Trip to Bainbridge Island

As many people who have/have had a toddler can understand, it can be challenging to go outside the house for more than a few hours. As my sisters can attest on their recent visit, Sam naps for 3 hours smack in the middle of the day. So unless I head out the door first thing in the morning, it's hard to get any adventures of significant duration. Add to that, the weather in Seattle and well, let's just say that our family has not made any outings since we moved here last July.

Enter Bainbridge Island, an idyllic, artsy, well-to-do community of about 20,000 people.

We decided to go, no matter what. Despite Sam's mid-day nap, despite the awful weather, we were going. And you know what? I think in the end, we felt all the more "Seattle" for it.

We drove our car onto the ferry and enjoyed the scenery. 

No, of course it didn't actually look like the above picture. That would be what it looks during the summer. My picture looked more like this:

                            

We headed first to the most amazing playground we've ever been to. Again, it looked nothing like this picture today. The silver lining, though, was that we had it all to ourselves on a rainy Saturday morning at 10am. The big key was bringing two sets of clothes for Sam, including waterproof shell pants. I forgot Sam's rain boots, so we lined his shoes in extra sandwich bags that were in his diaper bag. Resourcefulness!

After the park, we went to a kids museum. Sam tired himself out pushing a kids 

grocery cart around and pretending to drive this smart car:

Once Sam was napping in his stroller, Kyle and I enjoyed browsing the main drag. We had a great lunch and the walked along the waterfront nature trail.

While I don't exactly love the weather of the Pacific Northwest, I do appreciate how green everything is, even in the winter months. I think the keys to living here are being prepared for the bad weather (extra clothes, and rain shield for the stroller were key) and just getting out there no matter what.