Our Drive To Redmond Washington
Hey everyone, sorry I have been so quiet this summer but we have been super busy traveling and getting the kids to sports camps and various events and activities. As I noted in one of my last posts we had picked up a new vehicle this year so we can travel more in comfort and more importantly we can travel safe with the kids. This summer was full of driving, but I don’t think any of it was as beautiful as our drive up to Redmond, Washington. My husband has a really good friend up there that had his first kid this year and we wanted to visit. There is also some family that lives there on his side so we wanted to make the rounds and see everyone, especially his grandmother as she is getting older. We took a scenic route and drove into San Diego and then up the PCH into Northern California, Oregon, and then Washington State. We made a few stops in Oregon where we hung out at the beaches in Seaside for a few days and enjoyed those coastal winds. The beaches up north are very different from the beaches in Southern California or even in Rocky Point where we frequent.
Visiting Seattle
Once we made it into Washington State we drove straight to Seattle and visited the main attractions there. We went to the Seattle Center and went to the top of the Space Needle. We also visited the MoPOP and Pike Place Market. If you have never been to Pikes Place, you gotta go because it’s a complete experience. The fish market is amazing, and if you love fresh fish you will be in heaven here shopping for lunch or dinner. There were also little restaurants there that had amazing clam chowder, fish and chips, and fresh grilled fish plates. Pikes Place was amazing!
Visiting Redmond
After spending some time in the city we were ready to go visit our friends in Redmond. Redmond is East of Seattle and used to be a small farming town. It’s now a tech hub thriving in one of the more expensive areas in the State. Next to Redmond is a town called Woodinville, we visited the Columbia Winery and the Redhook Brewery there. It’s like Washington States version of Napa valley. A very foodie experience with large wineries and smaller boutique wineries. There is also a Whiskey distillery there called Woodinville Whiskey. We did the tasting and my husband loved it, we grabbed a few bottles to bring back to Arizona with us.
With all the boozing out of the way it was time to visit my husbands buddy. They have the most adorable little boy with the brightest blue eyes you have ever seen. We went back to their house and the boys grilled why the girls drank wine. There were a few other families there with kids and everyone got along pretty good. No injuries and the kids played well with each other for the most part.
We made our rounds through Redmond, visiting various family members and old friends. It was an amazing experience for the kids to see the Great Northwest. Everything was perfect until the water pump on our 2018 Durango went out! Yes, seriously!! The water pump on the Durango went out the day before we were going to start driving back to Arizona. Fortunately my husbands buddy is a mechanic in Redmond and owns a repair shop close to where we were staying. We were able to get the car towed to the shop and they had the pump replaced that day, they did an after hours special for us. My husband was down there with them and they hung out and got it fixed. Wish we had a mechanic like that in Arizona!
I gotta admit I was a little nervous as we embarked on our drive back to Arizona, having a car part go out on you while you are traveling is not something that makes the trip less stressful. With a car full of kids, the last thing you want to do is get stranded on the side of the road somewhere. We have AAA but there are some areas on this drive home where the road stretches for hours without seeing any civilization. If the car does breakdown, I just hope it’s near a city and an on-ramp. Well, it didn’t and we made it home in one piece thankfully.
We will be hitting Vegas in a few weeks, I’ll get on here and blog about that soon. Thanks to everyone that replied to my last email, I wanted to know who was still reading these and who wasn’t. I’m glad to say that I still have almost 100 active readers so that’s enough to keep me going.
Thank you all!! Love you!!