Planes, trains and automobiles in the Pacific Northwest

Happy Easter (bunny) from Minnesota!

I've had quite the adventure the past few weeks! Mommy dropped me off at the Minneapolis-St.Paul airport and I spent a week with Grandma and Grandpa Pastorius, Auntie Annie, Uncle Eric, Uncle Dan and Great Auntie Rita and Colleen helped out, too (blog update by Auntie Annie to follow). But this week we were back in the Pacific Northwest with Grandma and Grandpa Pastorius to entertain me. Here's a summary of our trip by Grandpa.

Planes, trains and automobile, by Grandpa Pastorius
What do you call 2 weeks with your only grandchild who lives far away? A sleep disturbance? Yes. A second full-time job? Yes. Heaven on earth? Most definitely. First we had fun with the little guy in Minne-snow-ta after convincing Katie to drop him off on her way back and forth to a conference in Washington D.C. We got to celebrate Easter a week early with the Rocheford family at Annie and Eric's house. For more details of this week, please read Auntie Annie's blog about the Minne-sleepover.

We had planned a trip to come to Seattle to see Katie and Seth and Theo, as well as the Pacific Northwest, starting with two days in Vancouver, BC, with side trips to Snoqualmie Falls and Merrymere Falls in Olympic National Park. We arrived in Seattle on Friday around 5pm and by 11pm we were settled into our hotel in downtown Vancouver. We were very impressed by how picturesque Vancouver is with its proximity to the ocean and mountains, cosmopolitan nature, fun things to see and do, especially see the totem poles in Stanley Park and ride the Easter train. The park is named after the same Lord Stanley of the Stanley Cub (go Wild!). If you have not been to Vancouver yet, it definitely needs to be added to your bucket list!

Most of our time was spent relaxing in Seattle with Seth and Katie and Theo and helping them with little projects that two busy working parents don't have much time to do: like putting in a closet organizer in Theo's bedroom, hanging a couple stained glass pictures, sprucing up shrubs, WD-40'ing squeaky doors, especially Theo's bedroom door. Now when he is napping he can be checked on without waking him up.

Grandpa took Theo on a couple of field trips, first to the Woodland Park Zoo where we saw hippos, warthogs, giraffes and a zebra and had fun climbing on rocks and fences to get a better view of the animals. On the other field trip to the park at Green Lake, Theo had his first adventure with Grandpa (oh no!). An adventure with Grandpa = a trip that didn't go as planned (i.e. a mini-disaster happened). Grandpa thought Theo would have fun at the playground but Theo wanted to throw rocks in the lake. I think he would do it 24/7 if he could. He must have thrown nearly 300 rocks in the lake and he appears to be ambidextrous as he can throw them equally well with either hand (and Seth has noticed that he has a perfect basketball follow through when he throws). Theo's rock throwing had attracted some ducks as they were hoping he was throwing them food. Grandpa was a wreck because Theo liked to get perilously close to the water to throw or drop the rocks into the lake so Grandpa had to watch him like a hawk. On multiple occasions, he had to grab his hood to keep him from falling into the lake. Theo finally sat down in the muddy grass by the water and was dipping a stick in the water and watching the water fly off it. As Grandpa was watching the ducks, Theo leaned too far forward and went chest first into the water. Grandpa turned and got rather freaked out and quickly pulled Theo out. Luckily, Theo had been taking swimming lessons and so he didn't cry, nor did he swallow any water. Phew! We went home quickly where Theo enjoyed a nice warm bath.

It was hard to leave the little guy but we took two short day trips, one to Snoqualmie Falls and one to Olympic National Park with a drive to Lake Crescent and a hike to Merrymere Falls. As the souvenir shirt I bought at Snoqualmie falls says, "I'd rather be lost in the woods than found in the city." Seattle is nice but the surrounding area is even nicer. I used to think there was a 50% chance that Katie and Seth would return to Minnesota but the more time I spend out here, the more I realize that this area is so them, both the city life with its walks and bike friendly nature and the oceans and threes and mountains a short drive away. Now we think they are here to stay. And reminding them all winter and spring long about how bad the weather has been in Minne-snow-ta did not help our efforts to lure them back.
So with a little sadness we bid a find farewell to our one and only well-loved grandson and his wonderful parents as well. We are very proud of how well they are doing out here and resigning ourselves that we will just have to keep coming back to the beautiful Pacific Northwest to see them.

Here are a few photos from our adventure: