It's a Pacific Temperate Rainforest...who knew?

Spring Break finally arrived for us in Star Valley, yay!  We debated for a while about where to go and what to do, but with the purchase of land  and the impending large amounts of time and money needed towards building a house, we thought it might be best to stay around town and not go anywhere.  Ultimately we compromised; myself and the kids would drive west to visit Uncle David and Uncle Brian, and Kip would stay home and work to conserve money and days off.  Win-win.  (I mean, really, at this point we still just have a patch of dirt, there is nothing yet that the kids and I can do in the house-building effort.  I would have just had a house full of energetic, bored and grouchy (especially the teenager) kids, and I'd likely end up spending money anyway, like driving to Idaho Falls to see a movie or something.  Too snowy and muddy to hike.  But I digress...)
The trip to Uncle David's was actually a tad bit longer than I anticipated, but it was worth it to visit David and Mikki and our newest little cousin, Talos.  The drive was beautiful and we loved leaving winter behind and finding lots of green plants and blue skies!  Goodbye snowstorms in Montana...

Hello, sunshine and budding trees!  This is a walking trail near David's house in Lewiston, ID. It only just occurred to me on THIS trip, as I was pointing out the Lewis and Clark trail markers to the kids, that Lewiston is named for Merriweather Lewis, of exploration fame.  The town across the river, Clarkston, is for his buddy, William Clark.  Ding!  The light bulb goes on. 

And we were all enamored with sweet baby Talos, about 6 weeks old and cute as can be.

We squeezed in a museum visit and a few rounds of Code Names (board game) before jetting off again to far side of Washington, where Uncle Brian waited.
When we were trying to stop for dinner before the final stretch into Puyallup, the kids couldn't agree on a restaurant to eat at.  Instead of listening to them argue about the merits and faults of McDonald's or Taco Bell, I just pulled into a place that was new to all of them.  They stopped talking, then McKinley groaned in disappointment, "But why did they only give it ONE star?!"

Hahaha!  Talk about a design fail, Carl's Jr.! It does indeed look like they are only awarding themselves one star, which in all honesty is also what I would award them, blech.  But the kids were satisfied and we pushed on through the dark of night and made it to Puyallup around 9.  Yippee!

That night the kids went straight to bed, but we were ready for adventures the next morning.  We stayed local, the Puyallup/Tacoma area because a stomach bug had gone through everyone at David's house, and I wasn't sure when or if it was going to hit us also...

But not yet!  We found a trail on a hiking app and went to play and walk around Wildwood Park, "80 lush acres" with a playground and our trail.  Even though it was raining the kids loved it!  So much green!  So many places to run and climb and play!  And even mushrooms for Ella!

Caleb kept referring to it as the rainforest, which Brian and I were not sure was the right thing to call this area, so we googled it and found out, sure enough, that we were in a Pacific Temperate Rainforest!  Nice!  I didn't even know that was a thing.  Also, these lovely flowers were growing wild throughout the park - I think they may be wild calla lilies?

We had planned to drive straight to Tacoma, but since everyone was soaking and muddy, we detoured back home for dry clothes and lunch.  Then on to Point Defiance, a little finger of land jutting out into the water north of Tacoma.  It was beautiful!  Still raining, but once again that didn't stop the kids from enjoying shell hunting and rock throwing at the empty Owen beach! (Bonus: we got to use our our Disneyland ponchos.) 

We passed a zoo and a fort - both closed - and drove on through to another Tacoma site; the Chihuly pedestrian bridge.  We saw some Chihuly glass at the Denver Botanic Garden a few year back, and the bridge is a free way to see some more (versus paying to get into the glass museum).  It was so pretty!  On the other side of the bridge, we ventured into Union Station, formerly of travel glory but now just for looking and housing the courts; guess what?  More Chihuly!

By this point I was pretty sure that I was going to be sick - the 24 hour bug caught up with me - so we headed home for dinner and rest.  (I did get sick, but the kids did not, and it was done in one night, so, yay!)

The next day we ventured into the big city - Seattle!  As it turned out, the first Thursday of the month is free day at the Seattle Art Museum, woohoo!  We only got in trouble for touching a display once, but at least we didn't break anything.  Whew.  McKinley was very interested in all of the exhibits, as you can see.

It was actually smaller than I expected, relative to the Met that I just saw last month and the Denver Art Museum, but it was perfect size for us to walk around for a couple hours and then move on.  On to...Pike Market!  I didn't know that was a thing either, but it's pretty famous.  We helped Brian find the gum wall for the first time.  EW!  Haha, disgusting.

And while we didn't purchase fresh fish or an of the beautiful tulips, we did watch some cheese being made and sample some "World's Best" macaroni and cheese from Beecher's.

We made sure to at least drive by the space needle on our way home, even if we didn't get to go up this time.  It's kind of an expensive little activity.  

Our last day needed to include driving part way home, so we tried to get in and see part of Mt. Ranier National Park "on the way." After all, we have our park pass to get in.  As it turns out, most of the park roads are still closed for the winter, but we could go in one tiny little northwest corner and tromp around in the rainforest a little more before going back home, even though it wasn't really on the way.  So pretty!  Everyone was very happy to get to play a little bit more.  Green might be my new favorite color!

 

Caleb says he wants to come live in the rainforest when he grows up, but there were spiders in the outhouse and other bugs all over...

 so maybe he was just kidding.

It was kind of a long drive again through Washington, Oregon, and Idaho to get back home, but we made it!  It was worth it to see our family and explore some places we had never seen before.  Yay for spring break!  Now, back to the grindstone for the last 7 weeks of school, but who's counting?!