Dee Rescues Me

So even before I quit my job, I was planning to visit my friend Dee and had already scheduled Friday as a day off. Audrey and I drove to Dee's house on Friday morning. She lives in Selah, about 220 miles from our home. It was wonderful to have a place to retreat to and just chill for a few days.

Friday: We arrived a little after lunch time and got the tour of Dee's house and their gorgeous property. After visiting for awhile and having a bite to eat, we headed to downtown Yakima. Patina, a recycled clothing boutique owned by her friend, was a fun place to explore. Found a cute blouse there. We went to the shopping mall for awhile and then stopped at Papa Murphy's for pizza. We had never had the Chicken Garlic, something Dee's family orders all the time. That was yummy! After dinner Dee made some Pineapple upside down cupcakes (recipe below). And later that evening we watched a meteor shower from her deck. (I looked it up and found it was the Camelopardalids meteor shower associated with Comet 209P/Linear.) Amazing what you can see when you don't have the city lights to distract! We did not stay out all night as the evening got cool. Dee's daughter was sweet and had given up her room for the weekend - thank you!!

PINEAPPLE UPSIDE DOWN CUPCAKES
20 oz can pineapple chunks (or slices), drained, juice reserved
1 box yellow cake mix
1/2 cup vegetable oil
3 eggs
1/3 cup butter, melted
2/3 cup packed brown sugar
Maraschino cherries, cut in half

Heat oven to 350 degrees. Spray 24 regular-size muffin cups with non-stick spray. In large bowl, beat cake mix, oil, eggs and reserved pineapple juice with mixer on medium for 2 minutes.
In small bowl, stir together melted butter and brown sugar. Spoon 1.5 teaspoons butter mixture into each muffin cup. Top with pineapple pieces. Place cherry half, cut side up, in center of pineapple pieces. Spoon 1/4 cup batter into each cup. Bake 20-25 minutes until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool 5 minutes. Run knife around edge of cupcakes to loosen; invert onto cookie sheet. Serve warm.

Saturday: We woke up and Dee made homemade donuts for breakfast! They were delicious!!

BAKED CAKE DOUGHNUTS
2 cups cake flour, sifted
3/4 cup granulated sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup buttermilk
2 eggs, lightly beaten
2 TB butter, melted

Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Spray doughnut pan with non-stick spray. In large mixing bowl, sift together cake flour, sugar, baking powder, nutmeg and salt. Add buttermilk, eggs and butter. Beat until just combined. Fill each doughnut cup approximately 2/3 full. Bake 7-9 minutes or until the top of the doughnuts spring back when touched. Let cool in pan for 4-5 minutes before removing. Finish doughnuts with chocolate glaze or cinnamon sugar, or confectioners' sugar. Doughnuts are best served fresh. Makes 12 doughnuts.

We headed to Selah, but first stopped at the Wenas Cemetery. The cemetery was incorporated in 1880 and is the second oldest incorporated cemetery in Yakima County. It is approximately 7 acres.

We then went to Buhrmaster Bakery, a local bakery where everything is baked fresh daily. I bought some cinnamon pecan bread to take home, but went next door to the Red Apple grocery store to buy milk to go with the bakery items we had to try immediately. Went to The Vintage Shop, an antique store. That was fun! And we also spent much of our morning on my souvenir spoon hunt... seriously a lot of time. We went to store A, asked if they carried, they did not but told us maybe store B carried. So we'd go to store B only to find out they did not carry them either. That went on for quite some time!

We checked out Wenas Lake for awhile. This was just up the road from Dee's house.

Regrouped at Dee's house and then headed back into town and went to King's Row. Audrey and I shared a Garbage Burger (beef patty, ham, bacon, cheese). It was enough for us to share! Audrey also enjoyed that you could order ANY flavor of pop since they would mix them to order. So you could have a raspberry coke or a vanilla orange soda or a pineapple root beer. The combos were whatever you could dream up.

We headed to Yakima for more spoon hunting. Finally found a spoon at Walgreens. Then we went to a super cool bookstore called Inklings. They carried lots of other items besides books, so we spent quite awhile exploring this shop. Afterward we went to Glenwood Square, a refurbished fruit warehouse that was built in 1910. Still had the brick walls, hardwood floors and rough timber beams throughout. The warehouse had restaurants, offices, shops and some cool fish tanks!

