Relaxing Tuesday and Water Wednesday

We all enjoyed sleeping in...even Niki and Cooper slept in later than normal on Tuesday morning for which their parents were very grateful.  We spent the day at their house, playing as Tosha and Austen headed to a doctor's appointment (Baby Girl Russell #3 is doing well.) and then they headed out to dinner while we did grandparent and aunt duty.

Cooper with Grandpa's hat

Reading books with Grandma

Apparently no pictures of Niki or anyone else on this relaxing day.  After the kids went to bed, the games came out--we played Guessures (ask Tosha about flamingo.  I wish I had a photo of that.) and Planes Uno.

 

Our card playing selfie photo

Good times!!  We had so much fun that we did it again on Wednesday night.

During the day on Wednesday, we headed into Tacoma and went to a wave pool.  Too busy swimming to get any pictures then either, but Tosha has these pictures of Niki and Cooper.

I wanted to do something that was designed around Niki and Cooper and they really do love the water and the waves.

I also took some pictures of our campsite on base.  Imagine this beautiful location and then add in the sounds of air craft taking off and landing...at all times of the day and night.  Actually it wasn't too bad and I loved hearing taps played at night.

I am not going to lie, when Tosha dropped us off late on Wednesday night after game playing, it was very sad to hug her goodbye and know that the next time I see her, she will be the mother of three with a three week old baby.  I cried a bit after she hugged us and headed back to her home.  The only good part about goodbyes is all of the time and memories we made while we were together. 

And the rest of his life, I hope that whales will remind Niki about his Grandma and Grandpa Hall and going to see the whales together.  (And we gave him whale stuff for his 4th birthday to make sure that happens.  :)

One last night of sleeping on the Air Force base...and Gary made it clear--no sleeping in on Thursday morning, we had places to go and things to see.

Monday Moorings and Mammals

Gary and I slipped out early Monday morning  to take showers.  When we returned, Tosha told us that we had messed up the morning routine.  She said that every morning, Niki would come into their room and tell them good morning and I love you.  However this morning, Niki woke up, noticed that we were gone from our bed and demanded, "Where is Grandpa?"  Gary loved that.  Being grandparents is pretty fun.

The only disadvantage of this campground was that despite being on an island, we couldn't actually see any bodies of water.  That was soon fixed as we spent Monday ON the water for most of the day.

We loaded up after breakfast and headed to our first stop--the Washington State Ferry Pier where we were catching the ferry to Friday, Harbour, San Juan Island.

On the way to the ferry, we finally see water...

These ferries transport vehicles from one island to another.  We were going to drive on as well, but then got some advice that for a one day visit that parking on San Juan would be a huge problem.  We were very glad that we didn't take a car.  If we were going to stay and explore the island, it would have been great but for what we did, walking on was perfect.

Cars first, and then people.....

Niki checking out the brochures.

Tosha and Austen after Gary photo bombed about four other shots....

Lots of water and island views now....

Inside the passenger floor of the ferry----all of the passengers I saw were already "assembled," but if not I am glad they have a spot for it.  (Actually this is the location for gathering in an emergency.)

We enjoyed the views, inside and

outside of the ferry.

Niki

Jena

Cooper

It took about an hour to reach Friday Harbor. We had a few hours until the next leg of our journey began so we headed to the Whale Museum in Friday Harbour and learned about whales....there are some pods of whales who make their home in the Salish Sea which is the area of water between Canada and Washington which connects to the Pacific Ocean on the west and the Puget Sound on the east.  While some whales travel long distances every year, these pods live in the area year around and eat a very restricted diet of a certain type of salmon.  They have not been doing well over the past several years due to dams on streams preventing salmon from returning to traditional laying areas of the rivers ad other reasons.  In fact, the day after we were here, an instagram picture went viral of a whale carrying her newborn baby whale who had died on her nose, keeping it out of the water.  It was a mother whale from one of these pods.

(Whales are very amazing creatures...like elephants which I also love.  Makes sense since they share their love of family and community with me!)

Then went and had some yummy Chinese food.  I am not sure what happened to those pictures on my camera.

After lunch, we checked in for our next boat adventure-- a 3 1/2 to 4 hour whale watching trip!!  You may recall that whale watching was on my famous "Just for Fun Mortal Goals" list and we actually saw lots of whales on a cruise in Hawaii a number of years ago.  It was the first time that I didn't take something off the list, I turned to Gary and said, I want to do this again...and so we did!

