Friday, however, was wonderful. We hung out at Trish and Dan’s for Dan’s birthday, along with Gamy and Landon and Dallas (Lallas? Dandon?) There was lots of wine and pie and ice cream and laughter that hurts your stomach and your throat. I absolutely love hanging out with these people.
Saturday started with brunch across the street at Dave and Greg’s. They do a brunch every year on the day of the Hi Yu parade. And what a beautiful day for it. After weeks of mind numbing rain, the skies cleared and the sun came out and it was just beautiful.
We could only join brunch for an hour, then it was time to start the craziness. I dashed off to Target because I decided I needed a summery dress for the wedding we were attending on Orcas Island later that day. I had planned to wear my long sleeve black dress (fall like weather and all) but since the sun was actually shining, that dress seemed completely inappropriate. As luck would have it, I scored big at Target…for $10!So, fly back home, pack an overnight bag, shower, foof up, then Todd, Kayleigh and I are out the door! We had an hour or more drive up to Anacortes to catch the ferry.
Finally arrive at Anacortes and park the car to walk on the ferry. First, we thought it would be cheaper (but it really wasn’t) and second, once we got to Orcas, the wedding was maybe 200 feet from the ferry dock.
But here’s where the weekend started to go downhill. Literally, we walked downhill, on a gravel path for about a half a mile to get from the car to the ferry. Then we wait for an hour for the ferry. The ferry ride is one hour and ten minutes. Then we wait for the wedding to start.
Now, the wedding was beautiful. So happy. Very joyful.
Then more waiting for the pictures to get taken, the dinner to happen, the reception to start. By 10pm, I was exhausted. We kept an eye out for our ferry (the last one was at 10:45pm) and when we saw one coming, we high tailed it down to the dock.
Did I mention that, even during the beautiful summer days here in Seattle, once the sun goes down, it’s just freakin’ cold? Like, teeth chattering cold?
It’s cold.
And when your ferry is late and you’re waiting outside for it at 10:30pm and you were completely fooled by the warm weather earlier in the day and forgot to bring a sweater, and you’re tired and cranky, well, life gets pretty miserable pretty quickly.
Oh, and then there’s the half a mile walk, up a dirt path, in summery wedges at midnight once the ferry actually arrives back in Anacortes.
Remember, it’s cold. And Rae-rae is already cranky.
By the time we actually got to the car, I had a blister on my toe and my muscles were sore from shivering so bad. Thank gawd for butt warmers.
And then there’s the 45 minute drive to the hotel we were staying at in Bellingham. Because we were celebrating May birthdays (two months late) with Todd’s family on Sunday, and ain’t no way we were driving back down to West Seattle Saturday night at midnight, only to turn around drive right back up to Bellingham (north of Anacortes) on Sunday morning.
So we stayed at the Hampton Inn. Which was just fine.
Except I was still exhausted and cranky when I woke up and since we were paying for a hotel room we might as well take advantage of the free continental breakfast they offer.
What the hell was I thinking? Tons of people, all with their heads up the ass, a crap load of kids, all of them in my way, no place to sit, cold french toast sticks, horrible coffee.
If you thought I was cranky Saturday night, you should have seen me Sunday morning.
Todd and I finally found a place to sit, and as we ate in silence and watched the people mill about, I told Todd “This is my hell.”
We ate quickly and went back to our room to wake Kayleigh and get cleaned up.
We check out at 11:30am and head to Omi’s, but first stopping for REAL coffee at Starbucks. We get to Omi’s, say hi, get back in the car, caravan to a park, have a potluck lunch with church folks, hang out in the sun for a bit, back to Omi’s for dessert and May birthday/Mother’s Day celebrations, then out the door at 4:30pm to head home. By this time I was just done.
Remind me not to book two full days, away from home, back to back. M’kay?
Thanks.
I would say I’m looking forward to some downtime this week, but HA! There is no downtime. Well, last night there was downtime – we watched a movie and I grabbed my laptop to write a blogpost but ended up emailing and scheduling for the web series.
Then it was 9pm. Ack.
See why I don’t blog as often anymore?