Unfortunately it was time for us to head home. We made one more stop (Fred Meyer to pick up road snacks and fuel the car) and we said our goodbyes. Dee - thank you so much for a wonderful visit!!

Drive Inn Movies

We heard the drive-in located in Colville might be closing if they did not raise enough money to convert to the new required digital format, so thought we'd take a drive up there to catch it one last time. We drove up early on Saturday and spent the day checking out the local shops. We explored a place called Barmans right on Main Street. Had a lunch counter and a soda fountain, antiques for sale and 2 upper floors that are currently being restored. We then went to a scrapbook and antique store (Forget Me Not) and then drove over to where the Colville Fair was taking place. It was rainy so we decided to drive to Kettle Falls instead and checked out a few more antique shops (A Kick in the Attic and Red Apple Trading Post). We drove back to Colville and went to Stephani's Oak for dinner. Ordered chicken fettuccine, a Cajun fish dish and a Canadian Bacon and chicken dish. Way too much food for us to finish!

We stopped at our hotel (Comfort Inn) and relaxed until it was time to go to the movies. Since they don't open until "dusk" we had plenty of time. Tonight's double feature was Turbo and Wolverine.

A lot of the attendees drove up in their vintage cars - it was fun to see all the different cars that had been restored. We felt like we were ruining their groove because we were the only newer car in the back row (for awhile). When it got closer to movie time, it packed in nicely with folks in the back of truck beds and vans full of kids. I slept during a big part of both movies (no surprise to Audrey) so thankfully we had gotten the hotel to stay in. We spent the night and drove home the next day.

Spoons!!

I have been collecting souvenir spoons for awhile now - can you tell? It has become one of the fun things on each trip - to not only locate someplace that sells spoons, but to pick a new and fun design. Some of the more interesting ones I have collected are:

• Alligator (Florida)
• Twister (Oklahoma)
• Bear (Idaho)
• Train tracks (Oregon)
• Dolphin (Oregon coast)
• Tree (Washington)
• Lapis inset in copper (Hawaii)

I'm getting ready to visit my sister in Denver, so I will need to get some new spoons from this trip. And I do try to get a spoon each trip, even if I've been there before. Which explains the entire top row... all Disneyland!

Kennewick Day Trip

We had been promising to see Susan & Larry's new (to us) place for awhile, so hopped into the car and took a day trip to Kennewick. Their place is a brick rancher on a mini-farm with lots of gardening areas. I believe Susan said the house was built in 1955 and is on about an acre of land. Since they had lived there for almost a year by the time we visited, they had already refinished and remodeled a number of rooms in the home.

Afterwards all of us did a little shopping at the mall (though Larry & John headed off in different stores than Susan, Audrey & I did). Then we all had dinner at Famous Dave's before heading back home. It was fun visiting and seeing their most recent project.

Canada Day #6

We woke up really early to get on the road. Guess what we learned? The rest stops that they do have in Alberta don't open until 8AM. So after being on the road for about 2 hours and needing a rest stop, we had to wait in the parking lot until they opened the doors. Which ultimately meant we could have slept in a little!

We drove home a different way - through Black Diamond towards Sparwood, Pernie, Cranbrook. We had specific plans to stop at a classic soda shop in Black Diamond, but after an hour or so waiting, they never did open. (John does not shave on road trips.....)

When we got to Sparwood we were starving. We stopped at an A&W. Remember the Mama and the Papa and the Baby Burgers? They still have them in the Canadian A&W's. Tasted great! Too bad these menu items are no longer available in the United States.

The original Burger Family lineup consists of the Baby, Mama, Teen and Papa burgers. They are still sold today along with other burgers named after other family members:

• Baby Burger: small beef patty, ketchup, hamburger bun
• Mama Burger: regular beef patty, onion slice, pickles, ketchup, mustard, Teen sauce, sesame seed bun
• Teen Burger: same as Mama, but with extra toppings (lettuce, tomato, bacon, processed cheddar cheese)
• Papa Burger: same as Mama, but two beef patties instead of just one
• Grandpa Burger: same as Mama, but three beef patties instead of just one
• Uncle Burger: 5-oz. beef patty, ketchup, mustard, pickles, mayonnaise, lettuce, tomato, onion slice, sesame seed bun

We got to the border - check out the wait.

We were finally HOME and done with the road trip. 12 hours driving for just one day. Wow!

