Day 13, part 1

Oh. My. Heck. If I ever decide to go on another all-day trip with my extended family, someone please shoot me in the head!

It’s about a 90-minute drive to Bremerton in Olympia. We got up early and were on the road by 7am. Shocking, eh? Besides our carload of eight, we were driving with my sister and Isaiah, my mom, and my nephew Alex. We made it to Bremerton just fine, but then spent 15 minutes trying to get to the ferry docks since the nearby streets were all closed due to construction. We made it onto the 9am ferry with just minutes to spare. Whew!

Levi and Aspen were very excited to be “on the big boat!” Levi couldn’t sit still, and he ran back and forth from our benches to the outside deck. When we pulled away from the dock, his grin just about split his face. “We’re moving! The boat is MOVING!” All of the kids were fascinated by the seagulls that follow the ferry, the jellyfish floating in the water, driftwood, enormous waterfront houses on the islands we passed, and the smaller sailboats and speedboats they saw going by. The Bremerton-Seattle ferry route is my favorite route to ride just for fun, because it’s a long crossing, but if you’re an excited small child or the parent of one, that sixty minutes goes by quickly!

At the ferry dock we met up with Zach, Sarah, Aly, and Josh. They came just to pick up Alex for the day, and we walked up to the bronze Pig in Pike Place Market to take pictures, give everyone hugs, and say our goodbyes, since we won’t see Zach and Sarah again for probably three or four years.

Trying to walk through Pike Place Market with a toddler, two preschoolers, and three grade-school-age children is an incredibly stressful experience that requires an insane amount of vigilance. The market is several floors of shops and booths, and my original plan was to start on the top floor and work our way down. After walking just the length of one block, though, I gave up. Too many people, too much to see, and too crowded for a stroller. We headed to Westlake Center, home to the Seattle Monorail. After a quick stop at some fountains and a delicious splurge-y snack at See’s Candies, we headed to the top of the mall, only to find out that the Monorail was closed because of maintenance issues. The Space Needle is a mile away, and I really wanted to go there, so now we have to figure out how to find a bus to take us. Four adults, eight kids, two strollers…um, yeah. This should be fun.