On the way to Bellingham, we stopped in Everett, where I lived until I was almost 8, and played at my favorite childhood park, Forest Park. It has changed a lot. It has so many more really cool toys like the digger that Jonah loved and it even has a spray park that kids can run through and scream in when it gets too hot. My favorite slide was gone though. It was really tall with just a ladder up to it- probably very dangerous, but I loved it! The merry-go-round is still there though! Yeah for danger! We do not see merry-go-rounds being put in any more. I don't think the parks departments or cities could get a permit for those anymore. Too many sue-happy people I guess. We did see a lot of almost bad accidents when we were there Sunday... The kids loved it though! And so did I! Oh ya, we met my friend Melinda and her children too at Forest Park. They recently moved from here to Mukilteo. Forest Park was a great meeting place, just 20 minutes drive for them. Paige loves her friend Benjamin so much and they played so happily for an hour or so, before we decided that we were hungry and needed to go for lunch.
Bellingham! So beautiful! I think I want to move there. I love the old beautiful houses and I love being by the water... And it just feels so safe. But, Mike has to have a job, so this probably wont happen. Not a lot of jobs out that way for an engineer like Mike. Maybe when he retires?
We had a wonderful, probably mile-long, walk down to the water. Mike and Colin skipped rocks, Paige and Jonah waded in the water, Jack looked at rocks ("da-a da-a"). Mike and Jonah-Monkey climbed some rocks up to the railroad tracks and then Paige wanted to do this too with Stephanie. We hung out for a while and then headed back up the hill to Colin and Steph's house where we visited and played with all of their stuffed animals and things. Colin went for a run and then we all went to dinner. It was so nice! We could walk there! There we lots of restaurants within walking distance. We ended up with Italian. It was good- and plentiful! We hope you enjoyed Paige's left-over pizza, Stephanie!
By the time we got back from the restaurant, it was 8:30 (LATE for our kids, who usually go to bed at 7:30). We said our good-byes and went to find our hotel. We all went right to bed.
The next morning, Monday, we got to enjoy the hotel pool! Paige amazed us by swimming and swimming! She repeatedly just swam across the pool by herself, using the skills she has learned at Kinderswimmer classes "one arm, two arm, three arm, side breath!". Mike was overjoyed to have his little girl loving the water! He is a fish himself. He swam, did tricks for the kids, like handstands and somersaults. The kids loved going for "baby turtle rides" on him and even loved being thrown up in the air and caught by Daddy. Jonah, was a little more timid. He loves the water too, but doesn't think he can swim outside of his classes yet- in time... And Jack, well, he HATED the water! It is just his age. Jonah was like that at his age too.
After swimming, we did some exploring. We stopped by a park on the water, where it was really really windy and then drove Chuckanut Drive back to the freeway. That was a beautiful drive. Lots of beautiful views of the water, islands, trees, beautiful homes and then farmlands. We are hoping to come back there again soon! None of us minded the drive (Well, Jack did get a little irritable on the way back...) and we really want to head up to Birch Bay, 20 miles north of Bellingham.
Okay, you are all probably a little tired of my blabbing by now and I just don't have time to write any more right now. I need to go make a grocery list. We have no food...
2 comments:
That sounds so fun! The coast is beautiful up there! It is sad how cautious (um, boring) everything has become because of all the sue-happies...poor kids...at least they have fun with whatever's available! Paige is such a good little swimmer -- only 5 and already doing the breaststroke, that's amazing!
I didn't realize you grew up in Everett until you were 8, or maybe I did and just forgot, I'm terrible with details. I moved to Everett when I was 8, we used to go to Forest park all the time, I loved that huge slide too.
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