MichiGal: Travel Tuesday: Washington Reunion

This week I'm continuing with my recap of our road trip last summer. To bring you up to speed, here are the links to the other road trip posts so far:

Road Trip Success
Let the Road Trip Fun Begin!
South Dakota Supreme: Part 1
South Dakota Supreme: Part 2
The Road Trip Continues Into Alien Territory
Travel Tuesday: The Road Trip Continues Into Coeur d'Alene, Idaho

Leaving Coeur d'Alene was bittersweet. We were sad to say good bye to my aunt and uncle, yet excited for the next leg of our journey. Being in Idaho was like being home. We were comfortable and happy, and our visit was far too short. I cannot thank my aunt and uncle enough for their generous hospitality!

Next stop: Kennewick, Washington.

So happy to be together again!

When I first broke the news to Bethany that her dearest friend was moving to the other side of the country, she was heartbroken. I was pretty sad too, since her friend's family is particularly dear to my heart. I was happy for them, since they were leaving to pursue a dream, yet so not happy for us. I vowed that we would visit, never mind the two thousand plus miles between us, and I can happily blame them for initially inspiring our trip.

Kennewick, in southeast Washington's Tri Cities area, is less than 200 miles from Coeur d'Alene. So we only had a two and a half to three hour drive to our friends' house. We passed from green, lush Idaho into the desert-like climate of Washington, passing vineyards along the way. The stereotypical rainy, evergreen Washington that you are probably thinking of was definitely a far cry from the Washington that we saw.

Having just taken over a busy chiropractic practice, my friends were not able to take time off work for site-seeing. And we definitely did not want to take any time away from them to go off on our own. So I can't tell you from first hand experience about all the wonderful family attractions in the Tri Cities area. But I can tell you that for the four nights we stayed with our friends, we were once again treated to a whole lot of generous hospitality. Our kids hung out, like they had missed doing, and I had adjustments every day and got to spend lots of time catching up. The kids played and rode bikes and went for walks. The moms drank Starbucks and went to Target together. Sounds idyllic, doesn't it?

I wish we would have had the time to venture out to Portland or Seattle, but it just wasn't in the cards for this trip. Like passing up Yellowstone, this was hard, being that we were only about three hours from each of these cities, and I'd very much love to visit both. Not only were my friends chained to their office, but we were also on a strict time restriction, and three of us came down with a sudden stomach bug while we were visiting. (You know what's fun? Your kids puking at someone else's house! SO FUN!). I definitely was not up for much in the way of tourist attractions, and was happy just to have a few more days of down time. I love seeing things and going places, but the beauty of staying with friends and family is being able to relax and just be "regular" someplace away from home. I really appreciated the R&R before the long trip home. What I saw of Kennewick and the Tri Cities was very clean and seemed newer than things around here. The roads, the buildings...they just seemed not to have as many years of wear and tear on them as most things around here. From my understanding, the Tri Cities is an up and coming area, and is growing in popularity as a destination, being especially well known for the vineyards in the region.

Leaving Kennewick was so sad, because we don't have definite plans for when we'll see our friends again. I do, however, have confidence that we will see them again! Although, being caught up in our own busy lives, we don't talk as much as we should, I like to think that our visit helped to forge a permanent bond between our two families.

The third leg of our trip was over, and it was time to begin the fourth and final leg: Washington to home.

Working hard on a high tech security system.

We miss you guys! And still can't ever begin to thank you enough...for everything! For feeding us and putting us up and letting us make ourselves at home and not flinching when my kids puked. Can't wait to see you again!