Back in the summer, we took a family trip to Washington state to experience a bit of the Pacific Northwest. I had never been to Washington before and once I started researching the area, my excitement to see all there was to offer rose & I couldn’t wait to get there! It was an incredible trip, especially with the kids. Everything is about being outdoors, seeing all of the sights, boating, eating, the weather was beautiful most of the week except for maybe a light drizzle here and there. We spent 4 days in the San Juan Islands, Friday Harbor, specifically the Roche Harbor Resort which was amazing. There are restaurants on property, a “heated” pool (kinda- not according to these Florida boys who like bath water pools, but there were plenty of Canadian kids in it enjoying it), beautiful views, and even a sculpture garden!
We rented a boat one of the days to go out and visit the other islands, Orcas Island was absolutely out of a fairy tale. So beautiful and quaint. I have a video of the boys playing in a grass Labyrinth that was surrounding a flag pole which overlooked the views of the water, and all you hear is their sweet laughter and small birds chirping in the wind, like something out of Disney, seriously. Like, is this real life?
The latter part of our trip was spent navigating the ferry system (Ha ha ha!) and getting over to Olympic National Park. We had a few guided tours to explore the tide pools and visit the Hoh Rainforest, highly recommend both! The boys went crazy touching all the creatures in the pools, learning all about sea anemones and the tides, they loved climbing the rocky terrain, and while we were at the rainforest, we were greeted by a mama bear and 2 cubs!!!!!! I was distraught, but the kids were so fascinated. Literally, mama and babies came out from behind a large bush while we were walking the trail, were within 15-20 ft from us and she and babies went directly to a huge tree behind us and started climbing so fast and high… my heart was racing, but it was incredible to see and experience.
Our last night was spent in Seattle, which I didn’t love, but we did go to the aquarium and the famous market which was entertaining for the final hoo-rah, but no need to stay there longer in my opinion… until they clean it up a bit…
Looking back at this trip, it’s been months since we did this one, it was probably one of our best trips to date. There was so much adventure and excitement the whole time! Definitely loved (almost) every minute of it ;).