Here is our boat--The Odyssey!!

While we waited, we got to see sea planes flying in and out.  That was impressive--might add riding in a sea plane on my bucket list. 

 They had an aquarium to watch while you waited to board the boat.  Niki liked the star fish.

And even here, we were reminded of home.

Across the pier, we saw a familiar flag flying....

The name of the boat was also noteworthy....

SNOW BORED
Salt Lake City, Utah

Some people have a good sense of humor....and lots of money.  And we were off on our next adventure.........

We rode north and then around to the west side of Sun Juan Island.  We actually could see Victoria Island, Canada, to the west of us.  We saw lots of interesting boats (without "U" flags).

We saw other islands with little villages of houses and some with only one or two houses.  On board the ship, the naturalists told us about some of the local lore and a lot about the pods of whales from the area.

The first pictures are taken with a high powered camera by the whale watching group.  Then you will see my photos which are more the reality of what we saw in person.

We did see this bald eagle flying around near the boat for several minutes.

The sea plane as it passed us on the way out of the harbor.

And after almost 3 hours of boating and almost reaching a point where we needed to turn back, they heard that whales were ahead.  The boat speeded up to try to catch a view of this mother with three of her four children.

Here we are near the end of the trip.  Luckily there were other children on the boat which was fun for Niki, especially.  It was a long day for two little boys and they did pretty good.  After all, most of the time, we sat and stared at blue water and islands in the distance.

This is a photo of Mt. Baker which could be seen to the east while we were traveling on the boat.  I had tried to take a few pictures on Sunday night as we drove in, but it blended into the clouds and the darkening skies.

Here are some of my pictures---see that tiny black dot!

There was a ring of boats around the whales and they have to stay a certain distance away from the whales.  All of sudden, our boat went from idling to moving forward quickly and almost immediately two whales popped up close behind us.  Jena and I were sitting on a back lower deck and I was able to get this photo. It was our closest encounter to the whales.  It was amazing in person.

Tosha videoed this:

https://www.facebook.com/tosha.hall.9/videos/10210279918989202/

if the videos work for you, this is 17 seconds of whale watching.  I wasn't sure if Niki really understood about the whole adventure--that those were real whales out there.  However on the ride back, they had a little lecture about whales and showed some models of whales.  Niki held one and told the naturalist that he saw one in the water.  I was so excited.  He got it!! and he loved it!!  (Side note:  Tosha told me a couple of weeks later, they were driving and Niki saw the Puget Sound and said, Mommy, the ocean, where are the whales??"  That made me happy, too.)

The Russells at the end of the whale watching.

Our next ferry back to the cars was delayed by an hour so we had a long wait so we got ICE CREAM!

And watched the seaplanes go in and out of the harbor.

It was another hour ferry ride, then a two hour drive back to the Air Force base, but it was worth it.

That night as we headed to bed in the RV, I told Gary that I would take whale watching off my bucket list...but that didn't mean that I might not slip in another trip or two where we happen to cross paths with whales again---after all, there is Alaska, trips to Oregon coast, and even Mexico where it could happen again with just a bit of planning.

And Monday was in the books!!

Sunday Seattle Sights and Sightings

Because we were camping on the Air Force base, we were not suppose to travel around the base without Austen or Tosha with us.  As a result, they became our taxi service for short trips, here and there.  Sunday morning, Tosha picked us up and took us to Church and then picked us up again 3 hours later.

We then headed to their house to change clothes, eat lunch, play with Niki and Cooper....

and take part in their big announcement about Baby Russell #3 coming in November.

If you hightlight this link and click, "go to" https://www.facebook.com/tosha.hall.9/videos/10210270825241864/

you can see the video itself as it was live.  (Not sure how that will work 100 years from now???)
For those of you who that doesn't work for, the news is that Baby Russell #3 is a GIRL!!!!!  I think Tosha and Austen had decided that three sons was a good family, but they are also delighted that they get to experience having a daughter as well.

For those of you keeping track, that is one granddaughter, then five grandsons, and now we will end with three granddaughters this fall.  I think it is all pretty amazing and I am so grateful that our children wanted to be parents and love this work of life, because this little people are fabolous to me.

