Port Angeles!

Kate had no school Wednesday or Friday last week, so I took the opportunity to take the kids for a visit to Port Angeles.  We've been out of town a lot this month, so I was NOT, not looking forward to the drive but it went much better than expected (saved only by staying at Grandpa Mac's either way so as to avoid the full 8-9 hours in one day....)  I'm really, really glad we went because it was a great adventure for the kids (a hotel!) and it was incredibly nice to see friends that I miss quite a lot.  The kids did love visiting everyone even though they can't remember them (except for Kate's friend Kevin whom she always refers to as "my first friend"), but I think they loved staying in the hotel the most.  They spent a good half hour just opening and closing the mini-refrigerator, shrieking "it's a KIDS refridgerator!!"  Thankfully, it's definitely not tourist season on the Peninsula so I don't think anyone occupied the rooms next to us.  They also got to take their first trip to McDonald's, primarily because it was one with a playground and they needed to run after such a long car ride (it was raining outside...)  They loved the playground, of course, and Kate, who never wants to eat anything, claimed she "was going to only eat chicken nuggets from now on."  Oh boy.  Luckily, she seems to have forgotten about this and neither kid seemed to notice that there was a McDonald's about every 20 feet on the drive back.  As for Port Angeles, it was pretty much as we left it, which was kind of comforting.  On Sunday morning, we woke up to sunshine and the first snow on the Olympics, so we took a nice walk on the Discovery Trail where Ryan and I spent many hours running with Kate in the stroller.  It brought back great memories--I'd forgotten that, when it's nice on the Peninsula, there isn't much prettier.  I'm sure we'll be back!