Day 17- So long and thanks for all the fish

Today was our last day in Seattle- so we certainly wanted to make the most of it. I should probably have gotten up early to start to pack things up, but getting up early and packing are two of my least favorite activities. Especially these days. I've spoken of my suitcase vagabond style frustration, but it really hit a peak today.

We decided the zoo would be a good place to take the boys. One because they love zoos, and two because our Toledo Zoo pass gets us in for free. Aunt Patty drove us out to the zoo and dropped us off to find a parking spot. We walked around the rose garden outside. Asa and the boys kept smelling all the flowers, and I just kind of got bored, so we decided to head in, because Aunt Patty said she couldn't find a spot and was going to have to park farther away so we should go on without her. Our first spot was the barn yard with the goats and such. Asa thought the stinky smell of the pig was his anosmic payback from the roses, because apparently it smelled pretty bad. (Also, why isn't anosmic in the spell check- that's just dumb. I know I can add it, but it's the principle of the thing).

The boys really liked the bug house. I went through half of it and then waited outside. It was hot inside, and bugs are gross. Peyton was excited about seeing the tarantula though. Uncle Emmett had been telling him there were some in the back yard, and they would take a finger off. He later told me "You know, I'm positive now Uncle Emmett was kidding. The sign didn't say they take off fingers, I read it to make sure." The boys are going to miss Uncle Emmett's stories, especially Peyton.

We took the kids over to play in an area that was a playground- but not your average one. There were little cave like places to crawl in, trees to climb on, a creek to fall and get wet in (my kids aren't all that coordinated), and a spider web to climb in, among other things. We still hadn't met back up with Aunt Patty, but thats because she decided it would be easiest to make us sandwiches in the care and bring them to us. We ate lunch on a park bench, and enjoyed the fact that somewhere along the line we've become rain repellent. Plus it was another nicely planned picnic lunch by Aunt Patty. I want to be Aunt Patty when I grow up. I thought I was organized, but compare to her I might as well be... well, Asa.

I told the boys we had other things to do though, so we'd all pick a couple of animals to see and then go to the gift shop and head out. Calib picked the wild dog, and artic fox. Peyton picked the River Otters and the Snowy Owl. Hayden picked the snow leopard and the dinosaur exhibit. Good choices, since we don't have any of those at our zoo (with the exception of the otters). Hayden and Peyton enjoyed the dinosaur exhibit the most there was a dino that 'spit' (sprayed water) at you, which Hayden just found hilarious. When we went in to look at the river otters, there were two brown bears at the exhibit next to it, and the one bear was playing in the water eating the fish. He was right up against the glass, it was pretty cool.

We missed the wild dog exhibit, and everyone was pretty tired, so Aunt Patty being the great aunt that she is (get it, because she's actually the boys great aunt) took Calib back while we took the other two to the gift shop. They are running low on vacation fund money, but they have been on vacation for 17 days now, so I'd say that's pretty good. Although now if they want anything in Ohio or Niagara Falls it's going to have to be cheap.

After the zoo, it was Asa Afternoon. He had a small bucket list of things he wanted to do while in Seattle: visit my cousin Tim at Microsoft and have a mini tour, go to the highest grossing 7-11 in the country (because *gasp we were there ON 7/11), and stop in front of Nintendo to get his picture taken. The bucket list grew when we went to the Space Needle and he discovered there was a Jimmy Hendrix statue in the city as well. We made a stop there, and then went over the floating bridge (kind of cool, but you don't really get to see that it's floating- add one more random thing to places I've been in the last two weeks) and onto Microsoft.

Tim took Asa inside and Aunt Patty, the boys and I played mother may I in one of the many grassy area's on the campus. (It's a pretty impressive campus) Asa was really excited about the soda machines. Apparently you can get any soda you want, in any flavor you want. Stuff they don't even sell in stores. He really enjoyed Tim taking him around (Thanks Tim! And Thanks Emily for the Bing T-shirts you left for us!) Except, then he was all 'we should move here'. Ok, Seattle- GREAT place to visit. Had a ton of fun. But, the weather is not warm enough and it's generally WAY too rainy for my taste. Plus, Pacific Ocean not quite as warm as the Gulf of Mexico.

After that we went to get our free slurpies for oh thank heaven day at 7-11. Unfortunatly, they were all out of free slurpie cups. Aunt Patty was nice enough to get them for everyone (except me, I think slurpies are gross, blah). Right next door to that is Nintendo so we walked over to take some pictures there. It was a real nerd afternoon. But the boys were pretty patient. Also, I'm convinced the love of slurpies must be in the genes, because since Hayden had his first one, he hasn't stopped talking about how good it was.

We went back to Aunt Pattys for dinner, we had leftovers. But not to worry, these weren't your everyday average leftovers. They were delicious. Plus, the leftovers included deserts. It was pretty much a desert buffet, I might as well have been back on the ship. As if being a fabulous host for a couple of days and cooking all of our meals, Aunt Patty then put together breakfast lunch and snacks for all of us for our travels. Complete with zip lock baggies with names on it, and special orders. Thats even better than the cruise ship, you weren't allowed to take food off the boat there!

Then came the packing. I couldn't figure out how I had so much stuff. Yes, I know we got a lot in Alaska but I filled a box to be mailed back to Florida, and almost everything we got was in that box. But I basically had to unpack everything to figure out what should go with us to Ohio and what should go back to Florida now. Eventually, I resigned to the fact that I needed another bag, and Aunt Patty came to the rescue. I had Asa check two bags, and carry on one we had checked on the way so it was still 4 checked bags in all. I just dont know, maybe this vacation is diminishing my packing skills. I should have not needed that extra bag, but I filled it up. I filled everything so much, I'm really pushing some weight limits on bags. By the time all this was done it was nearly midnight. The 4 AM wake up call is going to come way to soon.

Leg 4 of vacation is now complete, if you're looking at it Amazing Race Style. Unfortunately, every time I finish a leg there's no cool mat or travelocity nome for me. Here's how I figure the legs break down

Leg 1- The day that never ended, Tampa to Anchorage and the pilgramage to Fairbanks. Winner: Corinne and Asa. (To be fair, there was little competition here, but I feel we overcame the biggest detours and U-turns)
Leg 2- Land Tour. Tour Guide Matt and Driver Josh. Winner: Cort and Holly. (They were those people who you thought, why do they even finish their task when you know they're so screwed, but they do it anyway)
Leg 3- Cruise down Alaskan Coast- Awesome Waiter Everton, Cruise Director Keith, And that captain with the awesome accent. Winner: Clint and Jess (For finding a way to weasel out of ever having any kids in their room)
Leg 4- Seattle. Tour Guide/Chef Aunt Patty. Driver Uncle Emmett. Winner: Mom (she got home first, with the least amount of luggage, and least amount of whiny kids)

Next Up: Leg 5. Leaving Seattle en route to Cleveland Ohio via San Fransisco.