Tosha took me that they hadn't decided when they would do the announcement when we arrived, but she heard Niki mention something about the baby and realized that he could spill the beans at any moment.  They gathered their supplies and rushed everyone outside to enjoy the display.  Although Jessica had complained to Tosha about waiting two weeks to tell everyone (however, she can't talk because she kept the secret of twins much longer than that.), it was fun to be there and experience it all in person.

After we had that fun, we loaded up and headed north--the Russells in our car and us in the RV for the next part of our vacation.

The skyline of Seattle through the RV window.

Another type of tunnel, designed to manage traffic through the city.

A historical note:  I don't know about your families, but in ours, I am mostly the vacation planner.  Gary and I might talk about places from time to time, but I am the one that usually figures out the hows, what, and wherefores of our vacations.  Google and the internet in general have been great tools to making that happen.  And this trip was no different.  I made the basic outline and all of the major stops and reviewed it with Gary and we are set to go.

Except---Gary was sitting at a dentist office with his brother-in-law Allan and was reading an actual magazine which happened to have an article or ad for Seattle.  In that ad, it mentioned the Seattle Troll.  Gary came home, did some internet research, and we added that stop on Sunday (under the mistaken opinion that there would be less traffic in downtown Seattle on Sunday.)  Another bonus was that we would be near the famous Seattle Space Needle.  I have seen it once in my life and want to see it again, although I didn't want to pay and wait in life to ride up to the top.

Austen and Tosha had not heard of the famous Troll who lived under the Bridge and held a Volkenwagen Bug in his hands so they were in for that side trip, too.

Here is the Seattle Space Needle.  We were a few blocks from the base when I snapped this shot which was as close as we came to it.

We had to cross a couple of bridges and circle around to get to the location of this famous Troll..

The Puget Sound.....

And we, and several thousand other people in their cars, RVS, and motorcycles, got to see the Seattle Bridge Troll or Fremont Troll.  Parking on the city streets was impossible with so many people so I jumped out and took some pictures.

Wikipedia Information:

History[edit]

Plaque for the sculpture

In 1990, the Fremont Arts Council launched an art competition whose partial goal was to rehabilitate the area under the bridge, which was becoming a dumping ground and haven for drug dealers. The piece, built later that same year, won the competition.

Description[edit]

The Troll is a mixed media colossal statue, located on N. 36th Street at Troll Avenue N., under the north end of the George Washington Memorial Bridge (also known as the Aurora Bridge). It is clutching an actual Volkswagen Beetle, as if it had just swiped it from the roadway above. The vehicle has a California license plate.^[1]

The Troll is 5.5 m (18 ft) high, weighs 6,000 kg (13,000 lb), and is made of steel rebar, wire, and concrete.^[2] He is interactive—visitors are encouraged to clamber on him or try to poke out his one good eye (a hubcap).

 And there is the VW Bug in the grasp of his hand.

That is one ugly troll--which I think is the point of trolls in general.  Oh, the weird things there are to see and do as you travel in America.....

On the road north again for our stop for the night.  Views along the way to Anacortes, Washington.

It is located on the island of Fidalgo.  It is accessed on a long bridge which comes from the main land over small pieces of the Puget Sound.  There are lots of islands in the Puget Sound and we decided that was a fun thing to add to our travels.

Trusting the internet, we booked this RV park on the island and it was gorgeous.  Trees everywhere and very clean and quiet.

A playground out the back and rolling grass and again trees everywhere...

I think I have mentioned how I love the light coming down through the trees.  This was nearing dusk at the campground.

Niki and Cooper playing on the slide.  At one point, Cooper (the younger one) fell into Niki's arms and they had a big hug.  It happened that we all saw it and Tosha (or maybe it was Austen) said, "Aw..that makes the past six months of fighting worth it--to see them hug like that."  And that is parenting in a nutshell!!!

After running around and enjoying some outside time, we all headed to the RV for a restful night.  Well, I rested well.  Tosha and Austen shared their bed with Cooper which might have been more of a challenge. Niki did well on his mattress on the floor.  I loved having the windows open and hearing the rustling of the trees in the nighttime.  The only thing which could have made it better was the whole family being there...but that would have been a bit crowded in the RV!  :)