Episode 63: In Which Jessica Finally Gets Around to Posting About Vacation Part 1

So we've been home a week. Vacation posts? None. Sorry about that. Turns out that you keep pretty busy the week after a vacation. Who knew, right? =P But seriously, we were busy every night this last week plus I'm still working full time. That being said, I've looked at my vacation pictures but haven't begun editing or anything so sorry, you'll still have to wait. But think, now you'll have a post of nothing to look at but pictures. No longwinded Jessica-ness. Hopefully =P

Anyhow, so vacation started on Friday. Andrew and I came home from work early, finished cleaning the house and left for the airport. My visiting teachers were supposed to try and squeeze themselves in there before we left but they didn't show up so...too bad. =P

The flight to Seattle was fine. I took some pictures of the Great Salt Lake as we left but other than that it was pretty uneventful. As soon as the captain announced our descent into Seattle, Andrew (who had been asleep this whole time while I beat my head with my bag of peanuts over the NYT crossword) sat upright and leaned over me to look out the window. I really do think that we shall end up in Washington someday, if not Seattle then SOMEwhere on the west side of Washington. Andrew loves his home. :)

We took the lightrail to the ferry to Bainbridge where his mom and sister picked us up. We just relaxed that first night...since there wasn't really anything else to do. The next morning we woke up at about 10ish and played "let's beat Andrew at WiiFit Plus Yoga" (And you thought Yoga was relaxing) and then we went on a walk to the store because the weather was nice and SUNNY! What the crap? Sun? in Seattle?

Well, while I hate the sun...Seattle-ites don't see it much so I guess I couldn't really complain about it...but it was sunny the WHOLE week! Except 2 days. *sigh* I carry sun with me wherever I go, its not fair.

Moving on.

So can I just say how wonderful it was to take a walk in 75 degree weather among all the green? My only complaint is that this year winter took such a long time leaving us that the blackberry bushes were only blossoming...so no blackberries for me. I did get delicious juicy peaches for breakfast every morning though as well as fresh raspberries and blueberries. I hear the plums were delicious too but I was too preoccupied with keeping the peach juice from dripping onto my shirt to try the plums =P

On Saturday we went to the 5th Avenue Theater in Seattle. If you're like me, you've never heard of the 5th Avenue Theater. I was surprised to find out that the 5th Avenue Theater was where "Hairspray" debuted before it was a Broadway play. Cool, yes? I didn't get to take many pictures because they are pretty strict about that, but look it up on Wiki...its a pretty cool place.

We saw Aladdin there. I've been wanting to watch the movie for a good while now so this was a more than adequate subsitute. It had all the songs I loved as well as a couple new ones. Two of the new songs are actually found on the newly released Aladdin Soundtrack so if you have it, you may have heard them and thought "what the crap ARE these?" because they are just demo tracks. If you haven't, here is my favorite one, "High Adventure". Like I said, these are demo tracks so its just Alan Menken and some other guys singing...its much better when its all refined and polished up but I promise you, that song is ALWAYS in my head now...when I'm not singing "When Will My Life Begin" or "Mommy Knows Best" from Tangled. =P

Anyhow, I REALLY enjoyed Aladdin and if ever it goes to Broadway...and then happens to travel (which Disney Musicals tend to do) I would highly recommend seeing it.

Sunday was Sunday was Sunday. It actually rained so that was nice. And it was nice to have church at 10 instead of 1. (I hate getting out of church at 4.) Andrew and I had just settled in for sunday school when his dad came over to tell us that Andrew's sister's class didn't have a teacher. I expected him to tell us that he wouldn't be joining us for Sunday School then so imagine my surprise when he said WE wouldn't be joining him for Sunday School! Amber and her friends had requested that Andrew and I teach the lesson!

The lesson, after about 15 minutes of trying to figure out what it was supposed to be, turned out well, thank goodness. =P

Monday we went into Seattle. We walked through Pike Place Market so I could take some pictures (few of which came out well) and went to the international district for lunch and shopping. Andrew and I picked up a few cooking staples at the Japanese market along with 4 ramen bowls (like the legit gigantic ones that can fit all your broth without spilling over) and a couple of manga in Japanese. We stopped for boba tea after shopping and I got almond flavor. That was terrible english but beside that point it was magical. I love almond flavor anything. :)

We went on a search for rice cake for me but to no avail...it was sold out. Sad day.

On our way back to the ferry, we stopped at Magic Mouse Toys which is...well...magic! I love that toy store. When I have kids I'll probably be sending Andrew's mom to get toys from there all the time. The only toys they carry there are meant to stimulate imagination...so they don't carry annoying noise making toys...ok well yes they do, but different annoying noise making toys, the books don't read themselves to you, and there is no Dora the Explorer or other retarded things. In fact, Lego is the only mainstream brand name I recall seeing there.

My favorite part is all the hands on, sciencey, learn about the world around you toys they have. I told Andrew that when we have kids he'll have to buy all those toys so he can teach the kids. His response "let's go have kids right now!" my response? "how about we just skip that part and buy them for you?"

I'll be honest...I don't need kids to buy those toys...I want them for myself. But I can get more, faster if I have kids because people will buy them for us too =P

You would think that the toy store was where we spent most of our day from the way I just talked about it...but we were only in there for about 10 minutes. =P

Evenings were reserved for relaxing and petting the dog. We were going to help lay the flagstone for the patio but some unfortunate things in China happened and Andrew's dad spend most of our vacation in the office sorting things out. (He works for Microsoft). So not much patio work got done and Saturday ended up being the only day his dad was able to spend with us. :(

And that's the end of Part I. I tried to break this up because it's going to be long...sorry if this is a weird ending place, you'll thank me later I'm sure.