105 in the shade--I'm either in Purgatory or I'm Home

Yep, we made it safe and sound. Took the car back, had a nice hot breakfast at the hotel, caught the shuttle bus just as we walked out, no line at the airport and the plane was on time... what more do you want? Well, we were treated to a "tour" of Mt. Rainier. And I mean an amazing aerial view. I am thinking that it must be very unusual for the mountain to be so clear although maybe every pilot takes a big dip and curves around the mountain so we could see all sides and even look up to North America's second highest peak. What a great way to cap off our visit to the Pacific Northwest.

So we got home, searched out our scaredy cats (who had gone in to hiding the past several days) and then ate our traditional post vacation Mexican Food dinner. And now that it's past 7pm my electricity has kicked into high gear and we are pretending it's cool here.

I'll unpack suitcases and do wash tomorrow. Tonight we are just relaxing and talking about what was most impressive for each this trip. As I expected, Rebecca thinks the Butchart Gardens were the most amazing. And truly it is. We drove up through the countryside on a little two lane road (thanks to the unique mapping our GPS chose) and from this very rural, treed area you find yourself in the middle of Eden. I hope you get to visit here. Bob thought that the best part was our drive up to Mt. Olympus and Hurricane Park. Matthew too, was very happy to see the deer so close up. Bob and the kids had never seen a glacier and to see it through the fog was pretty cool. Matthew and I are still shaky from our hair-raising experiences across the Capilano bridge and up to the top of the Space Needle. I told Bob we were able to say the whole 23rd Psalm on the ride up. The view from both places was indeed spectacular but we are both very glad to be home with our feet firmly planted on the ground.

Thought you'd appreciate these two pictures today. If you have ever spent any time around Bob you know that his cell phone is his umbilical cord and there is always someone calling from work. Here we are on the ferry and he was gabbing on about this, that or the other with one of the guys. He even had service in Canada but when I reminded him he might have to pay $$ for the international fee he quickly turned it off.

And here are the sweet children entertaining themselves... ah, life is good.