Vancouver!

We had the open house for our home over the weekend after it officially went on the market and . . . crickets. Only two people showed up. Our house is really cute, but it might sit for a few weeks because we are selling in an off market in the off season in an off area (our school district is the worst in the region so most people look a little further south). We aren't too worried; several other homes with our same floor plan in our area have gone on the market in the past few months. They have all sold, but it takes about a month. So we will keep things looking nice, and I will start packing up me and the kids to move to Utah in the next few weeks. The moving truck arrives November 1, so that is the latest we would be here. Here is the link to our home on Zillow if you want to see what our home looks like inside:

https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/9812-Hawkins-Ave-Granite-Falls-WA-98252/440172664_zpid/

While the open house was taking place, the kids had a sleepover at Jared's parents' home and we went on a short 2-night cruise to Canada. One of our favorite memories since moving here was our Alaska cruise three years ago. We've always said we need to do another cruise before we move out of Washington, because it's so nice to be able to just drive down to the cruise terminal and hop on a boat. With Alice being young we've been on the lookout for short cruises, and we recently saw this 2-night cruise to Vancouver for really cheap. We figured this would be a nice bookend to our time in Washington, an opportunity to rest in the midst of moving chaos, a way to be out of the house for a few days while it sells, and a way for Jared and I to reconnect, because moving can be a tense time. It proved to be a great idea, and it checked all those boxes. We had a wonderful time. We did lots of resting and eating, spent a full day at sea, and finished up with a day exploring Vancouver together. I took some pictures on my nice camera, but I'm having trouble getting the memory card to connect to my computer, so for now I'll just share the pictures we took on our phones:

^^The view from our balcony after boarding was perfection! We had a view of Seattle and the Space Needle, as well as Mt. Rainier.

^^Sunset on the dock. We also could see the Northern Lights from our balcony one of the nights:

^^It was cold on the deck while the ship was moving, but not too bad.And the fall colors in Vancouver were just gorgeous, so no regrets about an October cruise.

^^We played Scrabble in the library, just like on our last cruise. It was actually the same exact cruise ship, the Majestic Princess, so it was a nice nostalgic throwback. 

^^Waking up to Vancouver! It was a gorgeous city. I had no idea this gem was so close to us, or that they have their own version of the Space Needle. 

^^We decided on a hop on-hop off bus tour that took us around the whole city. We scored great seats at the front of the top level of a double-decker bus.

^^We went for a walk in Stanley Park, which is bigger than Central Park. Then we hopped off at Granville Island for lunch, which is Vancouver's adorable version of Pike Place.

^^More Vancouver views.

^^We finished off our Vancouver adventure with a final walk to the train station, where we boarded an Amtrek train down to Seattle. It was a picturesque ride and probably would have felt very relaxing and romantic if we hadn't been seated next to a rather loud group who were very chatty during the 4-hour ride.

And that was our lovely, restful weekend cruising into Canada! We were excited to get back to our children at the end. They had a wonderful time with their grandparents. We went on a fall walk together and this bald eagle flew right in front of us. We've definitely been spelled with some majestic sights during our time living in Washington.