With the forecast looking a bit iffy for the weekend we had decided we needed some sunshine. Tracy was left in charge and did us proud! Much research ended with us booking an apartment for the weekend at Crescent Bar Resort which was a couple of hours away over the mountains to the east.
After leaving work a little early, the car was loaded and off we went. The beauty of trips in the US is that you get in the car, set the GPS and basically you get about 3 directions (get on the freeway, stay on the freeway, get off the freeway) and you’re 133 miles away at your destination!
The last time we went up the mountain, never mind over it, was taking the boys ski-ing. This time as we went past the slopes, the tubing slope and the snow park it was just an area of grass and mud. It didn’t look very impressive at all. The journey across was nice and uneventful and we arrived at about 6:30pm, unloaded the car and then, as we were all ravenous, we went for dinner at the nearby golf club.
The food was fabulous! We scoffed steak tips in a peppercorn and jack daniels sauce, risotto, burgers and fish and chips before rounding it all off with ice-cream and a particularly yummy fresh raspberry pie. There was only one slice left of this which was lucky otherwise I would have had five helpings!
In the morning we woke and went for a stroll along the bar to the resort at the other end. There was something very relaxing about the whole place. I think it was because there were not many people about and those that were there just drove around everywhere on golf carts. During this walk, everybody either remarked upon or just stared at my fabulous new trainers! After a little while Tracy and the boys got quite embarrassed by it all, particularly when a group of 12 year olds said how great they looked! Not only are these trainers the very height of coolness they also have a device in them which hooks up with an app on my phone and tracks how far we have walked/run/mooched and plots it all on a map. They thought they were cool and they didn’t even know the half of it!
On our walk we went past cherry trees that were absolutely dripping with fruit. They looked great and despite signs warning us of snakes we picked a few and ate them as we walked – tasted as good as they looked. The sign about snakes didn’t go down very well with Toby who preferred to walk down the middle of the road than anywhere near a field with snakes in!
Once back from the walk we changed into our swimmers and hit the pool. It was a little bit chilly in the pool to begin with but a quick dip in the jacuzzi first took the edge of it and once you were in it was lovely. Luckily for the boys someone turned up at the pool with an inflatable turtle and that was the last they saw of it as Toby and Harry then spent hours playing with it.
While the boys played in the pool Tracy and I lay by the pool listening to conversations of others. There wasn’t a lot going on as there weren’t many people about but the award for the most interesting thing was a question that one woman asked another. It was a question neither of us have heard asked before but we now ask each other it on a fairly regular basis… “how are your triceps?”, “really good thanks”. Odd.
It wasn’t staying by the pool because it was incredibly hot – despite some clouds being about. It was actually so hot that my phone came up with a message saying it was too hot and wanted to go into a cool area – it’s never done that before. By 3pm we gave in – it was too hot. We went back to the apartment to cool down and relax.
Obviously it wasn’t long before we were starving so we walked back along to the other end of the Bar and went for a pizza. This was followed by a round of pitch and putt golf which including bumping into a resident of 15 years who was from Stamford. It’s a small world.
Sunday was Dad’s day and began with presents and cards for me! Yay! I got some batman lego, a baseball glove and a liverpool football. What a lucky me! After breakfast we went back to the pool for a while but it was even hotter today and the only downside to the pool area was a distinct lack of shade.
We didn’t stay too long. Instead we went and packed up the car before playing some basketball, watching Euro 2012 soccer and then heading off home.
The journey home included a few stops for photo’s of views, driving through a couple of dust storms and going through a wide range of temperatures. We left Crescent Bar at 84 degrees, bottomed out at the pass over the mountains at 50 degrees and then ended up at 63 degrees when we pulled into the car park at Red Robin in Issaquah. It had been a long weekend of sunshine, eating and drinking – so what better way to round it off than with a burger at Red Robin!
Happy (hot) days and here’s some pictures!