I'm here! I'm posting! I'm alive! Woof. What a way to ring in the new decade. My computer charger blew up the day before Christmas break, then the next day I lost my phone at the airport, then after a fun-filled Christmas in Washington we flew home and Jack and I promptly came down with the flu. We still haven't recovered, but at least no one's barfing anymore. A new computer charger is on its way, and my little brother is mailing me his old phone to have. (Thanks Peter!) I still haven't mustered the strength to make New Years Resolutions (or heck, even to unpack from my months away from home). I'll do some proper posts about Christmas once my computer and phone are up and running. For now here is a post with some untouched pictures I got from Jared's phone and am posting from his laptop. I feel like a 15-year-old cashing in on my screen time. Party.
During mine and Jared's month apart from each other while he was working in Spokane, we both agreed that we were in desperate need of some family bonding time. Jack had stopped asking about Dada, and solo parenting (though I had family around) was taking its toll. Jared was lonely and missing us in Spokane. We knew that after his away rotation was over, we'd only have 3 or 4 work-filled days together before flying to Washington for 10 days to spend Christmas with Jared's family. Thinking there might be a quiet day or two in there for us to go visit my brother Jordan's stomping grounds near beautiful Mt. Vernon, WA, we started to make plans and booked an AirBNB on Anacortes Island for a night.
Well, Jordan unexpectedly ended up accepting a job offer in Utah and they moved away from Washington the week before we got there. Rather than cancel our plans, we decided to continue with a little one-day getaway. I'm not sure Jared will ever again have 10 days off to spend up in Washington, and we picked a good night to sneak out on an adventure when Jared's parents had some wedding festivities to attend for someone in their ward. In hindsight it may have been less hassle for everyone if we'd stayed and soaked up the time with Jared's family, but also, we haven't been on a "vacation" to explore somewhere new together since we visited Savannah, Georgia, for one night and stayed at a Motel 6 with our dog--4 years ago. Holyyyyy, we need to get out more. Thanks for letting us sneak away for a night on your time, Mama+Papa L!
We drove our rental car straight to our airbnb to drop off our things. The airbnb was a guest house next to a beautiful cliffside mansion overlooking the San Juan Islands. It was such a cool location--we'll do airbnb again in a heartbeat someday (probably on our next vacation in another 4 or so years).
After dropping off our things, we found a beautiful park (Washington Park) on the beach. The sun was almost gone, but Jack appreciated being able to run around, play on the playground, and throw rocks into the water. We went for a short hike on the beautiful trail system weaving through the forest overlooking the beach. I wish we'd had more time at this park, but soon it was dark. We picked a place called Dad's Diner for dinner in downtown Anacortes. It was the perfect choice. Jared got a pulled pork sandwich. I got chicken thigh pot pie with the most buttery, delicious crust I've ever tasted. Jack got his water all over the floor. We took no pictures, oops. And then we headed back to our airbnb.
We got Jack all ready for bed. He kept requesting to go outside and look at the water. It was really neat to just have to walk out our front door for gorgeous ocean panoramas. Also, our little house came equipped with the softest bath robes to ever exist.
Honestly my favorite part of the trip was just the family time we spent in our little one-bedroom cabin before bed. Jack laughed and laughed while we wrestled and played, and then he fell asleep quickly in his pack-n-play in the bathroom. Jared and I did trivia flash cards left in a game bin for hours by the cozy space heater that heated the entire cabin. We want to build a guest house just like that one someday. It was simple and cozy. It would be perfect for renting out on airbnb to make some extra money, or to host guests from out of town.
The next morning, the airbnb host, a sweet older lady, caught us as we took our bags out to the car and offered to take our picture. She gave us a couple suggestions for nearby things to see, and off we went.
Really all we had time for was a little hike to an overlook on Eerie Mountain, giving 360-degree views of beautiful islands all around. The wind was pretty bad so we didn't stay long, but wow--so beautiful. The picture below overlooks an island in a lake on an island (Anacortes) in the sound.
And then we headed back home for the most amazing day in downtown Seattle with Jared's family! More on that in next week's post. Fingers crossed I've got all my technology in order by then! 5/5 stars, would recommend visiting Anacortes Island. My only regret about this trip was not taking a ferry ride to one of the San Juan islands. Jack would've loved that. Next time!
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