1,359.80 miles total road trip

Here are some fun souvenirs we brought home. Salad & pasta dishes plus some spoons to add to my collection.

Canada Day #5

As we were headed to the mall this morning, we passed a few stores we had to check out. Canadian Tire. Not quite as interesting as I thought. Kind of a True-Value meets Discount Tire. We checked out the remainder of the strip mall where the Canadian Tire was located, and then went to Southgate Mall. There were actually a few stores there that they did not have at the West Edmonton Mall.

We got to the mall later in the morning and decided to finish checking out the 800 stores we had not gotten to yesterday. Our favorite? Disney store. In fact we picked up gifts for mom and Cheyenne's upcoming birthday at the mall.

There were different themed streets at the mall. Bourbon Street was mainly a grouping of sit-down restaurants and bars, including a piano bar. Chinatown included some specialty shops and a grocery store.

Europa Boulevard included several boutiques and specialty fashion stores.

We had a good time checking out the grocery store. They had some very interesting items for sale, including a fresh tank of live seafood, duck feet, pigs ears, pork snouts and quail eggs.

We snacked at the food court trying out a few different items - Jugo Juice and Bourbon Street chicken. One thing we saw on many menus, but did not have the desire to try was Poutine - french fries topped with cheese curds and brown gravy. Just did not sound very interesting, but seemed rather popular.

We stopped at a cupcake booth (uponacupcake.ca) and tried the Legendary Berry (chocolate cupcake topped with strawberry butter cream and chocolate shavings) and the Black Forest (chocolate cupcake with ganache truffle center dipped in ganache and covered with chocolate shavings) cupcakes. All the cupcakes were fairy tale themes (Snow White, Prince Charming, Goldilocks, etc).

We left the mall and headed back to our hotel. Time to pack and get ready to leave for home the next morning. We had dinner at Ricky's All Day Grill again (John had cornbread/chili, I had the black chicken Caesar salad and Audrey had breakfast for dinner) and then went back to our hotel to rest.

Canada Day #4

We checked out of our Calgary hotel and headed up the road to Red Deer (1hr 26 min). There we stopped for breakfast at The Donut Mill. Too many choices!

We got back in the car and drove to Edmonton (1hr 45 min) and stopped at John's new favorite place, The Alberta Aviation museum.  They had nearly a century of Western Canada aviation history on display. Some of the 40-plus aircrafts on display included Avro Anson MK II, Avro CF-100 Conuck, Beech D18S, Canadair F-86 Sabre MK I, Canadair T-33 Silver Star, De Havilland Cirrus Moth, De Havilland Mosquito, De Havilland Tiger Moth, De Havilland Vampire, Douglas DC-3, Ercoupe CD, Fleet Canuck, Fairchild 71C, McDonnell Voodoo, Noorduyn Norseman MK V, MK IV, Vickers Viking MK IV, Waco Model UIC.

They also had an Aircraft Restoration area where they were working on a Cranwell CL-A4, North American B-25 and a Stinson Reliant SR9FM. While walking through this area I had an overwhelming memory of my father's shop. The smell of paint and welding and grinding machines sent a wave of nostalgia through me. I actually had to leave the section as the memory was so strong.

While John was walking around the displays, this gentleman came over and asked if he would like to get in one. He did not have to be asked twice! This is a Canada F-86 Sabre MK I that John is in. The man giving him the tour actually flew this plane, so the stories he told were very fascinating. This was one of the first jets built after WWII and was used in Korea. It was part of the Canadian Royal Air Force.

It think this note from the brochure says it all: The Learning Centre introduces a new generation of aviation enthusiasts to the mystery and marvel of flight. The role of aviation in building Western Canada and the North is taught here by many of those who actually lived the experience many years ago.

We found a fun restaurant across the street for lunch, Ricky's All Day Grill. Lots of choices for all meals of the day. John had a pork Sandwich, I had the Ginger Bowl, and Audrey went with the bacon/eggs/pancake plate.

Next up? West Edmonton Mall! This is the reason we made sure John had fun in the morning, since he probably could not envision driving this far "just to shop"..... thankfully there was more to do than that. There are full size parks and attractions: Galaxyland Amusement park (roller coaster, rock wall); World Waterpark (wave pool, water slides); Deep Sea Adventure (world's largest indoor lake with an exact replica of the Santa Maria); Sea Life Caverns (underground aquarium); Sea Lions' Rock (sea lion encounter); Putt 'n' Glow (glow in the dark mini golf course); Professor Wem's Adventure Gold (18 hole miniature golf course); Ice Palace (on an NHL sized ice rink); Ropes Quest (three level ropes course); Ed's Rec Room (bowling, arcade games). But perhaps just drooling over the Lamborghini was enough?

