Better late then never, or at least that is what I tell myself when I realized that I never blogged about my christmas vacation. So without further adieu, and to the best of my memory this is what I did for Christmas 2012. Our first flight took us to Houston, TX. After that Melanie, myself and Melanie's brother, Alex, took the first flight out to Seattle, WA. We had about an 8 hour wait for Melanie's Mom to arrive after us, so we decided to make the best of it by spending the night in downtown Seattle. I have many found memories of visiting Seattle in the summer when I was younger with my Mom, who grew up in Seattle, but never had visited in the winter. With limited knowledge of Seattle in the winter, or downtown Seattle in general, there were three things I was certain we must do. First visit Pike Place Market, second eat fish and chips, and third take a look at the space needle. Armed with our jackets, smart phones and time to kill the three of us set out for an adventure. From the airport, we jumped on the train which took us right to downtown, and just a minute walk to Pike Place. Pike Place, is Seattle's iconic public market, best known for their lively fish market. Some of my favorites from the market was seeing the fresh seafood, and awesome assortments of dried flowers. Only store I actually bought anything in was the awesome little record store tucked away in one of the markets lower levels. View from the store window. I ended up getting a handfull of their lesser expensive records, and even made a short mix with them when I got back. You can check that out here, Thrift Store Mix #3. Just outside of Pike Place we went hunting for the gum wall. If you can not tell from the photos, it is a wall covered with chewed and discarded gum. On the other side of gum wall alley was some cool graffiti and street art. From Pike Place we headed for Ivar's. The walk over, even though it was short, was terrible. It was raining, its Seattle so thats to be expected, but the rain mixed with the humidity from being that close to the ocean just made the cold envelope your entire body. Even with the miserable walk, Ivar's was definitely worth the stop. From Ivar's we took a bus to the space needle. We decided to skip the expensive ride to the top, but it still looks pretty cool all lit up at night. As we walked around the Space Needle we found out Melanie's Mom was going to be later than expected getting in so we had another 4 hours to kill. Fate brought us together with an old man selling his tickets to an IMAX 3D showing of the Hobbit. He was selling them for cheap, and were just walking outside of the Space Needle debating what to do next. As we got our seats to the movie we realized the tickets we were sold was part of the University of Washington Alumni night. So after a few "Lets Go Huskys!" the movie started. Once the movie was finished it was finally time to head back to the airport, pick up Melanie's Mom and head to Sequim. Sequim is a small town about two hours north of Seattle and is where Melanie's parents are currently renting a house since making the move from Houston, TX. We were only there long enough to do some shopping and eat some fish and chips at the local Kiwi's Fish & Chips. Hard to compare the Kiwi's with Ivar's, they were both delicious Melanie's Dad, who is originally from New Zealand, assured us that Kiwi's gave us the authentic New Zealand fish and chips experience. From Sequim we took a boat to our final destination, Canada! That was not the boat, but it was right next to the ferry we rhode over to Vancouver Island on. Since I dont see boats, or the water too often both Melanie and I took a ton of photos of all the cool boat stuff. From the ferry landing in Victoria it was a couple hour drive to Comox, where Melanie's grandparents live. Comox is also where we would spend the remainder of our christmas vacation and where we meet up with the rest of the family. Once everyone was together in Canada it was time to head to the vacation home on the water that Melanie's parents had rented for the week. The place was huge, and had an awesome view. More important the house itself, was the chance to spend time with family. It was especially nice to finally meet and get to know Melanie's grandparents, who cant travel much. We all took turns cooking, and far my night we made pasole soup. A few people liked it, but overall not a huge hit with the Lintons. Other food nights. Once our week long adventure in the vacation home was over we all spent one more day together as a family in Victoria waiting for the ferry to take us back to the states. The ketchup at the golden arches in Canada is a lot sweeter tasting. Found a cool Irish store while we were walking around, and I even learned a little about my last name. Funny hats. Last two canadian things. One, their money is cool looking and two pountine, fries with gravy and cheese curds, was surprisingly delicious. All and all it was a great trip, and was nice to have so much time with family.
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