Originally I had hoped to plan a getaway over Memorial Day weekend. With Jack flying in on Thursday night and not having to return back to California until Tuesday morning, it seemed like the perfect amount of time but with the weather being a big question mark here, I wasn't up to the gamble of driving too far in the car only to find ourselves camping out in a hotel for what could be a rainy weekend. The weekend instead consisted of taking the boys biking and rollerblading at a few of their favorite parks on Saturday, which turned out to be a nice day, relaxed a bit on Sunday spending the evening with a bunch of friends from our neighborhood, and on Monday decided we were ready to get out and explore. We decided to take the ferry over to Bainbridge Island. It's just an hour trip out of Seattle and you drive your car right onto the ferry. It was a good reminder to hear the tourists commenting on the beauty that we are lucky enough to be surrounded by on a daily basis. Few places can claim the year round beauty that we have here. The price we pay though is rain and that can be a steep price at times. We were hoping to find a couple places that we had seen by boat a while back and Jack also wanted to take us to this beach that he had been to for work that was covered with sand dollars. (I had to remind Connor that sand dollars don't have the same value as silver dollars. He was certain his piggy bank was going to increase in value substantially after this trip.) You'll see that this was no white sandy beach but rather a rocky, sea weedy area covered with clams, oysters, muck, and well, hundreds of sand dollars. The boys love to search for "treasures" so that was of no bother to them and Sage was right on their tail collecting her own treasures (with purse in tow). And they couldn't have been happier filling up their buckets with dozens of sand dollars and a crab that accidently made it home. Sadly, I will admit this trip served as an educational experience for me as I did not know that sand dollars start as live creatures that are black in color with a sponge like texture. (The ones we have found in the Caribbean were always nice and white...don't ask me how I thought they came to be.) As they die, their color fades and I guess the longer they sit in the sun, the whiter they become. Of course, living in the northwest, white ones are very rare but you'll get the idea of the fun the boys and Sage had searching for their treasures! Of course, the trip couldn't end without our family favorite, bubble tea!
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