After checking out some of the 800 shops (and 6,100,000 square feet of space), we decided to go bowling. We were told by some friends that we really had to try Canadian bowling while on our trip. So we signed up and got our shoes, only to realize the bowling was "normal" to us (10-pin). We had a good time anyway, but did not get to experience Canadian bowling on this trip. Canadian bowling is a 5-pin variation where the ball has no finger holes (since it is smaller in size).

We checked into our hotel (Holiday Inn Express Edmonton South and later went to dinner at Montana's Cookhouse. (ribs & steaks).

Canada Day #3

We had breakfast at McDonald's... I know. I had my road-trip standby, sausage and egg McMuffin. Audrey and I decided they really do spice their breakfast sausage differently in Canada as neither of us enjoyed this part of our breakfast. Found out at this time that every container of milk gets a 10 cent additional tax. It is to encourage you to recycle your carton or bottle. However, it is not like a pop deposit where you can return it to the place of purchase to get your refund. They had a recycling bin to collect, so I guess they would get the 10 cents per container refund when they returned them to the recycling center. There was a slightly higher fee for a gallon of milk (25 cents). Seemed a bit counter-productive for being in the middle of dairy country, but as I said on Day #1, they take littering (and evidently recycling) rather seriously in Canada. The deposits on all beverage containers, including milk containers, is 10 cents for containers one litre and under, and 25 cents for containers greater than one litre. Once I figured this out, it seemed better to swing by Safeway and purchase my milk so that I could get a larger container, and thus pay a lesser fee. I recycled all containers, but had no way of getting the deposits back. But milk is also a road-trip standby for me.

We headed downtown to check out the Calgary Zoo. They have nearly 1,500 different animals, representing more than 290 species from five continents on display. They also had their newest permanent exhibit, Penguin Plunge open - but the lines were crazy long. They had the zoo in different areas: Destination Africa; Prehistoric Park; Canadian Wilds; Eurasia; ENMAX conservatory / Dorothy Harvie Gardens and South America.  We were able to see gorillas, zebras, lions, hippos, bears, moose, bighorn sheep, condors, monkeys, parrots, panda, leopard, tigers, butter flies and vegetation on display.

In the US we were well into summer break, but in Calgary we were in the last full week of school instruction. We all know what happens the last week of school - field trips! It was super-duper crowded at the zoo today with just a ton of kids, all with their backpacks on.

We went back to our car and headed toward our next destination, the Calgary Tower. We again had a little issue with our credit card, but once we got them on the phone, they were able to let our charge go through. Perhaps the $72 that we just spent at the zoo ($21 each plus parking) and then another $50 at the tower ($16 each) & $12 for parking downtown was making them nervous?

The Calgary Tower officially opened June 30, 1968, and is the City of Calgary's most famous and identifiable physical landmark. The tower offers you a 360 degree panoramic view at 525 feet in the air. The glass floor gives you a birds-eye view of the city streets below.

Audrey

Sam

After the Calgary Tower, we spent some time walking the downtown streets of Calgary. Then we headed back to our hotel to relax. We took a nap, watched some television and then went out for dinner. We started  out at a steak house (Ruth Chris since we had never eaten there before), but after we were seated - we were virtually ignored. After a long time waiting for our server (easily 15 minutes) we got up, left and had dinner at Wendy's next door.

Canada Day #2

Isn't this beautiful? This was how we started our second day in Canada - - with a view of the Canadian Rocky Mountain peaks enveloped by clouds. Gorgeous!

We checked out of our hotel and drove the short distance to walk the grounds & lobby of the Fairmont Banff Springs hotel. History: The manager of the Canadian Pacific Railway recognized the tourism potential of the Canadian west and envisioned a succession of lavish resort hotels along the railway line through the Rocky and Selkirk Mountains. This impressive hotel, at the convergence of the Bow and Spray Rivers, was styled after a Scottish baronial castle designed by Bruce Price. Construction began in 1887 and opened June 1, 1888. It was a huge success, even during the depression, as it was a place for members of high society and heads of state to visit. However, by 1942 the effect of World War II had reached the hotel and it closed it's doors. It reopened in 1945, struggled in the 50's and 60's, and then finally found it's niche again in the 1970's as a year round destination resort.

