Seattle!

Davan and I had a great time in Seattle.  We took the train up on Monday, which just gave Davan enough time to sleep in a bit, unpack and repack before leaving.  I took a ton of pictures which I have not had a chance to do anything with yet, as we've been keeping busy on our spring break.  I'll share a couple of teasers here and will try to do more with them later.

On the train ride up, we both discovered that we get motion sick on trains.  That was too bad, really, as we'd taken the train as a treat (we could have easily driven for less money) and we had to take the train back again the next day.  Sigh.  We were glad to arrive. 

Now, I'd taken the train before, frequently, in fact, when I was a young adult, going up to Seattle to visit my best friend who was living there at the time, and used to do homework during the ride.  When I was pregnant with Davan, I got motion sick on the train, but I had no idea it was a lasting thing.  Davan only occasionally gets motion sick, so that was a surprise, as well.

Still, we were able to play card games some of the time.

We weren't able to read at all, though, which was a bummer.  We spent a fair amount of time looking out the window, even when the view was so-so due to the motion sickness.  I introduced Davan to Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me, which she enjoyed, but I'm not sure she did as much as I do.

We walked through downtown Seattle in a meandering way to our hotel when we got in, picking up dinner along the way.  After eating, we walked some more

and picked up some dessert for the hotel room.

In the morning, we hit the town again.  Highlights were the Pike Place Market, the Space Needle, vegan Pho for lunch, the library and lots, and lots of walking.

Oh, and there was a pretty cool Target downtown.

We decided to try watching videos on the train on the way home, at least after dark, which I've discovered on planes is better than reading for managing motion sickness.  I downloaded a couple episodes of the Amazing Race onto my iPod.  We had a much better trip home with careful snacks and the videos to help ease the way.

The trip was wonderful, really, motion sickness aside.  We had a blast eating and walking our way through Seattle.  I got to hear a lot more detail about the IPSE weekend as the trip went on, which was great.  My impression now is that it went even better than Davan let on when she first got home.  I do understand that there were lots of amazing teens there, so it wouldn't be a shock if Davan isn't selected to go, but it also wouldn't be a shock if she were.  Meanwhile, she's been inspired in so many ways and has a lot of ideas for next year if she doesn't go involving a variety of things ranging from volunteering to joining a model UN.  Whatever comes of this whole thing, it's been a great experience for Davan even this far.

Since we've been back, we've done a library tour for our Wednesday adventure (more details later, I hope), Davan has gone to her fabric class at Night Flight (who, as they're for adults, doesn't follow the school schedule and, thus, has classes this week), done a rock climbing class, gone for long Ranger walks, had a show rehearsal (that would be Davan), gone for a bike ride (that would be me) and have caught a few more Amazing Race episodes.

Just this afternoon, we decided to take a last minute trip this weekend.  This time Anthony gets to come.  And Ranger.  The weather here is lovely for March and we've decided to go camping for the weekend.  We whipped together a meal plan and have done our grocery shopping.  Tomorrow morning we'll pack up and take off for a couple of days at the beach before we have to get Davan home for yet another Do Jump rehearsal.

We're having a great spring break!