Day 41 - Work and a night by the harbor

Wednesday, July 20, 2016

Posted from: Tumwater, WA - American Heritage Campground

Miles driven: 59

Total trip miles: 6,891

The next three days are the last of my work days while on vacation. 

I began early as usual. We invited Matt's parents for breakfast, so I stopped working around noon Central time (10:00 Pacific) to enjoy a nice breakfast with everyone. 

The plan for the day was to stay around the campground while I worked, and then drive to Mt Rainier National Park. 

Caleb was quite industrious. He made roads that spanned the entire campsite.  

Everyone played games, went on walks, and had a good time. 

After I got off work, we weren't quite ready to go. We finished up and the seven of us got on the road about an hour later than planned. We then realized that Matt was low of fuel, so we stopped for that (by accidentally passing the closest station, stopping at the next one 5 miles away to realize they didn't have diesel, and finally finding diesel 25 miles down the road). I then had the idea to check the webcam of the mountain, and though it was sunny, the mountain was above the clouds and not visible. Because we had left later than planned and no one ate lunch (not sure why), tummies were not feeling well either. 

Let's just say, we were not off to a good start, and we still had two hours to drive to reach the mountain. So while we were fueling up, I suggested that we turn around and head back to the camper. I had been up since 5:00 am and I just wasn't up for this. It didn't seem like anyone was. 

We headed back to the camper and looked up a good restaurant on the harbor. Eating seafood and relaxing by the water sounded like a lot more fun...and it was!

We paired off and had a coloring contest. Matt was the judge. Arnie and Colleen argued that my team had an unfair advantage...not sure what he meant by that... In the end, Matt declared "dessert for everyone!" And everyone was happy. 

It was also my brother, Steve's birthday, so the kids had their pictures taken with their artwork to text to him. Grace actually made a "Happy birthday, Uncle Steve" sign, but I don't think it ended up in any pictures. 

We were all happy with how the night went. We will try Mt Rainier another afternoon.