First Plane Ride, First Ferry Ride and First Stamp in the Passport!

So our adventure began on Wednesday when we flew to Seattle. We were allowed one checked bag each(Peter and I) and we could check the car seat and stroller for free. We could also have one carry on bag each as well as a diaper bag. So we took advantage of what we had. We arrived at the airport with one large suitcase with baby food and our clothes in it that weighed 48 pounds(just cleared the 50 pound limit). We also checked a pack n play which we stuffed umbrellas, water gear and blankets into the pack n play bag. Then we sent the car seat through. When we got to the gate we checked the stroller at the gate and boarded the plane. We had a backpack (we called the diaper bag), a small bag of Connor's clothes, and another bag, which was basically extra. And of course we each had a warm jacket with us. Yeah we didn't pack light at all. Apparently we're still learning how to pack with a baby in tow. Alright so the plane ride was okay. Connor cried a little bit, he ate a little bit and he slept a little bit. When we landed we picked up a rental car and drove literally down the street to our hotel. We let Connor crawl around on the floor a bit and then we all went to bed. It was quite late.

Thursday morning we set off for Mt. Rainier. It was quite overcast so we didn't see much of the mountain. We went because there was supposed to be wild flowers in peak bloom. However, the paths leading to the wild flowers were covered in 10 feet of snow. So no wild flowers and no hikes, as the paths were all covered in snow. So we enjoyed the visitor's center and then headed back down the mountain. We came across some cool waterfalls on the trip up and down the mountain.

This is what you're supposed to be able to see:

This is what we saw:
Wait! I think I see some mountain
A cool waterfall
A small waterfall on the side of the road-Connor really likes the sound of water so he was more interested in that than the camera.

More waterfall pictures

This is the view from the top
And this is the view from the middle.
It was really misty so we all get a bit wet.
It was a bit chilly but I stayed warm
This is the path we wanted to take to the wild flowers...and they were supposed to be in peak bloom??? I guess not this year.
On our way to the car from the visitor's center we saw this little guy, a marmot. He was shaking his head so it's a bit fuzzy, but he was fun to look at for awhile.

Back at the hotel, Connor had his first real bath. Up until this point we've had showers, but no standing water. In the hotel he had a bath and really enjoyed it, until he decided to try to crawl in the bath-then he wasn't too happy, the darn ground kept slipping out from under him.

Friday we drove to Peter's grandpa's house. We were stopped on a drawbridge which was pretty cool. We went to Pike's Place Market-which was super crazy. We walked around and then were fine to leave the place. We also went to the Salmon Fish Ladder. The fish were not jumping, but they were still kind of interesting to look at. Then we hopped on a ferry. At one point on the ferry we looked at the GPS and it said we were driving in the middle of water-and it was right.

The drawbridge

The entrance to the Market

At the Salmon Ladder there was also a nice garden that we walked through
The little white things in the water are jelly fish
The view from where our car was parked on the ferry.
AAAAAHHHHH We're driving in the water!

We arrived at Grandpa's house met Anthony (uncle) and his wife Amy and her daughter Sophia. Connor was not happy about all these new people, but he eventually warmed up to them all. Amy really enjoyed holding and playing with Connor. Grandpa and Sherry have a cat that Connor really enjoyed looking at. He wanted to pet her, but she managed to run away when he got near-which made him really mad.

This concludes this part of the post...stay tuned for more of our vacation coming soon.