Tonight we are preparing for an early departure from Port Angeles on the Olympic Peninsula in Washington state. We have been here since Sunday afternoon, having spent Saturday night in a less than desirable hotel in Everett Washington. Our occasional one night stays in hotels have so far not been spectacular experiences, discounting the earthquake in Missoula anyway. Sunday morning we checked out of our smoke scented hotel and went to church, probably smelling a tad of smoke ourselves, with our car packed and ready for Port Angeles. After church we entertained the rest of the ward by eating cinnamon rolls off the hood of our car in the parking lot while most of the boys and men took turns either in the back seat of the car (Noah) or using the bathrooms in the church (everyone else) to change out of ties and vests and button down shirts. I wear skirts, sandals and cotton t shirts to church, no need to change I am quite comfy thank you. After a couple hours of driving and one ferry ride we arrived at our home in Port Angeles and set about living here.
Monday morning we had an early appointment to board a whale watching boat from the actual port downtown. This tour had been a point of multiple discussions over the course of the last several weeks. We really wanted to see whales. We really don't want to spend a ton of money, in fact most of the things we do are free or close to free. In the end we decided to to it, and I am so glad because it was amazing. We looked at trips out of Bellingham, Vancouver and finally Port Angeles, this one was the least expensive and reported the highest success rate. And we did see whales. Only humpbacks, but at least six of them. And two actually dove under our boat, another actually breached the water in the distance and we watched one spinning in the water for a long time and another napping actually. Besides whales we saw bald eagles, harbor seals, elephant seals, a huuuge sea lion, porpoises and many, many jelly fish. Plus the boat ride itself was just fantastic.
This morning we had a relatively relaxing morning just taking things slowly and waiting for Kris's sister Erika to arrive from Seattle to spend the day with us. When she got here we threw our sandwiches in the car and headed for Hurricane Ridge in Olympic National Park. We drove straight to the Hurricane Hill hiking trail, where we hilariously missed the trail initially and walked a picnic area loop that brought us right back to our car, but after that we got going on the actual trail and enjoyed it even more than the picnic area loop. Along the trail we watched a mama bird feeding her babies in a hole on the ground in the side of a hill (!), threw snowballs at one another, and just generally enjoyed the amazing views and meadows full of wildflowers everywhere.
When we got home this evening, there was dinner to make, consume, and clean up, trash to take out, and laundry to do. At 8pm Liam was doing some pre algebra, Fionnula practicing Spanish, Ronan working on SAT practice and Noah doing mission papers. Because right now, school and all other responsibilities have to happen whenever there is opportunity. They each got in a little bit in this morning before we left for the park too, but then there was also breakfast to be prepared, eaten and cleaned up, showers to be coordinated (with only one full bathroom that's a challenge), and lunch to be prepared for later. Basically all the normal sorts of things we would be doing no matter what our current living situation still need to get done and that's because, as I keep reminding the kids and others, we are not on vacation. Vacation is an escape from your regular life and from which you must at some point return. After vacation you get home and have to wash all the laundry that accumulated while you were playing at Disneyland. We are trying to make travel our regular life, and in order for that to happen, we can't let everything slide. Especially the laundry. And the math.
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