Washington...or bust!

Driving to Washington

Rod and I just spent a whirlwind weekend driving 13 hours to Washington and flying home 2 days later! While it felt like a crazy thing to do and was a pretty long trek...it was well worth it! Why Washington? And why now? Because Patrick just returned on Friday night from his year long tour of duty in Iraq and he needed someone to bring him his car that he had left here in Utah. Rod and I are always up for an adventure, so we volunteered to help him out. 13 hours is definitely a long time to be stuck in a car, but there's no one else I'd rather be stuck with than Rod...and I hope he felt the same about me! We will be celebrating our 14th anniversary next week, so we figured this might be the only time we'd be able to get away!

Our original plan had been to leave here at noon on Friday, drive as far as we could for the rest of the day, and then wake up and drive the rest of the way and be at Ft. Lewis by the time Patrick flew in. I was really excited about the thought of being able to be there to welcome home our soldier because I see familes do that all of the time on the news, but with Patrick stationed in Washington, I didn't think I'd ever get that chance...and now I was finally going to get to! As luck would have it, just as we were leaving home on Friday, we got a phone call from Patrick telling us that he was in Newfoundland at that very moment and he'd be flying into Washington in about 8 hours! Well it was physically impossible to drive a car all of that way in 8 hours, so my dream got dashed pretty quickly. Oh well...at least we still got to see him and spend time with him! We didn't even have to worry about the boys because they were spending the weekend being with our wonderful friends and family. Thank heavens for all of them!

As soon as I got home from my long awaited trip to the pulmonology doctor on Friday morning, we headed to Washington. At the doctor, I found out that I am officially an asthmatic, but I think I already knew that! It's just nice to know that it isn't all in my head! We drove as far as Boise, where we stopped and ate at my favorite restaurant, Smoky Mountain Pizza and Pasta. The thought that we'd be able to do that hadn't even crossed my mind, but when Rod suggested it, there was no way that he was going to get out of taking me. So we stopped and I got to eat my absoluty favorite meal, Teriyaki Chicken Fettucini, which is simply delightful...and I'd recommend it to anyone! We drove as far as Pendleton, Oregon before we called it a night, but we'd driven for 8+ hours by that time and our legs and butts were tired of sitting.

This is where we met Patrick

On Saturday we drove straight to Fort Lewis where we met Patrick waiting for us just outside of the gate. It was so much fun to see him and he looked great! He was just happy to be home, but he was definitely tired because it was about midnight Iraq time by then and I don't think he'd slept much the night before. In our excitement to see Patrick, we hadn't even stopped to realize that as soon as we picked him up, there would be 3 people vying for the same car...and since it's Patrick's car and he had lots of stuff to do in order to get settled, he got dibs on it! Somehow, I had envisioned doing all sorts of sightseeing and some shopping while Patrick got settled, but I hadn't even thought about the fact that he'd need a car to do that with! Silly, silly me! So instead Rod and I settled for going to the hotel and waiting until dinner to see Patrick again!

On Sunday, we were able to attend church in Lakewood, Washington, which is the same town where 4 police officers were killed just last weekend. It kind of hit us hard when we realized that we were so close to something that had happened so recently and was so awful. The ward that we attended was so sweet and Rod and I sat by a couple of ladies that talked to us as if we were their dear friends. By the time we left, I think Rod knew everything about everybody in that ward...and not because he'd been asking about them! It was kind of cool that the bishop of the ward was named Bishop Jarrett! I didn't bother to ask if he was any relation to Darin, but I kind of figured that he probably wasn't!

The Seattle Skyline

When we left church, we went straight to Seattle to do a little sightseeing. As we approached the city and could see the skyline looming in the distance, it brought back all sorts of memories from our trip this summer. Rod and I and the boys had taken the ferry from Bainbridge Island over to Seattle to spend the day. One of the few things that I really wanted to see had been Pike's Market but parking was horrible...and there were no parking places big enough for our huge truck anyway, so we settled for seeing the Space Needle, which was pretty cool too! Today though, I finally got to see the market and we even found a parking spot right across the street. It cost us $12 to park there but who's keeping track? We figured the convenience was worth it and since Rod didn't have any kind of jacket (yes, I forgot to pack him one, but it was merely because he said he didn't need one!) we figured that we probably shouldn't make him walk any further in the cold than necessary...and let me tell you, it was cold there right next to the waterfront!

This is the best picture I have of Rod and Patrick together

Pike's Market

With only an hour to shop (and no real intent of shopping on Sunday anyway), we had to basically race through the market so that we could see as much as we could. As we raced through the market, we ran across a restaurant called the Athenian, which is where they filmed a scene in Sleepless in Seattle with Tom Hanks and Rob Reiner sitting at a bar. So we had to stop and take a look, and as long as we were there, we decided that we might as well eat lunch too. So now I can say that I've eaten where Tom Hanks once ate!

Me in front of the Athenian

Me with Patrick at the Athenian

The stool where Tom Hanks sat (can you see the placard on the bar?)

Overall, our trip to Washington was short and cold, but we had a great time and it was especially fun to spend time with Patrick, although it didn't feel like nearly enough time. Hopefully we'll get to see him in a couple of weeks for Christmas. As for now, THANKS for the fun weekend Patrick and welcome home!

Me and Patrick at the airport as we were leaving