Far away Grandma and Grandpa totally stepped up and gave us a baby moon! They watched the girls for nearly a week while we went up to Seattle, Bellingham and then Vancouver BC.
First stop was the US open. We have seen this tournament on TV but it is pretty crazy to see it in real life. Summary: it was super hot, really hard to see the players we wanted, but amazing when we did get a glimpse of Tiger, or Phil, or Rory.... Crazy the fan fair that follows those guys! We stayed for 2 days and were completely exhausted by the end. That course was super hilly, with a huge distance between holes. We loved it though, minus the heat stroke!
BJ met us there and helped score some awesome viewing seats by getting there at 6:30 am. Yay!!
After the Open we hopped in the car and headed north to Bellingham, WA and stayed at an amazing hotel right on the water called the Chrysalis. It was pretty spectacular. Andrew booked us spa packages for the morning, and it was glorious. After tooling around the cute little town and having lunch we hit the road again.
Hello Vancouver!! So there were a few things we didn't know about Canada.......Um your cell phone doesn't work there....this means that navigation doesn't work, which means we had to use old fashioned maps on the fly, not the perfect turn by turn directions we were relying on. Just a little hiccup- Also a ton of places do not take American credit cards, and if they do, great, but watch out because there are hefty transaction fees levied by the credit card company..... other than that- it was smooth sailing :)
The architecture was amazing! The multiculturalism was amazing too. The did not appear to be any minority or majority population- there were different languages all around us. And the food. OH MY GOD the food. it was spectacular. We had so many amazing meals. So amazing. Somehow we had so much fun that we didn't take very many photos :(
On our last full day we decided to go big. We took on the Grouse Mountain Challenge- the grind. It is a "leisurely" 2.9 K trail that goes straight up...no joke straight up with no flat break at all for 2800 ft of elevation gain. I was sucking wind the second half and had to take breaks every 60 seconds on the last quarter as my legs were shaking so badly I literally couldn't take another step. This was an intense trail. Not easy at all. Imagine double height stairs for 2 hours, straight up. Yeah it was like that.
Look I am still smiling!
At the top. Oh my gosh I made it! It is probably the hardest thing I have ever done. I mean EVER. Of course I was 7 months pregnant so there was that.....
But look how happy we are. It was totally worth the pain, I was really proud of myself to make it. Andrew did not have as rough a time as me, but come on- he also wasn't packing a 30 pound weight belt on his abdomen. He was a good supporter, and kept me going! Thanks babe!!
They wouldn't let us climb back down (against the rules- which is probably a very good thing) due to our spent muscles and the teeny narrow trails... so we took the tram back down. It was really fun! There were a few drops that made the whole bunch of us scream out loud- Well I did at least and I am sure a few others did too :)
The view from the tram: Amazing!!
I would go to vancouver again in a second! Was so so so wonderful and full of culture. For two people who LOVE food, and love being active it was the perfect place to end our babymoon. We flew back to Portland just in time to gather the kiddos, pack all of our stuff and fly out the next morning to Denver. Cyrus and Danica here we come!!
This party isn't over yet!!