Quick trip to the land of needles and coffee

Fundraising has hit a wall.  It's a GREAT wall to be at...$5000...but it's a wall nonetheless.  The two donations that got us up to where we are today were from...

Shaun

and 

Mom Brown

Shaun holds a special distinction of being one of only a handful of people to have walked with us at the March of Dimes.  Shaun has been a great friend and BIG supporter of our efforts since day 1!  And I know many of you have too...I just wanted to give a special shout-out to Shaun for sticking with us for all these years.  Thank Shaun!  We all miss you!

I know I'm going to get some grief for this but the next exciting trip in 2013 was a quick 2 day trip to meet up with Sam in Seattle and do some shopping at Ikea.  Exciting I know.  Sam chose something like a 10 hour layover hoping I could just make a quick drive to the other side of the state to check out Seattle with him.  Lucky, I had nothing going on and was happy to get up at 4am to make the trip happen.

You may be asking why I would get grief for this??  Because there will not be one picture on this entry of any of the girls!!

So I arrived at Sea-Tac in my clown car ON TIME to pick up Sam.  Okay maybe I had to pull over half way there to take a nap.  But at least I'm being responsible...in my earlier years I would have pushed through but now I recognize when I'm too tired to drive and can pull over to take a quick nap.  Even if it means making someone wait an extra 30 minutes or so at the airport.  :)

Of course we first had to go to the Pike Place Market.

 And take a few obligatory blurry fish throwing pictures.

Camera equipment, beer, and water.  I think we ate too but I'm not sure.

And then it was on to check out the needle.

Before you scroll down to the next pic, take a closer look!  That's Mount Rainier in the background.  I think this was the first time I'd really seen Rainier...you know with all the rain and clouds in Seattle?

I didn't even remember taking this picture but I got to thinking about it when I was looking through.  This is the site of where the KOMO news helicopter crashed about a month ago right next to the Space Needle! No idea if that's the helicopter but interesting nonetheless.

More Rainier...but this time with Safeco and Century Link in the foreground.

Now we have a little more in the foreground...appears to be a balding, hungry, and slightly irritated Washingtonian. 

Exploring the area around the needle.  

There are few things in the world that will make me gag by just looking at them.  A wall full of chewed gum is one of those things.

We got a hot tip from a colleague to go check out the Ballard Locks leading up to Lake Washington.

GREAT idea, Rose!!  Very, very cool.

 Boats in....

 Boats come up...

 Boats out!

Then it was down to the fish ladder to see the salmon making their way through the locks as well.

A picture of Sam and Salmon.  Say it...it's fun.

Sam and ....art?

 So small apology to those who only come to see pictures of my girls growing up.  This is a blog about our FAMILY adventures.  :)  On that note, if we can get off $5000, I'd be happy to go back to sharing pictures of our little inspirations!