Today we went out to Whidbey Island, far from home. This was the first test of the new Yeti cooler we’d purchased, as well as a logistical mess; I hadn’t prepared at all last night, so we spent too much time debating where to go, then trying to pack the car, and feed the kids, and plan, all without drinking any coffee. How we ever got out of the house I don’t know, and I managed to get a splinter in my foot and forget my wife’s shoes, a spectacular fail on my part. At least she had her flip flops.
Given they were stuck in the back of the car for two hours, the girls were pretty good on the way out. We stopped at the feet terminal, to see people failing to wear masks. We overheard a conversation about how there have been less premature births since the pandemic started, "because women are less stressed" which strikes me as bananas. Unless all this time, pregnant ladies were upset because there wasn’t a contagious fatal disease doing the rounds, and the economy wasn’t heading for a crash.
Anyway, we got some truly horrible coffee at the ferry terminal, which is probably what blights my memory of it, then drove on, got some decent coffee, got to the beach, which is beautiful, realised after a ferry and two hours driving that I didn’t bring my wife’s trainers, and then headed to the beach.
The hike we did took us a mile and a half down the beach, to a lagoon. The lagoon itself was a bit grim, scummy water and nothing to see, but on the way the girls really enjoyed themselves. Destroyer found a long, snake like bit of marine plant life (some sort of seaweed?) that she christened "Snakey" and dragged for ages. La Serpiente was obsessed with finding a walking stick, and chanced upon a log, five feet long and four inches in diameter, and bless her heart carried it almost the entire length of the beach. Eventually she gave up when she realised it probably wouldn’t fit in the car, but then found a slightly smaller one.
They also stacked rocks, fell over piles of wood and were mostly well behaved. Then we drove back to the ferry terminal and got a ok dinner at a bar nearby. I looked at the queue for the ferry and assumed we’d not make it, and so lose another hour waiting for the next, so we took the long drive home. That may or may not have been a good idea as the girls were going loopy by the end (but still couldn’t sleep when we got them home).
Then my wife, who’d been fine all day, had another bout of the pain she’d been in yesterday, which leaves us still worried and having to plan a visit to the doctor for this week. So that was an end to the day. At least she was ok while we were out – being wracked with pain in the car for two hours would not have been good. Fingers crossed for tomorrow…