Summer Vacation

One of the biggest perks to being a teacher is that I get about a 2 1/2 month break off from work.  Although I'm taking quite a few classes throughout the summer, I still managed to have a lot of free time for some fun.  

I ended up going on a slightly last minute trip to Washington last week.  One of my best friends moved back there a couple years ago and between my teaching schedule and his job with the military it hasn't worked for me to go out there until now.  He's made it back to KS a few times, but I was itching to go out there and see a new part of the country!  We found that we had some common time off and so I booked flights and was off on my adventure about a week and a half later!  (If you know me and how much of a planner I can be you know that going on a BIG vacation "last minute" like that is kind of crazy for me!)

I ended up going on a trip within a trip as we ended up going out to the coast to spend a few days at the beach.  I've never actually been to the beach / ocean before and this was also the first time I've traveled west of Colorado!

Oh my gosh, I love it out there!  First of all, I escaped KS just in time for the first wave of hot summer weather to hit.  In fact, I was actually a little under-prepared for the cooler temperatures along the beach.  It was lovely, though, and the perfect spot for my summer vacation.

I pretty much got to see the entire state of Washington from the eastern edge all the way out of west to the coast.  We spent some time visiting several of the parks and even a couple rain forests!  It was definitely a welcome change in scenery for this KS girl!

We stopped in Seattle on my last full day out there.  I didn't get to see much of the city (my friend that I was visiting isn't all that familiar with the Seattle area anyway), but it great to get out there anyway.  I can add that to my list of big cities I've been to now!

7 days sounds like a long time, but I would have stayed out there much longer if I could have.  It was absolutely beautiful and of course it was wonderful getting to spend some good, quality time with one of my best friends.  I think there are already some plans in the works for me to make another trip out that direction (hopefully sooner than later)!

And one last photo...  I'm a HUGE "Back to the Future" fan, so it totally made my day getting to see this DeLorean on the highway in Seattle.  Yes, it's complete with the OUTATME license plate just like in the movie!  My friend made sure to speed up so that I could snap some pics!