'Merica 2016 Part 1

This post is going to be more of a travelogue than I care for it to be but you'll all just need to bear with me. Start bearing.

Our journey to 'Merica began like I only image it began several hundred years ago, a meticulous rechecking of our travel documents to ensure we hadn't screwed up (thanks 'Merica trip 2014 for that lesson). From there it was simply boarding the boat and beginning our long, long trip. Unlike the journey experienced by the poor starving Swedes back then, ours was festooned with  stickers. Many and colorful were the stickers on the trip. On the way to L.A. 50% of the children slept for a little while the other 50% sobbed explaining that she didn't need to sleep, clearly sleeping during the 28 hour trip was out of the question for her. This well of 'not being' being tired ended at the Seattle airport 8 hours later with her sprawled out on the luggage cart, one arm dragging along the ground. No pictures were taken of this portion of the flight. We were too tired to care. Even the smoke smelling hotel room was inviting.

The next morning we began the trip's funner side and were greeted by members of the Searle clan. Whilst with the Searle's we enjoyed hikes at the beach and good company. They had dogs, a cat, chickens, a number of goats, swings, a trampoline, bikes and lots of friends.

After bidding fair well to the Searle's we went off to visit my old co-workers. They'd put together an ice cream bar in my honor (and for the birthday people too). Good to visit my old work again. But first we thought we'd swing by our old 'hood in the North End. It was probably more run down than it had been before. I won't post the work pictures because most of them are undercover.

The next morning we were off to Seattle zoo. The zoo was fun for about 2 hours and then Inara was done. Alba had a great time but Inara was more interested in riding the carousel. Due to an unfortunate coincidence we tried to escape Seattle during two events. This resulted in it taking 3 hours to drive 15 miles. Traffic is much, much worse in the Sound region and it isn't even worth the hassle to go to Seattle. I'm still angry. At the end of the horrible car ride we visited some other old co-workers of mine. I had a lot of co-workers it seems.

Next stop was the cousin's house, a four hour drive away. We chose to do this drive between the hours of 8 and midnight. It actually worked out okay for me but unsurprisingly the girls had difficulty sleeping. Once at the cousins fun was had and poops were pooped on the sidewalk.

Some good uncl-ing going on here.

From there it was time to continue our voyage onto Montana and then Idaho. More driving. This time it was daytime driving. We heading down to visit great aunt Annie and uncle Lamont. There, the girls got to ride a school bus (like they have on TV, cus they don't have that in Sweden) and visit the cops with donuts among other things.

In part 2 of the 'Merica post we will finally get to Southeastern Idaho. I was over ambitious in thinking I could do this in one post. I've worked on it a while now and I've only done the first week. Also in part 2 (maybe part 3?) I will be giving you the vital stats of the trip - a reader favorite.