Day 1

Seattle, Washington to Coeur d’Alene, Idaho. 5 hours in the car and it went well.

Whitney drove the whole 5 hours, we discussed the pros/cons of driving versus being the passenger/servant to the 3 kids 😀.

Highlight was the car time went well. That was a confidence builder for this trip. Meltdowns happened, of course, the two major ones were in Seattle as we were in the final moments before leaving and at dinner when one member of our team hit there limit… taking Whitney and I to ours!

Funniest moment was at ~1:15am. Someone was unsuccessfully trying to use their key card on our room. Whitney, Baby Hazel and now me were awake. I crack open the door to find a confused bloke. I quietly say “mate, you at the wrong room”. He responds “no, this is my room”. I go “what room are you wanting?” He responds with a room number that is one level below even while looking at the room number next to the door. Even better, 3 mins later he tried again at our door!!! I thought better than opening the door again, this time he moved on within 15 seconds. I was a bit tempted to invite him in to see the 5 of us in the hotel room and ask where he thought he was going to sleep? But waking everyone up at 1:15am wasn’t worth that laugh!

Grateful reflections were:

Scarlett: the playground at Ellensburg, WA where we stopped for lunch and playtime (Rotary Park) and staying together at the nice hotel (Couer d’Alene Resort).

Nora: playground too and sleeping in the same room with everyone.

My parents are doing this road trip too. They made and joined us for dinner. So day 1 is complete. It still feels like a regular vacation - great travel but it will be over in a week - will be interested when this travel experience feels like the new normal.