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Last night’s hotel stay was great. We all got an extended sleep because we kept the hotel room dark and froze out the room, so we were all basically in a coma all night. Good thing Micah was excited to get the chitlins up and get them fed at the free hotel breakfast, while I took a final 30 minutes of rejuvenation.

Our morning was spent in Seattle. We obviously stopped at Pike’s Place. I don’t like to brag, but I got the best parking spot available, which always makes things a bit more exciting.

The produce was beautiful. The cheese monger was awesome, and helped me pick some out for our day’s drive. We got some local honey, and obviously a good baguette. And then my kids spotted the fresh mini donuts, and we got three dozen of those too. It was really cool, but would have been a thousand times cooler with a third the amount of people.

We also stopped by the most disgusting wall of my life! Seattle’s gum wall is like nothing I have seen before. It was a whole block of gum!

But it did kind of make a cool backdrop for grumpy.

We were all excited to get out of Seattle, and get back to the less-crowded parts of Washington. The kids enjoyed their first ferry ride, as they watched Seattle get smaller and smaller in the distance.

Dash was impressing us all with his “headstands on the ferry”! This boy never stops moving. Let me repeat…NEVER STOPS MOVING!

Meet Pippi’s hedgehog. Pippi has been a complete trooper this trip. But for the first time yesterday, I noticed she was asking about home a lot. I knew she needed to have a little make believe in her life during the road trip. I ran into a toy store and got her this mini hedgehog, and they became fast friends. She rocked it, sang to it, brushed its hair, and became that hedgehog’s mama. It was just what the doctor ordered.

We made it to highway 1, and turned left. The drive was beautiful. On the drive, we looked for little gems, and found plenty. Navy introduced Micah to the wild blackberries of Washington. Micah was sold.

We spotted a fruit tree that was unfamiliar to us. We figured out that it was a crossbreed of a cherry and an apricot. It was a guess, but whatever it was, it was yummy. We took some for the road.

We also came upon tons and tons of wild sweet peas. I don’t usually see pods on our sweet peas, but this variety had full pods…with SWEET PEAS! They were also yummy.

As we drove on, we were talking about how whatever street you turn on, there is something to see. WE talked about how if you look, there is always something interesting or cool. And then we randomly turned down the ultimate street of all. In the distance, we saw something that stuck out like a sore thumb. We drove a few miles to get closer to a medieval castle in the middle of a little coastal town of 8 people.

It was immaculate, and the grounds were huge — tons of acreage filled with orchards and different themed houses, and…

…dragons and goblins and trolls!

This was the most bizarre sore thumb (that was immaculate) in the middle of nowhere!

We were SO stumped on the story of this place.

After exploring all over, where it said “no trespassing” the gate opened to see this cool dude ride out on his motorcycle. He literally looked like he should be filming a movie, and was right out of Hollywood. Apparently, his family owns the whole area, and they rent it out for events. Past the gates are tons of nice homes to rent out as well. Again…it was so perfectly kept up, it was amazing. The guy said that everyone from wedding parties to LARPing groups rents all or part of it out pretty regularly. He then said, head over to our orchards, and pick some apples. There is also a barn up the hill where you can hang out with our goats. He was as nice as can be, and this was all the trippiest find of our trip yet!

Before we left, we let Rapunzel let down her hair one last time!

As we drove on, Scout lost his first molar.

Micah ordered “a full order of California rolls”.

The Asian lady repeated “four order of California rolls”.

Micah said yes, without realizing the language barrier technicality.

When it came out, we all started laughing so hard!

And Micah had California rolls for the next “four” meals.

Our final stop of the night was because Scout Chose His Own Adventure! We were driving by the most beautiful lake surrounded by pine trees. The sun was almost down, and Scout announced, “I want to swim in that lake”.

Done.

We drove around looking for a good access point, and found a boat ramp with a small walkway out over the water.