Go South, Go West, Go East! Just go!

Even in my head it sounds like I'm an old lady, but it's kind of awesome to me that we have experienced both the Pacific and Atlantic oceans in the past few days. 

Before we set out on the cross-country trek, Jeff and I had spent the weekend outside Louisville with friends along the Bourbon Trail. 

We came home, worked Monday, then collected Alison to go west before flying back east to Auntie Jen's lake house in Maine. 

So, I was appropriately exhausted when we made it to the East Coast Friday, after ending a visit in Washington with Aunt Gudrun, Christina, Jesi, Andi, Eva and Elle.

I was in Washington years ago, but Jeff and Ali had not been as a family. It's still amazing to an Indiana girl to see mountains everywhere you look, even in a foggy, overcast environment.

While in Washington, we visited Bainbridge Island - birthplace of pickleball - but didn't play; shopped a bit and had great meals. We beach walked and caught up in between visits with Aunt Gudrun at the beautiful home she and Uncle Bill built 30+ years ago on a plot of five acres on a heavily wooded hill he had scouted out after ending his military career.

The house is gorgeous, of course. From the back patio, you can see Puget Sound and Seattle's skyline, framed by lush green trees. She didn't fully plant the garden this year, but it's plotted out at below the patio, and you can imagine how lush it would have been in the past three decades. They built the screened in structure to protect blueberry bushes from the deer. 

At one point, we were waiting for seating at a bay-side restaurant and I pointed out to Alison what at first glance looked like a seagull fighting desperately to be aloft in one place while being buffeted by a steady breeze. "Mom. That's a kite," she deadpanned. 

Ah. So it was. The food was awesome, and the view incredible. On our beach walks, Alison had seen crab parts and whole crabs that got left behind by the tide, so was in desperate need of west-coast crab. We had parked a few blocks away and had walked down a fairly steep and long hill to find the restaurant. Which was fine.

But the car was up the hill. At one point, Christina and Jeff set off to get it to park closer to the restaurant and to avoid a parking fine. In between then and the end of the meal, Jeff had discovered ice cream, so off we go to find ice cream.

As we braced ourselves to brave the hill again, it didn't register with Ali or me that Christina pointed to the parking lot to remind Jeff that the car was now conveniently at the bottom of the hill. Unused to the Captain's ways, she shrugged and followed him. We're happily eating ice cream before it's revealed that we have to go back down the hill to get to the car. The ice cream was good, though.

Somehow - in between a risky connection that we almost missed - both our bags and we survived to arrive in Manchester, New Hampshire. From there, we drove to China Lake and are now happily living the Mainer life. It's rainy but there's never a bad day at the lake.

Last night was a blur but today we have feasted on lobster rolls washed down with Lunch from the Maine Beer Company. More to come...