Alki Beach

As I mentioned a couple weeks ago, my parents and brother drove here and flew out of Seattle for his college orientation. Then just my parents flew back and drove back home, while Scott flew to Houston to spend a few days with my sister and renew his driver's license. The plan was for him to fly to Seattle and then my parents to drive up for the weekend to get him. But while Scott was in Houston, my dad found out that he'd have to go on a business trip to Italy. Instead of hanging out in an Eastern Washington town where they don't know anyone yet, my mom and Scott decided to stay with us while he's gone. 

So, my brother thought he'd just been staying for couple days, but turns out him and my mom will be here for two weeks! We had Saturday all together before my dad left for Italy - we decided to cross an item off our summer bucket and head to Alki Beach in West Seattle. 

We parked our van at the waterfront downtown and walked onto to the water taxi. We spent the fifteen minute ride taking in the Seattle skyline and the view of Mt. Rainier behind the shipyard. There's a free shuttle that takes you from the dock to the beach, but there wasn't enough room for our whole group and we'd have to wait forty minutes for the next one, so we just walked the two miles instead. 

It was a beautiful walk along the water and we definitely earned our delicious Tex-Mex lunch at Cactus! 

There's a replica of the Statue of Liberty on the beach because the first Seattle residents settled here and named their town New York. Of course, I only have pictures of my cute children posing at the base of the statue..

We let Claire and Maggie play in the sand for a while and dipped our toes in the very cold water of Puget Sound. 

And it's pretty much the law to end a day at the beach with ice cream, right? So, that's what we did, followed by a return trip on the water taxi and a drive back through Seattle and across Lake Washington home.

Now I feel like I'm being the most boring hostess in history, because I've spent every morning this week working out at the Y and taking the girls to Claire's swim lessons. Meanwhile, my mom and brother have been making dinner, doing all the laundry, and helping me catch up on all those chores languishing on my to-do list for months.