For breakfast we stopped at Phil's Restaurant (similar to a Denny's with breakfast, lunch and dinner choices). See those round sausage looking things? They called them Chubbies on the menu. We enjoyed our breakfast but thought the Chubbies were spiced differently than US breakfast sausages, so did not care for them.

We got back on the road and headed to Calgary (1 hr 26 min) and to our favorite stop of the entire trip - Heritage Park historical village. Heritage Park is Canada's largest living history museum with more than 179 buildings and structures, a steam train, paddle wheel boat and a huge indoor museum called Gasoline Alley.

We started at Gasoline Alley. I'm not joking when I think we spent over an hour in here. We were all fascinated with something. This is one of the largest public collections of antique vehicles and oil and gas related artifacts in the world. Included interactive exhibits of the 1930s, 40s and 50s highlighting a retro drive-in theatre and a travel trailer. My favorite section in the street scene area was the Safeway store front with groceries on display, including red potatoes at 6 cents a pound.

Canada Safeway History: In 1929, when Walter J. Kraft began operating five stores in Canada, grocery stores were not the huge, diversified markets of today. In a typical grocery store of the early 1930s, which covered about 1,000 square feet, customers bought only one or two day's worth of food at a time, because blocks of ice were the standard source of refrigeration. But this would soon change. Widespread electricity brought with it the convenience of home refrigerators and freezers, enabling shoppers to stock up. The ubiquity of the automobile was also pivotal, as it allowed for the transport of larger loads. Another modern idea of selling meat, dairy, grocery and bakery items all under one roof also revolutionized the industry, causing the average size of a grocery store to grow significantly.

After thoroughly enjoying ourselves in the indoor museum, we headed outside to explore the rest of the park which was divided into these sections:  Steam Train, Aboriginal Encampment, 1880's pre-railway settlement, 1860's Fur Trading Fort, Agricultural Area, 1910 Village, Railway Car Shop, Wagon Rides, SS. Moyie, Antique Midway and Natural Resource Area.

As we toured each of these areas, they had people at the displays dressed in period costumes and providing information.  For instance, in the Nightingale Colony House (1909) we saw a demonstration on how to make butter and had a sample with a saltine cracker. They also had workers baking at the Livingston House (1883), Rectory (1899) and Burnside Ranch House (1904) As we arrived at the different houses, we observed (and smelled) various rhubarb recipes being created. Unfortunately they did not provide samples! But they did share the recipes for Rhubarb Compote, Rhubarb Pie, Rhubarb Crunch and Rhubarb Sauce. It was interesting to see the different methods used to bake as some houses had fire places and some had wood stoves.

For lunch we ate at the Wainwright Hotel (1907) and had a Black Angus burger (John), Bison Burger (Audrey) and a Chicken Club (Sam). Audrey said I had to post this picture, but my don't I look warm?! It was a warm summer day with some rain & humidity thrown in.

I don't think we were able to see everything and if we lived in Calgary, I'm sure we would get a season pass. Really enjoyed ourselves. Before leaving we checked out the shops near the entrance to the park. There we found an ice cream "scoop". John remembered eating ice cream like this when he was a young child visiting his relatives back in Sault Saint Marie, Ontario Canada. So we bought it.

After leaving Heritage Park we headed to the Four Points by Sheraton Hotel & Suites Calgary West. It ended up being our favorite hotel on our trip. However, this is when we discovered something else internationally. If you don't call your credit card company and give them your trip plan, they think someone has stolen your credit cards. And because we did not have international cell service, we had to stand at the check-in desk and use their phone to chat with our credit card company. All was settled soon. We relaxed for a bit and then went back out for dinner and exploring.

We often try to eat someplace that we cannot try at home. Harvey's was our dinner choice and it was a good one. Think a Subway but with burgers. They create the burger in front of you and you let them know which toppings you would like. Very fresh and very tasty. Their slogan: A Canadian burger chain recognized for its' flame grilled burgers, fresh toppings, and the ability to have your burger made the way you want it.

