edge and diving under water. Exactly what I figured a 4 yr old would do. Not my kids - well I'll give Ryan a year. My girls are frady cats about getting their head underwater. Gillian will finally do it. Anyway - it's just easier to accept that my kids aren't what I expect when I don't have an example of what I do expect right there in my face. At the end of the day I blame myself and feel horrible mom guilt. Ahhhhhhh summer vacation.