What a weekend!
At five AM Saturday morning, I hopped in my son's new car, threw in my daughter and her fiance, picked up my son's girlfriend at her house, and hurtled across the Cascade mountains to Bremerton, Washington.
Being a somewhat okayest mom, I told my son I would bring his new car to him. It's been parked at my house since he drove it home at Christmas, but since he was going to be stationed over in Washington, he decided to fly back to Chicago and pick up the car when he moved on to his new duty station.
Six hours and a bunch of singing and giggling later, we arrived in Puget Sound to the sight of many a large US Naval ships docked at the Naval Station. There was a joyous reunion and we went and did all sorts of things. We ate bubble waffles, I drank a steamed Ube tea, we rampaged on a decomissioned US Navy ship that's now a museum(post forthcoming), and then checked into our Air BnB that was right on the ocean.
There was pizza and light saber battles, the following morning there was breakfast at the pancake house and a magnificent hike to one of the most splendid waterfalls I have ever taken in. It was just a glorious bit of time elapsed.
Then, as it is, my crew and I took off towards the North Idaho panhandle again, and I drove through every, and I mean every type of weather. Rain, snow, sleet, hail, I quite literally hydroplaned down Snoqualmie Pass, one guy in fact, hydroplaned right off the side of the mountain. Thank goodness for airbags!
Then we hit the windstorm. It was BLOWING! And in Eastern Washington when it blows there are tumbleweeds coming at ya. I kept screaming TREES when they would come at us, and yes, I took out many a tumbleweed. Their carcasses littered the freeway from us all plowing through them.
The kids, tired from their frolicking, slept most of the way home. I say kids they are all 16-20, but I spent most of the drive back in contemplative silence. My life has changed so much. This trip was a complete surprise, one of those random chaotic things that manifest suddenly. I will not sugar coat it, I am beyond exhausted. I have been going, going, going for the past few weeks, and in about a week I am going on a month long adventure.
But, when my son walked in and gave me the biggest hug and thank you for bringing him his car, the entire trip, which was worth it to me anyway, because even more special to me. My kids are grown, my whole life paradigm has shifted to something new, and every day I am reminded that change, while at time discomforting and more often than not a bit exhausting, is pretty dang excellent too.
And as most of the time, all of the images in this post were taken on the author's put in a ton of miles in the last forty-eight hours iPhone.