Saw a Safeway and had to check it out. There are 224 Safeway stores in Canada with 96 in Alberta and 75 in British Columbia. No wonder it felt like the grocery choices along our road trip were heavily Safeway oriented. I found it interesting how expensive the food seemed compared to US since the dollar was almost-par while we were travelling. I could not imaging paying $8.15 for a container of ice cream (with a sale price of $5.99). A box of cereal was $7. Found similar examples at fast food restaurants with a simple hamburger/fries/drink combo starting at $8. When we did sit down restaurants, it was more along the $20 per person range rather than the $12-15 range we found at home.

Canada Day #1

CANADA ROAD TRIP !!

About two weeks before we left on our road trip, we actually had made no formal plans. No hotel reservations, no itinerary, nothing - so unlike me. The only thing that I had done was to schedule the days off at work. We tossed around a few ideas and finally decided on Canada. We started by trying to make hotel arrangements in Banff. It got a little frustrating as there were no rooms available in our first few hotel choices on the dates we would be there. We finally found a hotel and made the reservation and then figured out our basic itinerary (what cities) and made the remaining hotel bookings. The other cities were much easier than the tourist destination of Banff.

We woke up early on our first day of the road trip and headed towards Canada. Just past Sandpoint, Idaho, I asked John to start plugging in the first destination city - Cranbrook - on our GPS. That is when we realized that the GPS we had for years was a US only GPS. We'd be hard pressed not to have a GPS on our trip since we had not packed maps, etc, so we stopped at the only store available (Walmart) and bought a GPS with Canada and Mexico loaded. Of the 6 GPS's at that store, only 1 had international cities and it was the most expensive...of course.

We got to the Canadian border and had an opportunity to use our Passports. As soon as we started driving on Canadian roads, I had to mentally move to kilometers rather than miles. Kind of bizarre to be driving 100 kph but really only be going 60 mph. It did not take long to convert, but I had to keep double checking since I would be going a tish above the speed limit and felt like I was sitting still as many cars would pass me. We hardly saw any police on our road trip, so it seemed that speeding was "ok". However, if you littered? $2,000 fine! We saw a ton of signs warning of littering. And instead of rest stops, there were many litter stops (where you could just pull to the side of the road and deposit your trash in the cement bins provided).

The next thing we figured out was that Audrey's Tracfone was also not international. So we had no cell phone coverage on our trip. Whoops.

We arrived in Cranbrook (3 hr 41 min) and fueled our car. Filled up in liters (of course) with the fuel converted to around $4.50 a gallon. We drove around town and decided that nothing sounded tasty for lunch, so we decided we'd eat at the next stop.

Next stop was Radium Hot Springs (1 hr 38 min). The history of Radium Hot Springs: 1841 Sir George Simpson, the governor of the Hudson's Bay Company, made the first recorded visit to the springs. In 1890 Roland Stuart, an Englishman, purchased the springs for $160. A bathing pool and log bathhouse were constructed in 1914, but the property was expropriated into a new national park (Kootenay National Park) in 1922. New bathhouse constructed in 1927 but burnt down by a fire in 1948. Current building construction completed in 1951 with renovations in 1968 and 1997.

We headed to the bathhouse with our swimming gear, but ended up changing our minds once there. A little too crowded? Wanting to get to our final destination today? Looked like a big swimming pool? Too expensive? Each of us had our reasons but we all agreed no swimming today. So we hiked up the pathway behind the bathhouse instead.

We made our way to Banff and our hotel (1hr 45 min). The hotel sounded good on the Internet and ended up being our most expensive hotel, but the room was horrid. Worst I've ever seen. Noticeable cigarette smell (even though non-smoking room) with cigarette burns in the carpet. We went back to the front desk and they did find us a better room, however, not terrific. Thankfully we only had to spend one night here.

After getting settled we drove to the Cascade Plaza in downtown Banff for the evening. There were various stores to browse including checking out the local Safeway. We had dinner at the Old Spaghetti Factory and then checked out more stores. Very touristy and kind of crowded, but we did enjoy ourselves.

Drive Home

We checked out of the hotel but had to make one pit-stop before hitting the road. There is a new Safeway in downtown Bellevue that I wanted to check out. It has a parking garage under the store so you can enter the store via an elevator.

Garage Entrance

Main Street Entrance

We then headed on our way home, stopping at Ihop for breakfast. When we were to Vantage, we stopped at a rest stop and took pictures of all these windmills. I believe they are part of the Wildhorse Windfarm in Vantage. Enjoyed our quick trip to Seattle.