An Unexpected Adventure

I guess its a bit late to be posting about last weekend when tomorrow will already be this weekend, but here it is anyway...

Jon's Aunt Lori came out to visit from Edmonton and seeing as she loves going to the States, Mom E. thought it would be fun for all of us girls to have a weekend away. So last Friday afternoon, we packed up the van and headed off to Seattle. We stopped in Bellingham for supper, picked up a few things at Target, and then it was off to the 'big city.'

To make a long story short... we got a bit lost while trying to find our hotel and in the process of trying to get turned around, our "driver" (whom I will not name at this time :) ... you can thank me for that "driver!") drove right over the centre median, which seemed to just "jump" out of nowhere. Seriously... they have these piddly little medians down in the States that are about the size of a concrete parking stall divider and none of us saw it in time for the "driver" to avoid it. As she turned left in an attempt to do a U-turn, we launched up and over this useless concrete median, seemingly grinding the undercarriage of the van as went . As you can imagine, this was not a good start to the weekend.

After inspecting the van and ensuring that it was indeed still "driveable," we made our way to the hotel and decided we would worry about it in the morning.

Morning came, we enjoyed a wonderful continental breakfast and then hopped in the van to get it to the closest GM dealership for further inspection. After having no luck at the first dealership, we drove 20 minutes to the next one, in hopes of getting it fixed up so we could get on with our "fun" weekend. Well... let's just say we got very 'comfortable' at the Cadillac dealership on 108th Street. I think we ended up sitting in their lounge for over an hour and a half. As you can see... Susie and I were a bit bored and not exactly thrilled about spending our Saturday in a car dealership...

Naomi looked a little more optimistic... :)

So after watching over an hour of college football on the lounge TV and looking through many magazines, we finally got the 'bad news.' The radiator was cracked but they couldn't get the part in until Tuesday, so we got a rental car and dropped the van off at the hotel so we could at least try to enjoy what was left of our weekend.

We made our way to the mall and had a delicious lunch at The Rainforest Cafe. It was already pretty late in the afternoon at this point, so we were all ready for a nice, big meal!




Although most of our Saturday was spent at the car dealership, we still got a lot of shopping in, including Target, Old Navy, World Market (which by the way is the most amazing home decor store... everything in the store is from other countries and the prices are unbeatable), and of course, a late night visit to Toys R Us...

I think we were all a bit overtired and giddy by this time. The pictures tell all...

It definitely ended up being an adventurous weekend but totally worthwhile. We did lots more shopping on Sunday on the way home (Walmart SuperCenter, the Seattle Premium Outlets, TJ Mac's, Pier 1, and many more...) and did finally make it home safe and sound.

Thanks for a wonderful weekend girls! I'll definitely remember it for a long, long time :)
In other news, I'm back at work and trying to get into the swing of things again. I'm feeling very thankful that I have a long weekend coming up. Its been a bit tough to get back into my regular schedule after having almost a month off. My boss had a great trip though and brought me the most beautiful clutch from Thailand. Now I just need Jon to take me on a date that is fancy enough for me to use it :)
Looking forward to a quiet, slower paced weekend at home with Jon. Hope you all enjoy your long weekend!