Lawlor Family Est.1978: March 2008

Well, I received a special gift for Valentine's Day this year - a surprise getaway! Tuesday before Valentine's Steve came home with a card and some York Peppermint Patties (one of my favs). I was shocked first because it wasn't Valentine's and 2ND because I had been looking for those heart shaped yorks for a couple weeks and couldn't find them. Well, I didn't open the card right away and after dinner I was cleaning up and decided I should probably open the card especially since it was 2 days early (thinking that maybe there was money or something fun like that in there). As I started reading it it said that we were going to be leaving Friday morning and flying to Seattle - just the 2 of us!!! I could hardly believe what I was reading, my heart started beating super fast and then my eyes welled up with tears - I had to read the letter 2x just to make sure I wasn't dreaming. Apparently, this had been in the works for 6-8 weeks and I had NO CLUE!!! He had arranged the flights, hotels, and babysitters with out me even knowing! Well, I just was beside myself. I began making the packing arrangements, getting laundry done, buying the necessities for the kids (diapers, formula, baby food).

So we left Friday morning early, and flew into Seattle, Washington. We picked up our rental car and were off for the Washington State Ferry. We took a ferry to Orcas Island part of the San Juan Islands. Once on the Island we drove for about a half hour and got to the Rosario Resort and Spa that we were going to stay at for a couple nights.

Here is a picture of it. The main building is that white building in the upper left hand corner - it's called the Moran Mansion built by Robert Moran in the early 1900's. It basically has the spa and pool area, the dining areas, and a small museum which was a few of the original rooms and a lot of fun artifact stuff to look at. I have to admit I was kind of scared walking around those rooms because it was night time, so it was dimly lit, and the floors creeked. But it was fun to see a lot of the old things that they had. In the picture is also the marina that you can pay $50 a night to dock your boat. We ate in their fancy restaurant that night which was highly over priced.

Saturday morning was our couples massage. OH it was heavenly! I wish I could get one of those every weekend. After the massage we decided to go for a drive to the Moran State Park that is were Mt. Constitution is. We were told that we would have to stop half way up the mountain due to snow-but to our surprise it was opened! These are pictures taken half way up. Steve is doing the Moran brothers pose - no smile.

At the top of Mt. Constitution they have this tower that you can climb to the top and see 360 degrees around. On a clear day you can even see Canada! However, it was not a clear day and this is what we saw:

Oh and did I mention that we had to walk up a snowy path to get to the tower! It was cold, and I was not prepared for snow walking. But it was pretty, especially with the clouds coming in, you could almost touch them!

After Mt. Constitution we drove to one of the main towns and had lunch and did some window shopping. After that we decided to go back to Moran State Park and go to Cascade Falls. It was a small little hike that took you to this gorgeous water fall.

Look how big this tree is!

After our hike we went back to our room and Steve took a 2 hr nap while I watched TV uninterrupted! Then we went to dinner at the casual or pub type of restaurant which was much better and less expensive.

Sunday we woke up and hurried back to the ferry dock to catch the morning ferry, only to have our hopes dashed when we saw it leaving (we missed it by 5 minutes!). The ferry worker at the check in station said to us "your in luck, your one of the first in line for the 12:15 sailing." So we waited 3 hours for the next ferry. Steve was annoyed to have to wait that long, but it turns out that we were lucky because the 12:15 ferry filled up about an hour later and people were going car to car trying to see if you would give up your spot and take the 3:00 ferry! Nuts! After we finally got back to Washington we drove a few more hours to get back to Seattle and checked into our last hotel. It was a nice room as well with a wonderful continental breakfast in the morning. The staff was super friendly and helpful as well.

Monday was our last day of Seattle. We walked around downtown and shopped most of the day-which was great with out kids. Half way through the day we went to the movies and saw the Fool's Gold movie. After that we finished up our shopping grabbed some take out at the Cheesecake Factory and headed back to our room by this time it was close to 9pm! What a day!

Tuesday we basically woke up took our rental car back and sat at the airport waiting for our flight. It was such a fun trip and so needed for both of us. The weather was perfect! It was cold, but at least it didn't rain on us. We even managed a few blue skies in Seattle which is pretty unusual this time of year. We were glad to be back home with our kids, but boy was it hard getting back into the swing of things after being able to sleep all night, being served food that you got to eat while still hot, and not to mention being able to talk to each other with out being interrupted. A BIG THANK YOU goes out to both our moms for taking care of our kids and to all of you who knew but didn't spoil the surprise for me Thanks to you too!