This past weekend, we knew that we wanted to get out at least one of the days. I mentioned on Friday that we had three great options and, since the sun was set to shine at least one of our weekend days, we wanted to take advantage of it. We’d originally decided to go out to Leavenworth for Oktoberfest, but someone (cough…Ryan…cough) thought it was a lot closer than it actually is. The drive is actually about two and half hours from DuPont, and we decided that was a bit too much for just a day trip. We considered doing a trip to the ghost town, but we decided that, at the end of the day, we were going to do a trip to the Steilacoom dog park in the morning for Danny, then take the ferry to Anderson Island later in the afternoon instead.
We made our way back to Steilacoom and took the 30-minute drive-on ferry out to Anderson Island, which is known to be a pretty happening island in the summer for watersports and tourists out here. Sadly, it’s not summer anymore, and we didn’t really factor that into the equation. Whoops! Color that a planning fail on our part, but it was worth it in the end. The boys haven’t been on a ferry since we lived in New York. We used to take the ferry from New York State across to Vermont on our way to New Hampshire. This was a much bigger ferry, and we actually got out to see the sights, which the boys loved!
As I mentioned, pretty much everything on the island was shut down for the season and winterized, but we made our way to the little lake on the island to have dinner and see the water. The boys loved that! If you’re ever visiting Anderson Island, however, I highly recommend forgoing the Riviera Lakeshore Restaurant. It was pretty awful, but we couldn’t help but laugh because our boys loved their standard pub fare of chicken fingers and fries, and we just got to spend some time together as a family. Sometimes the fail trips are actually worth it in the end! The ride back was chilly and very dark, so we stayed in the car, and we made our way home for a late bedtime for the boy. That made way for a good sleep in for all of us, which was much needed – and appreciated.
Our weekends right now are spent twofold. Since Ryan is deploying in a few months again, we have a lot of things that need to be done. We’re doing our best to maintain some semblance of balance between fun and work though, so we spend one day exploring, and the other day is spent doing chores like laundry, meal prep, haircuts, and grocery shopping. It’s a good balance, and I love doing it with my people, so no complaints from me. Plus, with Oma coming this week, we’re bound to have a busy (and super fun) weekend ahead of us!
Cheers to another Monday!
